Some fascinating grammar facts (yes, really!)

I recently added a sixth language to my daily study regimen on Duolingo.  I know; it's an obsession. But before I admit to being a bit quirky when it comes to language study, I would like to defend my choice to spend valuable time each day learning other languages. You see, I truly get a kick out of analyzing how other languages are put together.

Linguists will tell you that languages are more similar than they are different, and I agree.  The common elements of nouns, verbs, questions, and negatives come to mind.  But each language I study has differences in grammar that are important in the language acquisition process. 

First, let's explore up front why the word "grammar" gives some people the heebie-jeebies. I think it is because grammar in our native language (English for me) is fairly boring because we have already acquired it automatically. But once we start overlaying our English grammar patterns on new languages, ah! That's when grammar becomes intriguing. 

Let's take a look at a grammar point in Spanish labeled "The Personal A." Here is an example: Busco mi hotel (I am looking for my hotel); Busco a mi esposo (I am looking for my husband). Did you notice the extra "a" in the second sentence?  Don't bother trying to translate it. The personal a is a Spanish grammar requirement before direct object nouns that are specific people. Sounds easy enough, right?  But how about Bitsy, my beloved pet cat?  Isn't she as important as any person?  Yes! Busco a Bitsy.  I am looking for Bitsy.  Here is the link to a YouTube video that gives further explanation of the personal a in Spanish:    The Personal A . 

On to Portuguese, which may be my favorite other language.  Portuguese creates combined words that make beginning Portuguese students tear their hair out.  Take a simple phrase like "the girl's book" which translates into Portuguese "the book of the girl" (o livro da menina).  The English phrase has five words; the Portuguese phrase has four.  The Portuguese word da combines the meanings of "of" and "the." And the Portuguese language has many of these forms, which are usually prepositions combined with other parts of speech. Take a look here Chart of Portuguese combined forms to be completely overwhelmed by grammar rules. These forms are best acquired rather than learned!

Another of the languages I have studied for many years, French, still makes my mind work overtime with some unique grammar rules.  To say, "She remembered" in French, you have to know that "to remember" is a reflexive verb, that is, a reflexive pronoun is required.  Then the past tense of reflexive verbs in French is formed with the helping verb, être.  And if that isn't enough, the past participle must agree with the subject.  Elle s'est souvenue is the result. ( I missed this translation recently on Duolingo!) Not easy, but fascinating.

For the next blog post, I am planning to tackle some sticky grammar points in Irish, Welsh, and Romanian, all languages that are fairly new to me, and therefore even more of a challenge.

Recently I read the headline of an article that ran something like "Forget Luminosity; Learn a Language."  Analyzing grammar may just make those neurons in our brains a little more active.

I now have a Duolingo buddy!

My husband, Wayne, is now my Duolingo buddy!  This blog post is dedicated to him.

Readers who have read my previous blog posts probably know by now that I'm very impressed with a free online program for language learning called Duolingo.  Yes, I'll admit it up front.  I am just a tad obsessive about learning other languages.  

I follow other learners on Duolingo, mostly random people from all over the world that I don't know personally.  It's interesting to compare my progress with theirs from time to time.

But now that Wayne has become seriously committed to Duolingo, I have someone in my own household to compare Duolingo notes with.

Wayne grew up in a Texas town bordering the country of Mexico, as did I, so we have heard Spanish spoken all of our lives.  When Wayne finally tired of seeing me have so much fun with my daily language sessions on Duolingo, he made another attempt at learning Spanish on Duolingo (he had started and stopped a time or two before, as lots of people do). Now he is on an over two-month streak (earning Duolingo experience points every day) and very proud of his progress.

I also applaud his success, not only from a personal standpoint, but also because I want to learn more about how people acquire languages.  This morning I asked Wayne to talk to me for a few minutes about his Duolingo study.  Here are some observations he made about his learning process.

(1) He enjoys the "repeat after the speaker" questions and views them almost as a "gimme."  (I would like to add that he has a very authentic accent in Spanish.  I am especially jealous of his ability to produce a perfect rolled Spanish "r.")

(2)  He feels the need to go back and study certain grammar points, for example personal pronouns.  I try to discourage him from doing too much grammar in the early stages of language study, but I can sympathize with the urge to learn grammar rather than acquire it by use.

(3) He personalizes the Duolingo program to fit his needs.  On a busy day, he may return to an easier exercise just to get point credits for the day.  When life is more leisurely, he may challenge himself to a new grammar or vocabulary topic.  When asked to match Spanish and English vocabulary words, he disciplines himself to try to match them without resorting to process of elimination to get the right answer.

(4)  He likes the format change in Duolingo which allows the learner to continue an exercise, no matter how many tries it takes to reach the end.  (Previous versions of Duolingo would only let you make a limited number of errors before you "lost" the round.)

(5)  He isn't sure if Duolingo study is translating into real world use of Spanish, but he believes it will when he advances in the program.

Although I realize that Duolingo is not the only language program available, I think it has a lot going for it:  it's free to all users; it's available 24/7 on desktops, laptops, tablets and cell phones; and it's user friendly and lighthearted in approach.

"Have you done your Duolingo today?" is now part of daily conversations in our household, and I enjoy talking about it!

   

   

Using Language to Solve Crimes

A new nonfiction spy thriller featured on NPR, The Spy Who Couldn't Spell, caught my attention. Two of my favorite topics — spies and language— are part of the title.  The complete title, The Spy Who Couldn't Spell:  A Dyslexic Traitor, an Unbreakable Code, and the FBI's Hunt for America's Stolen Secrets, by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, reveals the main themes of the book. 

Brian Regan, the spy in the new book, worked for the National Reconnaissance Office in the early years of this century, managing information on the US spy satellite system.  For various personal and professional reasons, he decided to sell US military secrets to a foreign country.  He was arrested two weeks before the events of 9/11, which probably accounts for the fact that his story did not reach the general public at the time of his arrest.

The narrative of how Brian Regan attempted to carry out espionage will probably be enough to encourage me to read the book.  But the clues that the FBI put together to identify him will be especially intriguing.  Beginning with my early reading of Agatha Christie mystery novels, with their carefully crafted clues and intricate plots, I have always loved a good puzzle.

It was a well-know fact that Brian Regan was dyslexic, a general term for a problem processing language in the brain.  (Dyslexia is not related to general intelligence.) 

Dyslexia shows itself in different forms in different individuals and in varying degrees of severity, but in Regan's case, the dyslexia caused him to be a very poor speller. The spelling errors were one of the clues leading to his capture. An article in The Guardian, October 26, 2016, lists some of the misspellings:  anonmus, alligations, reveil, precausion, and negotianalable.

This connection between criminal investigations and language issues reminds me of the usefulness of Forensic Linguistics, a field of applied linguistics. Forensic linguists apply linguistic knowledge to, among other areas of law, crime investigation. The premise used is that language varies at the level of the individual, causing each of us to have our own "idolect," or particular pattern of use. These patterns may include the vocabulary we choose, which words we use together, how we pronounce words, our spelling, and our grammar usage.

An online guest post by John Olsson of the Forensic Linguistics Institute (click here for more information) sheds further light on the field of Forensic Linguistics. Mr. Olsson notes that the field of Forensic Linguistics is relative new, making a serious appearance in courts in the 1990s.  He lists various type of language analysis he has done in crime investigations:  plagiarism analysis, suicide notes, hate mail, product contamination, insurance fraud, forgery, and mobile phone texts. 

Using language to solve crimes is yet another indication of how language, often taken for granted, plays a vital role in our lives.  In these days of concerns about privacy, have you ever thought about what your language may reveal about you?  Scary, huh?        

 

The Perils of Counting in Other Languages

"Can you count from one to ten in ______ (fill in the language)?"  Counting in another language is one proof for the world that we are acquiring another language.  But is expressing numbers in another language as simple as memorizing new vocabulary words for 1-10?  Of course not!  Few things having to do with language are simple!

Most beginning lessons of a foreign language course include the labels for numbers 1-10.  A few chapters later, the textbook writers think you are ready for the complexities of 11-100.  And here is where the fun begins.  It is interesting to note that Duolingo, my favorite on-line language learning program, does not include numbers as one of the first topics in their language tree.  And I agree that numbers, like all vocabulary, should be acquired gradually, and in context.

First, let's talk about what it takes to master foreign language numbers. Number concepts in a foreign language are notoriously hard to internalize.  It may be that we only truly learn to count once in our lives, and that is in our native language. I consider myself fairly fluent in Spanish, but I still have to take an extra second or two to translate a Spanish number, like sesenta y seis, into the concept of 66. I have often witnessed Spanish-English bilinguals speaking in English who make a temporary switch to Spanish when counting objects or people.

And do we really need to know numbers in a second language?  Yes, for activities such as counting, doing math, telling time, or giving phone numbers and addresses.  But how often do we have to write numbers rather than understand or speak them?  Not so often.  Check writing comes to mind, which is becoming somewhat archaic.  Formal wedding invitations, which may also be going by the wayside. Most of our use of numbers will be in communicating orally in a new language.

To further understand numbers in other languages, I made a comparison chart of 1-100 in my native language, English (Germanic family), Spanish, Portuguese, French (Latin family), Irish and Welsh (Celtic family).  Here is a sampling of what I discovered.

In all these languages, 1-10 are the building blocks of the numbering system, so, yes indeed, they will have to be learned. The teen numbers in English and the Latin-based languages must still be learned individually, although most contain a hint of their meaning (thirteen, trece, treze, and treize all remind us of the concept of three, for example).

To form the numbers from 20-100, basic arithmetic skills are required.  Since we are working on a decimal system, all these languages have a word for intervals of ten, but there are some differences to note.  English, Spanish and Portuguese have separate words (often easily recognizable) for 20, 30, etc., to which the numbers from 1-10 are added.  Examples are thirty-one in English and trinta e um in Portuguese.

French adds a bit of challenge by having separate numbers for 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 but then expressing 70 as 60 + 10 (soixante-dix),  80 as 4 x 20 (quatre-vingts), and 90 as 80 + 10 (quatre-vingt-dix).  The need for math skills continues as 71 becomes 60 + 11 (soixante-onze).  Whew! I may need a calculator on my next visit to Canada!

I thought the Celtic languages, Irish and Welsh, were going to have me as flummoxed as the sound systems of these languages, but I discovered a comforting regularity in the numbering systems. (I ignored for the time being that Irish has three numbering systems, used in different contexts, and that Welsh has masculine and feminine number forms.) 

Counting in Irish is a matter of learning 1-10 and adding déag/dhéag for the teens (13 is a tri déag). As in English, labels have to be learned for 20, 30, etc.  Then numbers 1-10 follow.  ( 20 + 1 is fiche a haon).

The key word for numbering in Welsh is deg (10)   20 is a logical 2 x 10 (dau ddeg), with the pattern holding for 30-90.  And 22 is a logical 2 x 10 + 1 (dau ddeg un).

The number 100 (one hundred) is very different in English only.  Here is how to say 100 in the other languages we are discussing.

Spanish - cien
Portuguese - cem
French - cent
Irish - céad
Welsh - cant

And the worst part of the matter is, even if I learned to sing the song, "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall," in any of the languages besides my native language, I would still have some complex thinking to do. Maybe I can start counting sheep in other languages on sleepless nights for a little extra number practice?


  

Language Learning Progress Got You Down?

Most people who confide in me about languages (and I encourage those confidences!) would truly like to learn a foreign language.  But the success rate of those of us who do learn another language, at least to the level of using the new language in daily life, is not impressive.  What happens to our hopes and dreams of ordering a meal in Mérida, Mexico without the waiter switching to English? Why can't we speak French with an acceptable accent to chat with a passenger on the Canadian Via Rail train? Couldn't we at least understand a short Irish Gaelic conversation in a pub in Galway?

Here are three bits of advice for language learners from a fellow language learner.

Bit of Advice 1  Maybe we have been approaching language learning from the wrong angle. If you are reading this blog, you probably have taken a formal language course at least once in your life. Can you conjure up the class activities you participated in?  Do you see lists of vocabulary words, grammar explanations, and exercises?  I certainly can.  And if the truth be known, because I am a certified language nut, those elements of a traditional language class still interest me. I like to analyze how languages are constructed.  But does the activities help me achieve fluency to communicate in a foreign language in everyday life?  Not so much.  So if you want to learn about a language, take a traditional language course.  If you want to learn to use a language, continue reading this post.

Bit of Advice 2  Make language learning into play, not work.  We adults have plenty of work already in our lives.  Find an enjoyable language learning activity, and most importantly, play with language a little bit every day, without fail. 

My favorite language play is on Duolingo, a free online program, also available on mobile devices. I do a little Duolingo every day just as regularly as I remember to feed the cat.

duolingo.com

Your enjoyable language activity may be chatting with a friend, by text or in person, watching a movie or TV program, listening to the radio, writing haiku, or reading about a favorite topic.  I've seen ads recently about practicing languages using snapchat which bears further investigation.  The most important point is to choose something you like to do and train yourself to do it every day. Don't procrastinate by saying you'll get back to Irish, Welsh, or Mandarin when you have mastered more vocabulary and grammar. (Have I been down this road?  Yes!)

Bit of Advice 3  Consider giving up the idea that because you are an intelligent adult that you won't make errors in a new language. Making errors is a prerequisite to learning to use a new language.  I know what you are saying. "Maybe other people make errors.  Not me!" "I want to use correct vocabulary and grammar like I do in my native language." "How can I learn to speak correctly if I keep saying things wrong?" Mistakes are learning experiences.  They may not give our egos a boost, but they will do wonders for advancing language fluency.

I wish all fellow language learners well.  And I would enjoy hearing about your progress in foreign language learning!

Adventures in Chatting With a Bot

What was that small ghost-like icon labeled "Bots" at the bottom of my Duolingo screen? A new feature? Always ready to play around with foreign languages, I clicked on the icon, which took me to this screen.

As you can see by the filled-in gold boxes, I have already participated in five different chats with bots.  The topics are familiar ones taken from daily life, such as weather, family, and food.  I must admit I was hooked immediately into a new way of practicing languages.

Duolingo has been a daily activity for me for several years.  (An 881 day streak at last count!) I enjoy keeping up with familiar languages, like French, Portuguese, and Spanish and also learning new languages, like Irish and Welsh. But I always knew the best way to learn languages was to use the language for real communication.

Chatting with bots is the closest online experience I have had to real world language use. A bot greets you, introduces a topic, and asks questions to which you type in an answer. Basically what you are doing is texting in a foreign language with a bot.

Several features of the chat keep the conversation running smoothly.  First, a variety of answers are accepted and responded to.  If you get too far off track, the program won't let you input your answer, but it does correct small spelling errors and offers to help if you get stuck.  For example, the bot asked what I wanted on my pizza besides tomato, and I couldn't think of the French word for "onion." Clicking on help provided the quick translation, oignon.  

Another great feature of the chat is the use of "filler words,"  words that we use to oil the wheels of communication.  The Spanish bot may answer with genial (great) or qué bien (well done) before going on to the next topic.

And the French bot may use excellent as a way of making the conversation more personal and less like a grammar exercise.

Chat responses are scored to increase the number of your XPs (experience points) on Duolingo. An acceptable answer gets one point, an exceptional answer gets two points, but if you accept help, you do not get any points. Another great motivational feature of Duolingo!

So is chatting with a bot identical to a real life experience using the language?  No, it is close but still not real world.  In life, communication in a foreign language with a person can be very intimidating, perhaps less so when texting to that person, but still anxiety producing.  Your real life language partner may be impatient and critical or use a lot of slang.  Chatbots are calm and supportive and use standard language.

The chatbot experience on Duolingo makes the learner formulate thoughts in the foreign language and put them into words.  What a huge step forward from most drill and practice language lessons! Chatbots are now available on Duolingo in Spanish, French, and German, with other languages promised soon.  I have only found chats on my iPhone, but I'm sure other platforms are on the way.

Will the next step on Duolingo be communicating verbally with a bot rather than texting?  I have my fingers crossed for what the future may bring to the language learning experience!

   

Language Insights from Netflix

Dialects!  I love them.  But sometimes dialects get a bad rap by those who draw a sharp line between dialects and languages.  Dialects are variations in language.  A noted modern linguist, John McWhorter, suggests that all we truly have are dialects, because everyone speaks a dialect of some type. But our natural tendency is to think that our own dialect is much superior to everyone else's, 

English Dialects

I began thinking about dialects while watching our recent favorite Netflix series, "Republic of Doyle," which is set in St. John's, Newfoundland.  I am a sucker for anything filmed in a foreign location.  This series has not disappointed me, with its seaside location and brightly colored buildings.  But the most intriguing cultural element has been the use of an English St. John's dialect by certain characters in the episodes. (Well, one of the main characters, the private investigator Jack Doyle, is fairly intriguing even when he isn't speaking, I must admit.)

Jake Doyle

I began noticing that the series characters have a slightly different twist on the English language in certain situations.  For example, Malachy, Jake's father and fellow private investigator, sometimes uses the objective pronoun "me" in place of  the possessive pronoun "my" (as in "I lost me cell phone")  when speaking informally, mostly to other family members.

Malachy Doyle

And I kept hearing a word at the end of their sentences that sounded like "boy." Closed captioning transcribed the word as "b'y," and I heard it used to refer to both sexes.  The word "dude" seems to be an American equivalent, being used for both sexes as well.

A recent story line on the series has a policewoman, Leslie Bennett, (and romantic interest for Jake) going undercover to catch a drug dealer.

Leslie Bennett

This clean cut, serious office of the law, changes her appearance dramatically to fit the character. She begins working in a bar, living in a small, messy apartment, and dressing in a provocative manner, using lots of makeup.  But most interesting of all, Leslie adapts her language to fit the undercover character.  The most noticeable element of Leslie's language change is her constant addition of "s" on the end of all of her present tense verbs.  "I knows how we can meet Mr. Big."  brags Leslie.

The Newfoundland dialect is much more complex than is depicted on the Netflix series, containing elements of, among other languages, Irish, West Country English, and French.  The writers of the series have selected a more standard Canadian accent with a few elements of the local dialect thrown in for authenticity.  I am grateful for that decision, because I would have a hard time with understanding if the series language were like the following:

Often the label of dialect is pinned on a language as a pejorative term, meaning "my language variety is better than your language variety." But I view dialects as an essential element to express cultural identity. In last night's episode of "Republic of Doyle," a visitor to St. John's was trying to act cool by saying something like, "How about a pint, b'y?"  Jake replied, "You can't use b'y.  You aren't from St. John's."

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Or not?

The well-known saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do,"  encourages visitors to adapt to local culture, customs and behaviors.  But is speaking the language of a different country or region part of that advice?  At first glance, I would be tempted to say "yes" because language is an essential part of culture.  But being addicted to foreign language study, I can attest that attempting to speak a foreign language to native speakers is often less than successful.

One of my earliest realizations that native speakers of a language are not necessarily volunteer language teachers occurred in Lisbon, Portugal, where I had enrolled in a Portuguese language school.  I set out confidently the morning after my arrival to find a cup of coffee.

The harried lady behind the coffee counter had to ask twice for my order because my Portuguese accent was not what she was used to hearing.  Then as we were discussing the milk, I became confused about the grammatical gender of milk in Portuguese. (The confusion arose because the word for milk is feminine in Spanish but masculine in Portuguese.)  So I asked the server if the correct word was "o leite" (with a masculine article) or "a leite" (with a feminine article). By now, she was completely confused and quite annoyed. Resorting to gestures, she pointed at the milk jar on the table behind me, shaking her head at the ignorance of tourists.

I had an important ah-ha moment in that small coffee bar.  My goal in using the native language and the server's goals were completely different.  She wanted, quite understandably,  to complete my order as quickly and efficiently as possible.  After all, customers were waiting in line.  I was completely focused on learning more of the Portuguese language.  Small wonder that my first attempt at communication in Lisbon was less than pleasant!

That long ago incident recently came to mind when I read a letter to Dear Abby in the El Paso Times dated September 5, 2016. 

A retired librarian in Texas (white, non-Hispanic) who speaks four languages wrote that a Hispanic friend had advised caution when choosing to speak Spanish to Hispanics. The writer confirmed the advice with a retired college-level Spanish teacher, who explained that languages are often used by speakers as a boundary to identify group members.

Having lived my entire life in El Paso, Texas, a bilingual English-Spanish city, and having had both positive and negative experiences speaking Spanish in my home town, I can affirm, speaking of language choice, that "It's complicated!"  And, I must admit that every time I choose to speak Spanish, I am hoping to get a mini-Spanish lesson, not just communicate or fit into the environment.

I will face a similar decision in Canada about use of the French language when my husband and I take The Canadian, a long-distance train across that country.  My guess is that all of the train employees will be bilingual in English-French, so attempting to use my fairly rudimentary French (along with my American accent!) seems counterproductive.  But maybe I will by chance run into a retired French teacher in the lounge car who really, really likes to discuss in detail the French partitive construction....

In a Quandary over Commas?

Does this bring back memories of composition class?

How can one small punctuation mark (,) cause such a big headache?  Admit it!  Do you feel completely secure when deciding whether to place or omit commas in your writing?  You are not alone.

The dilemma of comma placement was recently brought to my attention because a friend of mine, a former English teacher, offered to proof a manuscript I am working on. She did a very thorough job, and I very much appreciated her careful editing skills.  However, I noticed immediately that we hold different opinions regarding use of commas. Are commas governed by hard and fast rules, or is there some wiggle room in their usage?  I needed to find out quickly.

I pulled Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style:  The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century off the shelf of my Linguistics reference books.  The information on the front book flap advises readers that "...they must negotiate the rules of correct usage, distinguishing the rules that enhance clarity and grace from myths and superstitions...."  Maybe the section on usage would provide me with ammunition in my campaign against what I consider to be excessive use of commas. The index listed ten pages, 285-294, devoted to comma usage.  The topic was obviously not a simple one!

Pinker explains that, in the past, decisions about comma placement were made to indicate a slight pause in pronunciation.  More recent rules are based both on sound and sentence structure. He observes that instructors of English composition often have to deal with both comma overuse and under use.  Comma overuse occurs when the writer incorrectly sets off elements that belong together, such as the subject and verb.  Comma under use, the opposite problem, occurs when the writer fails to set off supplementary information.  Take for example,  "The lot next to mine which is huge is still undeveloped."  If the writer is adding the phrase "which is huge" as non-essential information, the sentence should read, "The lot next to mine, which is huge, is still underdeveloped."

I get the main idea here, which is that essential information should not be separated by a comma, and that extra information should be set off by commas.  What I am saying is the decision is not always easy. For example, when the supplementary information is short, and you don't want the reader to pause, then a reasonable decision would be to omit the comma, as in "Finally this comma discussion has ended" (no comma after "finally").  Steven Pinker identifies this style as "light" or "open" punctuation.

A more definite rule that Pinker offers is the admonition against the dreaded comma splice, which is when a comma is used to join two sentences that can stand on their own.

Of course, a writer has to be able to recognize a complete sentence in order to follow the rule. Pinker gives several simple alternatives for correcting the comma splice.

Another major decision regarding commas, according to Pinker, is the serial comma, also known as the Oxford comma. A major function of commas is to separate items in a list. Compare "Please bring home cheese, wine and bread and butter pickles" (no comma before third item) to "Please bring home cheese, wine, and bread and butter pickles" (additional comma).  The Oxford comma makes the second sentence easier to understand.  Pinker recommends its use.

Wow!  Some people are very serious about the Oxford comma!

My takeaway from a quick investigation of comma use and misuse is that some rules are non-negotiable, like the comma splice, while other rules require attention to elements such as the flow of the sentence, the structure of the sentence,  and meaning of the sentence.  Now I'm not sure if I have gotten myself out of a quandary over commas or become more neurotic about using correct punctuation.  How about you?

For great escapism, try learning a new language

Summer is wearing on in my home town, but unfortunately both vacation time and budget have been expended for the season. Finding myself in need of a touch of escapism, I picked up a book at the public library with an attractive cover entitled Wales,  The First Place.

This is not my first interest in the language and country of Wales.  I have read How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn several times and have always wondered how to pronounce the double l in his last name.

Then several years ago, my husband Wayne and I almost traveled to Wales and had plans to stay in a coastal resort town called Llandudno, in North Wales.  That time I looked up the pronunciation of the Welsh double l and practiced the new sound (some hissing required!).

My current interest in Wales began with the discovery of a Welsh author, Jan Morris, who writes lyrical pieces about her native land.  She contributed the introduction to Wales,  The First Place. In it, she mentioned that Shakespeare declared the Welsh language to be "skimble-skamble stuff."  I was intrigued.  What do you suppose Welsh sounds like?

I went to my go-to online language course, Duolingo, and found that Welsh is one of the languages offered for free study.  I couldn't resist.  I added Welsh to the list of languages I study daily.

A new language brings with it a frisson of excitement for me.  Will I be able to connect the new language to one I know?  Where will I find the subject and verb in the sentence?  Will the spoken language match the written language?

Beginning Welsh lessons - Duolingo.com

 

I made a few preliminary hypotheses about the Welsh language after several attempts at the circles labeled Greeting 1 and Greeting 2.  First, I was relieved to find that Welsh appears to be written more or less as it is spoken. (I have been struggling with another Celtic language, Irish, on this point.) Then I found some words that relate to English, which makes them easier to retain, such as helo (hello) and sori (sorry).  Nouns seem to appear before adjectives, as they do in many languages; for example, bore da in Welsh literally means "morning good."   And I heard the same familiar sound used at the end of the Scottish word "loch" in the Welsh words for you (chi) and thanks (diolch).  The Welsh word for tired, wedi blino, made me smile, for some unknown reason.

A taste of Welsh culture was included in the language lessons when the names Megan, Sioned (a "sh" sound for the "s") Eleri, Dylan, and Gareth were used in greetings.  And the small red dragon used as the icon for the Duolingo Welch program let my thoughts travel back to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

  
  

Duolingo  Welsh dragon

A new language provided me a much appreciated respite from ordinary life.  And with the approximately 6000 languages in the world, I may have found a never-ending fountain of enjoyment.

Is "tiny" a new marketing tool?

"Tinycards - get the app,"  ran the new offer from my favorite language learning site, Duolingo.  I was intrigued by the name.  What in the heck was a "tinycard"?

Even though the description of tinycards included the word "flashcards" (not really my favorite learning method), I still downloaded the free app on my mobile devices because the name, "tinycards" was something new.  And I must admit that Duolingo has made rote learning into a very entertaining game.  You can try it for yourself at Tinycards.  

Then I tuned into HGTV,  my favorite TV show when I am busy with kitchen duties.  "Tiny houses" are the topic of frequent episodes - "Tiny House Hunters," "Tiny House Builders," "Tiny House, Big Living," to name a few.

I tried to recall in what context I had heard the adjective "tiny" used previously.  Of course every Christmas season,  Dickens' character Tiny Tim provides us with warm, fuzzy feelings towards our fellow man. I was now on a mission to find out if "tiny" is becoming a popular product name.

 A quick Google search confirmed my suspicions.  You can  place a stationery order online with "Tiny Prints."  If you want to shorten a URL, you can go to "TinyURL.com."  NPR will provide you with "Tiny Desk Concerts," an intimate musical experience, and you can get involved with "Tiny Rockets," a new niche in the small satellite launch market.

arstechnica.com

But why the choice of  "tiny'?  Why not "little,"  "petite," "minute," "miniature," or even "wee,"  all legitimate synonyms?  Does "tiny" convey a special shade of meaning?  "Tiny" to me feels, first of all, non-threatening, affectionate, and desirable.  I must admit to a love of small objects, which my collections of miniature liquor bottles, small travel souvenirs, and little pots of succulent plants and cacti can bear witness.

So I move into the world of conjecture.  Are we looking for an antidote to the concept of "bigness"? We no longer exist just in our small communities but view ourselves as citizens of the world.  We may soon begin to conquer the vast expanses of space with exploration of Mars.  Our TV screens have become so huge that they dominate regular size family rooms.  We often hear about the virtues of downsizing and minimalist life styles. Are we weary of being asked if we want to super-size food and drink orders?

"Tiny" has my attention. I want to put more "tiny"into my life.   Now if dress manufacturers will only rename my usual dress size of medium to tiny, I'll be even more impressed with the power of adjectives.  

Is the word 'actually' driving you crazy?

I say it; family members say it; friends say it; newscasters and weather casters say it.  It's the word 'actually.'  And it appears to be ubiquitous.  My husband Wayne and I have recently started making fun of each other when we catch each other using 'actually.'

Now, I am the last person to criticize or complain about current language use or take a language-is-going-to-hell-in-a-hand basket stance.  But when I realized I was hearing 'actually' multiple times a day coming out of my own mouth as well as that of others, I became intrigued with investigating what exact meaning we were trying to convey ( if any).

Doing a quick Google search, I discovered that criticizing the frequent use of  'actually' turns out to be fairly common. One writer delved into psychology by suggesting that the term often comes out as an indication of passive aggressive behavior, a secret criticism that is saying, "You are wrong, I am right, and you are at least a little bit of an idiot."  Actually, the Worst Word on the Planet is 'Actually' The writer continues to condemn 'actually' as being unnecessary and a waste of space and recommends the use of 'really' or 'truly' instead.

Another writer warns listeners to be on the lookout for the word 'actually' because it may signal deception on the part of the speaker.  "Never say it again, if you can help it," is this writer's

advice. 1 Word that Immediately Kills Your Credibility

Still another writer takes a more practical viewpoint by coaching Portuguese speakers in the use of  'actually'  because of its frequent usage by native English speakers.

Web site for this title

This article identifies four different functions for 'actually':  thinking again, saying 'in fact,' expressing surprise, and softening a blow.  Giving a speaker the chance to rethink or correct a statement is identified as the most useful skill for Portuguese speakers learning English.  If  you say something that you don't mean and want to take it back, or if you say something in error and change your mind about it, 'actually' placed at the beginning of the sentence will do the trick.

Speaker No. 1

"Do you want to go to the beach at noon?"

Speaker No. 2

"Yes.  Actually, no. It's too hot then.

The author considers 'actually' to be discourse marker, an expression that functions more for holding a conversation together rather than for providing much additional meaning.

My personal opinion is that we overuse 'actually' because it appears that everyone around us is using it.  Most of us want to fit in and sound like others, if only to communicate more effectively with them.

Still, overusing 'actually' has become for me an embarrassing habit that I am going to try to remedy in the next several months.  Maybe a rubber band on the wrist that I snap every time I hear myself use the word?  Or a dollar in the kitty?  I hope dropping the 'actually' habit is easier than losing those elusive extra ten pounds.  

Can you catch a scammer by using linguistic clues?

Ah, what has the world become, I ask myself as I check my email account each day. So many people trying to sell me something, or solicit support for their causes, or assure me that they are doing a wonderful job of whatever it is they are doing. And that's not the worst of it! The scammers are the most blatant. Most suspicious emails are caught in the spam folder, but a few slip by every week and appear in my inbox. The Internet is indeed a dangerous place!

Lately I have been challenging myself to spot a piece of spam mail using language analysis skills. Granted, a good dose of common sense and a watchful eye will recognize most spam messages, but I have decided to do some linguistic sleuthing as well.

One day recently I saw an email from a unknown person that began, "Hello, dearest..." Are you kidding me? I have never been called "dearest" in my whole life. I'm trying to imagine the type of person who thought up that salutation. 

And then there was this recent message: "I have a legal business proposal for you, reply if interested." Why did the writer feel the need to add the adjective "legal"? Could it be that the business proposal is, in fact, just the opposite? And what's with the run-on sentence? Didn't the writer have a strict eighth grade English teacher who made students correct run-on sentences by using a semicolon or a new sentence? 

One sentence can tell so much about a writer. " I wait to hear from you as to give you more details." Way too formal and a bit awkward. And "as to" is a synonym for "regarding" or "concerning," neither of which would fit in this sentence. 

And then there are the lengthier messages, which provide more opportunities for language missteps. Some questionable language is italicized below: three run-on sentences, an incorrect verb form ("she have") and an expression that struck me as unusual in this context, "I guess."





Hello,


In a brief introduction, I am a doctor by profession, Dr. Thomas Brown, my patient asked me to send you this email. Her name is Anna Maria Cahill, she had a surgical operation that resulted in the removal of her left breast. From the diagnosis report, she will not live longer than two months. I guess her reason to contact you is about her legacy, she said she saw your profile on a social network. Please contact her directly via email to hear what she have for you. She is passionate about donating her wealth to charity.


Kindly contact her via this email address: (email address provided).


Best Regards


Dr. Thomas Brown






The challenges of writing a believable spam message remind us of the difficulties involved in communicating in writing, especially if the language you are writing in is not your native language. I wouldn't even attempt to send out an unsolicited message in a foreign language - it would end up in the spam folder every time.


Have you received any spam messages with language that arouses suspicion? I would enjoy hearing about them.

 

The Elusive Goal of Knowing Other Languages

"I would love to speak _______ (fill in the blank with any one of the world's approximately 6500 languages)" is a phrase I hear often, not only from other people, but also in my own head.  Few of us would pass up the opportunity to know another language if it were offered on a silver platter. But the road to language acquisition is not, in most cases, an easy one. Blessed are those who have the opportunity to learn more than one language in childhood, for they will not suffer!  Most adults, however, do find it difficult to navigate the world of foreign language learning.

How can we make language acquisition a more realistic goal, one we can reach and feel good about? Here are three suggestions.

Get more specific about goals. What do you mean when you say you want to learn Russian, for example?  Most people will answer the question by naively stating, "Well, everything." In the real world, that's probably not going to happen.  More doable goals may sound something like these:   learning enough Irish Gaelic to read signs on dreamed of vacation to Ireland, maintaining Spanish speaking ability to navigate hotels and restaurants in Mérida, México, getting one's ear attuned enough to French to enjoy all that Canadian train travel has to offer, or improving grammar knowledge of Portuguese as an intellectual activity.  (You may have already guessed that these sample examples come from my personal experiences.) 

Match goals to learning activities.  Once you have a specific goal in mind, the next step is to wade through the plethora of books, workbooks, CD's,  formal courses, online courses, social sites, and commercial learning packages available.  And the advice here is caveat emptor. 

I would be very wary of claims like this one!

  
I speak from experience because I am probably the world's greatest sucker when it comes to foreign language materials, always hoping to discover THE ONE.  Recently I have enjoyed using Duolingo, an online language learning program which is completely free.

I have lots of praise for Duolingo because, first of all, it is fun and easy to use.  And more importantly, it is motivating.  I am currently on a 770 day streak of getting points on Duolingo every single day.  I find the program great for language maintenance, which keeps me from experiencing "language attrition." in languages I have studied previously.  But for learning a new language from scratch, I feel the need to supplement the program with other materials.

   

Be realistic about spending time and money.  Take a close look at time commitments and budget to decide how much of each you are willing to devote to language study. A short study session every day is preferable to a longer session less frequently.  I spend about 30 minutes every day on Duolingo, working in four languages.  It has become part of a daily life routine. However, I have been less successful finding a good fit for a supplementary program in Irish Gaelic.  The books I have found on Kindle were not inspiring because I didn't want to wade through a lot of pronunciation and grammar rules at the beginning.  I did sign up for a free trial of an online Irish program, which looks promising, but I haven't yet decided if I want to spend the time and money to enroll.  

The experience of learning another language can be a disappointing failure or a transporting life experience, or anything in between.  I am inspired to continue with language acquisition  by the words of Nelson Mandela:

Irish accents have captivated me

What a treat to watch a historical drama and hear another dialect of English as a bonus.

I'm thinking of the TV series "Peaky Blinders," now in its third season on Netflix from the BBC.

One of the main characters in the first two episodes is Major Chester Campbell who plays a detective from the Royal Irish Constabulary, sent from Belfast, Northern Ireland to subdue a criminal gang in Birmingham, England (the "Peaky Blinders").  Major Campbell is a character I grew to despise as the series progressed, and I did not mourn when he was sent to his just reward.  I must admit though I did love it every time he came on the scene because of his lyrical, captivating Irish accent, even when he said truly horrible things. 

Major Campbell is played by the actor Sam Neill.  I read that Mr. Neill enlisted the help of two Northern Irish actors, James Nesbitt and Liam Neeson to coach him in using an Ulster Irish accent; however, Mr. Neill had to tone down his accent because the series was going to be distributed for American audiences.  What a shame!  As long as closed captioning remains available, I would have been intrigued by a "full strength" Irish English accent.

See if you can pick out Major Campbell's accent in the following YouTube trailer.

Another connection I have to Irish English is an interest in Irish Gaelic, which I get a daily dose of on the language learning site Duolingo.  Irish English is also known as Hiberno-English, a set of dialects spoken in the different regions of Ireland. And some of the features of Hiberno-English can be traced to Irish Gaelic.

Irish Gaelic does not use separate words for "yes" and "no" when answering questions.  Rather, a Gaelic speaker answers with the verb of the question, using a negative form of the verb if needed. As a result, Hiberno-English speakers use the words "yes" and "no" less frequently than speakers of other English dialects. Examples would be  "Are you leaving soon?  I am." "Is your car fixed?  It isn't."

Another difference in Hiberno-English and Standard English is the use of the verbs "bring" and "take."  (I must admit to finding these words confusing.)  In Standard English, direction is the deciding factor of which verb to use.  Going from here to there?  Use "take."  Coming from there to here?  Use "bring."  In Hiberno-English, "take"  is only used to describe transfer of possession from one person to another.  "Bring" is used in all other circumstance, whether coming or going.

Have you ever wished English had a plural form for "you"?  Irish English has one, based on the influence of Gaelic, which has both a singular you, "tú" and a plural you, "sibh."  The form is "ye" or sometimes "yous" or "youse."  (We Texans are just as inventive as the Irish with our "y'all.")

Great history.  Great language lessons.  Great entertainment.  The series "Peaky Blinders" provides it all.