Category: Language

Language and gestures

By Simon

According to an article on ScienceDaily, moving your hands and making gestures while speaking can help you to access your memory and language. A study at the University of Alberta found that bilingual children who were observed telling the same story in two different languages tended to use gestures more in their stronger language. The researchers believe that moving your hands helps you to recall parts of the story.

The researchers initially thought that the gestures made while speaking were used to convey information. They now think that the gestures are related to memory. So if you find that the words just are flowing, trying moving your hands. It might just help.

Linguaference

By Simon

Since I started studying the Celtic languages, I’ve sometimes found myself moving the things I want to emphasise to the beginning of sentences when speaking English. For example, “Welsh and Irish are the languages I’m concentrating on at the moment.” This kind of sentence structure is common to all the Celtic languages, but can sound a bit strange in English. I’ve also started using the Wenglish (Welsh English) style ‘isn’t it’ as a general tag at the ends of phrases.

At other times I might add ‘or not?’ or something similar to questions in a Chinese sort of style, though that was a more frequent occurrence when I was living in Taiwan. For example, “Do you want a drink or not?” is a normal question in Chinese, but sounds quite abrupt and even rude in English.

Do you find that the languages you’re learning affect the way you speak and/or write your native language?

Notebooks

By Simon

Here’s a useful tip I came across the other day on a new language-related blog – carry a notebook and pencil with you at all times and make a note of things you’d like to say but don’t know how to. Then find out how to say them later by looking them up or asking friends who speak the language you’re learning.

Another good tip is to ask learners of your target language who are at a more advanced level than you to explain things you don’t understand. People who have studied a language as adults are probably able to explain grammar and usage better than native speakers. If you grow up speaking a language, you develop instincts about how to use words, but cannot necessarily explain to others why you use them in a particular way or order – it just feels right to you.

That second point certainly rings true for me – when friends who are studying English ask me to explain why a particular word is used in one place but not another, or ask questions about grammar, I try to work out the answers, if I don’t know them, but often just tell them that that’s the way we say things, and I don’t know why.

Word of the day – Moien

By Simon

Today’s word, Moien, is the Luxembourgish for hello. A related phrase is Gudden Moien, Good morning – Moien also means morning.

Here are some more ‘useful’ phrases in Luxembourgish:

Nee, ech hunn keng Zait fir dengem Monni seng Teppechfabrik.
No, we don’t have time to visit your uncle’s carpet factory.

Ech mengen ar Geessen setzt op menger Plaatz.
I think your goats are in my seat.

These phrases come from The Day12 Phrase Book, which contains phrases in a variety of other languages. I think the same template, which includes the above phrases, is used for all languages.

According to this site, most Luxembourgers speak at least three languages – Luxembourgish, French and German, and use them in their daily lives. Luxembourgish is the national language, French is used for legislative matters, all three languages are used in education, and French and German are the main written languages.

By the way, I’ve just put together a page of useful phrases in Luxembourgish.

Does any one know how to say “My hovercraft is full of eels” or “one language is never enough” in Luxembourgish?

Manchu in Beijing

By Simon

Welcome in Manchu (eldenjire be urgunjeme okdombi)

Today I came across an article about efforts to save the Manchu language in China. There are currently around 10 million ethnic Manchus in China, but fewer than 100 of them speak Manchu and they are almost all elderly.

Recently a bloke called Wang Shuo, a construction designer in Beijing, started teaching Manchu language classes for free at weekends, after having taught himself the language using this website – a forum in Chinese and Manchu that includes Manchu language lessons.

Most of the students at Wang Shuo’s classes are ethnic Manchus who want to rediscover their historical identity through the language. One the these students also mentions that he would like to teach his children to speak Manchu. There are also two Han Chinese students who are learning the language out of intellectual curiosity.

The image on the right is the Manchu phrase ‘eldenjire be urgunjeme okdombi’, which means ‘welcome’, in the Manchu alphabet. It was sent to me by a Chinese friend who is trying to teach himself Manchu.

Why learn so many languages?

By Simon

One of the commenters on a recent post posed an interesting question:

what is the point of learning so many languages if one is never going to be able to speak them well or use them all? Are they sea shells which we collect to look at or tools that we use?

This made me think about my motives for learning languages, something I do from time to time when trying to decide whether to continue to working on the languages I’ve already ‘collected’, or to go out and collect some new ones.

I learn languages for a variety of reasons – in preparation for holidays in countries where they’re spoken; because they’ll be useful in my work; because I like some aspect of the culture (usually the music); and/or simply because I like the sound of them. I also enjoy the process of learning languages and seem to have some aptitude for it. I realise that I probably won’t become fluent in all the languages I’m studying, and this doesn’t worry me unduly. I’ve been able to make use of all my languages in a range of situations, though opportunities to use some of them are quite rare.

Are you collecting sea shells or forging tools for practical use? Or a bit of both?

Word of the day – puke wehewehe ʻōlelo

By Simon

Today’s word, puke wehewehe ‘ōlelo, is the Hawai‘ian for dictionary. It means literally ‘book [that] explains words’. I found a good Hawai‘ian-English dictionary today, and also some online Hawai‘ian lessons.

According to this article, the Hawai‘an language is in a slightly more secure position today than it was 20 years, when the most of those who spoke were adults, and there weren’t many of them either. Nowadays about 2,000 children are educated through the medium of Hawai‘ian each year, and Hawai‘ian medium education is available from kindergarten to college. Few of the students in the Hawai‘ian medium schools speak the language when they start, and most of them speak English outside school, so there is a long way to go to revive Hawai‘ian.