[language-facts-blog]

你知道吗？ 中式英语是从中国的一个非洲镇演变出来的。具体是中国和非洲商人在贸易交往中产生出来的语言

A pidgin is a form of simplified language that usually takes the vocabulary of one language and the syntax of another language. This is used by people who do not have any languages in common, like the traders in Africa Town in Guangzhou, China. Chinglish uses simple words and phrases from English and Mandarin and embeds them into Chinese syntax. African and Chinese traders use Chinglish to communicate with each other. If you stroll around Africa Town, they will know you're not from that area if you don't know how to use Chinglish.

The traders in this area have not had any formal language training because in order to learn language formally, they need time and money and legal status, all of which most of these businessmen do not have. Because they did not get formal language instruction in either English or Chinese even though they wanted to, they have learned to use Chinglish instead. This is grassroots multilingualism-- a result of the globalization in Africa Town, Guangzhou in China. (Han 2013)

[language-facts-blog]

你知道吗？ ——在大约四岁的时候，孩子逐渐产生了自我判断的能力

Around this age, children learn to categorize. Categorization is a cognitive strategy that humans use to cope with the complexity of the world. It is also what we use when we stereotype. Children categorize based on the patterns that they see and observe on a daily basis. (Lippi-Green 2012:90)

Kids are exposed to animated shows and popular media, and they learn from these shows. This means that they pick up on all kinds of linguistic stereotyping that are exhibited in these shows. Let's all be aware of this.

[language-facts-blog]

你知道吗——你的口音会影响到房东是否让你看房租房的决定 那些在电话里听上去有白人口音的人更容易拿到面试

Linguistic profiling is the practice of making assumptions about a person's social class, race, or religion based on their accent or dialect. The man who coined this term is John Baugh, a professor of Linguistics who designed an experiment to understand the basic aspects of linguistic profiling.

In his study, he made several phone calls where he, using different accents, inquired about the availability of apartments that have been advertised on paper. He found that when he used an African American or Latino accent, he was less successful in making appointments to view the apartment. However, he was more successful in making these appointments whenever he used a Standard American Accent.

Source: Lippi-Green 2012:324

Watch this video about linguistic profiling and housing discrimination

[language-facts-blog]

你知道吗？

有方言口音说英文的人  如果把”ask说成“aks”时，并不代表他们读错了音。

“AKS”在大约1600年的时候时最常说的日常词之一

--

The variation between "ask" and "aks" is very old and goes back to as old as 1600. There were many possible forms of this word: ox, ax, ex, ask, esk, ash, esh, ass, and ess. "Aks" or "ax" survived and was being used as the regular literary form before "ask" even became the literary preference. 

Speakers of English who pronounce this word as "aks" speak a dialect that did not undergo the change from ks > sk. It is also not unique to African American English. It is also found in Appalachian speech, some dialects spoken in New York, and in some dialects of British English.

Many people do not know the history of the word "ask", so whenever they hear speakers of different dialects of English say "aks", they are quick to judge or point them out as errors. But this isn't a speech error nor is it a result of poor quality education. It's not a mistake but a feature of certain dialects of English.

Source: Lippi-Green 2012:190

[language-facts-blog]

你知道吗？

无论哪个年龄阶段的孩子都挑不出他们老师的口音——口音并不象病毒传播那么明显

--

Contrary to popular belief, accent does not pass on from adults to children like viruses. Children acquire their phonologies from their families first, and then from their peers. Before their get to school, their set of sounds (phonology) has already been largely established. (Lippi-Green 2012:90)

[language-facts-blog]

你知道吗？ 461,000家公司承认它们有过歧视别人的经历 绝大多时候是因为他们外国人的外貌特征或口音 语言歧视这种现象相当普遍

--

This is taken from the statistical study by of a stratified random sample of employers nationwide, conducted by the General Accounting Office of the United States Government. 

In telephone inquiries about advertised jobs, discrimination based on accent was found to be prevalent. In Carroll v. Elliott Personnel Services (1985), Carroll, an employment agency receptionist, was told to screen all persons who inquired over the phone. To those who did not "speak right", she had to say that the job was closed. She was also asked to note the accent of the caller. Carroll sued her employer for making her break the law, and she won the case.

<Source: Lippi-Green 2012:153>

[language-facts-blog]

你知道吗？

所有的口头语言都会随着时间演变  就像其它生物会随着环境的变化而改变一样

--

Language is alive!

A language changes in all of its linguistic subsystems such as its sounds, word structure, syntax, and semantics. It adapts to the changes in the way people and events influence it. (Lippi-Green 2012:7)

If a language is being spoken, then it is changing. What does this mean? This means that what is “grammatically correct” today may not remain to be “correct” in the future. Some older people think that younger people are “killing” or misusing their language when they use it in a different manner, but language change is not the death or bastardization of a language.

Watch this awesome TED talk by John McWhorter: Txting is Killing Language. JK!!!

[language-facts-blog]

你知道吗？

在动画片里，大概有40％左右不说标准英文的动漫人物被描述成恶魔

然而只有20％左右说标准美式口音的动漫人物被描述成坏人

--

"There is a relationship between foreign English accents and the portrayal of good and evil. [...] The overall representation of characters with foreign English accents is far more negative than that of speakers of US English or British English." (Lippi-Green 2012:117)

Have you noticed that a lot of villains in animated films have foreign accents or British accents, but most protagonists have Standard American English accents?

Watch this interesting video that compares the accents and dialects of the different characters (good or bad) in Disney animated films: Disney Dialects

[language-facts-blog]

你知道吗？

我们的大脑硬连接我们的语言能力的

我们的FOXP2基因掌控着我们的语言能力

--

"Every child has the capacity to acquire any language. All normal children acquire comparable grammars of great complexity." (Chomsky 1959: 62)

As babies, we were all capable of acquiring a language, no matter how complex you think the language is. We can't be "bad" at speaking our own language. If you feel like you are bad at speaking your native language because you make written grammatical errors, don't despair! You are doing it right. Written language and spoken language are two different things. <Lippi-Green 2012:5>

[language-facts-blog]

你知道吗？

当第一语言是英文的人遇到ESL语言者时，他们的第一反应是我要不要和你说话

在他们的意识里 “我听不懂你说话“意味者”你没有能力让我明白你在说什么

--

”Many speakers of Standard American English (SAE) claim that they cannot understand some variations of the SAE accent like Southern slang accents, Asian accents, etc, also called L2 accents. But in most situations where an SAE speaker and a speaker with an L2 accent try to communicate, the SAE speaker just simply refuses to understand. This is similar to the way we say "I don't understand you" or "You just don't understand" when we argue with other people, even though what the other person said makes perfect sense to us. Comprehension is not the issue.

However, when two SAE speakers talk to each other and one of them is being unclear, their first response is to work hard towards establishing understanding.

<Source: Lippi-Green 2012:72>

[language-facts-blog]

你知道吗？

每个人都有口音。 你也不例外。

标准语言这个概念是建立在社会形态上的。

--

You don't have to have a Chinese or Russian accent to "have" an accent. You could have an American accent. Non-accent is a myth.

<Source: Lippi-Green 2012:44>