The Language Next Door

The article “Listening to and saving the world’s languages” is about the diversity of languages that can be found right here in New York City. The article discusses the fact that linguists are now realizing that they didn’t need to go to remote locations all over the Earth to discover rare languages. Some of the languages they are looking for are already here in New York being spoken by many immigrant families. I never realized that the melting pot that is Queens had so many rare languages to be found.
I always assumed that most of the languages I heard on the train or in the street where fairly common languages. However, now that I think about it, perhaps there was a time when I heard someone speaking a language and it might have been a language that was never documented before. Or a language that some linguist professor has been trying find for many years. Is it possible that the two old men I sat next to on the train last week were the only speakers of the particular language they were using? This article makes me believe that it is. Why don’t the people who speak these rare languages teach it to younger generations? Or they themselves make it known that they’re language is dying and instead of having linguists look for them, they look for the linguists?

Me Talk Pretty One Day

The sentence “Making sex with the womens of the world” in David Sedaris’ s “Me talk pretty one day” is quite interesting. Although it is very eye catching, grammatically it is flawed. First off, one cannot necessarily “make sex” so the verb “Making” should be “Having”. Secondly, the noun “women” is already plural so there is no need to add the “s” at the end. Therefore the correct statement should have been “Having sex with the Women of the world”
Having been born and raised in New York City, I have been around a lot of different cultures and ethnicity's all my life. For most of my life, I can remember meeting people on the street who did not speak English and I always wondered to myself “what’s so hard about the English language? It’s not like its Japanese”. I can honestly say after taking this class that I have become more sympathetic toward people who did not have English as their first language. Learning about how sounds are produced in some languages and not others, the complex order words, how they differ from other languages and the like has been an eye opener for me. I never realized how complicated English was and I can now see why it would be so difficult for someone to learn it coming from a language that may only use glottal sounds, or have feminine and masculine phrases for inanimate objects or even just have one long word for the equivalent of one of our sentences. Thus, having learned about morphology, prescriptive grammar, syntax and numerous other things I have learned that English isn’t necessarily the easiest language in the world and I should be more sympathetic to those who have a difficult time learning it.

Chapter 9 Summary

Chapter 9 in Yule’s Textbook discusses syntax and the various different ways it can be applied. The text states that “linguists have attempted to produce a particular type of grammar… that would have a lot in common with the types of rules found in mathematics”. Yule then describes a few of the structures involved in “generative grammar”. One of the first structure’s Yule writes about is the “deep and surface structure” otherwise known as the “abstract organizational level of the sentence” and the “syntactic form of the sentence”. Yule then goes on to the part of syntax I found the most interesting which is “structural ambiguity”. The reason for this is because I never realized that a sentence such as “Annie whacked a man with an umbrella” could be so vague. Did she whack a man who was holding an umbrella? Or did she whack a man with her umbrella? The text then goes into detail about the “symbols used for syntactic description” and how they are incorporated into the tree diagrams and structure rules. The preceding two discuss the organization of words in a certain order to create the structure of a phrase. Finally, Yule brings up the topics of recursion and transformational rules which put simply would be the combining of multiple sentences and how you can rearrange them.
I never realized all of the detail that goes into the making of our language and how deep a sentence like “John knew that Mary was with Kate” could really go. However a question that I would have is “could you really use a tree diagram to make an endless sentence?” “Would that really be practical?”

Where Words Come From

The Chapter entitled “Where Words Come From” in Bill Bryson’s “The Mother Tongue” discusses the origins of most the words in the English language. Bryson states that “English retains probably the richest vocabulary and most diverse shading of meanings, of any language”. Bryson then goes on to describe the five ways in which he believes words in the English language were created. The first of these is through error. Bryson states that many of the words in the English language were created due to incorrect transcriptions, such as the words “message” and “sweetheart” (originally “ménage” and “sweetart”). The second way words were created was through adoption. According to the text, “even in the sixteenth century, English had already adopted words from over fifty languages”. This means that most of the words we used today were taken from languages such as “shampoo” from India and “sofa” from Arabic. The third way was that the words were simply created. For words such as “dog” and “numskull” no one really understands why these words came to be. Only that they started being used at some point in time and they stuck. The fourth way words have come to be is by having nothing done to them. The text stated that words such as “counterfeit” and “manufacture” have had nothing done to them but the meaning of them has changed over time (“counterfeit” originally meaning “authentic” and “manufacture” meaning “using hands”). The fifth and final way words in the English language were created was through the adding or subtraction of something. The way this was usually done was through the adding of prefixes and suffixes as in the words “invaluable” and “priceless”. I found this whole section of the text quite fascinating regarding the origins of the English language.
Reading this chapter, I remember that Queens is the most culturally diverse place on the planet. I find it very intriguing that most of the people we meet on the street speak a different language other than English and we don’t even realize the impact their language might have had on our own. Because even though sometimes we may not understand them, the roots of the words we use everyday might have come from their language. My only question would be “Is the evolution of the English language dependent on the changing of other languages?”

Chapter's 6,7, and 8

Chapters 6, 7, and 8

Chapter’s 6, 7, and 8 in Yule’s text discuss a variety of things such Words and Word Formations, Morphology, and Grammar. In Chapter 6, Yule brings up the different ways words have been formed in the English language throughout history. He talks about things such as etymology, coinage, blending, and infixes. Each of these terms has played a vital role in the formation of the modern English language. For example, Yule educates on how the words “smoke” and “fog” were blended to create the word “smog”. These terms and ideas carry over to many languages all over the world. The book then goes on to Chapter 7, which delves into the world of Morphology. The Chapter goes into great detail about different types of morphemes such as “Free” and “Bound” morphemes, which are morphemes that can stand by themselves as words and morphemes that cannot. There are also “derivational” and “inflectional” morphemes which are the two types of “bound” morphemes. The chapter then goes onto to implicate the rules of morphology into languages such as Tagalog and Kenuri. Chapter 8 finally goes on to the grammar of the English language and the arguments between the “prescriptive” and “descriptive” approach. The Chapter describes the structural analysis of sentences and also gives us the tools to “analyze the constituent structure of it”. I found Chapter 6 the most fascinating because I never realized the multiple ways the words of the English language came to be, as well as how English has influenced other languages around the world.
After reading Chapter 6, I can now understand why certain “new” words are very similar in most languages. It is because other languages are just “borrowing” the route of the word and having it make sense in their own language. An example would be the word “football” and how the Japanese incorporated that word into their language as futtobōr or sakka (soccer). The only question I would have is “Is this process still taking place of borrowing words from other languages?”

Amy Tan's "Yes and No"

Amy Tan’s
Yes and No

Amy Tan’s Yes and No discussed what is was like for Tan to grow up in a bi-cultural household. Tan was raised in America by her parents who her Chinese immigrants and she explains the stereotypes from each of the cultures she is a part of. Tan goes into detail about the stereotypes of Chinese natives first. She states that they are known to be “discreet and modest” as well as very “comprising”, due to the fact that there are not even words in Chinese for “yes” and “no”. She then relays that technically there are no words for saying “yes or “no”, but that does not mean there are no other means to express these words. For example, later in the story she gives an example of a phone conversation between her and a telemarketer, she wonders if it was the stereotypical “Chinese patience and respect” that kept her on the phone with the telemarketer for so long. However, Tan then discussed her “American” side when the telemarketer called back one week later stating she had “missed her appointment”, to which Tan replied in a way she claims was “aggressive and blunt”. To me, this narrative was about the dichotomy of a woman who grew up in two cultures at the same time. She can see both sides of the stereotypes that plague her two cultures because she has lived with them her whole life.

Coming from a tri- cultural family, I can empathize with Tan when she wonders if it is her “Chinese” or “American” side when she reacts to certain things. I too have wondered from time to time whether or not I have certain attributes that come specifically from one of the cultures I was brought up in. Did I get my “toughness” from my Greek Father, or accepting personality from my Spanish mother, or maybe even aggressive attitude from being a New Yorker? It is a very difficult question to answer. I also found the underlying tone of the story which is “you cannot base culture on the vocabulary a certain culture shares” quite fascinating as well. If I could, I would like to go more in depth with Tan and talk with her more about her experiences of growing up in a bi- cultural household. I would also ask her if f she would bring her children up leaning more towards the American or Chinese culture.

Language:
A Unique Relationship

My road to understanding language has been a long and arduous journey down different paths. I have always defined language as a means of expressing one’s self. Language can be delivered in a variety of forms such as written, spoken, physical, and so on. However, no matter which form it is expressed the reasoning behind it is all the same. Someone or something is trying to convey a message. From the most remote villages in South America to the most populated cities in Europe we all have one thing in common, and that is language. It is a concept that is strong enough to stir emotions that can change our lives, our culture, and sometimes even our whole civilization. There is no doubt; language is the most powerful concept Human’s have ever created. However, as vast and intricate language can be, I believe it can sometimes be flawed.
One of my favorite poets of all time has been Pablo Neruda. I have read quite a number of his poems, and no matter how many times I read them, they never lose their power. But therein lies the problem, it is when I read his words in Spanish that I feel the passion and fire in his poetry. Even when professionals translate his books, there is something missing in the poetry. It’s as if the not only the words, but the passion in them has been “lost in the translation”. I realize that language is ever changing and adaptable, but then why is it still, that these words cannot be expressed in any language but Spanish? Is it the simply because the sounds are friendlier to the ear in this language? Is there is no exact translation for some of the concepts used? This is one of the main reasons why my relationship to language is sometimes frustrating. However, my relationship to language is not always surrounded with such friction. It is almost always a positive tool.
If it wasn’t for language I would not have been able to communicate with my loved ones while I was deployed overseas. I would have been incapable of writing letters to my family, communicating over the phone with friends; I wouldn’t even have been able to communicate with the Iraqi police I was training. Although, language and I can “bud heads” sometimes, I very much appreciate it.
A question that I would be inclined to explore deeper is “Whether or not it is the combination of words, or words themselves that give language its substance?” In other words, does the power behind language come from the words themselves, or does the power simply lie in the combination of words used? These questions would therefore lead to my theory of “All metaphors cannot be translated into any language and still have the same meaning?” I would test this theory by finding metaphors from all over the world such as “It’s raining cats and dogs” and translating them into several languages. I would use this to find out if the different people knew what I meant. If the theory holds to be true, it would explain why the words of Pablo Neruda in Spanish are so powerful, but when translated, it’s as if something is missing. Thus, my relationship to language is vast and complicated, but also quite unique and one I will probably never fully understand.

Chapter 5 Summary

Chapter 5
The sound patterns of language

Chapter five in Yule’s text ventures into the world of spoken language and the importance of it in our everyday life. He takes us on a journey through the subconscious and shows us the intricacies of the language we use on a daily basis. Yule begins this trip by explaining phonology and how the sounds we make are “meaningfully distinct”. He explains that speech is more than just the vocal cords physically vibrating to create resonance, there is an important mental aspect of it as well. He then delves into the types of sounds we use such as phonemes and allophones. He goes into depth discussing the sound of letters such as the phoneme [t] and all the different pronunciations it has (allophones). The text then sails past items such as phonotactics, syllables, assimilation, and elision’s. Respectively these all discuss the arrangement of sounds, how they are arranged, and how these sounds flow into one another in certain words. The journey then ends with us having gained more knowledge about the sounds of language and the “patterns and regularities that lie beneath it”.
I found it quite interesting all of the details that go into the language we use on a day to day basis as well as the patterns we unknowingly follow in our speech constantly (p.49). The paragraph on elisions reminded me of my elementary school teacher. She was quite fond of speech and annunciation, in and outside of the classroom. One day she overheard me saying “I wanted a sandwich” (I pronounced it sanwich). Needless to say I had to recite the word “sandwich” 100 times that day with the proper annunciation. My only question would be “Do the rules we use in English carry over to other languages regarding elisions?" Meaning, if another language uses elisions, do the words sometime take on different meanings?

My Name

Pronouncing Names, Places,
And things

My name is Kris Tziazas and according to the International Phonetic Alphabet my name should be pronounced [k r i s] [ tʃ- æ -z i s]. It is a voiceless, palatal, affricate that I believe is both unique and difficult. All my life I have heard my name pronounced in a variety of ways, but no one has ever pronounced it correctly on the first try. I believe the reason it is so difficult to pronounce my name is because the English language does not really have a set pronunciation for the letters Tz. People are often surprised to learn that it is said as a “Check” sound (tʃ), rather than the “Zoo” sound (z) they so often think it is. Even though I have a difficult last name, I find the names of others even more difficult than my own.
I have been practicing the martial art of Muay Thai for a few years now and I often spar with people who are native to Thailand. Since the first day I have never been able to pronounce any their names correctly. From Tppiwan to Padunsgpri, I have mispronounced them all. I believe my problem is that I’m so accustomed to using certain sounds in my speech that any foreign sound is difficult for me to replicate. Based on what I’ve learned in phonetics, I believe that if I took the time to spell their name phonetically as well as learn which part of the throat they use when the speak, I will have more success in the pronunciation of their names. I realize that there are unique and difficulty names all over the world, but with a little time and practice one can learn to say any one of them quite properly.

Bill Bryon's "Pronunciation"

Pronunciation

Chapter Six in Bill Bryson’s “The Mother Tongue” discusses the variety of words in the English language and how pronunciations have changed over time. The chapter goes into great detail about the surprising lack of correlation between letters and the words they comprise. (i.e. “chough is pronounced chuff and butter is budder) However, the fault of pronunciations does not lie on the words themselves, but on the people who speak them as well. Bryson states that “Language… is more fashion than science and pronunciation tends to wander around like hemlines”. Therefore, the most popular way to speak becomes the standard for the language at the time and the official spelling of words then change to follow suit. The excerpt unfolded some information I found quite fascinating about the English language such as the change of words over time and the reasons why. Whether it was because of a disdain for the French, or simply common error, the words in our language now were completely different some years ago. “Sojur is now Soldier, Zebra was pronounced Zebber, and pavement was payment”. This information simply proves that words are merely arbitrary and we can change them whenever we wish.
On pg.88, Bryson points out the differences in pronunciation even in different cities of the United States. I remember taking a trip down to Missouri to visit some friends a few years ago. I recall how different the pronunciations of certain words were from the ones I was so acclimated to. Like on p.88, water was wooder, New York was New Yaaark, Mexico was Mex-e-co, and the list could go on forever. I suppose everywhere one travels pronunciation changes just as much as the people do. Therefore, a question I would propose is “If we are all taught to pronounce words a certain way in the United States as a standard of American English. What has caused the standard to fluctuate from city to city or even town to town?”

My Relationship to Language

Language:
A Unique Relationship

My road to understanding language has been a long and arduous journey down different paths. I have always defined language as a means of expressing one’s self. Language can be delivered in a variety of forms such as written, spoken, physical, and so on. However, no matter which form it is expressed the reasoning behind it is all the same. Someone or something is trying to convey a message. From the most remote villages in South America to the most populated cities in Europe we all have one thing in common, and that is language. It is a concept that is strong enough to stir emotions that can change our lives, our culture, and sometimes even our whole civilization. There is no doubt; language is the most powerful concept Human’s have ever created. However, as vast and intricate language can be, I believe it can sometimes be flawed.
One of my favorite poets of all time has been Pablo Neruda. I have read quite a number of his poems, and no matter how many times I read them, they never lose their power. But therein lies the problem, it is when I read his words in Spanish that I feel the passion and fire in his poetry. Even when professionals translate his books, there is something missing in the poetry. It’s as if the not only the words, but the passion in them has been “lost in the translation”. I realize that language is ever changing and adaptable, but then why is it still, that these words cannot be expressed in any language but Spanish? Is it the simply because the sounds are friendlier to the ear in this language? Is there is no exact translation for some of the concepts used? This is one of the main reasons why my relationship to language is sometimes frustrating. However, my relationship to language is not always surrounded with such friction. It is almost always a positive tool.
If it wasn’t for language I would not have been able to communicate with my loved ones while I was deployed overseas. I would have been incapable of writing letters to my family, communicating over the phone with friends; I wouldn’t even have been able to communicate with the Iraqi police I was training. Although, language and I can “bud heads” sometimes, I very much appreciate it.
A question that I would be inclined to explore deeper is “Whether or not it is the combination of words, or words themselves that give language its substance?” In other words, does the power behind language come from the words themselves, or does the power simply lie in the combination of words used? These questions would therefore lead to my theory of “All metaphors cannot be translated into any language and still have the same meaning?” I would test this theory by finding metaphors from all over the world such as “It’s raining cats and dogs” and translating them into several languages. I would use this to find out if the different people knew what I meant. If the theory holds to be true, it would explain why the words of Pablo Neruda in Spanish are so powerful, but when translated, it’s as if something is missing. Thus, my relationship to language is vast and complicated, but also quite unique and one I will probably never fully understand.