A bit of fun with accents in English

Do you speak English with an accent?  You don't?  Are you sure?  When I pose that same question to a group, I generally get a few comments from second language speakers, a few outright denials, and a few who catch on quickly to the point I am trying to make.

The truth of the matter is that anyone who speaks English, or any other language for that matter, speaks with a certain accent.  Accent in this sense refers to the way that speakers pronounce words (phonetic and phonological distinctions, in more formal terms).  What I find interesting about accents is how quickly we notice when someone else has a different accent from ours.  And, how in our heart of hearts, we truly feel that our accent is the "right" accent.  We are correct; everyone else is a little weird!

A recent holiday trip to the northern part of my home state of Texas to visit friends and family brought the topic of accents to my attention. I was speaking with my "correct" El Paso accent, and almost everyone else was speaking with their Texas drawl! ( El Paso is located in the far west corner of Texas and has borders with both Mexico and New Mexico.)  

I was reminded of my husband Wayne's young cousin who, when we first met years ago, looked up at me and commented, "You have a funny accent."  If I wouldn't have been trying to make a good impression on my in-laws, I might have informed that rude youngster that his accent sounded pretty comical to me too!

The British accent we sometimes hear on television and in movies can be a challenge for Americans to understand.   In reality, many different accents can be heard in Britain. Here is a clip of a woman speaking British English with seventeen different accents   And yet we Americans tend to think a British accent is classy, at least I do, even if I have to turn on closed captioning on TV to understand all the details.  You may enjoy this recent short spoof on accents, Downton Abbey scene done with American accent as much as I did.

But we really can't help ourselves from finding some accents more pleasing than others.  To me, a Canadian English accent is pure and devoid of distractions.  I enjoy hearing it.    I also like a Southern drawl, like President Jimmy Carter's speech.  New Zealand and Australian English bring back fond memories. The Scottish "r"  puts a smile on my face.  But the English spoken by moonshiners on one of my husband's favorite TV reality shows makes me long to hit the mute button.  Sorry!

Listening to different accents from the English-speaking world can be entertaining if we set aside our preconceived notions of the "right" way to say something.  What are some of your favorite accents?

 



   

Do these holiday words jingle your bells?

The December holidays are upon us.  Colder weather, Christmas music in stores, Starbucks' eggnog lattes.  And we begin using special holiday words that bring a rush of perhaps buried thoughts and emotions.  When, except for the winter holiday season, are the words 'ornaments', 'garland', and 'carols',  heard in everyday conversations?  Here are some of my favorite holiday words and expressions.

The term "sleigh ride" always takes my mind to snowy climates, very unlike the warm Southwest desert that is my home. On my imaginary sleigh ride, I can feel "Jack Frost nipping at my toes," hear the snow crunch beneath my boots, and see a sleigh piled high with furry blankets. The driver beckons for us to climb in, clicks the reins, calls to the horses, and passes back a thermos steaming with a heady concoction. We are off on trails through a snowy forest, and, yes, the bells are jingling.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that the one sleigh ride I have taken in my life was not quite like my dream ride.  I have two vivid memories.  One was that my snow suit was so tight from holiday overeating that I couldn't lift my leg onto the sleigh and had to be hauled up by helpful hands. Very embarrassing!  The other memory was of suffering in the frigid weather.  Brrrr.

Two other words that are heard frequently during the holidays are 'eggnog'

and 'fruitcake'.

A mention of either of these words often elicits a groan from guests, but don't you think these special holiday treats just sound festive?  What is amusing about eggnog is that recipes abound encouraging us to reduce the sugar content, cut the fat content, and prepare a gluten-free version. Why bother? Why not drink the sweet, rich concoction once a year and plan to eat healthy until Easter?

And fruitcake may have an even worse reputation than eggnog.  

But would you really want to go through the holidays without nibbling on one small slice of fruitcake?

Yet another expression that is associated with the holiday season is 'nativity scene'.  Nativity scenes are a depiction of the birth of Jesus in a stable, with Mary and Joseph, and often Wise Men, shepherds and sheep.  Nativities range from live scenes with human actors, to huge life size statues, to tabletop displays, to tiny nativity scenes.  All bring a reminder of the original meaning of the Christmas season.      

Nativity scenes always bring with them a touch of guilt for me.  Years ago I bought my first nativity scene at a five-and-dime store.  For years afterward, I collected nativity scenes of all imaginable origins, colors, shapes and configurations. And kind people would gift me nativity scenes.  My Christmas storage closet is now packed to overflowing with nativity scenes which I am too lazy to unpack and display.  Maybe I will locate just that one original nativity at the bottom of the box and put it on display this season.... 

Language Learning - Gems from Quora Digest

Are you familiar with Quora Digest?

Quora is a free online question-answer service that includes one of my favorite hobbies - Language. The questions and answers come from people of varied backgrounds.  During this month alone (November 2015), I found no less than 23 entries on Quora concerning language topics. I was amazed by the number of people in the world who, like me, enjoy discussing issues related to linguistic interests such as language acquisition, fluency, and correctness,

As I read through the recent Quora entries, I realized that, like the Goldilocks and Three Bears phenomenon, my reactions fell into three categories:  totally agree, partially agree, and disagree.

For example, here is a Quora answer that I have doubts about:  "Languages take immense effort to learn, and people will only learn them if it's socially or economically inescapable."  I think the modifiers "immense" and "inescapable" are making too strong a case for the difficulty of learning languages. Granted, learning a new language does not fall into the category of easy activities, but the fact that over half of the world's population is bilingual indicates that many people do succeed in acquiring other languages.

And, granted that social and economic pressure are powerful carrots for language acquisition, as a lifelong learner and teacher of languages, I can vouch for factors such as interest in other cultures, fascination with linguistics, and need for intellectual stimulation as powerful motivators to learn languages as well.  

Another Quora question that was answered online was "Is it important to acquire the accent while learning a new language?"  A quick response would be, "Of course."  However, I only partially agree with the answer that was posted by a French teacher, "Please commit to learning the accent."

Unrealistic Expectation?

Speaking another language with a native accent would be a wonderful achievement, but the reality of the language learning task is that few people achieve a perfect accent after they reach the age of puberty.  So, where does that leave language learners age 13 and beyond (like me and probably you)? A more reasonable goal would be to achieve an accent in the new language that helps us communicate meaning and does not distract from communication.  Also, concentrating too heavily on achieving a perfect accent takes away from equally important tasks, like learning vocabulary and sentence structure.

Finally, a few words about a question-answer to which I felt like saying, "Here, here!"  The question was from a language learner who felt he was concentrating too much on grammar in class and, as a consequence,  not learning communication skills.

The advice given in the answer was to forget about grammar at present and make understanding the goal, with grammar coming later.  Learning grammar is a misunderstood and controversial topic in the language teaching world.  For some, grammar holds the sacred status that Mom and apple pie do in the U.S., because they equate grammar with concepts like upholding societal mores and preserving the integrity of language.   "There is no use having good grammar if you can't communicate,"  the responder advised.   I agree.    

If you have not investigated Quora Digest, I can recommend it as a source of new thoughts and ideas about a multitude of topics about the world we live in.  You may give a thumbs up to some posts, a thumbs down to others, and partially agree with still others.  Whatever the circumstances, I believe you will enjoy reading about your special interests as much as I do about language.

Language Learning Frustration

Language learning frustration!  The emotion was a new one for me.  I generally feel motivated, excited, proud of myself when I study languages, but a recent session of Irish Gaelic on Duolingo filled me negative emotions.  I just couldn't get things right to move that Duolingo progress bar forward and earn points.

I could feel myself becoming more and more confused and finally, yes!  I clicked the X and gave up. You may have experienced similar negative emotions while trying to acquire another language. Is there a way to avoid this unpleasantness in the future?

Many schools of thought exist about the optimum way of acquiring another language.  My early experience with Spanish and French study was definitely old school - based on a grammar translation approach.  As a consequence, I can probably still easily pass a grammar test in either language. However, since I would like to be able to use the languages I study for practical purposes,  I have long since moved on to the Communicative Approach to language acquisition.

The goal of the umbrella-like Communicative Approach is exactly what the title implies -learners use the language studied for communicative purposes - listening, speaking, reading and writing. The role of grammar study in the Communicative Approach is less well defined, but most proponents relegate explicit grammar study to a supportive role, in varying degrees.

When I discovered that Duolingo, my favorite online language learning program, offered Irish Gaelic,

I made the decision to try out the Communicative Approach in its perhaps most radical form - no grammar study.  Although Duolingo offers grammar explanations in the form of Tips and Notes as part of its program. I decided to forego them and jump right into the language exercises, figuring out structures from the raw language data.

That was about a year ago now, and I have done fairly well.  A list of the Irish grammar points  I have hypothesized and tested includes sentence word order, relative position of nouns and adjectives, definite and indefinite markers for nouns, plural forms, and verb endings, all without resorting to reading grammar explanations.  Exercises labeled as "eclipsis" and "lenition" are not as clear, but I can make my way through them.

And then one morning recently, I attempted to do an Irish exercise that appeared to be about what people have, want or prefer, but Irish was not using verbs to express those meanings, but prepositions!  And the subjects of the verbs were pronouns used as objects of those prepositions. Dear me!  I was really confused, an emotion that quickly escalated to anger and frustration.

I realize that in the giant scheme of things, not being able to quickly make sense of an Irish grammar point is of minimal importance, but I still consider it a personal defeat.  Recently I have found myself attempting only the easier review features of Irish so that I can zip right through and earn points for the day.

It is decision time.    Do I go back to the difficult grammar point on my own and slog my way through it, or do I give up and let Duolingo or some other source teach me the grammar point before I attempt the exercise again?

The bigger question is, can a communicative approach to language study ban explicit grammar study completely?

What do you think?

    

"Close Encounters with English Dialects"

The glow I feel upon returning from a fifteen day trip to Europe surrounds me as I reflect on the people, sights, and memories that are still hovering in my mind.  Four days in London, England, staying with a longtime friend, five days on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, in a hotel with an ocean view, one too short day and night in Inverness, Scotland, and three nights in downtown Dublin, Ireland. What I especially enjoyed was the opportunity to hear the English language spoken in a variety of ways.

The term "dialect" for many people has a negative connotation as in, "I speak proper English; he speaks a dialect."  But for linguists, dialects are merely alternate forms of a language.  They all communicate meaning to their speakers equally well.  I was fortunate enough to hear the English language as spoken by the English, the Scots and the Irish.  Naturally, within these dialects, many variations exist, depending on factors such as region, socioeconomic status, education, and age of speakers.  I listened very closely for choices in pronunciation, grammar usage, and word selection that differed from my own dialect of English, which is West Texan.

Iconic London phone booth

The first time I visited London many years ago, I found myself embarrassed by my Texas accent.  It seemed to me that everyone in Britain sounded much more sophisticated than I did. I am pretty much over that neurosis, although I did notice that some speakers express themselves more formally than I do, and at greater length.  I also found myself wishing some of the English had a volume button that I could turn up.  Texans, in contrast, generally speak rather loudly!  And, yes, the English really do use "whilst"  (pronounced with a long "i" ) for our American "while."

I picked up several expressions in London that I intend to add to my vocabulary.  One is the very useful phrase "off the boil" which describes the optimum point of boiling water for making tea or coffee.  (My husband Wayne and I had been burning our coffee for years until we realized that we should not allow the kettle to reach full steam.) I heard the word "rubbish" used frequently to make a negative statement about something, as in "You sure do watch a lot of rubbish on the tele."  I found the phrase 'bin it" to mean "throw it away" short and useful.  And I loved buying a "concessionaire" ticket instead of a "senior ."  So much more dignified!    

Harbor at Portree, Isle of Skye, Scotland

The next stop on the journey, the Highlands of Scotland, was a delight in so many ways, language being only one of them.  Twice I gave my breakfast order as "oatmeal" instead of "porridge," even though I knew better.  I loved what several speakers did to the "r" sound in "Granny."  It wasn't an American "r," nor a Spanish rolled "r," but more of a tap sound.  I was asked by a kind church lady, "When are you going away?"  I was taken a bit aback until I realized that she was just asking how long I would be staying on Skye.  An American couple at a B&B confided that they had taken a great tour of the Highlands and had understood about 60% of what their guide had said. Wayne congratulated them on that high percentage!  The beautiful Scottish dialect is still playing in my head.

Guinness Brewery, Dublin, Ireland

I was very excited to arrive in Dublin, Ireland, where Irish is an official language, because I have been studying Irish (Gaelic) on Duolingo for about a year.  All signs were in both Irish and English, which was a good thing, because I understood very little Irish!  Irish is a Celtic language and differs considerably from English and Latin-based languages, such as French and Spanish.  A shopkeeper gave me some interesting information about Irish. She said that she had studied Irish in school, but that each class had been given by a teacher with a different Irish dialect, so she never achieved any proficiency. The English dialect spoken by the Irish has what I might describe as a soft lilt, which may be the influence of the lyrical Irish language.

Experiencing English language dialects spoken in three different countries was a language aficionado's dream come true.  I feel fortunate to be a native speaker of a language that can accommodate different spoken accents, varying grammar usages, and a wealth of individual vocabulary while still allowing its speakers to communicate (well, usually!).

    

One very creative use of language

One of my greatest joys is listening to conversations on the radio.  It gives me the opportunity to concentrate on the creative language people use without the visual distractions of other media.

Recently, a live interview with a local artist about his career produced a creative use of language that made me laugh out loud because it was so delightful.  Here is an approximation of part of the conversation.

Interviewer:  How did you develop a relationship with your mentor?

Artist:  Well, I had known him for a long time, but I didn't know know him until we worked together.

Did he say "know know"?  Yes, he did!  I'm guessing the artist was expressing the idea that the verb "to know" has several layers of meaning.  We can be familiar with someone's name, in which case we generally say, "I know of him."  We can have a mutual relationship with another person.  "I know Professor Smith; he was my instructor."  Or we can know someone on a deeper level, which this artist chose to express by "know know."   

After a little googling, I discovered that the doubling of a word to create a new meaning is described in the field of Linguistics as "contrastive reduplication"  (those linguists love esoteric labels!). And an interesting note is that the emphasis is always placed on the first word of the pair, KNOW know. Contrastive reduplication is usually found in informal spoken language, because emphasis is an important part of the expression.

I found a Facebook Community page entitled "Doubling up your words to add extra emphasis." Unfortunately, all it yielded was this one great cartoon.

So hunger comes in degrees. from being peckish, as I believe the British say, to being hungry enough to eat a bear, which would be more used in the American Southwest.

And I found this Zits cartoon of my favorite teenager.

"Up up" would be a great phrase to use when a friend in another time zone calls you at 5:00 am and asks if you are up yet.  You may be up enough to answer to phone but not up putting the coffee on yet.  

Here are a few other examples of contrastive reduplication:

"Do you like him or like like him?"

"Is it an e-book or a book book?'

"I can't go to the movies.  I have work to do."  "Housework or work work?"  (This is a conversation my husband and I often had when I was teaching.)

Other world languages use reduplication for other purposes, such as making the plural form of a word, describing a repeated action, or indicating that something is smaller or cuter.

But I like our American English use of doubled words to express a nuanced meaning of a common word. IKEA must have liked the idea as well, because they recently advertised an IKEA book book, with no new technology involved.   IKEA Advertisement 

What? The English language isn't perfect?

For those of you who lie awake at night wondering if you used the correct pronoun in a sentence you wrote or spoke recently (yes, I know you are out there), this blog post is written especially for you.

"No student wishing to take the exam will be admitted without ____ voucher."

Which possessive pronoun would you choose to fill in the blank?

Most of us, especially if we are speaking informally, would probably insert "their" in the blank.  "No student wishing to take the exam will be admitted without their voucher."  This sentence is comprehensible to any native English speaker.  Agreed?  But does it set off any grammar alarms in your head? What if you are writing that sentence to include in an official student manual for your school?

Here is the grammar difficulty that may be putting you between a rock and a hard place (as we say in West Texas).  If you insert "his" in the blank, what about the exam takers who are female? Should you hedge your bets by using two pronouns, "his or her," in the blank?  You may get points for political correctness, but probably not for style (it's awkward, especially if you are speaking). Okay, how about "one"?  It's gender-free.  "No student wishing to take the exam will be admitted with one's voucher."  Doesn't work and sounds strange.

So yes, the English language is not perfect.  The choice of a pronoun to use in order to include both genders is not obvious.  In contrast, I would like to point out that the Spanish language does not embroil its speakers in a quandary in similar situations.  In Spanish, "su comprobante " can mean either "his voucher" or "her voucher." Problem solved.

Now you can see why "their" had a good ring to it when inserted in the blank.  "Their" is gender free. The controversy arises because "their" is usually thought of as a plural word, and its antecedent (what is refers to) is singular in the sentence we have been discussing.  Singular antecedents ("no student") and plural pronouns ("their") run up red flags for many usage experts. The observation that such illustrious writers as William Shakespeare and Jane Austen used "their" in a singular sense does not quiet the opponents of "their" for our sentence.

Steven Pinker, in The Sense of Style:  the Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, writes that changing the original sentence so that it has a plural subject is one solution to this grammar conundrum.  "No students wishing to take the exam will be admitted without their vouchers."  That works.  Pinker also suggests changing the sentence to read, "No student wishing to take the exam will be admitted without a voucher," although a clever student might insist on taking the exam using someone else's voucher, since "a" is non-specific.

My decision is made.  If I am speaking or writing informally, I am going to use "their" (and other words like "they" and "themselves") as both a singular and a plural form.  But if I am writing a formal document, I will take the coward's way out and reword the sentence so that I don't lie awake nights fearing that someone (heaven forbid!) will criticize my English grammar usage!