It has been proven!

Reading is a good thing. It has always been a good thing.
But now it has been proven to be the most spectacular thing especially to the little ones!


I came across an article on Tech Times by Jim Algar called Reading to Children Strengthens Language-Processing Areas of the Brain and found fascinating that reading to children has finally been proven to be a good thing. We always knew it was a good thing but fantastic Dr. John Hutton, the study leader, has the evidence and the work to prove it. The study was basically taking MRI scans of children while they were listening to someone read to them. The MRI scans showed a lot of activity in regions of the brain that may predict a child's success in language (reading, comprehending, all of that amazing Language Arts stuff).


So why does reading to children strengthen language-processing areas of the brain?
Being read to, children are able to learn how to create mental images that will prepare children to be able to do this process once they reach the appropriate age to read a book without images. This helps a lot in comprehending messages being said to them (hmm, obeying, perhaps?)


This is just rad news. I mean, yes, we all knew about the wonders of reading but now we have a study to prove that reading to children is vital and could help in their future success.

A language comeback, perhaps

I decided to not blog about the depressing situation of dead languages and blog about a language that was dead but has now found revival. I came across an interesting article on "How the Manx Language Came Back from the Dead." The Manx language is a language spoken on the Isle of Man, a self governing British Crown dependency located in the Irish Sea (according to Wikipedia, yeah I know Wikipedia is not a reliable source but I would hope that the location of this place wouldn't be incorrect on there). Or at least it was until it had been declared dead in 2009. But now it is alive again! And again, it is because of the citizens of the Isle of Man finally understanding that their language is no longer an unpleasant one anymore. You see, a person would be thrown out of a place for speaking Manx because it was seen as a provocative language. The Manx language had declined because of this and because of the economic advantage of ditching their language for the Great English language.

Now, the revival is because of the citizens of the Isle of Man and for the citizens of the Isle of Man. In fact, after their language had been declared dead, the citizens snapped back with letters asking if their language was dead then what language were they writing in. Sassy. Anyway, there were many revitalization projects of the Manx language. One included Douglas Faragher and Brian Stowell who spent time learning and documenting the Manx language (much like the linguists in that movie we watched last week). Another project is the primary school Bunscoill Ghaelgagh who teaches in the Manx language and allows their students to write letters in it (or at least in Scottish Gaelic which is fairly close to the Manx language). Then there is Adrian Cain who has made the Manx language grow through social media like Youtube and Twitter. Lastly, music has been a help in revitalization with Manx bands such as Barrule who communicate not only their language but culture through their music.

I really loved how the article ended saying that "...the X factor for reviving languages is really the pride and love for the language."

It is true! There must be something special about this language that makes it hard for the world to lose it.

...It is indeed the Isle of Man in which Thomas the Tank Engine came from...

You don't have to be bilingual to codeswitch...

Codeswitching is great. I mean, I think it is amazing how people are able to switch from one language to another. In our book, codeswitching "is a speech style unique to bilinguals, in which fluent speakers switch languages between or within sentences."

But, but when I googled codeswitching, I found an article on NPR called "How Code-Switching Explains The World." This article was to launch the new NPR team, "Codeswitch." The team has twisted the meaning of codeswitching to " hop-scotching between different cultural and linguistic spaces and different parts of our own identities — sometimes within a single interaction." 

I found it interesting that they made a different meaning of codeswitching which is something that even people who are stuck at one language can relate to. The ability to speak in different tones and have a totally different vocabulary when you around a certain set of people can be codeswitching. You can go from meeting a stranger on the street with a "Hello, how are you today?" to "What's good?" to a friend of yours. 

I also loved their use of a Key and Peele excerpt that related to cultural codeswitching. 

I mean, it was so astonishing when I watched the video of a little boy switching from English to French to Indonesian. I was at awe! But also jealous at the same time.

I think it's pretty awesome how NPR has redefined codeswitching which makes it more relate-able for those who cannot speak another language.  

Italian and Spanish: so that's why they sound so similar

So after an hour or so of typing into Google's search box, "sounds and language," "weird sounds in languages," "pronunciations," and so much more, I came across a website solely about the Italian language. For the longest time, I never knew Italian was a language because I always paired it with Spanish. After viewing this website, I don't feel as bad pairing Italian and Spanish together. It wasn't until I came across "Did You Know Italian Is Easy To Learn For Spanish And French Speakers?" on the website, that this feeling went away. After reading this brief article, I learned exactly what the article's title says and that Spanish is fairly close to sounding like Italian. The article shows the lexical similarity between languages through a very simple table. Whereas a 1 on the table means a lot of overlapping when it comes to vocabulary and a 0 would mean that there are no similarities in vocabulary.

 I thought this was interesting comparing languages and seeing how some really do have the same qualities in some aspect. It was a surprise to see English only coming close to German. So yes, Spanish and Italian do share a high lexical similarity of .82 so that's why they sound so similar!

Metaphors: hot chile peppers that explode in the mouth and the mind

I wanted to blog about anomalies but decided to blog about its eccentric child, metaphor. You see, our book tells us that metaphors are anomalies that make sense. I mean they are things that may be impossible but can be grasped and understood in the most abstract way. I thought this video was a fascinating, calm, and creative video on metaphors. It describes metaphors as something that may or may not be true but makes you feel something. I love the fact that the video also goes into the types of metaphors through examples of wonderful literature. Also, the video shows a snippet of metaphor's obvious child, simile (which I always thought they were on the same level in the figures of speech but I guess a simile is a metaphor??). 

I believe that metaphors are so important in language because metaphors are universal. Well some are anyway. For an example, "still waters run deep" and "a heart of gold" are common metaphors that if translated to another language still carries the same connotation in other cultures. Also, metaphors make things easier to read. Good metaphors, that is. When I see a metaphor when I read, it gives my brain a break and paints the picture for me (if that makes any sense aha).

Anyway, I feel like this video helps when understanding metaphors a bit. Who wouldn't enjoy metaphors being played out in a snippet of Langston Hughes' poem "Mother to Son" or Emily Dickinson's description of a gloomy day? 

The art of metaphor by Jane Hirshfield

It's s'cute.

"Palenge a senda tielan ngombe ri nduse i betuaya."

"Palenque is the land of cattle, sweets, and basic staples."

What language is this? Looks like a cross between Spanish and some African language? Well it is. Also, add  Portuguese to the mix. In San Basilio de Palenque, Columbia, there resides a village that still speaks this pidgin like language Palenquero.  Palenquero came to be through the slave trade in Africa from Portuguese traders who brought African slaves to Cartagena in the 1600's. It was a language used by the slaves during the time. Palenque even translates in Spanish as the word for a fortified village of runaway slaves. But that is not it. This said last remnant of a pidgin language developed during the slave trade is dying. This wonderful, historic language is dying because of communication with outsiders. People are finding that they cannot get jobs speaking Palenquero because no one is able to understand them. Luckily, the Palenque people will not let their beautiful language lay to rest. Their language comes from strength and they believe that strength will live on no matter what.

Although, this article is from 8 years ago. I found the language pretty neat and closely related to the term pidgin language, which is a language based on different languages to further communication. I know Palenquero is not defined as a pidgin language but I feel as if it were language that evolved through a need for communication between uncommon people. On the other hand, this language was neat because of the history behind it. Creole languages are so beautiful and for it to have some tinge of Spanish makes it even more beautiful. It goes to show that a language with such roots will probably die out because of how the language hinders activities such as getting a job. Another classic underdog in a world full of power languages such as English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Hindi will die out simply because it no longer applies to this fast and ever changing world.

A Language, Not Quite Spanish, With African Echoes

Should the underdog(s) win in this match?

So, I was looking around the site langology and I happened to come across an article, "Language Policy in Spain." I have never heard of language policies before. I did some research through the web and found out about General Franco's policies on making sure the Spanish language does not dominate Spain. Franco used these policies to prevent regional languages, such as Catalan and Galician (which are languages I have never heard of until reading Lourenco's article), from going extinct. I thought to myself, "Weird." I mean, the regional government actually fined people for not communicating in the same language of that region. So I am thinking that this ordeal was great and slimmed the dominance of the Spanish language because I always root for the underdog! BUT the policies set by Franco caused not only conflicts within regions but on borders. For an example, no one knew which language to communicate with between the border of Aragon and Catalonia. Luckily, this policy has been regulated after reading a recent article by Fiona Govan, "Catalans protest 'return to Franco' as schools are told to teach more Spanish,"that talked about Catalan government balancing the use of Spanish language and regional languages. 

To think that language can be restricted for the well being of other languages is interesting and is something, again, I have never heard of before. I think policies on language could never work in the world because of globalization. Learning about failed language restrictions such as this one only teaches us that language is wild and cannot be contained.

Language, another endangered species perhaps?

In this article, staff writer at Science, Emily Underwood describes the reason why language is declining in the world faster than the most endangered species. There is a study that proves that economic development is the cause to the decline. Oddly enough, the very thing that has promoted globalization is slowly killing off languages such as Eyak in Alaska and Ubykh in Turkey. Weaker languages like Eyak and Ubykh are being dominated by mega-power languages such as English and Mandarin Chinese. English and Mandarin Chinese are the most commonly used languages in the economic world. With this known, many parts of the world are taking the hint and abandoning their language for those dominant languages.

Tatsuya Amano is the head of this study and used sources like Ethnologue (online repository) to determine out of the 6909 languages in the world, 649 of those languages will die off. Surely, Amano blames economic development but has scarce evidence to prove how economic development is the cause to language loss. This scarce evidence prompts Leane Hilton, a linguist at the University of California to say that economic development is not the only cause to language loss but factors like dominant cultures, disease, murder and genocide. Fortunately, there are revitalization efforts to help save endangered languages.

I found this article interesting. I researched about economic growth affecting languages a few days ago because in my Anthropology class we talked about how languages are growing but also are declining. The class agreed that economic development was because of it but I could not wrap my head around the language loss in a globalizing economy. I had always believed that learning another language was because it was needed in order to succeed but with scary studies like Amano's study I found that maybe language is declining because of how these dominant languages are taking over in the economic world.



Article: Languages are being wiped out by economic growth

A language that requires no numbers, a language we should love

The Piraha (Pe-tah-ha) language is only spoken by 150 members who live in the Amazon rainforest.  In this short video, you come to see a language that would not require you to count. A language that values quality over quantity. One of the only languages to do so, too! The language is not only limited when it comes to numbers, but also colors and pronouns. Aside from that, they do not have subordinate clauses in their language. Oh, and I guess the men and women pronounce phonemes differently. So accordingly, linguists have coined the language of the Piraha to be the strangest the world has ever seen.

 

I am happy to see a community in which has no real ties with exact numbers. I loved the part in the video when they explained that the Piraha mothers do not know how many children they have but know their faces so it does not matter. To think outside of the Piraha tribe, we as Americans have had the problem of being more of a number than having a face so it is interesting that numbers have a distinct prominence here rather than over there. Then again, the Piraha do live a much simpler life than we do.

 

Links:

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/piraha.php

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/brazil-s-piraha-tribe-living-without-numbers-or-time-a-414291.html

Yes, an introduction

Hello! 
I am Sade' and I am in ENG213 to experience a marvelous introduction to the study of language.

My name in itself can identify the language problems I come across daily. My name is oddly designed to make people say "Sade," but it is actually pronounced "Shaw-day." The name comes from Africa and found its way to France. In result, I was named after the French singer Sade who was dear to my mother's ears. 

On another note, I did manage to take two years of Spanish in high school and was determined to stop there. I remember my best friend who spoke Spanish fluently making fun of how awful my Spanish was because it was way too formal. So when it came to the last year of Spanish, I was filled with joy.

Later I did try to learn Latin which is hard to learn by yourself so I stopped there, too.

As for myself, my interests are reading and binge watching shows on Netflix (these things could also be my hobbies). Also, I really do love learning. Oh and I also enjoy chilling out to some Harry Belafonte or the Blackbyrds (any kind of music, really, except for metal). 

I am totally looking forward to a great semester appreciating the variety of language!