Correct me! Please! Really?

Do you suffer from foreign language anxiety?  You are not alone!

Most language learners I have known raise their hands when this question is put to them: How many of you want someone to tell you when you make a mistake in your new language?  "Sure," most people will respond with looks on their faces that say, "Any more dumb questions?"

The common sense logic of error correction goes something like this.  If I am learning a new language, I will naturally make lots of mistakes.  If someone will just let me know when I make a mistake, I'll correct it, and then eventually I'll speak my new language perfectly.

NOT!  

Unfortunately, language learning isn't as straightforward as all that.  Let's delve deeper into the topic of  "error correction,"  which by the way is a controversial topic in second language acquisition.

Imagine that you are trying to express a thought aloud in your new language.  Your brain is working overtime to put together new sounds, new words, and new structures in a timely manner. If someone corrects your language while you are speaking, the interruption usually has undesirable effects rather than the helpful effects probably intended.  (We'll give the benefit of the doubt to people who correct others' language, assuming  they are not just demonstrating their superiority!)

Being corrected while you are delivering language to the world is no fun, even for those of us with the toughest egos.  Language learning anxiety may set in.

Do you ever feel like this learning a new language?

Even if you feel  you are tough enough to take a correction because you really want to learn this new language, this is the thing:   The correction will most likely be of no future use to you because your brain is creating what YOU want to say, not what someone else wants to say. And even if you repeat a corrected pronunciation, or a word choice, or a grammar point, you will probably be merely parroting back the correction.  In order for the correction to be of any help to you in the future, you need to process that information in your own brain on your own terms.

Your brain at work

For example, let's say that you are learning Spanish, and you want to express the sentence "I  live in Texas." A common mistake for a beginning learner is to fail to conjugate the verb correctly (put the right ending on the verb) and say "*Yo vive (instead of the correct vivo) en Tejas."   

How horrible is this error, after all?  The listener can still understand that the learner is saying "I live" because yo means "I."  A correction or (heaven forbid!) an explanation of the concept of verb paradigms in Spanish would not be helpful here.  You may lose focus of the meaning you are trying to communicate.  You may also feel confused or guilty because your verb endings aren't correct yet.

So, how do we ever start putting the correct endings on verbs that refer to "I"?  It happens when we hear enough examples of matching "yo" with an "o" on the end of the verb, that the correction is made in our own minds.  "Oh," we may say internally,  "I must be saying that verb wrong, because everyone else puts an "o" where I have been putting an "e."  Self-correction is more gentle and, much more importantly, more lasting than correction by someone else.

I can imagine a reader's mind whirling at this point. processing the idea that self-correction is better than external correction. "What if I say something that I didn't realize was really objectionable in the new language?"

Have you ever put your foot in your mouth?

I might want to be corrected in this case!  But I'm still going to keep making one request  of my conversation partners when I am learning new languages, "If you truly want to help me, please don't correct my errors!"

Modern reflections on "A Visit from St. Nicholas"

"A Visit from St. Nicholas" is always part of my Christmas holidays, whether I re-read the famous poem in a well-worn book or listen to a reading on an iPad or iPhone. After all these years, I  can almost recite the poem by heart, although I do occasionally falter on the names of the reindeer.

The poem was first published in 1823 and is generally attributed to Clement Clark Moore.  For this Christmas season, I thought it might be enjoyable to look through the poem to comment on some of the language used in the poem.  After all, it was written 191 years ago!  This version was taken from http://classiclit.about.com/

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there.

(Santa Claus would be a more common name nowadays.)




The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.

(I had always pictured sugar plums as a good sized piece of fruit covered with sugar. A quick Google search identified a sugar plum as a small round candy boiled in sugar.)

And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,

(I can't imagine sleeping with my head covered, but then I do live in the Desert Southwest with warmer winter weather.)

Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap.

(Hum. "Settled our brains" sounds very old-fashioned. Maybe just "settled down"or "settled in" would be more common now.)



When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

(I love this image because it presents a window style from the past. In modern times, we would probably just raise a glass window.)




The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

("Breast" has been substituted for by "crest"is some modern versions.)

Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a miniature sleigh, and eight tinny [sic] reindeer.




With a little old driver, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

(Okay. Do you know what a "courser" is? I do now - a spirited horse!)




"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donner and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"




As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.

(I have never been in a hurricane, but I have been in some pretty strong West Texas windstorms, so the image of the flying leaves still works for me.)

So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,

With the sleigh full of Toys [sic], and St Nicholas too.




And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

Down the chimney St Nicholas came with a bound.




He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.

A bundle of Toys [sic] he had flung on his back,

And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

(A "peddler" is an itinerant salesman, which was a more common occupation in the 19th century than the present.)




His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.




The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,

And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.

He had a broad face and a little round belly,

That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

(Big cultural shifts here! An overweight St. Nicholas smoking would not be a good role model in our health-conscious society.)




He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.




He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.

And laying his finger aside of his nose,

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

(I always wondered why St. Nick put his finger by his nose before he went back up the chimney. Some sort of magic charm?)




He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, 'ere he drove out of sight,

(Some modern version have changed "'ere" to "as," although "'ere" means "before" and "as" means "while.")

"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

(Merry Christmas is more common in the modern day United States.)


I hope that doing a little linguistic analysis of "A Visit from St. Nicolas" hasn't ruined the beauty and the imagery of the poem for you. I still love the poem, old-fashioned language and allusions and all.

And I wish all of you a very "Happy Christmas" as well.

Banishing language doubts

Doubts about "correct" language!  We all have them from time to time.  My doubts occur as a slightly unpleasant feeling somewhere in my body (stomach?  brain?). I remember having those feelings especially when I worked in an academic environment.  After all, someone (heaven forbid!) might criticize my language use.

For example, I often needed to talk about more than one syllabus.  So were they "syllabi" or "syllabuses"?  The plural form of "curriculum" was a constant decision - were they "curricula" or "curriculums"?  The word "data" often came up in class.  Should I use "the data is" or "the data are"?  Would I be attending several "symposia" or "symposiums" during the year?  So many decisions!  

A quick glance at my trusty Merriam Webster Dictionary just set my mind somewhat at ease. Each of the alternate forms above were listed as correct.   I had done some unnecessary worrying. But the fact remains that even if a form is listed as correct in a dictionary, if that form is not used by others in a certain environment, I would probably still choose the form that would draw the least amount of negative attention to my language.  That decision gives me full membership in the woos club.

Watch out!  They are everywhere!

The larger world of conversation also has its language traps.  "I couldn't care less" is often jumped on by the double negative watchdogs and changed into "I could care less,"  Should a blanket tag be marked as "flammable" or "inflammable"?  Does "media" always take a plural verb?  What exactly does the phrase "begs the question" mean?  Does "decimate" still have to refer to the destruction of only ten percent?  Pronunciation decisions also disturb our calm existence.  Do you pronounce the "p" in "comptroller"? 

And how about an adverb that often draws censure such as "hopefully" when it is used to refer to an entire sentence as in, "Hopefully, we won't be making so many mistakes in the future."? Would you feel comfortable saying that sentence?  If you have strong feelings one way or the other, you may want to listen to or read what an NPR commentator has to say about this topic at The Word 'Hopefully' Is Here To Stay, Hopefully.

One source I would recommend to quiet your grammar fears is Origins of the Specious:  Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language by Patricia T. O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman.  I can almost guarantee this book will make you relax a little if you are an uptight language user, and it will certainly bring a smile to your face.

Now, let's see. I've banished my language doubts.  What else is on my worry list for today?

  

Where do new words come from?

Do your ears perk up when you hear a new word?  Mine do.  I must admit to a fascination with creative uses of language. And the good news is that new words are coming into our language every day. I can stay well entertained by just listening to language used by many people in many different circumstances.

One source of new words is the use of eponyms, words that are based on a person's name or a place. A well known example is the word "sandwich" which originated with the Earl of Sandwich. (I believe the story goes that the Earl didn't want to quit the gaming table in order to eat, so he requested two pieces of bread with meat.) The word "sandwich" expanded from a proper noun into a common noun, written with a lower case letter.  It is now used for a wide variety of hand-held snacks involving bread and fillings.  The original noun has also become a verb, as in, "We sandwiched ourselves into the plane's tourist class section."

Another eponym that I find interesting is the word "guy," an informal word for a male, or nowadays., also an informal word for a group of males or males and females.  (Servers in several of our local restaurants refer to my husband and me as "you guys.")  The word "guy" derives from Guy Fawkes, a late 16th and 17th century conspirator in London, infamous for planning to blow up the British Parliament Building.  This event is commemorated yearly with bonfires and fireworks displays on Guy Fawkes day, November 5, which is coincidentally my birthday.  Thoughtful of the British Empire to plan a celebration for me!

An additional source of new words in English is the concept of "political correctness," also known as PC.  As changes occur in society, especially in regard to acceptance of differences in race, class, gender and sexual orientation, language changes as well. One of the newly created words is "herstory," which means that the history will be told from a feminist viewpoint.  Patricia T. O'Conner in Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconception of the English Language explains that "herstory" isn't one of her favorite words, but she believes it is here to stay in our lexicon. She proves that the "his" in "history" is not the pronoun that refers to male beings, but that "history" come from a Latin word meaning "narrative." Her preference is for "history" to include information about both males and females.

There has been some backlash concerning the effects of political correctness on free speech.  Urban dictionary provides some PC circumlocutions used to avoid offending anyone.  Here are a few of the more amusing:

dishonest - ethically disoriented

wrong - differently logical

fired - laid off

tall - person of height

I remember feeling pressure in a university environment to use "Winter Break" instead of "Christmas."

The decision to adopt, ignore, or condemn the many new words that come into our language is certainly an individual decision.  But I sort of like to think of myself as "weight challenged" rather than "fat" when I step on those unforgiving scales in the mornings!

Do some words bug you?

If the truth be known, most of us have an internal list of words that we don't want other people to use. When we hear certain words, we get a slightly unpleasant feeling.  And we wouldn't be caught dead using those words ourselves.

I'm not talking about the usual suspects, curse words like the F bomb or racial or gender slurs.  I mean just words that people use in everyday conversations.

Here is my list.  I do really dislike "suck" and its adjective "sucky."  Too much like the F bomb maybe?  I think "crap" is an ugly word.  Putting aside what it refers to literally, I find the very sound of the word unpleasant.  And to describe someone with an uptight personality as "anal" is just a little too graphic for me. I also dislike hearing a woman expecting a child referred to as "preggers."  I have never heard a female use that derivative of "pregnant."  Somehow "preggers" carries a whiff of machismo.    

My list goes on.  The expanded uses of "literally" and "actually" are starting to bug me.  They are ubiquitous. I'm probably fighting a losing battle here.  These two adverbs may be serving as intensifiers used to strengthen expressions. "The salesman was literally falling all over himself to help us."  (He was very anxious to help us.)   "Are you planning to go to the party?  "Well, actually, I bought a new outfit to wear."  (I'm greatly anticipating the party.)

I'm becoming a bit weary of everything from the Grand Canyon to the new green chile cheeseburger in town being described as "awesome."  But I realize we have a great need for superlatives in our language.  I am all for putting a positive spin on life, but a fresh, new adjective would be appreciated.

Another expression that catches my attention is "price point."  Yes, I have probably been watching too many episodes of "House Hunters" on HGTV, but why is "price point" better than "price"?  That million dollar vacation home in the Caribbean is still going to cost the same.          

Whew!  I'm exhausted with all of this complaining about language.  And me a person who fancies herself a linguist, interested in language for language's sake!

But misery loves company.  I would enjoy hearing about words that bother other English speakers. And I hope I haven't used any of your forbidden words in this blog post!

How do you make "correct" grammar decisions?

Somewhere inside most of us, there is probably a small, nagging doubt from time to time about how to use "correct" grammar when we use our native language.

If only speaking and writing correctly were as simple as memorizing a set of rules and sticking to them religiously.

Wow!  That's a lot of rules to learn!

One of the main reasons why slavishly following a set of rules won't work is that languages are constantly evolving.  Word definitions, pronunciations, and grammar all may change as a language is used constantly by its speakers.

Let's check your opinions on some common grammar doubts discussed in Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language by Patricia T. O' Conner and Stewart Kellerman. Do you find any of the sentences below objectionable?  If so, why?  (You may want to consider if the sentence is being used in speaking or writing also.)


I don't know all the rules of English.

Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should.

The thief snuck into the house.

Michael Phelps dove into the water.

He was the one that helped me with English.

Bill Gates is richer than me.

The queen has woken from her slumber.

Every senior thinks they know it all.

.

Did your inner grammar police nab any sentences as being "incorrect"?






What you may be perplexed to learn is that the authors of Origins do not give a yes/no definitive solution for any of the above grammar doubts.  They state that some sentences are permissible in speaking but not in writing, some are permitted by some style manuals and dictionaries but not others, and some may be generational decisions, The only form I found as being forbidden was poor old misunderstood "ain't". (There is a book out by David Skinner with the title The Story of Ain't:  America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial Dictionary Every Published. )

The decision about which English forms constitute "correct"  English is made by "We, the People". And often the decision is a personal one.  My guide to using "correct"grammar is what I hear on National Public Radio.  But occasionally a Texas "y'all" sneaks into my language as exactly the right thing to say to express myself well.

Conquering pesky grammar doubts

Anyone who has ever sat in an English class in an American school may have the same doubts and insecurities that I have when I write.  Now, when I speak, not so much.  After all, who has time to check their grammar on the fly? But composition is another matter.  It is so permanent. Someone centuries from now may read this post and criticize my use of English grammar!

I'm currently teaching a short course called "Myths of English Grammar."  I'm hoping that examining grammar not from a "gotcha" angle, but from a more pragmatic viewpoint, may be helpful to others. This week's session will focus on some common grammar myths described in the book Origins of the Specious:  Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language by Patricia T. O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman (2009).

(1) Splitting infinitives 

Is it proper for the Starship Enterprise "to boldly go" where no man has ever gone?  Yes, absolutely. English speakers have been splitting infinitives for a very long time, depending on meaning and style.

As a matter of fact,  the term "splitting infinitives" is misleading. In the phrase "to boldly go" the infinitive is just the word "go".  The "to" is identified as another part of speech (often as a preposition) which is sometimes used with infinitives and sometimes not.  An example is,
"The editor helped her write more clearly." So, just as in Latin, there are no English infinitives to split.  Whew! One more worry in life to check off my list.    

 (2)  Ending a sentence with a preposition

Do you get nervous when you reach the end of a sentence and all you have left to use is a preposition? Go right ahead.  It's quite all right to use a "terminal preposition."  Although Winston Churchill probably did not say "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put,"  the purported quote is a good example of the danger of following an outmoded rule rather than writing in clear English.

(3)  Beginning a sentence with a conjunction.

Does beginning a sentence with "and" give you a frisson of excitement as you defy your high school English teacher?  Although that teacher was probably trying to help you improve your writing style, there is nothing ungrammatical about beginning a sentence with a conjunction.  And, using a conjunction may actually help your writing by linking ideas. 

I was in a committee meeting recently participating in proof reading a document, and one member triumphed in all disagreements by saying, "There is a rule."  The rest of the committee bowed to the sanctity of  "the rule."   

My personality is to be a rule follower in all aspects of life . It takes hard evidence to convince me to be otherwise.  But many grammar rules are not really rules; they are myths. And myths are legendary, imaginary, and unverifiable.  

In the future , I hope to be a more discerning consumer of grammar information! And a little less up tight! 

    

Are you a grammar nerd?

Does the term "grammar nerd" describe the way you think about language correctness?  If you are unsure, you may want to test yourself on these signs from Grammarly (available on Facebook and Twitter).

As much as I hate to admit it, I checked off nine of the ten signs.  (I had to look up No. 6, "what an Oxford comma is," and yes, now I have an opinion about the Oxford comma - completely unnecessary.)  

The realization that I act like a grammar nerd clashes directly with my image of myself as a linguist, that is, a person interested in studying human speech.  Linguists scoff at those who spend their lives slavishly following what are known as prescriptive grammar rules. 

Prescriptive grammar rules are rules for the "proper" use of language.  They generally appear in written form in grammar textbooks, editing manuals, and can be heard coming from the mouths of English instructors and diligent parents of young children. A well-known grammar rule (broken every day by countless speakers) is, "Don't end a sentence with a preposition."

Linguists are interested in descriptive grammar rules that are explanations of real language everyday people use.  As a matter of fact, linguists find "errors" fascinating. They are interested in what people say and how they say it, not in order to correct it, but to learn more about how language works in the human brain.    Somehow that goal seems more worthy of my efforts than fretting about the use of a double negative, for example.  After all, how would the Rolling Stones sound if they belted out, "I can't get any satisfaction"?  A bit wimpy, I think

So even though I occasionally get a strong desire to dig down in my purse for a red pen and circle an "it's" used as a possessive (as in the incorrect *"The city had it's problems." Shocking, don't you think?), I will take a linguist's view and consider the usage interesting.  Let's investigate.  

In English, we use an apostrophe s to make a singular noun possessive.  We say "Mary's trombone, John's saxophone, and the child's trumpet."   Because our brains are constantly creating grammar from the language we use, a logical generalization of the possessive rule would be to put an apostrophe s on "it" to show that "it" owns something. The problem arises because "it" is a pronoun, not a noun, and belongs to the category of words like "his," "hers," and "theirs," which all indicate possession without the apostrophe. An added difficulty is that "it's" is already something else in the language - a contraction for "it is."  

The English language is constantly changing.  It is like shifting sand beneath our feet.  Who knows if in the future so many English speakers will decide that they want to use *"it's" to show possession that it will become the standard form.  It may make some of us nervous, but it could happen, you know!    

Is there an easy way to learn a foreign language?

Is learning a foreign language on your to-do list?  If so, would you like to discover an easy way to learn that language?  Despite many claims that appear on the Internet, I am convinced there is no easy way to learn another language.  My apologies for the discouraging answer!

Some learning methods may be more pleasant than others, but easy, as in 'minimum effort required,' I don't think so.  Now if we could take a time machine back to our childhood and be raised in a multilingual environment...

But some of us are well over 21 years of age and want or need to learn a foreign language.  I discovered I was not the only person pondering this issue when I read a recent question posted on Quora. "What are the best ways to learn a language as an adult?" Quora is a question and answer website where creating, answering and editing are done by the Quora community. Quora has a wide range of topics and is available online and with apps for mobile devices.

A Quora participant,  David Bailey, wrote a detailed answer to the question of learning a language as an adult, describing how he achieved enough French fluency in 17 days to have a conversation with a French speaker in a Paris coffee shop and receive a compliment on his language skills.  David had racked up 700 upvotes on Quora.  I was intrigued and read on.

As I understand it, David, who was already a fluent speaker of Spanish, spent 17 days visiting a friend in a small village in France, during which time he carried out a self-imposed language learning regime. Here are some of the main components of his daily study plan.

(1) David immersed himself in French.  The friend he was visiting and her friends only spoke to him in French.

(2) He spent from 1.5 - 2 hours each morning writing out verb tables in longhand.

Amazing self-discipline!

(3)  He listened to a purchased language learning program on his mp3 player.

(4)  He ran every day and listened to French music on his run through the French countryside.  (Sound idyllic, doesn't it?)

(5) He participated in playful activities in French, like darts or Boules, with French friends.

(6) He read easy children's books in French.

(7) He spent about an hour every day writing essays about himself which he asked his friend to check for errors.  He commented that essays helped him have ready answers about himself when he was getting acquainted with others.

(8)  He memorized French filler words that gave him time to think about what he was going to say and increased his confidence.

I must admit I was impressed with David Bailey's language learning plan, especially because of the self-discipline required to carry it out. The inspiration I received was not about following David's specific activities (I'm getting a picture of me running through the French countryside!), but tailoring a language study plan to my own liking and then, the difficult part, sticking to it.  Life has so many distractions!

A responder to David Bailey, Philip Jones, wrote of his own language learning achievement, "In the end it was a case of getting down to some serious study and then going out and talking to people." And David, who now speaks five languages (all learned after age 21) and does business in three countries, says, ..."who says adults can't learn."

Encouraging words, n'est-ce pas? 

Please note:  Language Lover's blog will be on vacation until October 28th!

Cognates - Friend or Foe?

One of the first challenges of a new language is learning the vocabulary, especially at the beginning stages of study.  We grasp anything that will help our brains remember new words. That's where cognates (words that are similar in two languages) enter the picture.  

Definition of Cognate

Cognates are generally friends to the language learner, allowing us to immediately understand the meaning of words and remember them for future use.  Cognates are great for soothing jangled nerves of language learners. 

You can immediately get the meaning in Spanish of these words because they are cognates of English words.

absurdo

magnífico

secreto

declaración

 Let's try some English cognates in French.

admiration

cigarette

dialogue

pirate

Here are some Portuguese-English cognate words.

animal

hospital

moral

eternidade

Irish-English cognates are a little more difficult to find, but thankfully I have come upon several playing around with the beta version of Irish on Duolingo.

pasta

dinnéar

tae

péarla

But be careful with cognates!

The cognate story is not all rosy.  Sometimes there are words in two different languages that look like cognates but are what have been labeled 'false friends'.  These words only appear to have the same meaning, but in actuality they have very different meanings. Beginning language learners are sometimes led astray by these false friends and, as a consequence, make some pretty strange statements.

The classic language goof made by Spanish learners (very common in beginning Spanish classrooms), is thinking that embarazada in Spanish means 'embarrassed' in English. Many a poor student has unknowlingly announced to the class that he or she is pregnant.  The correct Spanish translation for 'embarrassed'  would be avergonzada.  False friends, indeed.

Here is an example of false friends in Spanish and Portuguese that would often confuse my beginning Portuguese students.  The Portuguese word acordar means 'to wake up', but in Spanish acordar means 'remember'. The correct translation would be the Spanish despertar.  

A common error of French learners is another case of a false friend.  Assiter in French does not mean what an English speaker would expect, which would be 'to assist'.  Instead, assister means 'to attend'. Aider is the French word for 'to assist'. 

And here are some false friends I just learned about in Irish, which I know will be very useful! Mná means 'women' on restroom doors.  (Might look like 'man' to someone in a hurry!)  Fir, which means 'men', indicates the men's restroom, not a type of tree.  

So will cognates play the role of friends or foes in your language study?  Maybe we need to regard them as we do our human friends, enjoy them, but with a touch of caution! 

Do you speak a dialect?

Is the language you speak a dialect?  I'll bet the majority of us would say, "No, I speak real language." After all, the version of the language we speak serves our communication needs quite well, day in and day out.

From a linguistic viewpoint, the answer to the above question is, "Yes, I speak a dialect, because everyone speaks a dialect." Some linguists even claim that the term 'dialect' should be substituted for 'language'.

But the term 'dialect' has acquired a  bad reputation through the years.  It carries a whiff of something unpleasant, unacceptable, substandard, uneducated, lower class.  You get the picture. So it is easy to see why we may be reluctant to admit that we speak a dialect.

The definition of a dialect has nothing to do with language itself, and everything to do with society. In most societies, one dialect (version) of a language becomes what is known as the 'standard language.'  Ah, that term feels much better, doesn't it?  Generally, a dialect becomes the standard language/dialect because it is spoken by those individuals with power, influence and money.

Linguists often quote a translation of an observation in Yiddish that " A language is a dialect with an army and a navy."  In other words, if a certain dialect has power behind it, it will be recognized as a language.  Conversely, a dialect without power will remain a dialect.  All dialects have an equal ability to convey what their speakers want to say.

Standard language/dialect is associated with formal oral communication and also with writing.

It is usually found in the media, textbooks, classrooms of all levels, and second language instruction. Standard language is often associated with the variety of language spoken in the capital cities of countries, since they are generally centers of government, education, and banking.  So we have some language snobbery occurring - Parisians versus Canadians, residents of Madrid versus those of Mexico City, Londoners versus Scots, Washingtonians versus Texans.

Some Scottish dialects

A popular example comes to mind to demonstrate dialectal differences. How do you express plural 'you'?  In Standard English, there is not a separate word for plural 'you'.  Sometimes just saying 'you' doesn't express the plural meaning that I need.   Being a Texan, I find 'y'all'  useful. Other English speakers in the United States have invented other creative words for plural 'you', like 'youse', 'you-uns', and the current choice of many young wait staffers, 'you guys'.  Here is a short article giving more 'you' plural options.  From Y'all To Youse, 8 English Ways to Make "You" Plural

Now comes decision time.  Should a person speak their own regional dialect or the standard dialect.?The answer will be a personal one, depending on factors such as audience,  communication style, and  intended communication.  If I speak to my family with the same language that I would use teaching a university course, my family would think that I am putting on airs.  And if I were to teach a class using my Texas drawl, I might have a few critical students.

As for me, 'y'all' will continue to serve me in my everyday conversations.  But when I am receiving my award for the Nobel Prize for Literature, I may decide 'you' is a more efficacious choice to thank the panel members.  I doubt if that will be one of my worries for a while!

    

Languages and Imagination

Language learning has gotten a bad rap through the years!   Unpleasant images spring up of long vocabulary lists and verb conjugations to be mastered before we were even allowed to order a coke in another language.

It was like a Jane Fonda exercise video telling us we had to "feel the burn" in order to acquire another language.

I survived traditional language instruction in school because I enjoyed learning languages, no matter how they were taught.   But as an adult, I have freedom to choose my own language learning path.

Nowadays language learning is much more sociable.  We are encouraged to use language for real communication with others.

But the reality of language study is that sometimes we don't have anyone to communicate with in the language we want to practice. It still often remains a solitary activity.  So I have been trying to fire up my imagination to liven up language study time.

I usually spend about an hour a day on Duolingo, practicing four languages.  Sometimes Duolingo asks for a translation into English and at other times a translation from English.  With each translation, I try to conjure up a scenario in which I would use the sentence.  Memory experts tell us we need to connect new information to an image that will help us recall it.  And that picture in our minds can be nonsensical, funny, outrageous, or pleasurable.

My idea for creating scenarios began, I believe, with my husband Wayne's Spanish study.  The sentence in question was "El gato no cabe en la puerta."   (The cat doesn't fit in the door.)  I imagined something like Alice in Wonderland's Cheshire cat, trying to come across the threshold with a big grin on its face.

In Duolingo  Portuguese, I am at a Level 14, so I find lots of interesting sentences for imagining. "Please, give me another chance" was the latest.     I am driving my red Lamborghini a bit too fast up the beautiful Douro River Valley of Portugal when a handsome young policeman pulls me over.  I bat my eyelashes at him and say, Por favor, me dê outra chance.  Well, a girl can dream.

My Level 12 Duolingo Spanish provides me with pithy comments like, "That is going to resolve itself."  I'm in the plaza at Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain, admiring the cathedral.

A bedraggled female pilgrim begins telling me her trials and tribulations on the Way of St. James. She has met her soul mate, but he has taken up with a hippy actress from California. I assure her with Eso se va a resolver solo,  not even believing it myself.  Ah, el amor!

As I try to use imagination with my other two languages, French (Level 6) and Irish (Level 5), I have to work a bit harder. I'm on a train in France, and it is dinner time.  I'm not much of a meat eater, but I would rather eat chicken than beef, so I ask a young teenager in the dining car (who perhaps won't make fun of my American accent), Tu manges du poulet? (Are you eating chicken?)  I won't even try to imagine his response.

Irish (Level 5) has been a true challenge. At this stage of learning, my Irish knowledge is mostly nouns.  I am in Dublin, Ireland, and a robbery occurs in the pub where I have dropped by for a pint and some lively music.

 

A handsome Irish policeman is taking notes on the incident.  "Who were the robbers, ma'm?" he asks politely.  Bean agus fear  (a woman and a man), I reply.  "Thanks, darlin'," he replies with a wide grin. 

So, as you can see, I have been having a really entertaining time learning other languages.  I hope you have as well!

Brain training through languages

A few of the many world languages

I  just completed my daily hour's language practice on Duolingo, and my brain is tired - which is a good thing. Recently the media have been touting the importance of keeping one's brain active throughout life. Since I am a self-confessed language nerd, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and exercise my little grey cells by learning different languages.  Here is my brain/language training daily routine.

Great advice!

Spanish.  I begin each Duolingo session with the Spanish language for a brain warm up.  Since I have been working on acquiring Spanish since I was a child, I can generally breeze through the Spanish lesson. I sense that I have a 'Spanish brain' somewhere in my mind, and after a few responses in Spanish, I can enter into that other brain and put my responses on automatic.  Quick responses are great for communication in Spanish, but not so effective for brain training, since I don't have to do much hard thinking.

Serenity Prayer in Portuguese (much needed by language learners!)

Portuguese.  I choose Portuguese next because it takes effort to keep Spanish and Portuguese separate in my mind.  They are sister languages, both descended from Latin, and are certainly similar, but they also have significant differences in vocabulary, grammar, and especially pronunciation.  I can move from automatic responses to getting my brain cells firing. 

In my last Duolingo session, I lost a heart by translating 'pocket' as bolsillo in Spanish rather than the Portuguese bolso; I also lost another heart by choosing the Portuguese word leva for 'wear', making a parallel with Spanish llevar.  Portuguese expresses 'wear' with either the verbs veste or usa.  Thank goodness I didn't lose my third heart and have to start the lesson over. 

French calendar.

French.    French is next on my practice list.  I have studied French several times in my life but with large gaps of time in between study, so my grammar is still pretty well intact, but my vocabulary is fairly minimal. And I won't even mention my pronunciation.  So anything I can get correct in French is a bonus.  My brain moves out of the Spanish/Portuguese area (which I'd be willing to bet they share) and into a new French space.  I don't mix up French with Spanish or Portuguese, but I do mix it up with English.  I lost one heart by writing French dauphin as English dolphin.

Irish cities.  Good opportunity for language practice!

Irish.    And now that my brain is thinking linguistically, I tackle Irish.  Oh my.  Almost every sentence looks and sounds like a mystery to me.  No meaning comes through automatically to give me a hint.  I have to analyze every word separately.  The nouns I have to check for singular or plural endings and definite and indefinite articles.  The verbs I need to check for position in the sentence and for endings which specify the subjects.  And I love it!  When I am doing Irish, I am completely absorbed in the thought process. It is a mini-vacation from ordinary life.

So if you would like to challenge your mind and enjoy learning about other languages and cultures,  a regime of language learning may be for you.  Now if I could just get into a physical routine for my body.....   

Just about my speed!