8 posts tagged “language”
"E" is the most common letter in the English language, as Wheel of Fortune aficionados will be well aware.
A novel called Gadsby was written in 1939 by Ernest Vincent Wright, a man who clearly had a lot of time on his hands. It's over 50,000 words and never once uses the letter E. It's available here in the public domain. It doesn't look like a great piece of literature, to be honest.
Wright wrote that he was forced to exclude most past tense forms (-ed), many numbers and dates, most of the third person pronouns (he/she and their forms), and lots of transition words like "of course" and "consequently". He also refused to cheat by writing 20, because it stood for twenty.
Another E-free work is Georges Perec's La Disparition (The Disappearance). To make up for it, Perec then wrote a short story Les Revenentes in which every word had an E.
Writings that exclude a single letter are called lipograms. Another form is a work is the liponym, usually a poem, that excludes a particular word which is usually the subject of the poem. Basically a literary form of the game Taboo! A liponol avoids words of a certain length (ie no 5-letter words). Why this is fun is a bit beyond me, especially the liponol, but there you are.
A novel called Gadsby was written in 1939 by Ernest Vincent Wright, a man who clearly had a lot of time on his hands. It's over 50,000 words and never once uses the letter E. It's available here in the public domain. It doesn't look like a great piece of literature, to be honest.
Wright wrote that he was forced to exclude most past tense forms (-ed), many numbers and dates, most of the third person pronouns (he/she and their forms), and lots of transition words like "of course" and "consequently". He also refused to cheat by writing 20, because it stood for twenty.
Another E-free work is Georges Perec's La Disparition (The Disappearance). To make up for it, Perec then wrote a short story Les Revenentes in which every word had an E.
Writings that exclude a single letter are called lipograms. Another form is a work is the liponym, usually a poem, that excludes a particular word which is usually the subject of the poem. Basically a literary form of the game Taboo! A liponol avoids words of a certain length (ie no 5-letter words). Why this is fun is a bit beyond me, especially the liponol, but there you are.
Sure we all had letter blocks when we were little. Our parents hoped we'd learn the alphabet through osmosis. (It worked, right?)
However, Toypography has created a new building block set of English words that can be taken apart and reformed into the corresponding Chinese/Japanese character.
This is probably the best news for parents of bilingual Mensa-level children since, well, Mensa.
However, Toypography has created a new building block set of English words that can be taken apart and reformed into the corresponding Chinese/Japanese character.
This is probably the best news for parents of bilingual Mensa-level children since, well, Mensa.
A study was released by Hokkaido University (Japan) that indicates that Japanese and Americans interpret faces different which explains the difference in Asian and American emoticons.
According to the study Japanese people tend to look at people's eyes to interpret someone's emotional state. If you look at typical Japanese anime you will see large, expressive eyes and small mouths. Japanese right-side-up emoticons tend to keep the "mouth" neutral, but change the symbols for the "eyes". Thus you get happy ^_^ and surprised O_O
Americans tend to look at people's mouths for emotional cues. If you look at our cartoons compared to Japanese anime, eyes are proportionally smaller and not as expressive, while mouths are larger and more expressive. Homer Simpson is a great example. Although he has big eyes and a big mouth, his mouth does all the emoting; his eyes almost never change. Therefore, American sideways emoticons are happy :-) or sad :-( or funny :-P
The researchers think this is a deeply rooted cultural difference. Japanese culture puts a high premium on restraining one's display of feelings, so one's eyes will be more revealing than the rest of the face. Americans value directness, so big toothy grins are all right.
(note: anime in Japanese refers to all animation. So Mickey Mouse, Asterix, and the Simpsons are considered anime too. Of course, in English we use the term to distinguish the Asian style from the European and American styles.)
According to the study Japanese people tend to look at people's eyes to interpret someone's emotional state. If you look at typical Japanese anime you will see large, expressive eyes and small mouths. Japanese right-side-up emoticons tend to keep the "mouth" neutral, but change the symbols for the "eyes". Thus you get happy ^_^ and surprised O_O
Americans tend to look at people's mouths for emotional cues. If you look at our cartoons compared to Japanese anime, eyes are proportionally smaller and not as expressive, while mouths are larger and more expressive. Homer Simpson is a great example. Although he has big eyes and a big mouth, his mouth does all the emoting; his eyes almost never change. Therefore, American sideways emoticons are happy :-) or sad :-( or funny :-P
The researchers think this is a deeply rooted cultural difference. Japanese culture puts a high premium on restraining one's display of feelings, so one's eyes will be more revealing than the rest of the face. Americans value directness, so big toothy grins are all right.
(note: anime in Japanese refers to all animation. So Mickey Mouse, Asterix, and the Simpsons are considered anime too. Of course, in English we use the term to distinguish the Asian style from the European and American styles.)
The way you say your vowels usually allows others to pinpoint your accent - most people (even across languages) pronounce consonant sounds very similarly.
The letter R is one of the few consonant sounds that vary widely among speakers; it is also one of the most difficult sounds to produce and the last to develop in children. Lots of people are never able to voice it exactly and are considered to have speech defects!
Dialects and languages can be rhotic (R-pronouncing) or non-rhotic (R-dropping). For non-rhotic speakers there are very specific patterns and times when the letter R is dropped and when it is not. Often, extra Rs will be added where there are none.
In American English, non-rhotic dialects strangely can be considered either very upper class or not prestigious - it always depends on other factors. It can sometimes give clues to ethnicity, such as some variants of African-American English which often drop the /r/ which again can be prestigious or not. Rhotic speakers, which make up most American dialects always pronounce /r/ when they see it and is considered unexceptional. The unofficial but standard American broadcast dialect is rhotic - it is based on the English spoken in certain parts of the Midwest. Because of exposure in mass media and perceived prestige of different dialects, the rhotic accent is becoming even more predominant. The U.S. has a more relaxed class system, less regional diversity, and thus less dialectal diversity than might be expected from such a big area (compare to Britain). If you aren't from one of the coasts it's probably hard to tell exactly where you're from.
Most Canadian English is rhotic, as are most Indian, Philippine, Irish, and Scottish English dialects. Australia, most of the Caribbean, Africa, Singapore, and Wales tend to drop the /r/. Of course, there are always exceptions.
British English is a mix of rhotic and non-rhotic dialects. Received Pronunciation is a prestigious form used by the royal family (and others) and the standard broadcasting dialect. Received Pronunciation is non-rhotic. It is the stereotypical middle/upper class British accent. British media are showing more linguistic diversity than before.
Japanese has a sound sort of between /r/ and /l/ with a very slight roll. Although it's a stereotype that native Japanese speakers can't say English /r/, it really is more difficult for them to make the same distinction.
My parents have slight non-rhotic accents having both grown up near Boston, but all their kids grew up in the Midwest and say all their Rs, excepting speech impediments. I like to think I have no accent, but I know I have a slight one from living near Chicago, which tends to be very nasal and influenced by the Polish and German settlers.
The letter R is one of the few consonant sounds that vary widely among speakers; it is also one of the most difficult sounds to produce and the last to develop in children. Lots of people are never able to voice it exactly and are considered to have speech defects!
Dialects and languages can be rhotic (R-pronouncing) or non-rhotic (R-dropping). For non-rhotic speakers there are very specific patterns and times when the letter R is dropped and when it is not. Often, extra Rs will be added where there are none.
In American English, non-rhotic dialects strangely can be considered either very upper class or not prestigious - it always depends on other factors. It can sometimes give clues to ethnicity, such as some variants of African-American English which often drop the /r/ which again can be prestigious or not. Rhotic speakers, which make up most American dialects always pronounce /r/ when they see it and is considered unexceptional. The unofficial but standard American broadcast dialect is rhotic - it is based on the English spoken in certain parts of the Midwest. Because of exposure in mass media and perceived prestige of different dialects, the rhotic accent is becoming even more predominant. The U.S. has a more relaxed class system, less regional diversity, and thus less dialectal diversity than might be expected from such a big area (compare to Britain). If you aren't from one of the coasts it's probably hard to tell exactly where you're from.
Most Canadian English is rhotic, as are most Indian, Philippine, Irish, and Scottish English dialects. Australia, most of the Caribbean, Africa, Singapore, and Wales tend to drop the /r/. Of course, there are always exceptions.
British English is a mix of rhotic and non-rhotic dialects. Received Pronunciation is a prestigious form used by the royal family (and others) and the standard broadcasting dialect. Received Pronunciation is non-rhotic. It is the stereotypical middle/upper class British accent. British media are showing more linguistic diversity than before.
Japanese has a sound sort of between /r/ and /l/ with a very slight roll. Although it's a stereotype that native Japanese speakers can't say English /r/, it really is more difficult for them to make the same distinction.
My parents have slight non-rhotic accents having both grown up near Boston, but all their kids grew up in the Midwest and say all their Rs, excepting speech impediments. I like to think I have no accent, but I know I have a slight one from living near Chicago, which tends to be very nasal and influenced by the Polish and German settlers.
This is a real sign at a real train station in a real town in Wales. What I like best is the phonetic pronunciation. When a word reaches 58 letters, there's no amount of help in English or any language that's going to help you there. The English translation is: St. Mary's Church of the White Hazel Near to the Whirlpool of Llantisilig of the Red Cave.
I though Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station on the A line in Brooklyn was a mouthful. (Pronounced by locals as Hoit Skirmehaun)
I though Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station on the A line in Brooklyn was a mouthful. (Pronounced by locals as Hoit Skirmehaun)
In English the names of animals cooked versus raw are usually very different, for example, cow and beef.
As suspected, this is the fault of the French.
After the Norman Conquest in 1066, the upper class of England spoke Norman French and the farmers spoke English. Naturally, it was the farmers raising the live animals and the rich Normans eating them.
That is why to this day the English terms for live animals are derived from Germanic roots: cow, sheep, deer
However, once they are cooked up piping hot they get names derived from French or Latin: beef, mutton, veal
This rule doesn't apply to fish or seafood - which wasn't necessarily eaten or valued as it is today (the Plymouth settlers nearly starved while they fed scallops and lobsters to their pigs).
Long and Boring Post Alert!!! Abort! Abort!
Although written language tends to change slower than spoken language, there's a lot of change going on in the world of written English, especially with the internet (or Internet).
The problem with the current grammar system for English is that people originally tried to make it conform to Latin or Greek grammar - which is completely different. This is why sticklers try to force contorted constructions and rules on the language. Split infinitives are wrong because they can't be split in Latin (even though it's very easy to do in English). You aren't supposed to end a sentence with a preposition because it doesn't work in Latin. In English, it makes perfect sense.
Here are my predictions on where English grammar is headed:
- Their becomes the accepted singular possessive pronoun (English lacks a non-gendered form). For example: Each person chooses their own pet. [due to a modern desire for gender neutral language without resorting to wordy constructions like "his or her own" as is often done in French]
- capitalization in most instances becomes either optional or disappears, including personal names and countries/languages. Most acronyms and the beginnings of sentences will stay capitalized. [influenced by computer programming conventions regarding capitalization, email, and internet domain names. Lowercase is also perceived as more modern than all caps or mixed-case writing]
- Punctuation will go outside of parentheses and quotation marks in many instances. Especially in cases such as: Send me a copy of the article "Lion Eats Tourist". [influenced by general carelessness, but also by computer programming rules about what should and should not be included in parentheses or quotation marks]
- It will become more common (but not accepted in formal writing) for wild abbreviations, often vowel-free to describe pix, vid, txt, l8r and more. [due to instant messaging and SMS]
- More acceptance of everyday usage of terms from video gaming and computer hacking. [due to nerds]
- Emoticons as valid sentence modifiers, again not in formal writing. [due to email and IM culture]
- In American English, more words and expressions from English-language media powerhouses like India and England. Most will be slang. [due to Bollywood and British TV and music]
is a real medical condition that sometimes happens as a result of specific head injuries. People begin speaking in their native language but with a pronounced foreign accent. Like Madonna but without the pretention. Often these people have never traveled or associated with people who speak with their newfound accent. For example an Englishman might suddenly begin speaking with an Australian or Caribbean accent.
It can be difficult for their social lives, because people often think they are affecting their speech - but they can't control it. Depending on the cultural context of the person's life and their new accent, social ostracism may occur. Imagine speaking with a heavy German or Japanese accent in an Allied country in World War II.
It can be difficult for their social lives, because people often think they are affecting their speech - but they can't control it. Depending on the cultural context of the person's life and their new accent, social ostracism may occur. Imagine speaking with a heavy German or Japanese accent in an Allied country in World War II.
