Thursday, September 11, 2008

MORE LINGUISTIC MUSINGS

This article, about the Italians voting for their least favourite English incursions into their language, has amused me.

I have always rather admired the French for their fervour in trying to protect their language but the Italians, though concerned, do not take themselves so seriously: “OK” or “buon weekend” are shorter and snappier than the Italian equivalents, so that is “OK” with them! All languages have their fascinating characteristics and the genius of English often lies in its economy. Perhaps the Italians have an inner confidence , too, knowing full well that the language of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and of most opera would be hard to eradicate.

It is, of course, utterly mad to attempt to control language: the Dante Alighieri Society, which commissioned the poll, ironically exists precisely because what we now recognise as modern Italian evolved from Latin. These days, language is changing so fast that dictionaries have to be updated every 2 years.

Esperanto and other “invented” languages never really took off because “real” language contains thousands of cultural overtones which they cannot hope to reproduce: English, for instance, is full of references to Shakespeare which most of us do not realise we are using on a daily basis.

A friend of mine back in old Cardiff disapproves entirely of “text” language, though I keep trying to persuade her that this is just an adapatation of language for a specific purpose. What else are all abbreviations, codes and job-specific jargon? [I would agree, though, that it all gets a bit much when teachers have to “instruct” students not to use “text style” in their GCSE English exams!]

Language, as I am always telling my students, is a living form, always changing and evolving with its users. It changes first and later – usually much later – someone writes the rules! No one just “decided“ that a “book” would be “masculine” and a “pen” “feminine” in Italian and French: people started using whichever definite or indefinite article seemed easier to them and afterwards the grammatical rules were written as a way of explaining the usage.

Incidentally, long ago my Italian professor told me that his favourite English word was “conglomeration”!

23 comments:

Ellee Seymour said...

"Conglomeration" has a lovely ring about it. It's like lots of words in one.

Crushed said...

Have you ever heard Romanian being spoken?

It's quite bizarre, it IS actually comprehensible to anyone whe knows a little French- or any Romance language.

In fact, I think it's second only to Italian in terms of romance Purity- french acquireda fair few foreign words.

Gerry Blackwell said...

Just discovered your blog - great stuff. My wife and I are coming to live in Siracusa for three months in 09 to avoid the co-o-o-old Canadan winter. (Can I e-mail you outside Blogger to pick your brains? Hmmm, is it kosher to ask this?)

Anonymous said...

WL -

I've wondered before whether those who object to "text" language are old enough to remember "telegraphese". Way back when, the basic rate for a telegram included only a dozen or so words. Any words over the basic rate were charged for. Likewise, the basic rate for a text message is 160 characters. Both telegrams and text messages led to abbreviated forms of writings. So what has changed?

CherryPie said...

I am ok with text message speak too, but only on my mobile! It means you can say more for less.

I love the word conglomeration!

Wolfie said...

I'll confess that I have such a hatred of the phone text language abbreviations that I bought some special software for my phone that constructs full words and inserts all the punctuation for you.

I send quite long messages to people now.

Andrew Allison said...

Serendipity is my favorite word in the English language.

Nancy said...

Interested post, something I hadn't heard about in Europe. Here in the US, we have Univision, a Spanish language television channel. It's fun to watch every so often and hear the English words sprinkled in, even if it's someone's name, it sounds funny to go from Spanish to their name in perfect unaccented English.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Yes, it does, Ellee. Crushes, no, I haven't but I did know it was one of the romance languages.
Gerry, thank you for your kind words about my blog and I would be delighted to help:
lasiciliana629@hotmail.com
Ludlingtonian, how lovely to hear from you! Yes, I am old enough to remmber "telegraphese" and you are quite right.
Me, too, cherrypie.
Ciao, AA. Yes, that is a lovely word.

jmb said...

My favourite Italian word is gioielleria.

Richard Havers said...

I have a word atlas of Britain, it's one of my favourite books.

Dragonstar said...

"Speedwriting" was once pushed as more accessible than Pittman's shorthand for secretaries. I remember the ads - "Gt a btr jb fo mo pay" or something of the sort. Text-speak is easier!

James Higham said...

A conglomeration of wise thoughts here,

Damon Lord said...

Nice blogpost; I agree with a fair bit of it.

Have you ever considered these borrowings in different languages from English, etc.? They are 'loaned'... but how often are they returned? ;)

With regards to the implications that Esperanto does not have any cultural nuances: as a speaker of Esperanto, I can assure you that it does indeed have its own cultural nuances, characteristics and peculiarities. Knowing a few denaska (from-birth) speakers of Esperanto too, I can also assure you it is a real living language, despite its artificial origins.

You've inspired me now: I might address perceptions in a blogpost over on my own blog sometime soon (if I get time; ho multe occupato and excuse my poor Italian, it's been a few years since I studied it). Thanks for giving me inspiration for a future potential linguistics blogpost!

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi, Nancy and welcome to my blog. I can just imagine that - it must be fun. Hi, Wolfie. I don't have any software like that but I just cannot bring myself to send unpunctuated texts! My friends think I am mad. That's a nice one, too, jmb. RH, I can imagine that would be a lovely book to have. Hi, dragonstar. I never thought of that! Blimey, James - I've said something wise? I need a drink! Hi, damon and thank you for commenting. Interesting about the "return" of these borrowings. I did once study Esperanto and am aware that it has a literature but I do not know as much about it as you do, so I am very much looking forward to your post on the subject.Thank you so much for your kind words.

LordSomber said...

"Conglomeration" is made up of Latin parts, though.
Dictionary:
[Origin: 1620–30; < LL conglomerātiōn- (s. of conglomerātiō), equiv. to conglomerāt(us) conglomerate + -iōn- -ion]

Italian translation software: "conglomerazione; conglomerato"

Interesting list, because many of the English words originally came from other languages.
"Mission" is from French/Latin and "shampoo" is Hindu, I think.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Thank you Lord Somber. Yes, very few words are "pure" and it is all endlessly interesting. I enjoy your blog but, not being very arty, I often don't know what to say!

Leslie: said...

My favourite word in French is "papillon."

Italian is "Ciao Bella!" if I receive it from a bello gentleman. lol

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Great words, Leslie!

Whispering Walls said...

What's your favourite Italian word, WL (not including acqua!)?

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

WW, "acqua" would be a candidate, as would "pazienza"! I'm going to cheat, a a bit like Leslie, and cite 2 here: "bella bionda", as I was called long ago, in my heyday!

Whispering Walls said...

I'm sure people still call you that, WL. Perhaps you should rename your blog?

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

I think it's a bit late for both, WW!

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