Spoonerisms occur when you switch the first letter of a word, with a first letter of another word in the same sentence, often making you feel pretty dumb. This happens to me most often when I am speaking rather quickly so all the words start to jumble together causing me to speak in spoonerisms. There are some people however, who intentionally speak in spoonerisms for comedic purposes. There is man that visits the Arizona Renaissance Festival every year, and his act is performing well known stories in spoonerisms. I have been listening to these stories since before I could understand what the heck this guy was saying because my parents think he is one of the funniest people ever. So without further ado, I present to you Zilch the Torysteller.
Little Red Riding Hood
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Blog 8 - Dying Languages
I actually found a website this week that is completely dedicated to the preservation of endangered languages. It is set up so that speakers of that language can post audio clips, videos or even documents written in that language. According to the site, many of these languages are still at risk of being lost by the turn of the century. It makes me sad to think that with all the resources we have in the world at this point in time, we are still unable to share enough of these endangered languages to keep them alive.
This is a Video of Woman Speaking Taa that I found on that website. There are many more videos from different languages.
http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/
This is a Video of Woman Speaking Taa that I found on that website. There are many more videos from different languages.
http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Blog 7- Slang
This week I found a video on slang. That thing that interests me about slang is how much a word or phrase can change over time to have a different meaning. Or how slang can change just by traveling to different parts of the country or world. This video is specifically about slang used for sex. I know there are TONS of euphemisms out there even now that don't really make any sense, but some of these phrases were so off the wall that I couldn't help but wonder how the heck someone came up with them. A few of my favorites are night psychic, play at rumpscuttle and clapperdepouch, and hootchie-pap.
Old Timey Phrases for Sex
Old Timey Phrases for Sex
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Blog 6- Sounds of Language
We spoke briefly in class about when one gets hurt in English, you exclaim "OWW!", but what do other people say in other languages?
This is a cute cartoon drawing of the different sounds people make in other languages from kissing, eating and drinking to the sounds dogs, cats or pigeons make.
I thought it was pretty interesting because I did know that some of those words would be different, but what surprised me was the animal sounds. When we make animal sounds, we imitate what that animal sounds like to us, so I thought it was interesting to see how different language interpret those same sounds into different words.
Sounds in other Languages
This is a cute cartoon drawing of the different sounds people make in other languages from kissing, eating and drinking to the sounds dogs, cats or pigeons make.
I thought it was pretty interesting because I did know that some of those words would be different, but what surprised me was the animal sounds. When we make animal sounds, we imitate what that animal sounds like to us, so I thought it was interesting to see how different language interpret those same sounds into different words.
Sounds in other Languages
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Blog 5- Ambiguity
Ambiguity Board Game
I found this board game called "Ambiguity". It is played with regular 6-sided dice that have different letters on the different sides. When the dice are rolled, you are supposed to look at the dice from many different angles to see which different letters you can see and make as many words as you can from those letters. The player with the most words created wins the game.
I like the idea of this game because we talked about the ambiguity of sentence structure, but never really talked about the ambiguity of the letters in the English language. When looked at from different angles, many of the letters could be perceived as other letters.
I like the idea of this game because we talked about the ambiguity of sentence structure, but never really talked about the ambiguity of the letters in the English language. When looked at from different angles, many of the letters could be perceived as other letters.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Blog 4- Texts and the English Language
Is Texting Killing the English Language?
I should preface this whole review by saying it appears that 2 other people posted about this article last week and I clearly didn't notice. Sorry for the repeat!
The article above is about how texting does (or does not) affect written language. In the article, the author talks about how texting is much more of a spoken language that happens to be written down as apposed to a written language itself.
I found that point quite interesting because I have always thought about texting as another form of written language, because it is quite literally, written down. The author goes on to explain that language has been spoken for upwards of 80,000 years, whereas written language only dates back 5,500 years. And the way we write is very different than the way we speak. Which I had never considered, but I do write in a more formal manner than I speak.
The author does say that he does not believe that texting is having a negative affect on young student's writing but I tend to disagree with that. I think that many people will see texting the same way I do, as a written language. And that will translate directly to their school work. Their writing will be more casual with the potential for more shorthand that is seen in texts and on the internet. I do not believe that all students will be affected by text shorthand, but some definitely will.
I would like to see more studies done on the subject. I don't know if it would even be possible, but I would like to see a formal study done on how the written language has changed and if there could be a possible link drawn between text shorthand and the written language we see now.
I should preface this whole review by saying it appears that 2 other people posted about this article last week and I clearly didn't notice. Sorry for the repeat!
The article above is about how texting does (or does not) affect written language. In the article, the author talks about how texting is much more of a spoken language that happens to be written down as apposed to a written language itself.
I found that point quite interesting because I have always thought about texting as another form of written language, because it is quite literally, written down. The author goes on to explain that language has been spoken for upwards of 80,000 years, whereas written language only dates back 5,500 years. And the way we write is very different than the way we speak. Which I had never considered, but I do write in a more formal manner than I speak.
The author does say that he does not believe that texting is having a negative affect on young student's writing but I tend to disagree with that. I think that many people will see texting the same way I do, as a written language. And that will translate directly to their school work. Their writing will be more casual with the potential for more shorthand that is seen in texts and on the internet. I do not believe that all students will be affected by text shorthand, but some definitely will.
I would like to see more studies done on the subject. I don't know if it would even be possible, but I would like to see a formal study done on how the written language has changed and if there could be a possible link drawn between text shorthand and the written language we see now.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Blog 3- Language Learning and Disabilities
http://www.ldonline.org/article/6366/
This article hypothesizes that there is a direct relationship between the learning of languages and learning disabilities. It explains that children who are considered "late talkers" may have other learning disabilities that contribute to the inability to communicate effectively at a young age.
Previous studies conducted on this theory, have only followed children to a certain age, in which the children have outgrown their communication delay. The study discussed in this article followed children starting at the age of 2, when they were labeled as "late talkers" all the way through the second grade. At first appearance, it followed the same lines as the previous study; the children were able to communicate effectively to their parents and teachers. However, the older the children became, the researchers began to notice a variety of things among the children from a lack of academic readiness to social skill deficits. And although, by the age of 5, the language disorder decreased, by 6-7, they began to notice reading disabilities.
It is not surprising that if we were to have a hard time learning to communicate in a language that we would naturally, also have a hard time reading and understanding that same language at some point in the future. But just because a child may have a learning delay early in life, does not guarantee they will have future problems. It simply provides the first clue that we may need to help our child more with difficulties they could face later in life.
This article hypothesizes that there is a direct relationship between the learning of languages and learning disabilities. It explains that children who are considered "late talkers" may have other learning disabilities that contribute to the inability to communicate effectively at a young age.
Previous studies conducted on this theory, have only followed children to a certain age, in which the children have outgrown their communication delay. The study discussed in this article followed children starting at the age of 2, when they were labeled as "late talkers" all the way through the second grade. At first appearance, it followed the same lines as the previous study; the children were able to communicate effectively to their parents and teachers. However, the older the children became, the researchers began to notice a variety of things among the children from a lack of academic readiness to social skill deficits. And although, by the age of 5, the language disorder decreased, by 6-7, they began to notice reading disabilities.
It is not surprising that if we were to have a hard time learning to communicate in a language that we would naturally, also have a hard time reading and understanding that same language at some point in the future. But just because a child may have a learning delay early in life, does not guarantee they will have future problems. It simply provides the first clue that we may need to help our child more with difficulties they could face later in life.
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