Verlan

       As a child, the use of “Pig Latin”, a language game that inverts the syllables of words in English, makes the speaker seem “cool” and “mysterious”. Though “Pig Latin” might be categorized as a child’s game, it falls under the category of language games, speech play or Ludlings, a term coined by Don Laycock. Many languages have Ludlings that systematically reorder the sounds or syllables in a word or phrase to produce a new output that could be decoded by the listener (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1976). On the streets of France, a language game called Verlan can be heard quite regularly. Verlan differs from childhood language games because of its popularity throughout the country. It is the language of the “in-group, the group with social awareness”(Lefkowitz 60). In the world of the teenager, Verlan is French slang taken to a new level. In translations of originally French texts, the word Verlan actually translates directly to our word, slang. The original French words for slang are “argot” and “jargon”. The shift, at least in pieces from the media, suggest that Verlan is very integrated into spoken French. It originated in the banlieues, or suburbs, of Paris among minority groups that make up the approximately one-and-a-half million immigrants that live in that city alone (Lefkowitz 55). Verlan is intertwined with the culture of the banlieues and has spread through other social circles. This association with a specific culture, however, has lead to different stereotypes that are associated with the use of Verlan both good and bad (Hayes & Acton 2007). Unfortunately, not much research has been done on the perception of Verlan speakers. However, what information researchers have presented in English resonates very directly with the research done on African American Vernacular English (AAVE), or Ebonics. These similarities suggest that the debate on discrimination because of the use of AAVE can be directly applied to Verlan in order to help understand current tension in France that revolves around the banlieue culture that Verlan is distinct part of. 

Basics of Verlan

            Verlan follows a straightforward set of rules that dictate how to reorganize the syllables in the effected words. In the simplest case of two syllable words, the syllables are merely inverted. Some examples include (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 25):

            “husband”  mari        >    rima

            “friends”    copains   >   painsco      

            “cool”         branché   >   chébran

Not surprisingly, the word Verlan results from this reordered rule and also introduces another rule of the code.

            “inverse”     l’envers  > verlen  >  verlan

The syllable in “l’envers” are switched then spelt phonetically (Hayes & Acton 117). This applies to one-syllable words as well. For these words, speakers swap the first and last letters, or consonant groups, of the word. When written down, the spelling is phonetic.

            “guy”           mec       >  quem

The game extends even further and includes commonly used colloquial phrases such as ‘peau de balle’, which essentially means “nothing” (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 25).  However, these too follow a set of rules. First, the “function words” such as prepositions, articles, and pronouns are deleted or just not inverted. Second, the affected words are completely are inverted. Lastly the words are combined to create a single word. In the end you get:

            “nothing”        peau de balle  > balpeau

These straightforward rules play a crucial role in the formation of this and other language games. According to Kirshenblatt-Gimblett “a common function of play languages is concealment and a corresponding delineations of social groups and subgroups”(34).  In other words Verlan, as well as other language games, focuses on concealing information that’s to be transferred to only people who understand the game’s rules. In essence, these games are meant to carve out distinct groups. Children discover this purpose early on, based on experience, but it is only put to work in childhood cliques and during playtime here in the United States usually. Speech Play suggests that the language games such as Verlan can be key in defining social groups in a much more powerful way than childhood play. Indeed much of the Arab immigrant population uses Verlan in order to differentiate themselves and their particular style of life. To truly understand the impact of Verlan on the French society, it is crucial to understand the history, lifestyle and culture of the immigrants in France.

Le Beurs

            In 1950, in response to the housing crisis that resulted from World War II and a recession, the French government built the habitation à loyer modéré (HLM) sector in the banlieues of Paris (Loiseau & Bonvalet 2005). Similar to The Projects of Chicago, this was highly subsidized ghetto-like housing in the industrial area that attracted many immigrants that did not speak French fluently (Lefkowitz 1989). In these banlieues unemployment rates remain around 40% (Rieff). Among the minority groups that dominate these areas, the Beurs have a particular tie to Verlan. The word Beur come from Verlan itself:

            Arab     >   Beur

This particular group usually consists of second or third generation immigrants that originate from the Maghreb (Hayes & Acton 117), an area in North Africa that includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania. This group generally does not speak their parent’s language fluently and feels estranged from that culture. At the same time this same group does not speak the formal French and are still often viewed as immigrants even though there were born in the country (Lefkowitz 1991). For this group, Verlan acts as a common language among a diverse group of immigrants that live in a very dismal situation. Lefkowitz (1991) expands on four reasons that create isolation within the banlieues that increases the sense of a defined group among the Beurs.

1.     A declining job market due to deindustrialization.

2.     Rejection of education by the youth.

3.     Degrading housing facilities.

4.     Strong deviant youth culture.

Just as isolation from a mother tongue creates new dialects in any language, the people of the banlieues adopted Verlan as their own distinguishing “dialect”. It both incorporates words from their parent’s and the language of their current country but it allows them to be unique and communicate exclusively with their own community. Lefkowitz (1991) confirms that “the game [Verlan] symbolizes the quest for identity”(62) among these estranged immigrant communities.

As the other parts of French society slowly adopted Verlan as a common slang, the core groups of Beurs have actually begun recoding their slang with what is called “Reverlanizations” or “Veul” which come from a Verlanization of the world Verlan itself (Hayes & Acton 123). They have even taken to recoding the word Beur in order to reclaim their own identity.

            Beur   >  Roeb   >  Reubeu

The Reverlanization does not follow the same straightforward set of rule but instead just seems to be picked up within the community. Along with this distance from the rest of French society that shows through Reverlanization, expresses itself in a distrust of the government and a desire to spite “the man” as would be said in English. Many works echo Lefkowitz’s (1989) statement that Verlan “is a small scale symbol of revolt. Speaking backwards becomes a metaphor of opposition, of talking back”(8). The Beurs express this powerful desire through peaceful ways such as their music and hip-hop culture, intertwined with Verlan, and unfortunately, through a violent riot that was incited in 2006, which brought the banlieue culture to the front of every newspaper. Both the music and the riots spread Verlan dramatically increased the awareness and use of Verlan outside the banlieues.

Expressing the Malcontent of the Banlieues

According to Alain-Philippe Durand, the author of a book on Francophone Hip-Hop culture, in France "there are two ways to be heard. You can do it the rough way, through violence, or you can do it through art" (Papenfuss). Consequently, as the immigrant populations in the banlieues try to define their identity by using Verlan, it naturally slips into the music scene. The youth of the banlieues prefer rap as a way of expressing themselves and have identified with famous rappers such as MC Solar. Beginning in the 1980s almost all of the emerging rappers originated in the banlieues of Paris (Durand 9), As this type of music spread from the banlieues, the rappers themselves kept very close ties to their origins and expressed this through the language of their music, specific dedications, and “shout outs” to their homes (Durand 56). While this shows that the music of the Beurs was integrating throughout the rest of the nation, these open ties to their original culture only increased the isolation of their communities. Among the community of rappers, members of specific groups from the banlieues recognized each other as a consequence of the shared Verlan slang. The slang heavily influenced their music and introduced Verlan words, words from their parents’ original languages, and obscene insults to listeners outside of their home cities (Durand). An interesting law in France, originally designed to protect the language, now helps to spread Verlan rap by requiring radio stations to play at least 40% French music (Papenfuss). The language and music of the banlieues  spread like wildfire across France, introducing slang to the language the government tried so hard to protect the purity of. 

However, as the music of the banlieues spreads, so does the Beurs’ message of discontentment and frustration about the treatment of the immigrants. Aside from the dismal housing conditions inside HLM and throughout the banlieues, the immigrants also face the problem of being underrepresented politically. In France, unfortunately, only 77% of people with an immigrant background are on the electoral roll, compared to the 93% of the whole population of France (Smith). With a low amount of political influence little will be done to improve the situation in the banlieues and decrease the rate of unemployment. With no change on the political horizon, the rappers and hip-hop artists from the banlieues spread their message of malcontent through their music in a rather forceful manner. A group name NTM was fined and given jail time in 1993 for their lyrics that cursed at political figures and the police (Durand 45). Aside from name-calling, the rap community pushes buttons with Parliament as well who “called for sanctions” against a few rappers who they believed to be inciting unrest within in the banlieues (Maier). Though in this case the rappers were not condemned, this does reveal the suspicion that music was not the Beurs’ only for of expression.

As mentioned earlier, violence presented itself as the second way of expression for the immigrants because of their lack of political power. Most recently, the spark of violence in the banlieues was the death of two boys who were allegedly chased into a power plant by police (Smith). This incident incited three weeks of rioting that spread throughout France, affecting 300 different cities and leading to €200 million worth of damages (Smith). This incident brought the poverty of the ghettoes to the front page of every newspaper and forced many to question if efficiency of France’s integration policy for these immigrants. The police’s role was highly scrutinized, especially since an Amnesty International report had previously condemned the French law enforcement for breaches of human rights with particular regard to treatment of youths from immigrant cities (Smith).  At this point in time, Verlan very much is a way for the Beurs to identify themselves but unfortunately it can also act as an easy identifying tool for people wishing to discriminate against them.

Discrimination

In an article about Verlan, Ngo states beautifully, “Since the 1920s, Verlan has been considered the language of thugs and delinquents… In the 1980s and 1990s, it not surprisingly became the language of the suburbs associated in mainstream French society with such characters.” With this widespread negative view of the banlieues, almost everyone associated with them experiences some form of blanket discrimination. The rioting brought out the worst in the government as well, as Sarkozy angrily swore that all the rioters were “racaille” or scum (Rieff). The use of “racaille” is particularly offensive because the people of the banlieues particularly avoid using this word to describe themselves. While the rioters may embrace other derogatory terms and use them ironically among themselves, “racaille” is almost always subject to the rules of Verlan and becomes “caillera” (Rieff). Such harsh words from the President of France exemplifies the disconnect the country as a whole feels with its immigrants and suggest that the discrimination pervaded further than unsolicited police brutality.

Indeed many suggest that this discrimination is at fault for the high rates of unemployment in the banlieues. Because of the high concentration of immigrants in the banlieues much of the discrimination can be related to race. This has becomes such a large problem that recently employers have considered removing the race question from job application form to avoid bias (Smith). However, race isn’t the only marker bring us back to Verlan. Mikael Jamin, a linguistics researcher at Britain’s University of Nottingham, is quoted by Papenfuss stating, “[Verlan] does not bring them food on the table. The way they talk can hurt them in a traditional society.” Considering the widening divide between the government and the immigrant community this statement rings true. Upon hearing Verlan, employers, in this case, form negative impressions about a person due to the association with the banlieues and the immigrant culture. While these associations have been commented on, research has not been done to understand to how deeply speaking Verlan impacts initial impressions negatively or positively.

Verlan and AAVE

            Within the United States, researchers continue to study the effects of different dialects, accents, and slang on first impressions but in respect to AAVE. A comparison of Verlan and AAVE can be beneficial and even allow for some predictions of the results of a study of impressions of Verlan. The comparison of Verlan, a word game, with AAVE, which is a dialect of English, could seem a bit far-fetched. Despite the different linguistic categories, the major similarity between Verlan and AAVE presents itself in the cultures that both are associated with most often. Though there is some controversy over the origins of AAVE, most scholars agree that it originated with the slaves in the early Americas and fully developed into the dialect that is known today through the segregation of black and whites (Wolfram & Torbet). Both populations, African Americans and immigrants to France, experienced segregation, which was one of the crucial factors that spurred the development of differentiated language. In a compelling chapter of her book Teaching to Transgress, Hooks emphasizes the importance of the early slaves finding a common language because many of them would have spoken different African tongues upon arrival.  She quotes a poem, “this is the oppressor’s language/ yet I need to talk to you”(Hooks 167, Rich). Though a poem does not constitute pure evidence of language development, it does, however, present a valid point. The immigrants of the banlieue undoubtedly experience the same language barriers within their isolated communities. Both AAVE and Verlan uniquely embrace the language of their home country in a way that differentiates themselves.

Though AAVE can differ across the country, most of these comparisons work best between the comparable situations of the ghettos in American and the banlieues of Paris. The northern ghettos, like the banlieues, possess their own culture and a high concentration of African Americans speaking AAVE and to some extent remain separated from the rest of American society (Wolfram & Torbet). The similarities continue between the two music cultures. Durand points out that “many French banlieue youths may thus be said to share several with their young American counterparts from African American ghettoes”(Durand 4). There are indeed many similarities with the style of rap music that originate in both countries, especially with high concentration of slang that it includes. Early in the development of the Verlan rap music, the artists followed the style of their African American counterparts. The youth in both countries embrace the rap culture and use it to spread their own unique twist on language. In 1995, the use of AAVE by the youth in Oakland school district started a debate about the validity of that dialect in an educational setting and even small debates about whether or not AAVE should be classified as its own language. This debate spurred more focus on the initial perceptions of speakers of AAVE.

 The Studies and How to Relate to Verlan

            Andrew Billings in an article titled “Beyond the Ebonics Debate” details many of the studies of AAVE and their results. Numerous studies show that others perceive speakers of AAVE are perceived as “less credible” than speakers of Standard American English (Billings 2). Fox offers an excellent explanation for this perception.

 “Ebonics stirs images of the problems of urban life - poverty, crime, unemployment, substandard housing, inferior education. Accurate or not, those factors are what most Americans think characterize life in the inner city. No one wants to perpetuate the cycle of urban poverty, a cycle that ensnares a larger proportion of African Americans than of others.(Fox 4)

Language and culture become intertwined even within perceptions. People automatically associate the lifestyle of the ghetto and banlieues with the distinctly differentiated language spoken there. Fox explains here the crux of the debate started in Oakland that did not end with a definite ruling about ridding the school system of AAVE. Billings’s study continues to show how speakers of AAVE have diminished rankings on a series of scales that measure perceptions of competence, including intelligence, articulation, aggression, education and qualifications (Billings 8). The study also goes into perceptions of the speaker based on race for contrast and concluded that these rankings were not based on race itself. Instead, “Both White and Black speakers of standard dialect were deemed competent”(Billings 5). While these are the basic outlines of a more complex study, the message is clear. How one speaks undeniably changes others perceptions. It would be completely natural for a similar study to be applied to Verlan. It would serve the purpose of illuminating the discrimination against Verlan that is overwhelming the country.

Applications

             Initially both Verlan and AAVE were used to create a unique identity for a group, as an act of solidarity for an underprivileged group. Now however, both deliberate alternations of the languages act as a way of focusing discrimination. It is becoming more clear that, “the only way to eliminate differences between the races is to first illuminate these differences”(Billings 13). For Verlan the time has come for more focus on the discrimination it can be subject to. After the riots of 2006, there has been progress to illuminate the culture of Verlan. As the language game crosses social boundaries through music and other means different classes of people adopt it as an act of solidarity and support for the immigrant population it originated with (Lefkowitz 1989). The time has come for the barriers to be broken down between the banlieues and the rest of France. One of the doors that would allow for that shift would be an acceptance in the banlieues of sharing their language, instead of just Reverlanizing. This shift will obviously take time but speakers of Verlan will now have to find a way to integrate their language, and thus their identity, in with the rest of France as the country takes steps to ensure their acceptance. By conducting studies of perceptions of Verlan, French researchers could highlight this crucial detail and help move towards acceptance of the Verlan speaking people of the banlieues.

Bibliography

Backhouse, A. E, and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett. Speech Play : Research and Resources for Studying Linguistic Creativity. [Philadelphia]: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1976

Billings, Andrew C. "Beyond the Ebonics Debate: Attitudes about Black and Standard American English." Sage 36.1 (2005): 68-81. JSTOR.org. Web. 29 May 2010. .

Durand, Alain-Philippe. Black, Blanc, Beur : Rap Music and Hip- Hop Culture In the Francophone World. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2002.

Fox, Steven. "The Controversy over Ebonics." Phi Delta Kappa International 79.3 (1997): 237-40. JSTOR.org. Web. 29 May 2010. .

Hayes, Micheal, and T. A Acton. Travellers, Gypsies, Roma : the Demonisation of Difference. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Pub., 2007

Hooks, Bell. Teaching to Transgress : Education As the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Laycock, D. 1972. “Towards a Typology of Ludlings, or Play-Languages.” Linguistic Communications, Working Papers of the Linguistic Society of Australia 6: 61-113. Clayton, Victoria: Monash University.

Lefkowitz, Natalie J. Talking Backwards, Looking Forwards : the French Language Game Verlan. Tübingen: Narr, 1991.

Lefkowitz, Natalie J. "Verlan: Talking Backwards in French."American Association of Teacher of French 63.2 (1989): 312-22. JSTOR.org. Web. 24 May 2010. .

Maier, Corinne. "The French Disconnection - New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 08 January 2006. Web. 24 May 2010. .

Ngo, Khanh. “Vive le Verlan!” The Yale Globalist. 2010. Web. 24 May 2010.  

Papenfuss, Mary. "USATODAY.com - French Youths Speaking Their Own Language." USATODAY.com. 05 Jan. 2006. Web. 24 May 2010. .

Smith, Alex D. "Playing with Fire." Guardian.co.uk TheObserver. 5 Feb. 2006. Web. 24 May 2010. .

Stille, Alexander. "Backward Runs French. Reels the Mind. - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 17 Aug. 2002. Web. 24 May 2010. .

Rieff, David. "The New York Times Log In." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 14 Apr. 2007. Web. 24 May 2010. .

Health Care Language Revisited

In one of my previous posts I discussed the language barrier that doctors face within the United States due to the large diversity in language. In class and in my post we talked about the security that patients feel when they discuss their health problems in their own language. In the field of health it is crucial for the patient to be able to expound upon their symptoms and be sure that the doctor understands them in order for a correct diagnosis to be made. In the United States where doctors are expected to speak English, the language barrier usually shows up when a non-English speaking patients arrives. However, in Britain the latest problem is when the doctor doesn't speak English.

This doctor-patient language barrier, obviously, would be more common in Europe where each country is much closer together and speaks a different language. Interestingly, however, the EU does not seem to mandate that doctors working in a different country be fluent in that countries language. According to this article in the Telegraph, though their are language proficiency tests in place, there are ways for doctors to bypass them if they don't pass. Most recently Britain has been pushing for the EU to change their policies. This contention was catalyzed by the death of a patient, David Gray in Britain at the hands of a German doctor. Gray died due to an overdose of painkillers, which were administered due to a miscommunication that was blamed on the language difference. Later reports revealed that the doctor had failed an English proficiency test but was still allowed to practice in Britain. This was his very first shift there.

This is a very really and scary example of the difficulties that the language barrier presents in the medical field. Even today, Britain is unable to conduct proficiency exams on doctors from the EU, although they are able to test any other foreign doctor that wanted to practice in the country. This discrepancy ended up costing many lives along with Mr. Gray's. The Health Secretary has promised to pass new laws mandating proficiency tests if the EU does not reform this policy. I think that Britain should be well within their rights to ensure the quality of patient care by conducting proficiency tests. It has been more than a year since Mr. Gray's death and the matter has not been resolved. When lives are on the line the government and EU should find a quick way to resolve the matter instead of stalling.

Amazon's Latest Venture

On May 18th Amazon's news release revealed their new venture, AmazonCrossing. This new branch of the company is dedicated to publishing translated books. This goes hand in hand with their Kindle which has provided a great new way to read books. Reading this article reminded me of our initial translations attempts with the Bible. What I struggled with most was choosing the correct words to convey the sense that I received from those few short passages. Similarly, I imagine one of the greatest difficulties translating a novel is conveying the style of the writing while trying to stay true to the story. Nicholas Elliott, a translator that works with Amazon now says, "To be responsible for delivering someone's style--i.e. someone's voice-- to a new audience is daunting".When it comes down to it there definitely won't be a direct way to translate all metaphors or images into a different language while translating. This especially seems to be pertinent in the translation of poetry. Recently I read some Baudelaire poems, which others in the class might have as well if they are in Epic Journeys. Because Baudelaire wrote in French, I was able to roughly read the original poems next to their translations, which I believe were actually done by our professors and their colleagues. Though many of the ideas were translated well into English, the translations lacked a lot of the beauty of the original poems. However, at times this can also go the other way. Baudelaire brought Edgar Allan Poe fame through out France and European when he translated several of Poe's works into French. According to my IHum professor, though English speakers consider Poe a good writer and poet, he is much more highly acclaimed in France. I think this comes down to his translator, Baudelaire. Obviously translation can go either way and despite the risk of bad translations, I think Amazon's new venture will actually be quite successful. For the critics who complain about technology destroying language through text, IM, and email, this is the other side. I believe these translations falls under the benefits-of-technological-advances category. As the world grows and there is more talk of globalization and a global culture, I think small advances like this emphasis on foreign novels is one of the most positive aspects. Though it seems trivial, I think fiction books can reveal the culture of foreign countries very accurately. This can only benefit monolingual English as these books subtly tutor them in other cultures and traditions.

Language Barrier with Doctors

As a follow up to our discussion in class, I read an article written by a doctor in residence in Phoenix, Arizona about the difficulties of not speaking the same language as the patient. We discussed the distrust that many of us would feel if we were unable to communicate effectively with a doctor. Doctors make life changing decisions based on what the patients tell them, which could be dangerous if there is a language barrier and the wrong information comes across. Luckily, the health industry has recognized this problem. The doctor in resident that wrote the article mentions having access to a telephone line that has medical interpreters for dozens of languages. I think this is a crucial resource when we live in such a diverse country and I am definitely not alone in that statement. For example, the Vermont Medical Society has posted that in Vermont law requires translators for non-English speakers. Medical translation companies, as a result, are thriving. A basic google search for such translating companies bring up many useful pages. There are even online sites for medical document translation. I'm really glad to see that there are so many resources to combat the language barriers within the medical field.

The Language of Authority

Lisa Delpit does a lot of work that focuses on education and race. In her book, Other People's Children (1995), there is a specific chapter called "The Silenced Dialogue", which focuses on the debate that  African American children in the USA , though it can be expanded to almost any race, should be taught differently than white, middle-class children. This is not Delpit's own view exactly but she does try to highlight  how this legitimate debate has been silenced without resolution.  I was under the impression that in most cases the brain functions the same, independent of race. While that is probably true, Delpit highlights specific methods that are more effective based on race. While I agree with the validity of the cry for different educational methods for African American children, I reject the idea that it is race that is the dividing factor. Instead it seems to me that different cultural upbringings make different educations methods more effective in one culture versus another. 


Delpit brings up the idea of authority and how it is portrayed in different cultures. Specifically, she focused on how authoritative figures, like teachers, speak depending on the culture they associate with. She introduces a dialogue where the first two sentences are from a middle-class "townspeople" teacher and the second are said by an African American teacher.

- "Is this where the scissors belong?"

- "You want to do your best work today."

- "Put those scissors on that shelf."

- "Put your name on the papers and make sure to get the right answer for each question."


The difference here stems from the use of direct and indirect forms of commands. The first set of commands use the indirect form but because they are said by a teacher they still hold authority, at least to me they do. Growing up in a middle-class, white family this indirect form of speech still gives me the sense of a command. What Delpit illustrates here that I and almost any other middle-class, white student would interpret the first two statements as a command because of the culture we developed in. While the second set of command could seem too direct, even abrasive to us, the first set of commands to someone from the African American culture could convey a lack of authority. Within the classroom if a student is unaware that the indirect commands hold just as much authority in the teacher's eyes as direct commands, often time the student will blatantly ignore the indirect commands. This can be perceived as a blatant disregard of the rules, when instead it is actually a cultural and lingual misunderstanding. This presents an interesting conundrum: How does a teacher address a culturally diverse classroom?


These difference that appear while both teachers are using English. In this case language does not divide the views. However, because there is so much culture attached to different languages, even more differences will come up as one studies how authority figures address others in different languages. These differences, if not understood, can be extremely detrimental to anyone trying to assimilate into a new culture while learning a new language.  

Getting Rid of Chinglish

Shanghai is Trying to Untangle the Mangled English of Chinglish is the title found on the New York Times article about Shanghai's latest movement to correct the entertaining Chinglish signs throughout the city. What I thought would be just an entertaining article, presented some really interesting view points about this latest push for reform. Before the 2008 Olympics Beijing pushed for a similar "clean-up" of Chinglish signs. The government does have a point in redoing these funny signs because many of them don't convey their actual meaning, leaving tourists guessing at the rules. At the same time, however, these signs have created a little culture of their own and give English speakers a glimpse of how Chinese portrays ideas with different phrases.

The article points out that even some of this Chinglish has slipped into every day phrases for English speakers. For example it illustrates that the phrase "long time no see" is a word for word translation of a Chinese saying. Even more interesting, however, was the fact that it is possible to get a degree in Chinglish. That is exactly what Oliver Radtke is doing at the University of Heidelburg and on his blog he tries to collect these Chinglish sayings before they disappear. I think he makes a valid point that these phrases allow others a glimpse into a mindset that is different because of the language difference. Many of these translations were brought about by faulty online translations but they try to convey word for word thoughts in Chinese that don't always transfer correctly to English. While they provide entertainment for tourists, they also should provoke certain analytical thoughts about the origin of the mangles phrase. Honestly the best solution would probably be to fix only the most confusing signs that contain important information. Or, since owners will already have to get new signs, they could leave the Chinglish to provide a different interpretation.

However, in case Chinglish is eliminated here is a funny article that has many pictures and translations of Chinglish signs. Enjoy.

English Only Driver's License Tests Revisited

I just ran across an article in the Salt Lake Tribune that follows my argument that the driver's license test should still be offered in more languages than English. I though it was great to see an argument so similar to mine printed in a newspaper.

New Research on the Brain and Language

Today I ran across an article about new research that focuses on how the brain interprets grammar and inflection in language differently. Since I have not thoroughly studied the brain, I don't really have an argument on whether or not this research is correctly interpreted. However, it seems like the research is pretty clear. Basically the researchers studied the different regions of the brain that were activated when the meaning of a sentence can be understood from the grammatical structure in contrast to when it must be inferred from inflection in the sentence. What they found was that although there are similar regions activated by the two different forms of communication, they produced different patterns of brain activity. The article suggests that this is one of the most distinct reasons humans are able to communicate in a more complex form than animals is due to stronger connections between the different areas of the brain that allow us to interpret the complexities of language. 

To give a better sense of how this study was preformed the article shared some interesting tidbits about how different languages assign the subject, direct object, and indirect object. In English word order is extremely important in assigning these placements to each noun. The subject comes before the verb, the direct object comes after it and the indirect object comes after distinguishing words like to, for or at. However, other languages distinguish the different roles of nouns not through placement but with suffixes or inflection. I'm personally most familiar with Ancient Greek which declines all the nouns. Greek has five declensions. The nominate case takes the role of the subject. The accusative is the direct object and the dative is the indirect object. There are also the vocative and genitive forms that have other meanings. Unlike in English, because Greek attaches specific suffixes to each noun a specific order is not necessary to understand the phrase. Consequently many different forms of sentence structure are commonly used in Greek. Similarly other languages use inflection to give a specific meaning to each noun.

Upon reading this article my first question was how did they actually study this, because it seems like each language exclusively uses one form or the other. However, the original article points out that in Sign Language both grammatical structures are used interchangeably. This study was a success because the researchers used native signers in order to avoid dealing with the complication of testing speakers of different languages. Had no language existed that used a combination of the two structures the researchers would have had to address the uncertainty of whether these differences were associated with the grammatical structures or the languages themselves. Choosing to use only signers really made this an effective study and provided an interesting insight on how the brain interprets language. My only question is, do other languages exist that use both these grammatical structures as well? I feel like to a small extent English uses inflection for emphasis. So is it present in a minimal form in many languages?

Translating

Here is my translation of the first few verses of the Old Testament from English to French. 

(1) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (2) Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (3) And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. (4) God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. (5) God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day.

Au début, Dieu créa les cieux et la terre. Maintenant la terre fut informe et vide, l’obscurité était au-dessus de l'abîme, et l’Espirit suspendait au-dessus des eaux. Et Dieu dit, « Que la lumière soit ! » Et la lumière fut. Et Dieu vit la lumière, qu’était bonne, et Dieu sépara la lumière des obscurités. Et Dieu appela la lumière Jour, et l’obscurité, il appela Nuit. Il y eut soir, et il y eut nuit- le premier jour. 

The biggest difficulty that I had with this translation was remembering the formal written past tense that French uses. The past tense used in everyday speech differs completely from the written past tense in older or more formal writing. After that the hardest thing was translating specific phrases. I especially had trouble with "darkness was over the surface of the deep". I could translate all of those words literally, which I did above, but I don't think that it conveyed the same sense. I looked up the exact phrase that the French bible uses and it was nowhere close to what I had translated. "il y avait des ténèbres sur la face de l'abîme". This difficulty is definitely a result of not being completely fluent in French. The word that the French bible uses for darkness, instead of l'obscurité, is les ténèbres which can  also have the connotation of confusion. I was also confused about how to translate the simple phrase over because it has one main meaning in English but French distinguishes these nuanced differences with completely different phrases. Overall translating just a few phrases was more difficult than I had anticipated. 

Too Many Languages?

Belgium officially has three languages: German, French and Dutch. An interesting article in the Guardian, a UK newspaper, brings to light how language divides the politics of this small country. On the one hand there exist the French-speaking Wallonia and on the other stands the Flemish-speaking Flanders. In this situation language is the major barrier between these two factions. Each party plays a powerful role in the government of Belgium and it seems that the government only works when these parties work together. On Thursday April 22, 2010 the Prime Minister Yves Leterme resigned after the Flemish party withdrew its support, prompting the headline "Belgian coalition government crumbles as PM resigns".

The language split is literally making Belgium impossible to rule. The article in the Guardian takes this to a further level by likening this political trouble to what could have or might plague the EU. At the present the EU is translating across 23 different languages, which undoubtedly takes up a lot of time and money. However, as in Belgium, each nation refuses to yield to the idea of working in just a few core languages. This situation presents one of the core dilemmas about language differences in government. Where is the line between choosing to reduce languages used regularly for the sake of simplicity and standing by language as part of a cultural, national or political identity?

For Belgium I think it is too late to reform these deeply ingrained language divisions politically. However, their country can be a warning about the difficulties of having a government run in different languages. This example indicates that on some level it is more efficient to have a monolingual government if language so irrevocably divides politics in a way that compromise becomes impossible. I refuse to make a blanket statement saying that all government should choose to be run solely in one language, however, it could be a unifying factor in creating new governments.

In the case of the EU, I don't think there is any way around translating between all 23 languages. Since they are dealing with so many different countries, respecting each language is key in making this union work. If one or a few languages dominate, it will give power to those countries whose languages are preferred. In a union of multiple nations, it remains crucial to allow each individual country to express themselves in the native tongue in order to ensure a feeling of equality for all.

TXTNG

Quite a few of the articles I came across this week were debating whether or not texting was destroying language skills. This was mostly in response to Canadian Wireless Telecommunication Association's announcement of the number of texts sent in 2009: 35.3 billion. According to Vancouver Sun this is up 70% over last years statistics. These statistics really emphasize the latest shift in technological dependence. Technology rapidly changes and thus so do the trends. What is most surprising about texting, however, is how people have abbreviated language to make this form of communication easier. Along with the change that has been implemented texting has created even more words, the "-exting" words. The Montreal Gazette 's article even presents -exting words that I hadn't heard of or used before such as wexting: walking and texting.

Many of these articles claim that these invented words are corrupting normal spoken and written language. It's true that texting has created a whole new category of words. However, this is true of almost every new technology. It is how language adapts and changes with new inventions. What worries people most is the shear number of words introduced. However, according to a linguist quoted in the Gazette, 90% of these will fade away as the texting phenomenon levels off.

The next large concern is about the impact of texting on the brain and social skills. In 2008 a book called Txtng: The Gr8 Db8 was published to address many of these concerns. NPR's review of the book highlighted some of the key ideas that invalidate many of the arguments that texting is ruining the minds of children. For one, studies have shown that children who text actually do better in spelling. How does this makes sense since so many people use abbreviations when texting? The experts hypothesize that in order to use abbreviations there needs to be a deeper knowledge of the language and its sounds. This is encouraging evidence that perhaps texting is not destroying our generation. However, none of these articles come close to addressing what should be done about the social repercussions of texting. When a third of all adolescents send more than 100 texts per day, how are their social abilities being affected? Will they eventually just grow out of this rather obsessive habit? 

English Only Driver's License Test?

According to the ProEnglish group, which is pushing for English to become the official language of the United States, nine states have instituted English only driver's license test laws. Many groups in Georgia hope that their state will soon make that count ten. According to the Gwinnett Daily Post Georgia is already part of the 30 states that have officially declared English to be their official language yet this doesn't directly extend to the driver's license test yet. Proponents of the English only driver's test bill, like Phil Kent who wrote this article, argue that this is a matter of public safety. Basically they claim that only English speakers can understand the rules of the road. This bill would ensure that people would have to be sufficiently fluent in traffic vocabulary. Perhaps their most valid claim is that drivers should at least be able to communicate with police official if there were to be an accident. As we discussed in class, miscommunications with police due to language can lead to serious and unintended consequences. On this point this, I agree that this would probably be the easiest solution to miscommunication with traffic patrol officers.

However, this article also implies that if people don't take the test in English they don't understand the basics rules of the road or what road signs mean. To me this doesn't actually work as a completely logical argument. It is true that all our signs are in English, which means that initially non-English speakers won't understand the meaning. However, like everyone who has to take the driving test it is important to learn the significance of these signs. As long as non-English speakers can learn to recognize the common signs and understand what their meaning in which ever language one thinks in,  that makes them just as capable of driving correctly. The driving test also includes detail about how many feet away from a fire hydrate you should park, how many feet you should be from the car in front of you when driving, ect. These rules are the same whether they are in English or not, so the written language on the test really is inconsequential.

The article in the Huffington Post brings up even more objections to the English only bill. Specifically it says that no research exist that indicate speaking English makes anyone a safer driver. In fact, many traffic signs are used internationally. It's the reason Americans can drive in other countries safely. The point is also made that this will negatively affect society as a whole because it further disables non-English speakers who suffer through low-paying jobs because they don't know the language. I feel that it is important for these people to learn English to improve their way of life. However, hindering their ability to get to work and support themselves will not further this goal; It will only make their lives harder in the present. A similar bill passed in Utah in 2000 and consequently some non-English speakers who could not get their license, began driving illegally. If anything this is more dangerous than if they had passed the test in their own language. Especially in cities with poor public transportation, this will be the response for many people who still need to get to work. This bill has so many negative aspects that degrade the rights of non-English speakers in this country. As long as they understand the rules of the road, in whatever language they speak, what are the consequences of them taking the drivers license test in which ever language they are most comfortable with?

Science and Language

Thus far in class we've talked about how losing a language also means losing much of the culture attached to it. Many of the articles I've come across several articles that try to emphasize the importance of bringing back these languages. My previous post is one example of one effort to bring back language and culture. There is a similar struggle in Dimapur to restore Naga languages. These reconstruction efforts focus specifically on the fear of losing culture to a new wave of modernity that emphasizes more widespread languages like English.


An article I read in the University World News addresses the lose of african languages in a different manner. It points out that the development of science exacerbates the decline of many african languages for one basic reason: these languages lack a word for science. The lack of words obviously is a major barrier, however, that leads to a bigger problem. Due to the lack of language, the basic concepts of science are also missing. This poses a challenge to many scientists trying to research anything from agriculture to medicine and significantly devalues these languages in the sense being a progressive language and society.


One solution would be to teach speakers of these languages English then introduce the concepts of different sciences. People have followed this track but these bilinguals are in the minority in a culture that resists the overwhelming influences of English. The article elaborates that "In Southern Africa science remains a minority, English-language based pursuit that reinforces the domination of English at the expense of local languages such as Ndebele, Swahili and many others." This presents the fine line between trying to spread knowledge through science and invading another language and consequently the culture attached to it. At the same time the knowledge of the land that these people hold could also be useful in many other parts of Africa but this language barrier makes it very difficult to transfer these secrets. So what happens when these languages die out taking hundreds of years of history of the land with it?


Scientist are making the effort to lessen the language barrier through several methods. Most basically, there are dictionaries being complied that try to literally communicate different scientific concepts. However, this will only be effective for the people who already want to study English and science specifically. Those people will still be in the majority. Another method outlined in the article consists of having three different kinds of interpreters, each serving a different function. Basically there are integrators, filters and synthesizers (for more information please look at the linked article). These people serve important function but also create a rather lengthy chain of communication. It also costs more money to train three different categories of translators. This presents a large problem in the poorer African countries. While this method definitely has many benefits and allows some scientific knowledge to be passed on, another more effective route needs to be established. I personally don't have a solution for this conundrum. I would postulate, however, that a shift toward science would need to start with a young generation. If and when a complete dictionary of basic scientific ideas is finished, it would be easiest to begin spreading these ideas through the younger school aged generation in their own language. Hopefully this would, in a generation's time, allow scientific thought to flow freely while preserving the native languages. 

La Mort du Président Polonais

Here are the links to French Newspapers reporting the death of President Kaczynski of Poland

Le président polonais meurt dans un accident d'avion Le Monde 10/04/10, France

Lech Walesa : "Une tragédie inimaginable" Le Monde 10/04/10, France

Crash de l'avion du président polonais Le Figaro 10/04/10, France

Kaczynski: profonde tristesse (Sarkozy) Le Figaro 10/04/10, France

La Pologne décapitée dans un crash en Russie, les réactions affluent  Tribune 10/04/10, France

Le président polonais Kaczynski périt dans un accident d'avion en Russie  Le Nouvel Oberservateur 10/04/10, France


Crash: l'Etat et l'armée polonais décimés Le Nouvel Oberservateur 10/04/10, France


Le president polonais Lech Kaczynski tue dans le crash de son avion l'Humanité 10/04/10, France

Reviving Gaelic

The decline of Gaelic in Scotland has been uniform across the whole country for hundreds of years now. According to The Herald about 1% of the population of Scotland speaks Gaelic today. The map to the left indicates the concentration of Gaelic speakers in Scotland in 2001. It is interesting to note how in the Western Isles the majority of the population still speak Gaelic. The preservation of Gaelic in the Western Isle could possibly be attributed to the isolation of the farming communities that are present in that area that have retained a similar culture over the centuries. Ewan Innes suggests that much of the decline of Gaelic was caused by the growth of formal education. As more material was present in English than in Gaelic, there was a push for education in English in order to access these resources.

Now in many parts of Scotland there is a push in the opposite direction to restore the Gaelic Language. In 2005, the Scottish Parliament passed the Gaelic Language Act that officially recognized Scottish Gaelic as an official language of Scotland. Within the last couple of days Glasgow released their own plan to promote Gaelic in their city and schools. Their plan includes redoing signs throughout the city to reflect both the English and Gaelic languages. More importantly, however, the plan includes a second Gaelic school in the city. They hope to detach the bad stigma that many people associate with speaking Gaelic because it was not included as a part of the higher education system.

Their plan in ernest is to completely reverse the process that led Scottish Gaelic to its diminished state. Where as once society saw Gaelic as an uneducated form of speech, now the government hopes that Gaelic will be a study of it's own. At the moment the question that comes to mind, however, is whether or not the government can artificially construct social pressures that can bring a language back in its natural form. The government's efforts are nobel however as they try to preserve the culture that they see as intrinsically connected to Gaelic. The Herald also notes the opposition to this revival is based on the financial cost to institute all these changes. In order to really make this act effective the government will estimates that it will have to spend £21.7 in 2010-11. The Scottish government has made a huge statement by passing this expensive bill. To them preserving the Gaelic language will preserve the culture attached to it and that is worth millions of man-hours and euros.

Dual-Language Classes

     Many of the articles I've read this week focused on new dual-language classes in different cities of the United States. In Seattle, the Beacon Hill International School teaches science and math classes in Mandarin. Since Beacon Hills started this program a wait list had to be implemented because of the popularity of this program. The dual-language program is probably one of the best ways to teach second languages. Research shows that children exposed to a second language early on almost always gain better fluency and comprehension of the acquired language than adults who learned later. Beacon Hills and other dual-language schools, especially in Modesto, hope to further the research that suggests that dual-language students preform better over all. So far the evidence points that way. The Seattle Times states that "On the state's fourth-grade test, the children in the Spanish-English program scored about 20 percentile points higher in reading and math." Not only will the children reap the rewards of knowing a second language in an ever expanding global community but they also are immediately rewarded with better performance on state tests. Hopefully, I will get a chance to look into the effects that the dual-language program has on children more deeply later.

     What really sparked my interest in the dual-language classes actually was the article posted in the Los Angeles Times that had a rather controversial focus. While the previous articles acclaim the benefits of the dual-language programs, this article focuses on who funds a specific program. As it turns out the Chinese language program at Cederlane Middle School is called the Confucius Classroom and is funded by Hanban, the Chinese Language Council International. This program has many supporters but there are some people that feel that Confucius Classroom is "a way for Chinese people to brainwash our students." It was this outlandish claim that prompted me to look up Hanban. In the General Principles portion of their website, Hanban states, "Adhering to the principle of mutual respect, friendly negotiations, and mutual benefit, the Confucius Institutes shall develop and facilitate the the teaching of the Chinese language overseas and promote education and cultural exchange and cooperation between China and other international communities." No where in there does it say brainwash. The goal of Hanban is very admirable. Due to the rapid expansion of China as a power in the global community, it become more important everyday for their culture to be understood. The Chinese language programs set up in the elementary education systems and on the university level are present in countries around the world. This clearly shows how important it is for people to understand language in order to understand a different culture. There are many benefits of a dual language program but understanding another culture is a crucial aspect. Hopefully more schools will take advantage of this program and not let outdated fears about other culture scare them away from wonderful dual-language programs like Confucius.

Introduction

Hello,

My name's Heather and I grew up in Utah my whole life. My parents only speak English, so the only other language I heard growing up was the few words of French that my grandmother remembers from her mother. However, that was enough to make me excited to start learning French in eighth grade, which I studied throughout high school as well. My senior year I joined the first Ancient Greek language class taught at my school. My teacher passionately loved teaching Greek and so she did more than just teach us about the language itself. She structured the class in such a way that the conversation naturally flowed from the words that we were learning to interesting connections between Greek and a variety of  other languages that she'd studied. During that year, I realized just how much my teacher knew about Greek, Latin, linguistics and different societies around the world and her passion sparked an interest in me. 

My interest in language was further developed when my teacher assigned me a "recreational" research paper. She didn't give me any constraints about my topic, and instead of picking something in a science related field, as would be natural to me, I decided to take advantage of my teacher's expertise. For a few weeks I got to study the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) society and the its language, mostly from the book The Horse, the Wheel and Language by David W. Anthony.The most fascinating part of this research was the fact that there is no record of the PIE language. Historians now still debate where the PIE people lived, though many agree it was probably in the Eurasian steppes. Most of what I studied was derived from pure inference based on languages that are spoken today. PIE is the common ancestor of so many languages spoken today and consequently linguists have been able to partially reconstruct the mother language from words spoken today. Other than just the language, historians and linguists together have been able to learn so much about PIE society from the language. Interestingly, many scholars now believe that it was the PIE society that first invented the wheel and rode horseback. These were huge steps for mankind and I love how language can reveal so much about a dead society. 

Aside from my basic research about PIE, I've also been involved in teaching ESL classes. Though I don't fluently speak a different language, I volunteered with the Guadalupe VIP program, which focuses on teaching adults "survival English" to help them get jobs and live in the United States. This was an excellent program and I enjoyed helping out every week. Honestly, I think I learned more than they did. Part of our discussion every week focused on comparing the US culture to the cultures that my students were familiar with. I had students from Central and South America, as well as Vietnam, and Africa occasionally. I truly enjoyed working with such a diverse group. As a result I was made aware of the struggles that many people go through if they don't understand the language of the country they live in. This can be a huge barrier sometimes but teaching ESL made me realize the importance of breeching that barrier. 

create your own visited country map

 or check our Venice travel guide