History Revealed

Every word I type to you now, every syllable, every sound, a product of nations and invasions alike. A developed and refined communication of every race to have set foot on British soil. Language that we use today as a nation has generally been subject to at least four changes in its lifetime, though through years of study, a common conclusion found is that there is a staple and core language. This language had such influence that it shaped English as we know it today, and it belonged to the Anglo Saxons, who gave to us 'Old English'.

 

Old English is well known for its construction of locational names, being the tongue to have created Wessex, Northumbria and Kent etc. but where did it all begin? Aware that the Saxons were not the first inhabitants of the British Isles, I understand that there must have been a language prior, and so we begin with the Celtics. 'Celtic' is a name given to the people and language that made up the majority of Britain before Roman Invasion. There were two strands to the Celtic language; Brythonic, being native to the Welsh and Cornish; and Goidelic, native to the Irish and Scottish settlers.

The Celtics, first to name the British villages, chose one situated in northeasterly England to call Caer Ebruac. It was taken by the following settlers, the Romans, who brought Latin influence with them. They took this name and proclaimed the same village to later be called Eboracum. Next the Anglo Saxons took their turn in developing the area, they are said to have substituted 'Ebor' for the Saxon word 'Eofor' meaning boar, creating Eoforwic. After this, subject to Viking pronunciation 'wic' then became 'vik' in 'Jorvik', which in modern English gives us the translation 'York'. The Names of most any county, town, or village in Britain, is likely to be the product of such borrowings, clippings, formations and blends.

 

Philologists have shown cohesive patterns between German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Modern English seems to harbor these same fundamental rules, telling us that English is in fact a Germanic language; leading researchers to believe that these languages must be strands from a common ancestral tongue. These findings have helped to aid the estimations of Old English pronunciation, although of course there is no certainty without any hard evidence to go on. Spelling pronunciation should theoretically have a stronger form in written representation, as it is unlikely that Old English used 'silent letters'. Another way we can try to emulate the soundings of the Anglo Saxon language is by using the Latin alphabet, something the Saxons would have studied and taught.

 

Our Language as we know it may come across as a typically structured pattern of words, but there is more then what meets the eye. Although evidence is not in plentiful supply to support claims for the English language, it is unquestionable that it is built upon layers and reformations. Every word has a story.   

What's football without a sing-song?

According to most nothing beats becoming a world class footballer. Doing what you love and getting paid more in a week than the number you can count up to. Being adored by thousands and hovering up 'clunge' like it's going out of fashion. The beauty of the football melody is that no matter how rich, foreign and talented the player on the pitch is, nothing can stop Dave from down the road screaming abuse at him from the terraces on a Saturday afternoon.

 

The soccer singalong has a vast history and can be traced back to 19^th century. Norwich City's 'On The Ball City' is seen as the oldest anthem still in use. Our footy hymns became popular in the 1950s, influenced by Brazil who spurred on their team to a samba beat. Pop music had an influence on the chants of Liverpool in '60s due to the success of the Beatles and this is when aspects like rhyme and repetition played an important role. The rise of hooliganism in the 1970s led fans to adapt pop hits due to their desire for 'aggro'.

 

However most chants heard today will have specific targets. I think that the tidal wave of jealousy we get while watching these individuals causes us to verbally blitz them in this way. Some attacks on players I've come across include "Ten men went to lift, went to lift Frank Lampard. Ten men and their forklift truck went to lift Frank Lampard" also a player named Andy Goram returned after being diagnosed with schizophrenia to a chorus of "There's only two Andy Gorams, two Andy Gooooorams". The thing that always really baffles me about a football melody is how they are born in the first place. I can never get my head around how they go from a couple of balding, beer drinking geezers, sipping a pint of wife-beater down the local, to a well known anthem that can be confidently sung by a chorus of terrace overlords on matchday, even if it's about events that happened just days before. Or how the rhymes and references can catch on in a flash and stick around for years. What's so special about them?

 

I've discovered that there are several secrets to a knock-out footy tune. Firstly a good rhyme, however simple, is a must and found in most chants. Also a tonne of repetition is key as I found with "Could be worse, we could be Leeds, could be worse, we could be Leeds" and so on. As in most poems, a footy ballad works well with a good story. Or occasionally a chant can catch on with words that aren't actually proper words - "De de de de, de de de der. De de de de, de de de der. De de de de, de de de der, De de de de, de de de der" is a tune sung by the Middlesbrough faithful entitled 'Pigbag'.

 

Another mysterious aspect of the chant is how most football fanatics are characterised to be a few beers short of a six pack yet the professors of the pitch still manage to concoct a pretty decent rhyme as soon as the clock strikes three and nearly all include a handful of language devices. Maybe the terrace monkeys aren't so dense after all. 

Luke Fortmann

Blog

Infant-directed speech

The first documented use of the word baby-talk, according to the oxford English dictionary was in 1836. Motherese and parentese are more precise terms than baby talk. When babies are first born speaking is an important part in the bonding process between parent and child, this was researched found by Rima Shore. Infants pay more attention when parents use infant direct language. This includes slow and repetitive tones that would be used in normal conversation. This is shown in other languages as well as English. Further research has shown that infant directed speech may contribute to the infant's attention, their phonetic boundaries and will show positive and negative emotions. All round, the more expressive the infant directed speech is the more likely they are to respond well to this method and the better they will become at communicating.

Baby language will often involve shortening and simplifying words, but also utterances. It is known that parents will create words like 'wa-wa' for water, 'num-num' for a meal, 'beddy bye' for bed time or 'ba-ba' for bottle. This can involve family member's names, animals and some non verbal utterances such as' goo-goo-ga-ga'. This in some research has shown to affect the Childs vocabulary as they grow older. However, surely education in schools may vary their vocab and strengthen it. Are children really remembering their language from such an early age of let's say, 18 months? Parents are just creating words by logical meanings and using those nonverbal sounds to just fit speech together for a child.

For an infant English pronunciation can be mistaken and differenced in many ways. For example consonants like /l/ into /w/ as lolly to wolly or widdo from little. Other common ones are /v/ as /b/ and /ð/ or /t/ as /d/. It is a type of eye dialect which is the use of non-standard spelling for speech to bring attention to pronunciation. This term was originally coined by George P. Krapp to refer to literary technique of using non-standard spelling that implies pronunciation of the given word that is actually standard e.g. 'wimm' for women. This sort of speech can be referred to as dialectal, foreign or uneducated. Babies when they first start to talk do sound like they have a speech problem as they get mixed up with the consonants which are normally outgrown by 5-6. However some children struggle still with speech impairment and will go on in the future to have speech therapy. Something interesting to think about too, is an English infant may elongate vowels such as kitty to 'kiiiiitty'. For a Dutch infant they know that elongated vowels refer to different words.

Infant directed speech will include higher pitch, long vowels, pauses between phonemes and this is all done in order for the child to process what they are learning and to be able to link the words in sentences. Every child does it, and every child will develop their own individual style of speaking, a strong idiolect. But should kids be allowed to be kids? Recent studies have shown that children in schools have not been pronouncing words in Standard English manner. When researching this on the internet I came across an article written by 'NEWS' about children in Essex being given elocution lessons. Teachers have said that writing and spelling has improved since the lessons were brought in. Essex has had bad media in the past for the way they pronounce, but surely, that contributes to an individual? Speech starts as a baby and only more research by professionals can be done in order to reveal if it really does affect how we spell, pronounce and write in English.

Imahn Szabo

The Language of Musicians

Tamara Phipps:

Have you ever been at a gig and heard the roadies performing a sound check? For all the sense they make at times; musicians may as well be speaking German. This is because they use several distinct features of language on a regular basis when talking to one another.

 

The first feature of language that crops up in musical speech is specific terminology, or specific words from the musical lexis. A specific lexis is a group of words that are all related to each other by association. For example, the words surgery, transfusion, nurse, x-ray and scalpel are all specific to the medical lexis, although there is always some crossover where many words belong to more than one lexis. When musicians speak, they use terminology that is mostly unique to the musical lexis. For example "In the fourth bar of the middle-eight on the second track, can we change the Gm to a Dm, and add in another push on the crash?" That's a fairly specific example, but there is a lot of specific terminology used in music.

 

When specific terminology doesn't apply, or more likely the musicians in question can't remember the word they are looking for, metaphors and similes are used instead. Metaphors are words or phrases that are used to describe something by using a phrase that is not literally applicable. For example, "England is a melting pot of culture." Of course, England is not literally a melting pot; the phrase is just describing the fact that England has a lot of different cultures all coming together and influencing each other. Musicians use it in much the same way, for example "When you play that bit just after the bridge, make it sound kind of choppy and stabby." Obviously the musician in question isn't going to physically stab or chop the piano, but it is just another way of telling the piano player to keep the notes staccato. Similes work in much the same way. A simile is the act of describing something by comparing or likening it to something else. To quote The Beatles: "It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog." For musicians, it's more like "That riff needs to be lightning quick!"

 

Further still, if musicians cannot remember the terminology, or think of a metaphor or simile to describe what they are trying to tell the others, they will frequently use onomatopoeias instead. Onomatopoeias are words that are formed from the sound that they represent, e.g. bang, crash, cuckoo. When musicians use onomatopoeias, it is to replace terminology, or lack of any words to express the sound they are looking for. E.g. "In that bit, instead of just hitting the crash, how about you go ba-dum-dum-psh, on the toms and then hit it afterwards?"

 

Overall, musicians use a wide range of language features to communicate, resulting in a special 'language' of their own. As strange as it sounds at times, without it, we may not have certain parts of the great music we have today!

 

Does the media affect the language we speak?

Can it be possible that  the use of media that is available to us will eventually lead to the local dialects that used to be able to thrive disappearing all together?

 I have noticed over the last few years that some people have began to adopt Lexis and in some cases phonetic traits that occur in dialects that would usually not occur in the one typically associated with the south of England, it appears to be typically a more American dialect that occasionally becomes noticeable. it never appears too obvious, the occasional replacement of trousers with "pants" or chips with "fries" but never consistently, these changes seem to show that the media we watch may begin effect the way in which we speak.

A research paper published by the university of Glasgow worked under the hypothesis that the high levels television that has been produced in eastern London watched by the local adolescent population of Glasgow led to a noticeable change from the way in which they would typically pronounce certain words. the results of this paper show a marked rise in the use of certain phonetic traits that would be typically linked to an east London accent,for instance the use of /f/ in the place of /th/ in words such at 'think'; they also found an increase in the pronunciation of the /L/ in words such as milk. This led them to the conclusion that the amount of television or audible media that one watches or listens to on a regular basis can lead to differences in dialect.

Another way in which the media affects the dialect is through the internet, this occurs more frequently in the formation of Lexis as it creates a new communion that has its own lexical field. This Lexis is usually covert prestige and is used to convey humor. These fields of Lexis are usually used exclusively online. The way in which this may effect the way in which people speak is the fact that recently words typically only used online have began to become commonplace in many peoples vocabulary, acronyms such as 'LOL' or 'ROFL' have become common in spoken English. Many people go so far as to express emotion through the use of phrases such as (XD) that when typed appear to show a smiling face but spoken would usually convey no meaning. Whether or not this does indeed foreshadow the eventual death of the language doesn't matter, all this suggests is that media appears to create changes in the language and dialect that may not occur otherwise.

James Wood

Gossip queens or intellectual females?!

Many people, of both sexes, believe that woman talk more so than men; but is this actually true?

While we may agree with this statement, what evidence supports and contradicts it is quite a different matter.

While researching I have discovered numerous hypothesis that suggests woman tend to gossip more ,while men “talk shop”. A long with this states that women talk using more ‘bossy’ language while men somehow use more so ‘firm’ language. But who writes these, and with what evidence?

 

Infact men have proven to talk more in such situations as husband and wife conversations (Soskin and John 1963), often speaking with more depth and detail.

Many researches found men are more likely to interrupt than women, and that usually it is the women who are interrupted by the men.

 

Furthermore, it appears that women use standard speech forms much more so than men, i.e. Standard English. This appears to be true over many different languages and classes. Such examples that were found in the difference of speech include:

-Men are more likely to drop the “g” sound. For example, swimming becoming ‘swimmin’.

-“Ain’t” is much more frequent in men.

-Men are much more likely to use double negatives implying a less intelligent and educational background.

 

These points are argued between researchers as to why; some believe that social status is more important to women and therefore they attempt to demonstrate their status in a more so respectful manner. However, it could also be argued that the pressure of society to behave better than men could lead them to this. Acting ‘ladylike’ is expected in adults and this could be a main reason for speaking more so ‘proper’.

 

Theorist Robin Lackoff suggested that much conversations were controlled by the ‘politeness principle’. These specified in the following three maxims:

-don’t impose

-give options

-make your receiever feel good

She also stated that in this society, it is mainly male dominated and therefore women’s speech patterns are created by the subordinate roles. Looking into women’s speech she noticd numerous features:

-hedges and fillers, “y’know”, “’sort of”

-tag questions, “that’s right, isn’t it?”

-indirect request forms, “would you mind opening that?”

She argued that these features portrayed and reflected women’s lack of confidence; opposite to male’s linguistics, women’s appeared less direct and assertive.

 

However, it appears that Lackoff’s theory is outdated. In today’s society, people are from different backgrounds, class and ages and all can affect the use of language as well as how frequent they use it. You can’t necessarily test this due to the number of factors that could change one’s use of speech.

I do though believe that language can contribute to lack of power and status. It can present our background but also give people the chance to stereotype. O’Barr and Atkins were linguists that questioned Lackoff’s theory. They believe that speech behaviours can be a reflection of social status, and this seems more so believable in today’s society.

 

Lydia Harris

 

 

Paige Modestou: Language features of poetry

The Language In Poetry

 

There are many different features of language in poetry. Usually poems will consist of these 6 main features; Alliteration, which is the repetition of consonant sounds at the start of a word, for example: The sun sizzled softly in the warm afternoon. Onomatoepia, which is a word that imitates the sound that it describes, for example: The balloon popped in my ear. Rhyme, which is when the clause/sentence has a beat to it, for example: I really love custard and I have a dog called Bustard. Assonance, which is the repetition of a vowel sound. It's different from rhyme because it does not need to be at the end of each line. An example of assonance is: how now brown cow. Rhythm, which is a repeated beat through the poem, it is simply just the rhyme repeated. The last feature is repetition which is the repetition of a word, sentence or phrase.
 
Children's poetry usually consists of the 6 features, this may be because it is basic to start them off with. As they grow up we can then introduce them to more complex terms like, a blank verse which is a verse comprised of unrhymed lines. Connotation which is implied or additional meaning or association with different meanings. Motif which is a recurring theme or symbol, for example, in the poem limbo there is a repeated, constant chant. Pathetic fallacy which is the attribution of human feelings or responses to inanimate things or to animals. These features are more likely to be found in poems aimed at an older or more mature audience.
The theme of a poem talks about the main idea, the thought behind what the poet wants to convey. A theme can be anything from a description about a person or a thing, or a thought or story. A theme stands for whatever the poem is about.
 
Similes can be used to add to the beauty of a poem. This is done with the use of "as" or "like" to create comparisons to make the lines more understandabe and expressive. For example a line that goes "her laughter was like a hyena's," the poet is comparing the laughter to a hyena's which makes the idea more clear for the reader and they understand. Similes are optional but important elements of poetry.
 
A metaphor is similar to a simile in the way that it is making a comparison but it is much more complex. The poet is comparing but also applying the term or phrase to something that it is not literally. For example "I am a cold ice cube." The poet obviously cannot be an ice cube but they are implying that they are so cold they have turned in to one. A metaphor can be a very powerful feature of poetry.

Second language speaks mistakes

 

 

When you go on holiday to a well built up British place, you consistently bombarded with incorrectly spelt advertisements or even the use of the wrong word. What makes English spelling harder to grasp than any other? And what makes the English language the hardest to learn?

The most common mistakes than we hear from a second language speaker is the plural vs. singular. As first language speakers we tend to ignore this. For example 'catched' instead of 'caught' 'tooths' instead of 'teeth'. These plural words don't stand within the general tenses rule of adding 's' or 'es'. Even when I type this Microsoft word is correcting 'tooths' into 'tooth's'. Without a doubt while growing up and learning the language we made the same mistakes.

In the English language we have lots of words which mean completely different things but look similar concentrate vs. concentrated. Although one means to engage in something and another means to remove the liquid, concentrated looks the past tense on concentrate. Although second language speakers can understand the English language better than first language speakers due to understanding  the mistakes.

Not using articles is really common for example 'I use laptop'  as in some language there isn't a definite or indefinite distinction. Also there is the opposite of using the article where it isn't need e.g. 'I enjoy the watching animals' . without having a meaning for the word 'the' it's difficult for second language speaks to understand the idea and concept of when and where to use it.

Prepositions like 'to' is misused in English language by second language speakers 'give it me' these small  are ignored or forgotten about because we still understand what they are saying and the reason of speech only because of the simplification taken place.

The use of superlative and comparatives in second language. Understanding the difference between big, bigger, biggest. For example 'more big' 'less big'. This is because in some languages they just add prefixes 'more' 'less' instead of adding endings. This makes it difficult for learners are without a direct translation the words key elements aren't important as in their naïve language works without them.

'I go shopping before'. Tenses in the English language are complicated and contain no rules. For example past simple, past perfect, past progressive and past perfect continuous, as native speakers naturally we don't get this wrong and most English first language speakers don't even know these classes of tenses even exist. For a second language speaker the different between 'she took ages to meet me' and 'she take ages to met me' may not even be noticeable to non native speakers. Using a present verb and a past verb completely make this conversation hard of hearing even when first language speakers understand clearly.

With all these multiple meanings, small word and tons and tons of tense words makes learning the British language the hardest in the world. Without rules and the lexical changes of words we all learn new things of the language every day.

Heidi Jabbari

Do you speak like a Psychopath?

     Being able to speak and write emotionally and intellectually is seen as a skill as many people struggle with the concepts and theory of language, not because they lack the intelligence or emotion. However, psychopaths are taken out of this bracket due to the fact they are labelled to have low emotional capability, therefore it seems that from a linguistic analysis point of view surely there may be different patterns between a non-psychopaths linguistics to a psychopaths. For instance, research has shown that someone who is a narcissist will use personal pronouns much more within their speech, such as , 'I' and 'me', due to the primary concern they have with themselves. This kind of research shows that your linguistic choices could potentially show personality characteristics, which becomes very important and useful when trying to 'catch' a psychopath.
     Research investigating, 'Cohesion in texts produced by psychopathic and non-psychopathic criminal inmates' has found that there is a difference in pitch and voice emphasis, therefore focusing on paralinguistics. The researchers found that there is not a change between neutral and emotional words for psychopaths but this is frequent for non-psychopaths. Other research done by M.T Woodworth and S.Porter show how they found that psychopath's language is less emotionally intense but that they use past-tense verbs in their narrative more, showing the linguistic analysis that they have a detachment from the crime due to the choice of their linguistics. They also found that the psychopaths had more dis-fluencies and fillers, such as, 'um' and 'er'. It is believed that this tendency is to hide their sanity. An important difference they found between non-psychopaths and psychopaths is the subject matter of their speech. For psychopaths they found that they relied on talking about material needs such as food, drink and money, whereas the non-psychopaths tended to focus on family and religion. Therefore this research could help define the motives and thoughts behind the criminal minds of psychopaths.
    When people are labelled with disorders, such as a being 'psychopath' this means that they are 'different 'from the majority of the general population. Whereas with the non-psychopathic murderer the characteristic profile can be made as they are like me and you (obviously without the murder part), which allows the police to understand the criminal and the crime. However with the psychopathic criminals their linguistics and body Language are hard to piece together, therefore this research allows the police to get a better understanding of them as potentially they are very dangerous to society.

Megan Banks

Paralympic Language: Do's and Don'ts

The 2012 Olympics and Paralympics have been particularly memorable for Great Britain, the country proudly hosting the events this year, and there was no doubt that our country's excitement and achievements would be portrayed through the media. Journalists, bloggers and TV presenters have been incredibly busy to ensure that the public have been kept up-to-date on all events and specific highlights.

The Olympics, from the 27th of July to the 12th of August, was broadcasted by the BBC which provided live footage of events, medal ceremonies and interviews with medal winners and competitors. However journalists and TV presenters of Channel 4, broadcasting the Paralympics, may have found themselves harboring many questions and reservations as to what language to use when addressing disability for worry of being "a patronizing bore," said Channel 4 presenter Georgie Bingham, or offending disabled people. 

The language used during the Paralympics by journalists and TV presenters should portray the athletes' individuality. "Disabled people", featured in Jeremy Dear's article in the Disability Now Newspaper, is an acceptable term to use as opposed to "The disabled". The use of the article "the" implies a generic group without individuality, disempowering the athletes. 

Additionally, according to Disability Services, the sentence structure in which we use when referring to disability is also important in ensuring individuality. They propose that stating the person before the disability, creating an SVO structure, focus' on the individual rather than their disability. For example, "a person who is deaf" as opposed to "the deaf". 

The term "wheelchair users" is a preferred term over "wheelchair bound" which connotes restriction and being confined. Whereas many wheelchair users view their wheelchair as liberating; aiding movement and allowing them freedom. This is encapsulated in the Wheelchair events at the 2012 Paralympics.

Many people fall into stereotyping disabled people as victims, without knowing each individuals story or circumstance, which can be offensive and patronising. This is done by using verbs such as "suffers", "endures" or "puts up with", all having negative connotations. Using factual verbs with neutral connotations is favoured for example "has" as it does not create an unequal position between TV presenter and the athlete but it attempts to normalise the disability. 

Incidentally, adjectives with positive connotations achieve a similar affect. Using the adjectives "brave" or "amazing", for example, to describe the actions of a disabled person does not portray them as equal, but puts them on a pedestal which may be unnecessary. Would we describe the actions in the same way if the person were not disabled? 

Many Paralympians hope that the media coverage of the Paralympics will "dispel so many myths and misapprehensions that people may have about disability", wrote Ben Rushgrove. This will not only be achieved by the public watching the Paralympians, breaking boundaries and achieving new records, but through the language used by the media which shape our opinions and perceptions we have on people with disabilities.

Alexi Filsell

Why does text language contain so many abbreviations?

As most people know, text messages often use abbreviations of words as well the use of letters and numerals in replacements for words. There could be several different reasons for this. Reasons include the use of abbreviations in certain contexts such as knitwrite (the language used in knitting instructions), the language in teletext, the size and shape of the phone screens and keypads.

Examples of the language used in SMS text messages include THX for 'thanks', MSG for 'message', B4 for 'before', U for 'you', CUL8R for 'see you later' and lol for 'laugh out loud'.

Maybe some abbreviations have originated from knitwrite text that uses abbreviations such as:
Alt (alternative)
Beg (beginning)
cont (continue)
dec (decrease/ decreasing)

A lot of the abbreviations used in knitwrite text turn up in SMS text messages, however some words don't turn up in SMS texts. This is probably because words that are abbreviated are field specific to the subject of knitting. Also, the types of people that tend to knit are elderly people as it is a hobby they have been brought up with. However, this doesn't fit the stereotype that young people are the main culprits for the change in language in text messages. Although this is the stereotype, the people that tend to abbreviate in SMS texts are older people rather than young people.

Why do older people tend to abbreviate more often than younger people? Well, it could be that they are trying to be up to date with the technology of today, or simply that it is quicker and easier for them to abbreviate their words. Older people seem to think that all young people use abbreviations in texts because it is the new thing to do and that they all understand it. This means that older people might use abbreviations to try and relate to the younger people because they think that is what everyone does. However, it seems to be the other way round. It is also likely that people started using abbreviations in texts because the screens and keypads are smaller. The older phone models have typically small screens and keypads that have 3 letters on one number button. This means that it takes three times as long to get to a letter than it would if they were separate. This means that using fewer letters would make a text message a lot quicker and easier to write.

Even though phone technology has developed massively to make it easier to type out the words fully, older people still tend to use the older model phones because they think it's easier. This results in the use of abbreviations more than younger generations that have phones such as iPhone and HTCs that are easier to type out the words fully on small computer keyboard style screens. Does this mean that as technology develops, the use of abbreviations in text messages will slowly decrease and die out?

Kristina Whitney