Mango Languages

Is Cheese plural for Choose?

Hello All,
As an individual whose first language isn’t English, I thought I would take this opportunity and use this blog to express how funny (and at times hard) the English language can be. I am sure that other people who learned English as a second or even third language would agree with me.

I was very happy to come across the list below which includes words and phrases that have made me scratch my head in confusion on numerous occasions. I have been speaking English for 14 years, and to this day I come across sayings that just don’ t seem to make sense. If I learned anything, it’s that sometimes you just need to just accept things just the way they are… especially when it comes words and phrases in the English language.

Here are some examples…  you tell me…

There is no egg in eggplant or ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in  pineapple…
Is cheese the plural of choose?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
In what language do people recite at a play, and play at a recital?
Ship by truck, and send cargo by ship?
Have noses that run and feet that smell?
Park on driveways and drive on parkways?
Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which  aren’t sweet, are meat.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce, and hammers don’t ham?
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth,  beeth?
One goose, 2 geese.  So, one moose, 2 meese?
One index, two indices?
When a house burns up, it burns down.
You fill in a form by filling it out, and an alarm clock goes off by going on.
When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?
English muffins were not invented in England or French fries in France

How can ‘slim chance and fat chance’ be the same, while ‘wise man and a wise guy’ are opposites?

We take English for granted.  But if we  explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly,  boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

Personally, I’ve had a really hard time understanding why the word knife is spelled with a ‘k’. That’s just me.

“Syntax – It’s not another tax on beer?” Continued…

In my last blog I began to delve in to the wonderful world of Syntax. I looked at the linguist definition of a sentence and more importantly the abstract idea of the proposition. I also briefly touched on word order as it is involved in sentence grammaticality. So from my previous blog we can now make two statements: 1) Sentences are abstract mental objects and, 2) word order is somehow involved in the “grammaticality” of sentences. However, we have not yet determined what role word-order plays in grammar. We will begin to look at that in this blog entry.

In her entry, Did you know languages have constituents?, my colleague briefly touched on an important component of Syntax: constituents. Constituents are a group of words which have an internal coherence. That is, they belong together. For example, the words in the phrase ‘that glass of milk‘ seem to belong to each other, as do, ‘the black wooden chair‘, ‘the big red odd shaped container’, etc. We know this because in a complete sentence all of these phrases can be replaced with one little word: it. However, compare those “constituents” to these segments: ‘the table over’, ‘wooden chair by’, and ‘big red odd‘. In contrast these segments don’t seem to belong together. They most certainly cannot be replaced in the sentences with any one word.

So now we have determined that some groups of words belong together and we call these groups constituents. Within constituents there are even smaller groups. These groups are given different titles depending on the “head” of the group. (I will explain headedness in a later blog). Some of these are: determiner phrases (DP) (sometimes referred to as noun phrases, NP), prepositional phrases (PP), adjective phrases (AdjP), adverb phrases (AP) and, verb phrases (VP). An example of a determiner phrase (DP) is ‘the container’. However, ‘the big red oddly shaped container‘ is also a DP, only a larger one also containing an adjective phrases (AdjP): big red oddly shaped container. Additionally, ‘the apple‘ is also a determiner phrase. However, ‘ate the apple‘, is a verb phrase (VP) that also contains a determiner phrase, ‘the apple‘.

Can you get creative and come up with a large phrase that contains more than one other additional phrase? What are the constituents in the phrase?

It's Not Only What You Say, But Also How

Good Morning Mango Fans!

Last night, I was motivated to improve the little bit of French that I know, and decided to drive in the world of Mango, in French.  I was interested in learning about the etiquette, culture, and vocab when it comes to restaurant outings.  I got to chapter six, lesson 41, slide 7, which was about un plat principal, the main course.  I read the phrase a few times, heard the narrator say it, and memorized it. Each time I said the phrase to myself, I pronounced the phrase louder and louder, feeling confident with my French accent.  I was ready to test my pronunciation skills with narrator using the “voice compare” feature.   As I recorded myself saying “un plat principal” as clearly as I could and played it back along with the native speaker for the 4th time, I realized what I was trying to do.  Why did I want to record and play my pronunciation back over and over again? I was trying to perfect my French accent. I then started to ponder, about accents, specifically English accents…

There are many countries in which English is the native language, yet in all of these countries English sounds very different because of the accent.  In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation of a language.  Accents are not only phonetics, but they are an identity.  There are two types of English accents widely spoken in the world today; they are the General American English and the Received Pronunciation (RP), also known as the Queen’s English.  In North America, the interaction of people from many ethnic backgrounds contributed to the formation of the different varieties of North American accents (making up a Boston specific accent and one that is specific to Texans).

Looking back at history, it is difficult to measure or predict how long it takes an accent to formulate.  Accents in the USA, Canada, and Australia, for example, developed from the combination of different accents and languages in various societies, and this had effects on various pronunciations of the British settlers.  Yet North American accents remain more distant, either as a result of time or of external or “foreign” linguistic interaction, such as the Italian accent.

The accent does indeed provide the identity of the country to its native language.  When we hear American being spoken, we associate it with the United States and when we hear someone speak with a British accent with think of England.  Learning the vocabulary, grammar, and use of a language is very important; however practicing the correct accent allows you to indulge in the identity and history of the language and its native country.

Realizing this, I kept practicing, putting the “voice compare” feature to full use.  Un plat principal … u(n) pla pri(n)seepal.

The more I practiced my French accent the more connected I seemed to feel to the French culture.

Next phrase: Comme plat principal, je voudrais le plat du jour (As a main course, I’d like the plat du jour).

They say practice makes perfect… or so I hope.

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• QUEEN NOOR OF JORDAN: Ramadan Lessons For All Of Humanity http://huff.to/cArJCf #
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• A:  The first dictionary of English was written by Robert Cawdrey, in 1604. http://ow.ly/2xkJE #AskNYPL (via @nypl) #

Lunch Time Linguistic Gymnastics

Having worked in Information Technology for many years now, I’ve had the great privilege of getting to know and be good friends with many people from India who have been gracious enough to share their thoughts with me on culture and language.  In particular, something that piqued my interest very quickly was learning about the linguistic versatility which is such a prominent feature in Indian life.  Allow me to explain.

When I was new to the company in which I began my IT career, I was sort of “adopted” by a group of friends who all happened to be from India.  This group of us would have lunch together just about every day at precisely 12 PM, and, in addition to being an opportunity for a meal, it was also a great opportunity for being social.  Being the only person at the table whose sole language was English, I often found myself staring at my lunch, at the ceiling, or into space as several different, exotic (at least to my ears) sounding languages flew back and forth across the table.   It was never awkward at all. Rather, they were sub-conversations within the context of a larger conversational experience which included us all.  Having married into a family which came to America from the Ukraine and speaks Russian at home, I was sort of used to politely grinning at mealtime while similar sub-conversations took place that I could not understand.  But this was a little bit more dynamic because there were clearly several languages at play here, and the use of each seemed to change depending on the situation, context, and speakers.   What gives?   Curiosity forced me to find out as much as I could. First, a little background:

Without making too broad a generalization, it seems that most everybody from India knows two languages: English and their “mother-tongue.”  Held over from British colonial rule, English is still in active use in primary education, government institutions, and everyday life.  On the other hand, the “mother-tongue” can best be understood as the local language that is spoken at home while growing up and there are a great variety of these languages across the Indian subcontinent. Assuming it is common among family members, the applicable mother-tongue continues to be the language spoken at home by most Indians while living in America.   Additionally, many Indians know three languages: English, their mother-tongue, and Hindi.  Hindi, along with English, is the other national language of India and tends to serve as the native lingua franca across certain parts of the country.  Lastly, some Indians know four or more languages with the addition of a second or third mother-tongue due to having parents from different regions of the country, or from having themselves grown up in multiple regions of the country.

Getting back to the story, it didn’t, as I said, take me too long to realize there were many layers of complexity and nuance making up the conversations of our group.  After a while I felt comfortable enough to ask about why there were so many different languages being used and what determined their use.  It was explained to me that, for conversational purposes, the language of choice was determined mainly by regionality (possessing a shared mother-tongue) and that another language common to both would be used if there was no common mother-tongue.  This seemed very practical and made sense to me.  Instinctively, I would certainly rather communicate with the language I most comfortably spoke given the choice.

Within our particular group, here is how the linguistic dynamics would play out: there were four in our group who were all from around the city of Chennai (formerly Madras) on India’s southeast coast.  Chennai is the primary city in the province of Tamil Nadu, and the mother-tongue of this particular region is a Dravidian language called Tamil.  When speaking conversationally to one another, these four would always use Tamil.  The other two from our group (besides me) were from a province to the north of Tamil Nadu called Andhra Pradesh.  In this region and around the city of Hyderabad, the predominant mother-tongue is another Dravidian language known as Telugu and this is the language they would converse in with one another.  After a while I became quite familiar with this pattern but noticed something which stood out to me.   Of the two whose mother-tongue was Telugu, one would generally switch and speak in Tamil when conversing with the other Tamil speakers.   However, in the same situation the other would always switch to English. This made me awfully curious, particularly because he and one of the Tamil speakers were best friends and always hung out together.  After I thought about this for a minute it dawned on me that I’d only ever heard them speak to each other in English. Just when I thought I had the rules of the game all figured out I was stumped.

Seeking clarification, I asked about this one day.  As it turns out, the first of my Telugu speaking friends actually spent part of his youth in an area where Tamil is widely spoken.  Thus, he had a command of both Tamil and Telugu in addition to the relatively ubiquitous English and Hindi.   Truly a polyglot!  As for why our other Telugu speaking friend didn’t do the same, I learned that due to the region he was from he did not have command of Hindi or Tamil as neither language was widely spoken.  Only English and Telugu were widely spoken.  That meant that his only common language with the others was English.  Simply put, it had never occurred to me before that moment that English could ever be the lone mutually understood language among those from a country so far away from where the English language originated.  Astonished as I was at this, it simply goes to show how complex the linguistic gymnastic act can become in a part of the world highlighted by such a high degree of linguistic diversity.  When it comes to language, those of us who have only ever needed to know how to speak English seem to have it easy indeed.

Have you had a similar experience? Please comment and share!

Ghoti Spells Fish

How many of you remember your parents or siblings drilling you for the upcoming spelling bee when you were in grade school? R-E-A-D spells “read.”  I like to read.  But wait, R-E-A-D also spells “read,” as in, “I read a good book yesterday.”  English is a funny language when it comes to spelling and the correspondence between letters and sounds.   This is partially because the English language has held on to much of its Old English orthography.  This is a benefit when reading somewhat old historical texts. But, it’s not so great when it comes to teaching spelling, reading, and writing. I’m sure many ESL and elementary school students would agree. Indeed many native adult English speakers, including yours truly, still struggle with spelling.  Isn’t that why they invented spell check?

So take a look at this: G-H-O-T-I spells “fish.”  You may think I need to go back to the 1^st grade, but what if told you the letters ‘gh’ make the [f] sound? Still think I’m crazy?  What about the ‘gh’ in the words enough and rough?  The –o in “women” makes the same sound as the letter –i in “fish.”  And finally, “Nation” and “station” both have the ‘ti’ combo that sounds like /sh/. So, there you have it.  G-H-O-T-I spells fish!

Do you know of any other examples of fun things like this?

10 Misconceptions of Language Learning

Many people want to learn a foreign language but think that they will never be able to due to 10 misconceptions.

1. People generally believe that only children can learn second languages quickly and easily. Current research indicates that children have no biological advantage in learning languages, most second language theory suggest we all have the Language Acquisition Portal in our Brains. Additionally, research says that adults understand vocabulary and learning techniques that can assist them in learning a second language.

2. Generally, people believe the younger the child, the more skilled he or she will be in acquiring a second language. Research has found that older children are better language learners in a school setting, but younger child may have an advantage in learning correct pronunciation.

3. Many people think that we all learn a second language in the same way. Different learning styles and cultural communication methods have an impact on language learning, just as they do on other types of learning.

4. We only need to speak English, everyone does. There are over 6,000 languages in the world. Some are more important than others, not better or more advanced, just more important. Why? Because they are spoken by more people, in more countries.

5. You took a language in High School – You don’t need to learn a language. According to one Canadian survey, after 12 years of daily French classes, only one high school graduate out of 147 (0.68%) achieved “intermediate” proficiency. Another survey of immigrants learning English in the US showed that “classroom instructional hours” had little impact on progress.

6. Language learning is difficult. It is only difficult to learn a language if you don’t want to. Learning a language takes time, but is not difficult. It is the way languages are usually taught that makes language learning hard to like.

7. You have to have a gift for learning languages. No you don’t. Anyone who wants to, can learn. In Sweden and Holland most people speak more than one language. They can’t just all be gifted at languages. Language learning it is attitude, not aptitude, that determines success.

8. You have to live where the language is spoken. Some immigrants to North America never learn to speak more than halting English. Yet we meet people in other countries who speak flawless English. With the Internet, language content is available to anyone with a computer, where you live is not an obstacle.

9. To learn a language you need formal classroom instruction. Theoretical grammatical explanations are hard to understand, hard to remember, and even harder to use. Drills and exercises can be annoying to most people, especially adult learnersa. Learning at your own pace and with a focus on your learning style in mind can help you learn a language easier.

10. You would love to learn but don’t have the time. Once you get started, even 10 or 15 minutes a day will soon grow to 30 minutes a day, or one hour. If you believe you will achieve significant results, and if you enjoy doing it, you will find the time.

What is holding you back from learning a foreign language?