Module 9: Languages in Contact

Lingua Franca

            Lingua Franca is, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, defined by any various language used as common or commercial tongues among peoples of diverse speech. A Lingua Franca is essentially a language used for speakers of different languages to understand each other. Due to the United States’ prevalence in the world, English is a Lingua Franca in many circumstances. Being a scientist, the Lingua Franca used in science is of the most interest to me so this post will focus on English being the “language of science and technology”. Since languages are a tied to culture, heritage, and national identity it seems counter intuitive that scientists from other countries such as France would want to write up their science in English. With the understanding that scientists strive to create a collaborative environment and a strong community, it is easy to see why many sacrifice their language to provide their knowledge to the scientific community. In my own research, I find it useful that every study that I need to reference to complete my work is in English, although I do run across some papers in other languages which are not of much use to me. Science is primarily spread in one language (although many journals still publish in other languages, but most translate them to English in addition) and this allows for the research to have the widest possible circulation as well as the high impact. Statistics indicate that most cited scientific papers are in English and this suggests that publishing in English will in fact yield “greater impact in the international scientific community” (Garfield 1989).

            Developing English as the Lingua Franca of science and technology leads to many advantages and disadvantages depending on where you’re from. With the current Lingua Franca “native English-speaking countries and researchers are at a clear advantage in science communication in a highly competitive arena” (Bitetti and Ferreras 2017). Researchers that are non-native English speakers must spend time to learn English and this time could be better spent conducting research. Bitetti and Ferreras made a reference to a common phrase in academic research, “publish or perish” and they alter it to “publish English or perish”, meaning research published in English will have a higher impact on research due to the higher citation rate. If you don’t publish your work in English, then your work will likely go unrecognized.

            In my own experience, English makes science more rewarding in instances outside of research and science communication. A year ago, I attended the Biophysical Society Conference and many international scientists attended the conference. During the normal hours of the event, I shared my science and exchanged ideas with Korean, Mexican, Japanese, and Iranian scientists to name a few. During the more social/mixer events after the normal hours, we discussed cultures from our various countries. I feel it is important to learn about the cultures of other nations and if science did not have a Lingua Franca, specifically English, it would have been far more difficult for me to connect with these individuals from other countries.

           

References:

"Lingua Franca." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.

Garfield, Eugene (1989). The English Language: The Lingua Franca Of International Science. The Scientist.

Di Bitetti, Mario S., Ferreras, Julian A. (2017). Publish (in English) or perish: The effect on citation rate of using languages other than English in scientific publications. Ambio 46:1. 121-127.

Module 4 - Phonetic Alphabets

In the video “Module 4 – Tour of Sounds”, Amy mentions that there are multiple phonetic alphabets, and that we will be using the Americanist Phonetic Alphabet within this class. I wanted to learn a little more about the different kinds of phonetic alphabets and they came to be, as well as supplying a few resources to help use them. I hope you find this both interesting and useful!

If you have ever opened a dictionary or searched for a definition of a word online, you have almost certainly seen a phonetic alphabet used to represent how the word is pronounced. And unless you are a linguist, it’s likely that you have very little idea how to interpret the individual symbols, much less that they are not universally consistent. The two most commonly seen phonetic alphabet systems are the International Phonetic Alphabet and the Americanist Phonetic Alphabet.

The International Phonetic Alphabet was preceded by a few early attempts at creating a set of phonetic symbols, most notably Visible Speech, The Organic Alphabet, and Broad Romic. Visible Speech was developed in 1867 by Alexander Melville Bell (the father of Alexander Graham Bell) and was specifically designed for use by the deaf. The symbols used in the alphabet “resembled the position and movement of the vocal organs to produce the sounds” (Brown). Out of Visible Speech came The Organic Alphabet, created by Henry Sweet, an English Phonetician. Henry Sweet also created Broad Romic, which used letters that were from (or closely resembled) the Roman alphabet.

In 1886, the International Phonetic Association was formed and created the first version of the International Phonetic Alphabet in 1888. The principles underlying the creation of this alphabet are listed below. The International Phonetic Association has had many internal debates regarding these principles, and created many iterations of the alphabet. An interesting debate near the conception of the alphabet was whether different languages should have their own phonetic alphabets or if they should all follow the same, centralized alphabet.

1. Each sign should have its own distinctive sound.
2. The same sign should be used for the same sound across all languages.
3. As many ordinary Roman letters should be used as possible, and the usage of new letters should be minimal.
4. International usage should decide the sound of each sign.
5. The look of the new letters should suggest the sound that they represent.
6. Diacritics should be avoided when possible, as they are difficult to write and hard to see.

Since its creation, the IPAlphabet has been edited and revised a number of times, with some revisions much larger than others. However, the way that vowels are handled in this alphabet has been largely unchanged since it was first proposed. The “cardinal vowel system” was first introduced by Daniel Jones, who joined the IPAssociation in 1905, and defines a set of “cardinal vowels” based on “the position of the highest point of the tongue within the total possible vowel space” (Brown).

In our class on American Indian Languages, we study and are (slightly) more familiar with the Americanist Phonetic Alphabet. This is because the Americanist Phonetic Alphabet was actually designed in order to transcribe the very languages that we are studying! The International Phonetic Alphabet on the other hand was created in order to help French speakers learn English, and the earliest versions of it were not meant to write non-European languages (Hinton 214). However, it is interesting to note that both alphabets were designed by English speakers, likely due to the rampant inconsistencies and “silliness” inherent within the English language. Simply read Dr. Gerard Nolst Trenité’s “The Chaos”, and you will quickly understand why English linguists felt the need to make a new alphabet!

For those of us that will go on to study linguistics, we will become incredibly familiar with the intricacies of these phonetic alphabets, and likely decide on some preferred method. For the rest of us, these alphabets could quite easily remain the enigmatic symbols we see in Webster’s dictionary or when using Wikipedia. However, there are many simple resources that can be used to help an Average Joe read the complex phonetic transcriptions. I have included links to some of my favorites, split into those that deal with the International Phonetic Alphabet and those that deal with the Americanist Phonetic Alphabet. If you ever run into a word you simply do not know how to pronounce, but you are given a phonetic spelling, these resources could be very helpful, as well as far more accurate than looking up pronunciation videos on YouTube!

Links

The Chaos by Dr. Gerard Nolst Trenité

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~clamen/misc/humour/TheChaos.html

IPA Pronunciation Guide with Audio Examples

https://web.uvic.ca/ling/resources/ipa/charts/IPAlab/IPAlab.htm

APA Symbols

http://www.ello.uos.de/uploads/PhoneticsandPhonology/APASymbols.pdf

References

Brown, A.  2012. International Phonetic Alphabet. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics.

Hinton, Leanne. 1996.  Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian Languages.  Berkeley: Heyday Books.

Module 9: Languages in Contact

Reading and Video Review

Meek 2006

In this article Barbra A. Meek attempts to analyze the injustices down regarding the representation of the Native American communities’ languages. She exemplifies the “Injun” language the white Americans have utilized to portray Native Americans, a language that is full of stereotypes and false features of true Native American languages. Meek uses films such as Con Air, The Last of the Mohicans, and Peter Pan (to name a few) to prove that major falsehoods lie the representation of Native Americans. She agrees that having Native characters in film is a thoughtful move. However, she argues that there is always at least one stereotype being utilized in the writing of these films and other white propaganda. The stereotype completely disregards the true history of the native peoples, and the cultural understanding of the native peoples for white Americans becomes flawed. The “Injun” language created by Hollywood also misconstrues the actual grammatical rules of native languages. The language lacks “tense, deletion, substitution, and contraction (Meek). 

Hilton 15 and 16

Diving into the understanding of the names given to certain tribes in California, the main idea of chapter 15 lies in the second page of the reading: “One reason why official names don't match with what people call themselves is that explorers first learned about any groups from other tribes, who had their own terms for them” (Hilton 158). Most of the names given to the peoples of California, are by outside of people. The Yuroks don't call themselves the Yuroks. The Hupas don't call themselves the Hupas. That pattern is consistent with almost every single group in California. Surrounding peoples had different names for tribes around them. Most of the California tribes referred to themselves as their respective word for “the people. (Hilton 158). Names given to the tribes are based off of geographical location or relation to the tribe naming them. If the tribe was named by the Spanish, it was more generalized. A group of tribes could be named as one, if the Spanish saw many similarities between the respective tribes. Fast forward in history, and tires have begun to be identified by the names they gave themselves.

The “Digger Pine” holds some of the best nutrition in the plant world, and the first people to ever utilize this plant were the “Digger Indians.” It may seem appropriate to honor the Digger tribe by naming the pine after them, but this name is completely degrading to the native California Tribe (Hilton 166). The term “Digger” was given to the native peoples in the mid 1800s and the records of it show the derogation of the people. The white explorers thought little of the people for digging out the roots of nutritious plants. This is but one of the racial slurs that Native Americans consider the worst form of epithets. Hilton calls for a change in the term of the “Digger Pine” so that tribe of Native Americans is not reminded of their most horrible racial occurrences in their history. 

Video

Language contact is something all humans need to deal with. People develop solutions to the issue of different languages. These solutions involve multilingualism, blended codes, coercion or shift to abandon their language to take on a new language. 

There are three different types of multilingualism: ‘ambilingualism’ (mutliple L1 languages), ‘functional multilingualism’ (one L1 language and one or more L2) , and ‘differentiated multilingualism’ (different languages for different social settings). The Vaupés in South America have some of the most complex language systems. The people live in ‘longhouses’ which each have four to eight family groups and have a ‘father language,’ and one or more ‘mother languages.’ Growing up the normal child has three to five L1’s and are fluent in another three to five local languages, that serve as L2’s. They are also fluent in one to four Lingua Francas, which are varieties learned by speakers that do not speak the the same L1. One common example of a Lingua Franca is English in Europe, however a more relevant example to the Native peoples of America is the Plains Sign. 

The second solution is the use of blended codes, otherwise known as ‘pidgin’ or ‘creole.’ Those that don't share a language are forced to communicate, so the pidgin evolves to communicate with each other. The ‘pidgin’ is no one’s first language but it can evolve into the ‘croele,’ which was a fully vocabulary, unlimited usage, and can be considered an actual language. These are the linguists’ definitions of ‘pidgin’ and ‘creole,’ so do not trust the general population’s definition, as they can be used offensively. An example of a pidgin which has also served to be a Lingua Franca is the Chinook Wawa, which was used as trade jargon. ‘Michif,’ or French Cree, is an amazing example of a creole. It utilizes nouns and noun like words from French, while taking verbs and verbalize words from cree. The grammatical patterns of the respective languages (french - masc and fem. cree - animate, inanimate). 

Sources:

Hinton, Leanne. 1996.  Flutes of Fire: Essays on California Indian

Languages. Winnipeg: Hignell Book Printing

Meek, Barbra A. "And the Injun goes “How!”: Representations of American Indian

English in white public space" Language in Society. 26 April 2005. 

Module 8: Verbal Art

Slang

    A topic that I found interesting in module 8 was slang in various languages and, being briefly mentioned, made the topic much more interesting to me. Slang is a term to describe phrases or words that aren’t considered professional and that are associated with the youth, criminals or stigmatized careers. Typically, slang is disapproved by authority figures. Despite this being the definition, the term is commonly misused in numerous ways. Slang is a dynamic entity, to an extent that the slang of 10 years ago may not be considered slang today. It is typical that slang words find their way into the dictionary as words used in standard communication (Agha 2015).  Only having lived for a quarter of a century, I have yet to see slang words I used in my life become part of the dictionary but I do expect it will happen in the future. Wouldn’t it be strange to see the word lit end up in the dictionary with the definition “adj. exciting or insane. ‘This party is lit!’”? This is just one of hundreds of possibilities. This idea of adding slang terms to the dictionary over time led me to another idea: Does the acquisition of slang terms into everyday speak contribute to one language becoming two? It seems plausible that in thousands of years, English they speak in the UK will be a completely different language than what we speak in the US as a result of geographic separation and not much exchange of slang. One could imagine the founding fathers of the US would want American English to become a separate language from British English. However, social media has been connecting the entire world and it could prevent or slow this process down because it makes exchanging slang much easier across oceans. It is obvious that slang is a part of our everyday life (it may not be for the older generations) and it is entertaining to postulate how this will shape the English language in the future.

Reference:

Agha, Asif. 2015. “Tropes of Slang.” Signs and Society, 3:2, pp. 306–330

Module 7: Thinking for Speaking.

In Module 7, one of the main topics discussed, was if language can shape how we think. I would say it is safe to say that the idea of language limits what we are capable of thinking, or what concepts we capable of understanding, has been debunked. Yet, whether language changes our perception of certain concepts, is a question that is still up in the air. It seems to me that language can change your perception of certain things. For instance, the concept of a joke. I’m sure everyone you know including yourself, has heard a joke. In my case, I have heard jokes in both English and Spanish, being that I am bilingual. With that in mind, there has been countless times that I remember being in Mexico with my family, I would hear a joke in Spanish, and I would instinctually think: I am absolutely telling this one to my friends back home! I would then retell the joke in my head to make sure that I had it right. Next, I would translate the joke in my head. Lastly, I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t tell my friends the joke. The reason being: it wasn’t funny. Not because the actual joke wasn’t funny, rather, a literal translation would simply not work. Either it didn’t make sense, or it wasn’t funny, but the end result was that I could not tell my friends the joke. For those of you that have experienced this, you know how annoying that feeling is, unless you figured out how to tell the joke in English. The same thing happens for jokes in English if you try to tell them in Spanish. Obviously, this does not happen with all jokes, but unfortunately it seems like it is always the good ones. I don’t really have an answer as to why that is. One idea is that language changes our perception of certain things. What I mean by this is, if tell a joke in Spanish to one of my cousins, he might burst out laughing, but when I tell my friend that same joke in English, he might say “Okay…” This doesn’t mean that my friend did not get the concept or understand what I was saying, rather it simply was not funny to him. It might have to do with the order of the words in Spanish, or the punchline, or maybe the joke has a cultural aspect.  Again, I don’t have the answer, but I would be surprised if another bilingual individual has not experienced this situation (in any combination of languages, not just English/Spanish). So, when it comes to the perception of things, language might have an effect. If you have had similar experiences, or even contradictory experiences to mine, I would be more than happy to hear about it.

Module 6: What is International Mother Language Day?

International Mother Language Day is the perhaps one of the most important yet least known observance days in human history. It was first proclaimed by the UN’s Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on November 17, 1999, marking February 21 to henceforth be designated as International Mother Language Day (IMLD). It was first observed the following year on February 21, 2000.

This day of observance’s history lies in the partitioning of India that first came into effect in 1947. This “partition” divided the Bengal province based on the predominant religions of the people that occupied the region, with the western part of the territory became a province of India, and the eastern part became a province of Pakistan known as East Bengal, later becoming East Pakistan. This resulted in great linguistic, cultural, and economic differences between the East and West Pakistan territories. These tensions eventually boiled over into the form of political protests among the majority Bengali-speaking population when Pakistan’s government declared Urdu the singular national language in 1948. Pakistan’s government soon thereafter outlawed these protest, but nevertheless they continued. On February 21, 1952, a handful of students from the University of Dhaka, located in Dhaka, the modern-day capital city of Bangladesh, as well as a few other activists organized a protest. All was going well until later that day when local police opened fire at the protestors, killing four students (Scott 2017). Nearly fifty years later, in 1999, UNESCO established the international day of observance known as International Mother Language Day to remember these students’ deaths in fighting for their right to speak and use their native language. The political unrest continued for a few more years as the speakers of the Bengali language continued to campaign for the right to use their language, until finally, on February 29, 1956, Bengali became an official language of the Pakistan state. Approximately fifteen years later, in 1971 after the Bangladesh Liberation War, Bangladesh became an independent country from Pakistan, and placed Bengali as its official national language (Scott 2017).

Today, International Mother Language Day is a day of global observance, except in Bangladesh where IMLD, or Shohid Dibôsh as it is known there, is regarded as a public holiday, which is not the case in any other part of the world. Another interesting aspect about this day of observance is the fact that every year International Mother Language Day is centered around a specific theme or idea. For example, this year’s theme, according to UNESCO.org, concentrated on promoting Global Citizenship education, or more specifically, “Towards Sustainable Futures through Multilingual Education.” In particular, this theme was centered around making sure everyone, no matter of their race, ethnicity, background, etc. has access to education in their mother language, as “studies report that learning to read or write in your mother language improves learning ability and professional success” (Marsh 2017).

Furthermore, every year on International Mother Language Day, it is not uncommon for governmental and non-governmental agencies and organizations alike to announce policies to encourage mother language learning and support. UNESCO and other UN agencies also participate in events that promote linguistic and cultural diversity, as well as encouraging people to maintain their mother language knowledge and using more than one language in their everyday lives. In Bangladesh, however, for the national holiday known as Shohid Dibôsh in remembrance of the students that were killed in 1952, many people visit a Shaheed Minar (martyr’s monument) where they lay flowers and pay their respects (Scott 2017). Additionally, many people of Bangladesh also award prizes, host literary competitions, as well as eat festive meals and/or organize parties—a truly enlightening experience to any outsider, as it is an important celebration of Bangladesh’s national language and culture.

(Picture 1) UNESCO’s banner to promote the 2017 International Mother Language Day (en.unecso.org)

(Picture 2) A 2012 Shohid Dibôsh (IMLD) celebratory parade on the University of Dhaka campus in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (www.thedailystar.net)

References:

Khan, Anwarus Salam, M.D. International Mother Language Day. www.internationalmotherlanguageday.com. Accessed February 21, 2017. 

Marsh, Natalie. 2017. Mother Language Day promotes multilingual ed. www.thepienews.com. Accessed February 22, 2017.

Scott, John. 2017. International Mother Language Day. www.timeanddate.com. Accessed February 21, 2017.