#polylingualism

[battycrowzz]

It is complete

Requested by @grammar-offical

From left to right: @grammer-offical , @evilspellcheck-offical , @old-english-offical , @grammar-offical , @evilgrammar-offical , @spellcheck-offical , @typo-offical , and @spelking-eror-offical

[kpop-brainrot-offical]

yo @new-english-offical what if we tormented the entire officalverse by spouting nonsense at eachother

fix on type shit sticker tagging tagging tagging type shit armageddon type shit hellevator type shit

[linguisticalities]

How Many Languages Could a Child Speak?

In theory, a young person could master a broad array of tongues. But there are some inherent limits.

[kingofthewilderwest]

Hey I hope you're well. We're both non English speaking friends and were talking about how our voice changed when we switched languages. (unconsciously?) Do you have any knowledge of that or why it could be?

Woot woot linguistics convo.

I suppose I would need more information and context about what you mean by your voice changing when you switch languages. How is it changing? Is it the pitch you’re raising or lowering, anything weird with vowels or consonants in particular, the overall “timbre” or “vibe” of how you sound, the personality in what you speak, something else? How fluent are you in each of these languages? I could see what you are describing as being one of several different phenomena.

So every language has its own sound inventory - the consonants and vowels that are the building blocks of the words you speak. There are also subconscious rules about how these sounds link together. The different combinations of frequencies and sound properties, and how they blend/transition together, will make the quality of your voice sound different. A language with nasalization features in its vowel inventory will, naturally, alter the quality of your voice because your voice is just making different sounds with different acoustic features. You’ll sound more nasally, etc.

But I could also believe what you’re describing comes from an unrelated phenomenon - not something phonetic, but something sociolinguistic. There are some fascinating studies about how the mind is altered through bilingualism. There are even studies that demonstrate speakers’ mentalities can vary depending on what language you’re speaking! You literally can think about the world in a different way with a different personality in different languages. So maybe how you are expressing yourself is different enough that you hear differing voice qualities in different languages. It’s how you’re transmitting your personality in another tongue.

Especially if you’re picking up on social queues of that other tongue (ex: Japanese women’s tendency to raise the base pitch of their voices higher than, say, Finnish women), you could potentially perceive yourself subjectively or objectively as sounding “differently.”

I apologize I cannot give better explanations - it’s hard to know what you are specifically experiencing without more detail, or perhaps even without me listening to audio samples. Fingers crossed this helps, though!

[cerusee]

Top five most desired superpowers, emphatically in order:

1) Flight.  I fucking want to fly.

2) The ability to learn any new language in like, five minutes.  Including programming languages and whatever it is the Technarchs speak.

3) Telekinesis.  The stronger, the better—both the ability to rearrange atoms and the ability to launch satellites into orbit seem neat—but I’d settle for the ability to push my glasses up my nose (cr. The Girl With Silver Eyes), or to turn a page in a book.  Or, let’s be real here, the ability to levitate my phone so I can read it for hours without having to hold it in my hands.

4) Telepathy.  But the good kind, where you have to like, reach out to hear people’s thoughts, and not the kind where you’re relentlessly and involuntarily  bombarded with them as if you were sitting in the middle of a noisy cafeteria full of shouting people.

5) Teleportation.  I fucking want to teleport.

[imaginejolls]

Have I ever told you that probably the most of kids going through the Czech educational system now come out speaking Czech, English & a third language?

[litmuspress]

Polylingualism and Climate Change

Containment Scenario’s polylingualism reminds us that climate change is transnational. That its very properties transcend borders reminds us that these borders are artificial. In this hybrid text, M. Mara-Ann asks us what forms these borders take and how they are reinforced and can be interrupted. 

This hybrid theatrical text begins with English. English, language of numerous imperialisms, de facto international language. Language of many homes. Language of many so-called native speakers. Language of many second- or third- or fourth-language learners. Language of transactions and interactions. Language of official communication in Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Cook Islands, Domenica, Eritrea, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Namibia, Nauru, Nigeria, Niue, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somaliland, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Language of de facto communication and regulation in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA. Language of many communities. Language of many airlines. Language of global trade. 

English forms the backbone of the text. The body of the text is suffused with Swedish. Swedish, official language of Sweden, official also in Finland. Where a it is spoken as primary language by a significant population. Where all children study Swedish so everyone has at least two languages in common. Where the politics around these languages are not uncomplicated. Not less complicated than the politics around the Sámi people’s rights to sovereignty in the countries their nation encompasses, including Norway and Russia as well as Sweden and Finland. The Sámi, one of the groups of people most immediately threatened by climate change in their home of the Arctic. The Sámi who are contending firsthand with melting ice caps and changing habitats. Who are dealing with the blows of capitalism with communal management of resources, communication, and local knowledge. This is not to glorify a tragedy. This is to acknowledge the necessity of plurality and cultural shift.