When greeting an old lady of Belize
a tourist praised, "You speak English with ease."
"I know it, you fool;
They teach it in school!"
English is the State Language of Belize.
BELIZE LIMERICK
Reply
Tag Archives: English
BOOKS: “Mother Tongue” by Bill Bryson
The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill BrysonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s site
This is a humorous and readable overview of the English language. It examines the language’s history and evolution, as well as exploring some niche areas of interest such as swearing, wordplay, and naming conventions. Bryson takes on such questions as how a language that’s a train wreck of non-phonetic spelling and logical inconsistencies that made a career for comedian, Steven Wright (e.g. Why do we park in the driveway and drive on the parkway?) becomes the world’s most broadly spoken language. (At this time, it’s even the most spoken in absolute terms, but the book is fairly old now.)
Part of what one learns is that English isn’t so bad. Yes, our spelling is random and nonsensical (despite many failed attempts to improve it,) but in some ways English is grammatically simpler than many languages. English also has a history of embracing loan words and so there’s something familiar for all comers. Bryson does provide a number of fascinating points about other languages, largely by way of comparing and contrasting them with English.
Bryson was born in America, worked much of his life in Britain, and moved back to America. This bi-nationalism gives him unique insight into some of the book’s central questions — e.g. whether the language of these two hubs of English language will diverge or converge. There has been a concern that the English language would become so fractured that it would no longer be mutually intelligible to those on opposite sides of the Atlantic. However, increasingly, there is greater concern that people who watch both British and American versions of “The Office” may homogenize the language into one in which regional differences vanish.
I found this book to be both interesting and entertaining and would highly recommend it for anyone who wants more insight into the English language presented in an approachable manner.
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BOOKS: “Languages: A Very Short Introduction” by Stephen Anderson
Languages: A Very Short Introduction by Stephen R. AndersonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Website
This is a quick guide to the (not so briefly answered) question of how many human languages there are. SPOILER ALERT: There is either one or some number of thousands, depending upon one’s philosophical leanings and a range of factors touched upon by this book. Given that there is clearly not a consensus answer, much of the book deals with what obstructions hinder a clear count, as well as some related questions that influence the number of languages over time.
With respect to the trouble spots of counting languages, the core question is what exactly is a language? Can two people who can understand each other (e.g. as I’ve been told Russians and Ukrainians can) be said to be speaking two different languages? If yes, the number of languages will be higher than if not. But then, how well do you have to understand each other? There are short and simple sentences in German that I understand, but that doesn’t mean I could understand a German, or a German would understand me (well, they probably would because most speak English as an Other Language.)
The related questions dealt with in the book include: why is number of languages shrinking, and is it inevitable? Can a globalized world be consistent with thousands of tribal-scale languages, and — if so — how?
The book also discusses the diversity of sign languages, and how signed languages differ from (and are similar to) spoken languages. The final chapter considers a number of questions, including how language separates humanity from wildlife, or — alternatively stated — what is it that makes human language different from the communication systems of other species of which we’re aware.
This is a readable book that deals in some interesting questions.
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BOOKS: “Chinese Grammar Wiki BOOK: Just the Basics” ed. by John Pasden
Chinese Grammar Wiki BOOK: Just the Basics by John PasdenMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher Website
This is the first in a series of books that present the rules and structure of grammar for Mandarin Chinese along with examples. As the subtitle suggests, it covers only the rudiments of sentence structure as well as the most elementary ways of expressing existence, possession, location, number, and a few other basic grammatic functions, as well as teaching the reader how to count and express time and date.
The examples are all presented in characters, pinyin [w/ tone markers,] and the English translation. The explanations are straightforward, and the examples offer basic and useful sentences and phrases.
I found this book to be beneficial, and have obtained the next volume, which expands upon the basics. The book presents a simple and painless approach to Chinese grammar. I’d recommend this book for any fellow neophytes just learning Chinese.
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“Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen [w/ Audio]
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! -- An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime. --
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, --
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
NOTE: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori is a line written by Horace in Latin that translates to: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”
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PROMPT: Favorite Subject
What was your favorite subject in school?
Depends on the year. In twelfth grade, I remember enjoying Physics the most. In Eleventh, Psychology was the best class I attended. There was a year when I got the most out of an English class that focused on Creative Writing. I guess my most longstanding preference was for classes like Geography and Social Studies, wherein we learned about the world outside our world.
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Limerick of Richard Dadd
An English painter named Richard Dadd went completely stark raving madd. He stayed in asylums - Broadmoor to Bedlam. For stabbing to death his dear old dadd.
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DAILY PHOTO: Kolkata Colonial Architecture
TODAY’S RANT: Pronunciation Police
Pronunciation is tricky.
If you’ve ever had someone tell you that any water can be put in a pot (for pronouncing drinking water pot-table rather that po-table), then you may be with me here. If you frequently exercise your perogative, rather than your prerogative, you may agree. Have you had sherbert, or only sherbet? Do both your eggs and oxen have yokes?
If you’re not with me, you –my friend– might be the person on the right in my little stick cartoon.
I’m as anal about language as the next writer, but let’s try to dial down the pretentiousness. The big question I have for pronunciation police is this: What in your experience with the English language has led you to believe it is a phonetic language?
For those who think English is phonetic because they learned it via “Phonics,” let me expose you to a poem that says it more eloquently than I ever could. (I would attribute the poem, but it is to my knowledge owed to that most prolific “Anonymous” chap.)
Hints on Pronunciation for Foreigners
I take it you already know
of tough and bough and cough and dough.
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps.
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead-it’s said like bed, not bead.
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat.
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for pear and bear.
And then there’s dose and rose and lose
Just look them up–and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward.
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart.
Come, come I’ve hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Man alive,
I’d mastered it when I was five!
If you still don’t believe that the language can handle multiple pronunciations, check out what the experts say.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 