Mango Languages

Humor and iPad

Put in very simple words, in order to construct a sentence we retrieve from a mental lexicon the words we need and then we arrange them in meaningful sentences following certain rules.

This mental lexicon contains the words, their synonyms, etc., just like the dictionaries we know, but moreover, it contains all our knowledge, encyclopedic or other, and personal experiences that are associated with a specific word.  For example, the word “flood” primarily means “an overflowing of a large amount of water beyond its normal confines.”  For some people, this word may bring India to their mind, as we know from our encyclopedic knowledge that India suffers from floods, or it may bring to their mind a mishap they had, or a nice touching book they read about a flood-hit village, a nice painting, or a horror film, etc.  “Lemon” may mean something sour or may bring to the mind a nice fragrance, a wedding, etc.  One word therefore is associated with many others and with various mental images, and they form little groups.

Here is where the success of humor lies: the narrator creates an atmosphere where the interlocutor(s) expect words or phrases of a certain group to be uttered, words or phrases that have to do with the image the narrator is creating and belong to the same group.  And… the narrator utters a word that belongs to a different group and this unexpected association makes us laugh.  Or what the narrator says makes the interlocutor expect a certain development due to common sense or to common beliefs, but the narrator brings things upside down and changes direction.  For example, the narrator says

I didn’t sleep with my wife before we married. Did you?

The logical and natural interpretation of the elliptic sentence at the end is, “Did you sleep with your wife before you married?”  So, here comes the unexpected answer:

Hmm…I don’t remember. What’s her name?

Like I said, this is a simplified analysis because in the unexpected association of words and phrases lies the power of poetry, but in poetry this association makes us stand in awe before the wonder of mind.

iPad, as you may know, is the new product of Apple.  But unfortunately, the word “pad” belongs to another group of words and images too, and therefore the name has been associated with a hygienic product. It is not the unexpected here that causes laughter; it is just the association with the other group of words.  This has brought about a series of jokes – no laughing matter though!

Other blunders that have to do with mistranslations or with unfortunate naming of products is the German toilet paper brand name called BUM, or the Swedish one called Krapp, which bring smiles to the English speakers’ faces.  Or an ad for America of a Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux that goes, “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.”

Do you know of any other mistranslations or naming of products?

Body Language and Language

Those of you who have seen the all-time classic film The Remains of the Day, with Antony Hopkins and Emma Thomson, may remember the “book” scene, in which she tries to grab a book from his hand.  In this scene, you can unmistakably “hear” their feelings although neither of them speaks.

Language is considered by many as a means of communication.  Nevertheless, verbal communication sometimes hides true feelings and thoughts: what we utter has gone through a filter and when it surfaces it may not represent exactly what we want to say and what we really think; as if our id is hindered by our superego, in Freudian terms.  There is, however, another form of communication, the nonverbal, also called body language: it consists of our facial expressions, gestures and body movements, which we use in order to send out information about how we feel.  When we listen to someone, we always try to discern what they really mean by watching their face or gestures.

The good, or bad, thing is that we cannot hide our feelings. We may say one thing, but our body language won’t hide what we really mean, which oftentimes may be the opposite of what we say.  Like Stevens, we may be able to control our voice but our body will betray what we think and how we feel.  Stevens and Kenton never exchanged a tender word but their body language expressed what they meant behind their typical “Mr.” and “Miss.”  (Both Hopkins and Thompson proved what great artists they are here.)

Gestures are part of the body language and they are important in learning a language. While you may be used to accompanying your speech with gestures, you may need to be very careful when using the same gestures in a foreign country to accompany and boost your newly acquired phrases.  Along with learning a language, try to learn these differences.

In Greece, for example, to say “no” you toss your head upward moving slightly the chin forward while clicking your tongue against the alveolar ridge (no, it’s not as complicated as it may sound) or you just raise your eyebrows doing the same click!  (By the way, the Greek “no” sounds like Ok, so it may be difficult to say “no” in Greek either way!)  In other countries, to say “no” you move your head right to left and left to right, which in Greece suggests that you feel pity for someone.  Or, in Greece, extending your hand with the fingers apart is very insulting. However well you apologize, being proficient in Greek may not solve the issue!

Are there any gestures that are a no-no in your country?

Irish Language – Part II

Why do I love Irish?

The answer to this question is “I don’t know.”

The reason why you like a language is very subjective, so I will just present some facts of Irish that I find fascinating, and which I learned after 4 lessons of Irish, thanks to our developer Colin Parmar and our editor Loig Cheveau.

• Irish employs some phonological processes that change the sounds at word boundaries to show the role of these words in the sentence.  So, while Tom is Tomás in Irish, when you want to call him, you say, “A Thomáis ” (“a” is like “o” in “O Lord”).  Another example: “a” (not the “a” mentioned above) means “his,” “her,” or “their” depending on the change that comes after it.

So:
a chat, a athair = his cat, his father
a cat, a hathair = her cat, her father
a gcat, a n-athair = their cat, their father

You can’t say what “a” means before you hear the following word.  The language plays games with our mind.

• There is no verb “to have” in Irish; when you want to say “I have a pen” you literally say, “a pen is at me.”  The same holds true for when you want to say that you speak a language: to say “I speak Irish” you say “Irish is at me.”
• The affirmative in Irish begins with the verb.  So, to say “Irish is at me” you say “Is Irish at me”; this is not a question in Irish.  How do you ask questions?  Well …
• There are two “to be’s.”  Similar to Spanish, but a bit different in use.  So, you have to know which “to be” to use to say “Is Irish at me.”  Moreover, there are different ways to form a question depending on which “to be” you use.  So, it’s not a simple matter to say “Is Irish at me.”
• Another source of fascination is the number system: to say “fifteen books” in Irish, you not only separate “five” from “teen” and put “books” in a sandwich, but you do not even say “books” – you say “book” – no plurals!  So “fifteen books” is the Irish equivalent of “five book teen.”  Does this sound like Arabic? Is there a connection between Irish and Arabic?  There is a theory … Ok, so you learned how to say “fifteen books”; can you now say “twelve boys”? You will probably say the Irish equivalent of “two boy teen” right?  Wrong!  For counting people there is a another whole set of numerals up to twelve.
• There are no words for “yes” or “no” in Irish.  If you want to say “yes” you repeat the verb of the question that you were asked.

For example:
Q: “Are you American?”
A: “Am”
And the full answer is: “Am, am American I” – Isn’t it tricky?

This is only a sample of what Irish is about. I’ve never been to Ireland, but with all this plus the insular inscription on road signs, I bet that at every corner in Ireland you’d expect to come face to face with some druid and his golden sickle on his way to cut the mistletoe.

Let’s also learn what is said on St. Patrick’s Day:
Éire go brágh! (transliteration – Eire goh brah, meaning – Ireland for ever!)

The Irish Language Part I – A bit of history

Irish is the language of Ireland.

A Short Linguistic History
Irish has two names: its official name in English is “Irish”; in Standard Irish the official name of the language is Gaeilge.  Irish belongs to the same greater language family as English – the Indo-European.  It is, however, more related to the Celts, who lived in England before the Germanic phyla conquered the island and English was developed.  To be more precise, it is the Celtic language spoken by the “brothers” of the Celts of England.  Together with Scottish Gaelic and Manx (an extinct language under a process of revival spoken on the Isle of Man), Irish forms the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages; the other branch is the Brythonic, which comprises Welsh, Breton, and Cornish (spoken in Cornwall, also under a process of revival).  Breton is spoken in an area in France, across the channel; it was brought there by the Celts of England.

A Short Historical Background
The Celtic polytheistic society left us a rich mythology with gods and goddesses, leprechauns, elves, and fairies.  In this religion, the predominant figure was the druid, or the knowledgeable priest.  Around 400 AD, St. Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland who is celebrated worldwide on March 17th, brought Christianity and the Latin alphabet to the island.  He is also said to have banished snakes from the country.  A variant of the Latin alphabet, the insular script (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insular_script — a majuscule script with rounded unjoined letters), was used in Ireland until quite recently and you can still see it in road signs and public notices everywhere in Ireland.

In the mid-16th to early 17th century, the British decided to colonize the Emerald Isle.  They confiscated land, gave it to settlers, banned Catholicism, and most significantly, they banned the Irish language from every aspect of everyday life.  Even the Irish, being a poor people, prompted their children to learn English, as they saw in it the only future for their offspring.  And thus began the so-called language-shift, the abandonment of one’s own native tongue and the adoption of a foreign language.

After the wars of colonization, 1/3 of the population was either dead or in exile.  A famine in 1740-41 hit a disproportionately high number of Irish speakers, and about 400,000 died and 150,000 emigrated.  Even worse was the Great Famine, due to a potato disease, in 1845-52 that left its indelible mark on the island and changed it forever. Its death toll is estimated to be between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 people.  An additional 1,000,000 people emigrated.  In short, the population of the island, and the number of Irish speakers, was greatly diminished.  Irish was prohibited until 1871, but even then the social stigma of speaking Irish hindered people from trying to revive their native tongue.

Irish today
Nowadays, Irish is spoken mainly in the Gaeltacht area in the west part of the island, and even there it is scattered. The rest of the population speaks a variant of English, called Hiberno-English, which is highly influenced by the grammar of Irish. The variants of Irish are all grouped in three major dialects: the Ulster dialect, spoken in the north, the Munster dialect, spoken in Kerry and Cork, and the Connacht dialect, spoken in Connemara and the Aran Islands (famous for their knitted handicrafts).  In an effort to unite these dialects and offer a simplified version of the language, Standard Irish was created, which is now taught at schools.  There have been several efforts to make people practice and learn Irish, and the issue is still open.

Learn Greek

Greek is not a widely spoken language and it may not give you the passport to learning other languages but it merits a seat in the pantheon of languages because it is one of the world’s oldest recorded living languages and because many words in English and other languages have been derived from Greek.

Greek is spoken in Greece, and it is one of the two official languages in Cyprus. It is also spoken by emigrant and minority communities in Germany, the USA, Australia, Canada, the UK, and in the neighboring countries Albania, Turkey, Southern Italy, as well as in the countries around the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. All in all it is spoken by about 14 million people.

It belongs to the Indo-European family of languages and it is an independent branch of it. According to some historical linguists the peoples in the plains of Europe and Anatolia spoke the Proto-Indo-European language until the 3rd millennium BC. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC this language had already been divided into the various Indo-European languages, one of which was Proto-Greek, the common ancestor of all dialects of Ancient Greek. Proto-Greek speakers came to Greece in the 2nd millennium BC. The first record of Greek is the script in Linear B on tablets in Mycenae dating from the 15th or 14th century BC.

Ancient Greece was the cradle of civilization and the means of expressing it was Ancient Greek. The great philosophical, scientific, and cultural texts of that era, which influenced the entire Western thought, were written in this language. It is only natural that a great number of Greek words has been borrowed in international science, philosophy, and technology vocabulary: words like mathematics, geometry, athletics, theater, philosophy, and many others have Greek origin. It is said that 12% of the English vocabulary is derived from Greek.

Ancient Greek has undergone many changes in phonology, morphology, syntax but the language was never interrupted and, although Greeks today cannot understand Ancient Greek texts without some help, the similarities are more than obvious and many words have survived unaltered as they were in ancient times. For example, the word for “child” was “pes” (“pedos” in genitive) in Ancient Greek and it is “pedi” in Modern Greek.

Most interesting is the search of the origin of words and how they changed meaning through the ages. For example, did you know that the word “enthusiast”, of Greek origin of course, comes from the Ancient Greek word “entheos” = en (in) + theos (god) and meant having or being inspired by divine ecstasy?

Having said all that, learning Greek, apart from giving you a means to communicate with the Greeks who live in the beautiful place you are going to visit, will also give you a better insight in your own language.

Learn a Greek Song

GREEK
Το καλοκαιράκι στην ακρογιαλιά,
μέσα στο νεράκι πλέουμε αγκαλιά.
Πέφτει το βραδάκι, πιάνει η δροσιά,
Δώσ’ μου ένα φιλάκι και έλα πιο κοντά.

Εγώ κι εσύ , εσύ κι εγώ,
μόνοι πάνω στη γη.
Ωωω! μόνοι στη γη.

Ήταν η Αθήνα κόμπος στο λαιμό,
νέφος και ρουτίνα και άγχος τρομερό.
Δώσ’ μου ένα τσιγάρο, δώσ’ μου και φωτιά,
Θεέ μου θα σε πάρω στη καυτή την αμμουδιά.

Εγώ κι εσύ , εσύ κι εγώ,
μόνοι πάνω στη γη.
Ωωω! μόνοι στη γη.

Τηλέφωνο χτυπάει, βουλιάζει το νησί,
και τ’ όνειρο σκορπάει στου γραφείου τη βουή.
Πετάγομαι ιδρωμένος, δουλεύεις και γελάς,
σ’ ακούω σαν χαμένος το ρεφρέν να τραγουδάς.

Εγώ κι εσύ , εσύ κι εγώ,
μόνοι πάνω στη γη.
Ωωω! μόνοι στη γη.

TRANSLITERATION
To kalokeRAki stin akroyaLIA
MEsa sto neRAki PLEume agaLIA.
PEfti to vraTHAki, PIAni i throSIA,
thos mu Ena fiLAki ki ELa pio koNTA.

eGO ki eSI, eSi ki eGO,
MOni PAno sti gi.
OOO! MOni sti gi.

Itan i aTHIna KOmbos sto leMO,
NEfos ke ruTIna ke Ag-hos tromeRO.
thos mu Ena tsiGAro, thos mu ke foTIA,
the mu tha se PAro stin kafTI tin amouTHIA.

eGO ki eSI, eSI ki eGO,
MOni PAno sti gi.
OOO! MΟni sti gi.

tiLEfono ktiPAi, vuLIAzi to niSI,
ke TOniro skorPAi stu graFIu ti vuI.
peTAgome ithroMEnos, thuLEvis ke geLAS,
saKUo san haMEnos to reFREn na traguTHAS.

eGO ki eSI, eSI ki eGO,
MOni PAno sti gi.
OOO! MΟni sti gi.

ENGLISH
In the summer at the beach,
In the water we swim together.
The night falls, it gets chilly,
Gimme a kiss and come closer.

Me and you, you and me,
All alone on the earth.
OOO! All alone on the earth.

Athens was a lump in the throat,
Smog and routine and lots, lots of stress.
Gimme a cigarette, gimme light too,
Gee, I’ll take you on the hot sand.

Me and you, you and me,
All alone on the earth.
OOO! All alone on the earth.

The telephone rings, the island sinks,
And the dream disperses into the hustle of the office.
I jump up all sweaty, you work and laugh,
I hear you speechless sing the refrain.

Me and you, you and me,
All alone on the earth.
OOO! All alone on the earth.

FRENCH
En été, sur la plage,
Nous nageons côte à côte
Le soleil tombe, il fait plus frais maintenant
Embrasse-moi chérie et viens donc plus proche de moi.

Moi et toi, toi et moi,
Seuls sur terre.
Oh, oh, oh ! Seuls sur terre.

Athènes devient un nœud qui nous prend à la gorge
Smog, routine et stress insupportables pour nous deux.
Donne-moi ta clope, donne-moi du feu,
Dieu ! Je te ferai l’amour sur le sable chaud.

Moi et toi, toi et moi,
Seuls sur terre.
Oh, oh, oh ! Seuls sur terre.

Le téléphone sonne ; l’ile sombre dans l’eau,
Le rêve se disperse dans le tourbillon du bureau.
Je saute tout en sueur ; tu travailles et tu ris,
Je t’écoute stupéfié chanter ce petit refrain.

Moi et toi, toi et moi,
Seuls sur terre.
Oh, oh, oh ! Seuls sur terre..

ITALIAN
L’estate, sulla riva del mare,
Nell’acqua abbracciati galleggiamo.
Cade la notte, viene fresco,
Dammi un bacino e vieni più vicino.

Io e te, tu ed io,
Soli sulla terra.
Oooh! Soli sulla terra.

Atene era un nodo nella gola,
Smog e routine e stress incredibile.
Dammi una sigaretta, fammi anche accendere,
Dio, ti prenderò sulla sabbia bollente.

Io e te, tu ed io,
Soli sulla terra.
Oooh! Soli sulla terra.

Il telefono suona, l’isola affonda,
E il sogno si dissolve nel boato dell’ufficio.
Salto tutto sudato, lavori e ridi,
Ti ascolto sbalordito cantare il ritornello.

Io e te, tu ed io,
Soli sulla terra.
Oooh! Soli sulla terra

Language and Words

We usually understand language as an accumulation of words.

The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax was based on words; languages are sometimes referred to as richer or more complex on the basis of the number of words they contain; we usually pinpoint the differences between languages as differences on the word level: What is “apple” in English is “Apfel” in German, but it is “pomme” In French!!

This understanding of language is justified because language is the means of expressing our thoughts and thoughts are represented by words: words for tangible things, like “apple”, and words for abstract notions, like “liberty”. However, if every time we wanted to say something, we just uttered the words in any order, then communication would fail.

Remember also the example with computers from yesterday’s post: if language was just words, then why would it be difficult to make a database like a dictionary and just provide the right word every time we need to construct a sentence? Children need to learn the words of their language of course, but is it only with words that they learn when to say certain words.

Which words do you think have multiple meanings or should be simplified?

Language and Computers

Scientists have been working on computers for some time now and have made them into powerful machines. One of the symbols of high intelligence, chess, has been elaborated and now computers can win a human chess player. However, despite the dreams and expectations of many scientists and sci-fi authors and directors, computers cannot speak nor can they hold a conversation with a human; language is still in its infancy in computer science.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem to be a highly intellectual thing, as I argued that even a child can speak a language. Besides, we have known of many cases of people who, although they cannot perform their daily tasks, they can speak their native language without any problem and many of them can even speak two and even more foreign languages or can learn a new one within a week. They are called “savants” and one of them is Daniel Tammet. 

So, what is it that makes language an easy but also a difficult thing at the same time? 

How Do Children Learn a Language?

In the previous post I talked about the example, John likes Mary more than his wife, and I said that it can be understood as having two meanings (John likes Mary more than he likes his wife and John likes Mary more than his wife does). I also said that these two meanings are easily discernible by a child. I can see you smiling full of doubt because a little child won’t be able to understand the connotations, so let us delve a bit more into this idea.

What do we mean when we say that a child can speak a language?

The answer is that a child can clearly and easily express his thoughts, his needs and his feelings. He can understand those around him and be perfectly understood. What’s more, through the language he can be transported to imaginary worlds where sticks of wood can speak and bad magicians turn people into frogs, and he has no problem whatsoever with doing that although none of these things happen in the real world. 

Let us think for a moment how a child achieves all that: he has no formal and systematic education; everything comes naturally, he doesn’t have to try hard and he always succeeds. Just compare a child to an adult trying to learn a foreign language and you will see my point. The speech the child hears is sometimes half-said, elliptic as we call it, and some children hears this truncated form of speech called motherese. In four years he is a perfect native speaker. But is what a child achieves truly a great accomplishment? 

Stay tuned!