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Hiatus to be ending shortly

Hello all! Just wanted to apologize for disappearing without notice. To those who stuck around, I'll resume updating this blog again when I start school, which is on the last week of August. I'm taking a class about Latin and Greek in current English, so get ready for posts about that awesometasticness, as well as linguistics in general. Later!

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Me on my way to learn your language

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I’M SO ANGRY

SOME 16TH CENTURY ASSHOLE WROTE “GOD B W YE” IN A LETTER AS AN ABBREVIATION FOR “GOD BE WITH YE”

AND IT APPEARED AS “GODBWYE”

WHICH WAS THEN READ AS “GOODBYE”

AND THAT’S WHY WE SAY “GOODBYE”

BECAUSE OF 16TH CENTURY CHAT SPEAK

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I need linguistics people to follow so I can share and laugh at linguistics jokes! Tell me where you are, linguists.....

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OMG so I just figured out the word “hurt”

it’s past, present and future

you will be hurt

you are hurt

you were hurt

BECAUSE IF SOMETHING TRULY HURT, IT NEVER REALLY STOPS

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A linguistic dissection of 7 annoying teenage sounds

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZY2R_K3NFPo Here's the article: http://theweek.com/article/index/244460/a-linguistic-dissection-of-7-annoying-teenage-sounds

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(3) lol :D Hanan =D on @weheartit.com - http://whrt.it/17AAOX0

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In American Sign Language, regional signs do exist?

Absolutely.  ASL can be regional just as English can be regional.  Whether you say “soda”, “pop”, or “coke” varies by where you are in the US, and the use of “sweetheart” and “honey” is more prevalent in the south than in the north.  The same is true for ASL.  A good example of this is the sign for “store”.  In Flint, Michigan, there is a store near the Michigan School for the Deaf that has a statue of a Native American outside.  The children attending the school began signing a variation of “Native American” when talking about the store.  This sign stayed fairly local, and can be used to identify people who attended the school, lived nearby, or learned ASL from someone who attended the school.  It can be fun and interesting to learn the different regional signs, as well as the stories behind them!

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THE POLYGLOT CLUB

Can I just say *screaming*.

Okay wait lemme try that again.

The Polyglot Club is a HUUUUUGE website dedicated to all things polyglot. There are gazillions of people on this website, and it even lets you look for fellow language learners in your area! When you sign up, you input what language(s) you speak well enough to teach, and which ones you’re trying to learn, and then speakers of the languages you’re learning can find you and you can practice with them! You can also write things in the language you’re learning, and have people who speak the language correct what you’ve written, and you can correct other people’s writings, too.

The thing I have pictured above is a newer feature (I guess, I only found the website a day or two ago so everything is new to me!) called the Virtual Study Room. It’s basically a giant chatroom where you can mingle among people from all over the world and find people to practice with, or simply learn new things about the languages they speak. There’s a big room that everyone can join, and then “tables” where you and a smaller group of people can join and discuss things more privately. The tables also have a space where you can draw and write, and I believe there’s an option to actually speak using your computer’s microphone.

The best part I think is you never really know who you’re going to run into or what you’re going to learn. I signed up looking for people to practice Italian with, and wound up having a discussion with a couple Russian people in the Study Room about Russian smiley faces (and in exchange they had me teach them English curse words, lmao). It was really fun, though! I highly recommend this site.

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THIS IS HOW I WILL LEARN DA JAPANESE!

These links work as of 5/7/13.  

None of the links require downloads, plug in installs, or signing up for anything of ANY KIND. Those are just ads, click out of them and press play. If you’re struggling, this chrome plug in will make your life easier. 

Subbed = speaking in japanese with english subtitles

Dubbed = speaking in english (usually with no subtitles)

The Cat Returns: subbed | dubbed

Grave of the Fireflies: subbed | dubbed

Horus: Prince of the Sun: subbed | x

Howl’s Moving Castle: subbed | dubbed

Kiki’s Delivery Service:  subbed | dubbed

Laputa: Castle in the Sky: subbed | dubbed

My Neighbor Totoro:  subbed | dubbed

My Neighbors the Yamadas:  subbed | dubbed

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: subbed | dubbed

Only Yesterday: subbed | x

Panda! Go Panda!: subbed | x

Pom Poko: subbed | dubbed

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea: subbed | dubbed

Porco Rosso: subbed | dubbed

Princess Mononoke: subbed | dubbed

The Secret World of Arrietty: subbed | dubbed

Spirited Away: subbed | dubbed

Tales from Earthsea: subbed | dubbed

Whisper of the Heart: subbed | dubbed

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Japanese Resources

http://creativityjapanese.wordpress.com/online-learning-japanese-resources/

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OH MY GOSH.

This comic worked well for me, I have never studied korean and I was reading some of the signs in the airport on my way to Thailand.

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In M.T. Anderson’s novel Feed, teenagers use words like meg, null, and youch. Words that in our day would mean totally, boring, and hot, in that order. Is it a good idea to create an entirely new teenage vernacular in order to give a more realistic feel to a novel that is set in the future? Consider how any slang that is not from the “now” sounds weird, and even annoying, to modern ears. Nobody says radical or gadzooks anymore. I’m plotting a novel that is set in the future, and I’m curious if readers would be just as annoyed by futuristic slang. What say you?

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It’s my 1-year blogiversary! (And that’s totally a word.) To celebrate, some of my favourite posts of the past year.

Explaining linguistics: 

Analogies for explaining what linguistics is

Lying, presuppositions, and Lizzie Bennet Diaries

Cocktail party linguistics: Explaining English plurals to non-linguists

Exclamation!compounds

Learning and teaching linguistics: 

IPA Bingo

Venn diagram of phonemes

Protolinguistics: 6 ways to do linguistics in high school

What and who is a protolinguist?

(and the entire protolinguist series)

Learning a language:  

12 ways to stop freezing up when you try to speak a second language

Now you’re just a language that I used to know (parody)

How to learn a third language (while keeping your second one)

How to learn vocabulary in 12 steps (using science!)

General fun: 

Quadrilabial clicks

When two wugs love each other very much…

Speaking in IPA

Linguistics tumblr jokes

(and everything tagged linguist humour) 

And finally, a picture of linguistics cupcakes, shamelessly cribbed from thewantsies, although they look so delicious that now I want to make my own. 

I feel obliged to bring to everyone’s attention that there is a terrible lack of pictures of linguistics baked goods on google image search. In fact, this was the only one that I could find. Anyone want to help fix this problem?

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true self control is waiting until the movie starts to eat your popcorn

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Okay. This is a problem that exists because of English but it’s not something immediately taught in Spanish classes and it could really hurt your chances of getting a job in the field of Spanish if you don’t know it.

When writing a letter in English it’s common to start if off as: Dear ___,

And that’s used for anyone. “Dear” is used for friends, colleagues, potential employers, teachers, the president etc.

In Spanish there are two forms of the word and this is SUPER important.

There’s “Querido/a” and “Estimado/a”

Querido/a means “dear” as in “you’re my buddy and I love you”. It’s also sometimes translated as “beloved” for intimate partners as it’s connected to querer which has a secondary meaning of “to love/be fond of”.

Estimado/a means “honorable/esteemed” as in “you’re someone I don’t want to offend so I’m elevating you by giving you this title because I respect you”.

A good judge of when to use querido/a or estimado/a is if you’re on a first-name basis with this person and they’re not in charge of you querido should be okay. Estimado is for people you’re on a last-name basis with or they’re people that should be respected or people you’ve never met.

If you find this too difficult there’s the reliable “Mr./Mrs.” approach. Note that many of these titles can be abbreviated.

Sr. - Señor | Mr. - Mister

Sra. - Señora | Mrs. - Madame/Ma’am (Typically Sra. is used for married women though it’s used for ladies typically over the age of 18, regardless of marital status today.)

Srta. - Señorita | Miss (Typically used for ladies under 18. It used to be for unmarried women but it became almost insulting to refer to an older woman as Srta. which implied she was a spinster.)

Dr. - Doctor - Used for doctors, medical or PhD

Dra. - Doctora | Dr. (female) - Spanish has a gender attached to doctors so when the doctor, medical or PhD, is a woman it’s Dra.

D. - Don | Mr./Lord - Don is a title of nobility and it implies “lord” although in our mostly non-feudal society, it implies a man who owns a lot of land as the Master of his estate or a very rich man.

Dña - Doña | Madame/Lady - Doña is the female equivalent of a Don, so it implies “Madame” or the “Lady of the house/estate”. It’s used for women who are married to rich men or women who were already rich. It tends to imply a woman of good repute or someone who owns property/businesses.

Doncella - Young Miss - The diminutive of doña. Very archaic except in certain circumstances it’s commonly translated as “maiden” and it’s archaic because it typically is connected to the idea that this girl is a virgin but young daughters of a Don/Doña sometimes carry this title.

Usted / Ustedes - typically shortened to Ud. and Uds. in written speech. It’s a way of saying “you” and “you all” when talking to or about colleagues who deserve respect or hold positions of power.

V o Vd. / Vds. - Is another way of writing Ud. or Uds., but perhaps a bit more formal since it comes from vuestra merced and vuestras mercedes which is an honorable way of addressing someone, having its roots in something like “your grace” or “my lord”

Su/Vuestra señoría - Today it means “your honor” when referring to a judge or a person of high regard; in its archaic setting it means “your lordship” or “your ladyship” and even if it’s a male judge it’s said as vuestra if you’re using it. Most people use su though.

*Prof. / Profesor - Professor - Sometimes used. Not always. Usually people write it out because…

*Prof.ª / Profesora - Never written as “profa”. The little a is sometimes hard to find so people usually write it out as profesora. 

*Never write “el/la profe” because that’s slang for teacher. It’s like calling your teacher “teach”.

NEVER use querido/a for your teachers or potential employers.

It makes you look like you’re their best friend. The equivalent is kind of like “Yo, Teach” or “Yo, Boss”. And it’s a good way to show that you’re either not proficient in Spanish enough to be talking or dealing with potential customers/clients/representatives etc. or that you’re way too friendly with people who are not really your friend.

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For anyone who is studying Japanese this site is a GREAT resource! Tons of animated Children’s books to read. Yeah yeah I said children’s books but it is super helpful for people who are not that strong with Kanji but know hiragana and katakana! Happy Studying!