Word Play

A blog by Jackie Hacker, dual language teacher. This blog is meant to be a collection of cool facts about language and human communication which have stimulated my passion for language education. "Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon": A nation without a language is a nation without a heart.  hit counter started counting February 13, 2014

[languagemysteries]

Enchantingly written. "Learning a new language is a humbling process, because it basically means accepting that every word you know is wrong."

[languagemysteries]

New Zealand schools use virtual reality in language programs. How awesome would this be. I imagine you'd feel like you are face to face with a native speaker in their country, including the pressure to have something relevant to say, correctly and within a certain time. The interaction is pressing and important and real. It's also relevant to students' interests in using technology. It's like a video game-- you have to be understood in order to win, and therefore you want to be good at language. Sweet.

[linguine-linguistics]

The job of the linguist, like that of the biologist or the botanist, is not to tell us how nature should behave, or what its creations should look like, but to describe those creations in all their messy glory and try to figure out what they can teach us about life, the world, and, especially in the case of linguistics, the workings of the human mind.

Arika Okrent (via linguine-linguistics)

[maurypovichofficial]

Languages are made up can you believe that? it’s just a bunch of phonetic sounds gibberish none of it actually means anything. this post??? i could smash my hand on the keyboard and it could mean the same thing, it only doesn’t because we say so. Nothing is real 

[craigslist-stripper]

jacques derrida is gonna rise from his grave and give you a high five bc you just described his theory to 75,000 teenagers and they listened

[languagemysteries]

"Correct" language is not correct by any objective measure. Just subjective measures that humans create, and change over time

[ahdictionary]

The Melding of Compound Words

In George Orwell’s novel 1984, the characters speak a simplified form of English called Newspeak. They worry about thoughtcrime and facecrimes. To these characters, standard English is known as Oldspeak. These words exemplify a trope in science fiction literature in which an imagined future is made more vivid through the creation of closed compound words. Words like cyberspace, which first appeared in the science fiction of William Gibson, were birthed in this fashion. This trope is effective and widespread in the genre because it echoes the actual linguistic phenomenon whereby compound words meld together.

Compound words tend to start their linguistic lives as open compounds (with a space between the elements) or hyphenated compounds (with a hyphen between the elements). Many grow closer over time, gradually and naturally losing the space or dropping the hyphen as users grow more familiar with seeing those word pairs side-by-side. As dictionary editors, we monitor such changes in usage. If a new form gains traction, appearing in a wide variety of print sources, we’ll make a change to the way we enter the word in the American Heritage Dictionary. Such changes, made initially to the headword, can ripple across dozens of other entries, as we revise the word not only in its own entry, but in every definition it’s used in; the result is a cascade of revisions, some more extensive than others, depending on how common the revised word is throughout the dictionary. In the last several years alone, words such as byplay, hardfisted, email, lowball, and spacetime have joined the ranks of formerly-hyphenated compounds, while the main entries daybed, glassblowing, milkshake, and steakhouse have dropped the spaces between their two elements.

The results of these mergers are known as closed compounds. Words like teenager and offstage, now naturally joined, once appeared regularly as disparate elements. If you’re ever confused as to whether a particular compound should be hyphenated, open, or closed, there’s a good chance the answer is a matter of preference. While teen-ager may look awkward now (we only enter the closed form), there was a time when you were just as likely to encounter the word with a hyphen as without. When a word is transitioning from open to closed, many compounds remain acceptable in multiple forms. In these cases, we enter the most common form first, followed by its variants. For some words, this transition can take quite a long time. Take a look at the development of the word sunset. Its earliest citation in the O.E.D., in 1390, is as an open compound, “Sonne set.” The citations then vacillate between hyphenated and open throughout the 1400s and 1500s; by the 1800s, the word seems to have settled in its closed form, sunset.

Thank you for visiting the American Heritage Dictionary and ahdictionary.com!

[languagemysteries]

Always something that teachers didn't explain!

[brisbone]

I work at a Catholic hospital and I’m at lunch and I overheard one of the priests at the next table say “A priest, a deacon and monk came down to my office…”

I started listening because I thought he was telling a joke but he was just talking about his day lmao.

[languagemysteries]

Useful for understanding how the English language spread so far

[the-real-eye-to-see]

Holly Maniatty, a certified sign language interpreter upstaged hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg with her enthusiasm during his concert at the Jazz Fest in New Orleans. Maniatty has worked numerous festivals and concerts with well-known rappers including Beastie Boys, Wu-Tang Clan and Killer Mike and this isn’t the first time that she has stolen the show with her major skills.

This looks like some special type of sign language that assists people with understanding the beats and innuendo along with lyrics.

Snoop Dogg made the right choice!

[elodieunderglass]

I thought this was so cool and exciting that I went and learned more about the interpreter here: http://www.thestory.org/transcript-interview-holly-maniatty-interpreter-wu-tang-clan it’s really cool how she spends so much time studying the music so that she can express the performer’s personality and intent. She also tries to make jokes/innuendo work, which is why she’s using a lot of extra expressions, and she is using her body to express important parts of the beat. There’s a bit where she “invites (signed) applause” that works really well with the music. Idk, I don’t know enough about signing to really comment on this, but it strikes me that she’s getting a lot of information into her performance.

One bizarre thing I noticed was how all the outlets reporting on Maniatty’s gone-viral performance was the language they used to describe it. They say she “upstaged” Snoop Dogg, that she “out G'ed him” or “stole the show,” and I think they all profoundly missed the point, even if the word choices were subconscious. Look at the OP for this post, it says she “upstaged” him and regularly “steals” the attention. It’s not like she’s a random dancer or attention seeker: she’s hired by the performers to make their performance accessible! This is her job, and she was specifically chosen and invited by the performer to be there. She isn’t stealing the show, she is charged with making it accessible to a Deaf and HoH audience.

And instead of a literal translation of the lyrics (which often doesn’t really work with hip-hop, because a lot of the cleverness/entertainment is in secondary meanings and rhythm) she’s trying to express the intention. I bet the performers who choose her are super glad they did, since she studies them so carefully, and tries to put their stage personalities across in sign! So many more of their fans are getting their money’s worth! She’s not doing it for parody, she’s doing it to serve the audience. If she was a threat to the performance, if the value she’s adding is distracting or “upstaging,” then PEOPLE WOULD USE A LYRIC MARQUEE INSTEAD. Basically live closed-captioning for events. But they don’t, because the whole-body human interpretation is what actually transmits the meaning, and artists want the audience to appreciate then meaning.

So it’s very weird to see so much language in these articles/posts crowing about how this (brilliant, master-of-her-craft) white woman “stole” the show and “did better at it” than Snoop Dogg. A lot of weird intersectional stuff to think about there.

(I’m totally overthinking this, the video is SUCH good fun though! It makes ONE WHOLE exciting performance!!! and we are so lucky to live in a world where there are people who care about making music accessible!

[waterhobbit]

I showed this to my mom who is herself a sign language interpreter and her reaction was basically “Holy shit, she’s GOOD.” 

Interpreting isn’t just telling Deaf people what the words being spoken are in sign language. If you aren’t conveying personality and emotion you’re doing it wrong. 

[spooky-doings]

Soooooo much of ASL is facial expression and exaggerated movement to convey what isn’t communicated vocally. 

She is amazing and I love her.

[languagemysteries]

Talk about making language come alive!

[languagemysteries]

Hi friends,

A little update about me, Jackie, the person who runs languagemysteries. 

This month I graduated summa cum laude with my B.A. in English Linguistics, a TESOL certificate, and minors in Business and Spanish!! 

I am psyked. It was a satisfying conclusion to my undergraduate career, and I’m excited for the next adventure. 

I’m currently balancing a lot of life transitions-- I’m getting married (!!!) and my parents are moving states to be closer to us (!!!)-- so I haven’t quite decided what the next career steps are for me. 

However, this is what I’m thinking.

Learn how to be a teacher, then learn how to be a dual language teacher, then become a dual language administrator/World Language Coordinator... and be able to bring dual language to more schools, specifically Catholic schools. 

This is my dream! 

I’m not sure how all the proper certifications, teaching experience, Masters, Spain trip, etc will fall into place...but I have a lot of excitement, willingness, and trust. 

If this is my calling and I say yes, it will happen! 

Trust has been a struggle, so for those who are struggling with having faith in themselves and the future, I want you to know some ways of thinking about it that have helped me.

God would never lead you this far just to leave you hanging-- He had many reasons for creating you. 

He does not forget them. 

He wants you to live your calling so His Spirit can live in the world through you, doing good and making you come alive through that cooperation. 

 And truly, the next steps will unfold in a beautiful way. 

I am so pumped for all our futures, graduates.

[languagemysteries]

Adopting dual-language programs is one way parish schools adapt for Latino students, the new Catholic majority

While there was a time when more than half of Catholic children went to Catholic schools, that is far from true today. And within the largest and fastest-growing Catholic school-aged population — Latinos — barely 3 percent are enrolled in such schools. New strategies are slowly changing that fact.

[ahdictionary]

Gruntled, Kempt, and Whelmed

A few weeks ago on this blog, we discussed the origins of the word disheveled and why you can’t properly be heveled. But disheveled is not the only English word with a mysterious root affixed to a common prefix. Dishabille, like disheveled, came into English from French. The French word déshabillé is from the past participle of déshabiller, “to undress.” In the case of dishabille, the word entered English whole, and its French root habiller, “to clothe,” did not make the language jump.

While some roots don’t cross over from their language of origin, others fall out of use. In Modern English you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but being whelmed is out of style. Whelm is entered in the American Heritage Dictionary with an Archaic label, meaning this sense is no longer in current use in English. It means to cover with water or to submerge, and it comes from the Middle English whelmen, “to overturn,” which is derived from Old English hwelfan, “to cover over.”

Disgruntle is another example of a common prefix affixed to a root that is not in use. Gruntle is from the Middle English gruntelen, which is a form of the verb grunten, “to grunt.” Given this origin, one might guess that disgruntled would mean “not grunting” and by extension, not upset (as grunts are typically noises of discontent). However, the dis- here is used as an intensive, yielding disgruntle’s common meaning today, “to make discontented.”

In some cases with well-known prefixes appearing before unfamiliar roots, the root develops a life of its own through a process known as back-formation. Back-formation is when a new word is created by the removal of an affix (or sometimes, by the removal of something mistakenly thought to be an affix) from an existing word. Couth from uncouth and kempt from unkempt are two examples of this. Couth (spelled cūth) was an Old English word while kempt (spelled kembed) was a Middle English word. Both fell into disuse, only to reemerge in Modern English through back-formation.

Thank you for visiting the American Heritage Dictionary at ahdictionary.com!

[languagemysteries]

@fickleandfreckled the answer to the question of "gruntled" at long last

[opalgemblog-deactivated20240220]

Don't neglect the UK's indigenous languages

Why the UK can, and should, make space for our indigenous minority languages.

The ten languages indigenous to the British Isles and still spoken today are English, Scots, British Sign Language, Welsh, Gaelic, Irish, Cornish, Manx, Angloromani and Shelta.

[viresqueacquiriteundo]

Signal boost for this! It’s the same in France. Most of french people don’t even know that their country is originally - and still is - a multilingual country. 

Yes,  Occitan, Catalan, Breton, Gallo, Flamand, Picard, Basque etc are still spoken. But France refuses to sign the European charter for minority languages. Good job destroying the cultural patrimony that we are so proud of.

[segledepericles]

“To say there is no worth in learning a language that isn’t economically useful is like saying there’s no point in being friends with somebody unless they’re going to help you get a better job. It’s a spectacular, cynical miss of the point. It’s also inaccurate.”

[jadehansen]

I pray to God that none of you ever fall in love with words. I pray you fall in love with actions and kept promises. You deserve that much.

[uiruu]

as a linguistics major i gotta say its too late for me to not fall in love with words

[bilabialfricative]

#as a linguistics major i gotta say that performative utteraces are definitely words and actions at the same time

[languagemysteries]

person: Shakespeare wrote in Old English

me: hwæt did you just say to me.

[danbensen]

Black English is America’s only English dialect that combines being strikingly unlike standard English, centuries old, embraced by an ever wider spectrum of people, and represented in an ever-growing written literature. It is worthy of celebration, study, and certainly acceptance. America will never truly grow up linguistically until this is widely understood.

“Talking Back, Talking Black: Truths About America’s Lingua Franca” by John McWhorter (via danbensen)

[beaucoupdesmots]

50 other ways to say "Yes":

Sure Okay Certainly Affirmative But of course Yes Siree Yes Cerritos Will do Can do Surely Doubtlessly Without a doubt No problem You got it 10-4 Okie Dokie Alright Alrighty Then! Absolutely A-ok Indeed Mmm hmm Yeah Yup Right Away Consider it done For sure Yes Man Count me in Got it As you wish Positively Comin’ right up I’m on it Word Aiight Sure thing Easy Sounds good Yep You betcha Sí Fo sho Yuppers Great Your wish is my command Roger that Yesh Say no more Why not.

  This post courtesy of Colby

[languagemysteries]

Passed my Thesis Defense today!!!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Just an undergraduate honors thesis, but still!