After watching “The
Linguists”, I felt that one of the themes presented was the fact that many of
the people they were able to find that had languages that were “endangered”
seemed to only live in people that were very old. In a sense as these people
die, the language dies off with them. Within the different regions they
explored looking for these rare dialects, there wasn’t one single example of a
youth speaking the language. The only somewhat young man was the driver who
spoke Chulym fluently. I feel like you see this lot in our times, where more
young people tend to gravitate to the most contemporary form of their language,
and English. There is less emphasis on the history and culture that resides
within these languages and that was also depicted as the film showed. It was
interesting to see the faces of these people that spoke and it almost seemed
like they were documenting a piece of history. I remember learning that many of
these languages don’t have any written form and that is another factor that
makes the languages harder to preserve, or even document that they ever
existed.(should video or audio not be an option. With any of the languages
shown and in almost all languages widely used or not, I find a strong sense of
pride connected to it. I know for myself, I feel a great pride in being able to
sign and I think ASL is so beautiful. I know many people follow in that same
sentiment about their own languages, perhaps fueling the desire to explore and try
to maintain or at least document as many as possible before they perish. Its
actually quite amazing the depths to which these men went to explore, and I
found it humorous how drunk they got to respect the culture and to obtain what they
needed for the film. I enjoyed it all very much (minus the animal sacrifice,
even in fast forward)
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
From English to chinglish Essay
Christ Ramirez
Essay
Essay
In the
articles “From English to Chinglish , and” How English Is Evolving Into a
Language We Way not Know”, the idea that English is finding itself being placed
into many languages, but the end result of what is being said is making a
mockery of languages. The author states
that English is considered a neutral language for many countries not to have to
choose one dialect over another, and there is almost this fear that the
language itself, in essence, be lost.
One thing I noticed was the phrase used in both Articles that read, “Deformed man laboratory” was that the translation was literal. I connected that with the visual aspects used in language that is quite common in ASL. Although the words don’t make sense and seem almost insulting the picture is being painted in reference to the general space and who its intended for in a visual way. This structure is the same in signing. Where if like the other sentence used “if you’re stolen, call the police” was used in ASL, it would be deemed acceptable. The reason for this is because one sign can mean the same thing but English is what changes the word used. So the sign for stolen would be the same one used as kidnapped, as thief, and as robbed. So you would actually sign “If man you he steal, police (you)call (you).” Either way is acceptable. You’re literally painting the picture of what is happening with words. Because of that idea, I kind of related to this article in a different way than perhaps others did, thinking to myself…ok, so what’s the big deal? I feel like English literally butts its way into every language, and forces other languages to conform to its structure. Why does everything have to make sense according this particular language’s standards?
I feel like this is one of the main reasons that so many languages are being lost. It seems like no matter where you go, somehow or another, you’re seemingly forced to speak or know or at the very least entertain some form of English. Even here in the US, with Native Americans that resided here far before us, places that are still inhabited by the real “owners” of that land are prevented from preserving their indigenous language. Children are taught to speak English and this is a primary reason that language becomes lost. People are starting to see this and fighting for the right to keep their mother tongue alive, and I respect that. In Deaf culture, when a person signs in English, a Deaf person will most likely respond and understand what is being signed, but you don’t get the same “respect” for your ability to sign because you’re merely signing English, you’re not speaking the language of ASL, which has its own rules of grammar, structure and facial and body language.
I understand within the words of these articles that they are trying to alter language so it makes sense when translated into English. I’m just saying, who died and decided to make English the boss?
One thing I noticed was the phrase used in both Articles that read, “Deformed man laboratory” was that the translation was literal. I connected that with the visual aspects used in language that is quite common in ASL. Although the words don’t make sense and seem almost insulting the picture is being painted in reference to the general space and who its intended for in a visual way. This structure is the same in signing. Where if like the other sentence used “if you’re stolen, call the police” was used in ASL, it would be deemed acceptable. The reason for this is because one sign can mean the same thing but English is what changes the word used. So the sign for stolen would be the same one used as kidnapped, as thief, and as robbed. So you would actually sign “If man you he steal, police (you)call (you).” Either way is acceptable. You’re literally painting the picture of what is happening with words. Because of that idea, I kind of related to this article in a different way than perhaps others did, thinking to myself…ok, so what’s the big deal? I feel like English literally butts its way into every language, and forces other languages to conform to its structure. Why does everything have to make sense according this particular language’s standards?
I feel like this is one of the main reasons that so many languages are being lost. It seems like no matter where you go, somehow or another, you’re seemingly forced to speak or know or at the very least entertain some form of English. Even here in the US, with Native Americans that resided here far before us, places that are still inhabited by the real “owners” of that land are prevented from preserving their indigenous language. Children are taught to speak English and this is a primary reason that language becomes lost. People are starting to see this and fighting for the right to keep their mother tongue alive, and I respect that. In Deaf culture, when a person signs in English, a Deaf person will most likely respond and understand what is being signed, but you don’t get the same “respect” for your ability to sign because you’re merely signing English, you’re not speaking the language of ASL, which has its own rules of grammar, structure and facial and body language.
I understand within the words of these articles that they are trying to alter language so it makes sense when translated into English. I’m just saying, who died and decided to make English the boss?
Monday, April 2, 2012
How you ate all my good snacks &left me all the cheap ones??! Thats odee?!
I had to think twice before I chose this, because it contains so many different meanings, and its not really a word, but more like an expression.Still, it has a meaning, so it is, in context a word. I wanted to pick something fun that can be used in almost any conversation, in many different ways according to the context of the sentence. It's a fad word, and probably won't be used long term in the way that I'm presenting it in, but I'm documenting it, whether to track it in history, or to make this fun for the person reading it. Both sit just fine with me.=)
The term "O.D." (in this particular blog), stands for overdose,over doing it, overdone, but does not mean fatal, just in excess. the phrase is used as is. You O.D'd or you odee right now depending on how you feel like writing it I suppose, but that's how you say it.
Examples;
"You put on the earrings, AND the necklace, AND the rings?! um, that's O.D.
"I told her she was welcome to use some of my shampoo, and she O.D'd and used like half the damn bottle!" " Ugh, why did I have to O.D. on the pasta, my stupid dress is too tight now."
Of course you can't skip the dramatics...
" O.M.G. she cheated on her boyfriend AGAIN?! That's O.D.EE .." (lol)
It is an acronym, (O.D), but can also potentially be a back formation because u can change it into a verb, depending on how you use the "word", which technically would also make it a conversion. You can use it in present tense, and past tense, and add -ing, and -'d.
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