Word of the day – lullaby

By Simon

Lullabies, from the Middle English lullen, to lull, + bye, are soothing songs usually sung to babies to lull them to sleep. An alternative name is berceuse, from the French for lullaby or “cradle song”.

According to an article I found today, lullabies are not only a good way to get babies to sleep, but can also help with their language development.

A study at the University of Warwick has found that babies whose parents sing to them regularly tend to develop language and communication skills earlier than babies whose parents don’t sing to them. Lullabies help babies to relax and get them used to hearing vocalisations and verbal sounds. They can also help parents to bond with their babies and to relax.

Unusual characters

By Simon

Believe it or not the Chinese characters shown below are all variants forms of the ‘same’ character.

Variant forms of the complex Chinese character for one

The character in question is 壹 (yī) – the complex form of ‘one’, which is used on banknotes, coins and cheques. Well actually the first one is a version of 一, the simple from of ‘one’.

The first two characters come from this site, which includes a number of other rare and unusual Chinese characters. The only one of them I’ve seen ‘in the wild’ is the Shanxi noodle one (no. 2), which appears in many Chinese restaurants in the UK.

Children’s language games

By Simon

This week’s Word of Mouth, the programme about language on BBC Radio 4, was devoted to the games children play with language. The presenter, Michael Rosen, and the contributors found out some of the rhymes and counting games children are currently using and compared them to ones they remembered from their own childhoods.

One interesting thing about children’s language games is that they are an oral tradition passed on from child to child, constantly evolving and adapting, with little or no adult involvement. Some of the games are very old and possibly preserve fragments of long-forgotten languages. This is an example of a vibrant, living tradition which seems to be as popular as ever, even though some of the people interviewed on the programme fear it’s dying out.

One point discussed on the programme was that it’s mainly girls who play the language games, especially the more complex ones involving rhymes, actions, skipping, etc. It was suggested that boys might not be able to remember them as well as girls.

Did you play any language games when you were a kid? Do you remember any of them?

English as a Lingua (ELF)

By Simon

There are about three times as many people who speak English as a second or foreign language as there are native speakers. Many people use English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) to communicate with others with whom they don’t share a common language. When they do so, the English they use isn’t necessarily the same as the English used by native speakers. ELF tends to have a more restricted vocabulary, a simplified grammar and pronunciation, and fewer idioms than native English.

According to an article in the Financial Times I came across today, via this blog, ELF users tend to find it easier to communicate with one another if no native speakers of English are present. Native speakers who don’t adjust their language for non-natives tend to be difficult to understand. The article mentions a student conference in Amsterdam where everyone spoke English and where the sole British participant was asked to be “less English” so that the others could understand her.

I first heard the term English as a Lingua Franca a few years ago on a radio programme in which the linguist Jean Atchinson discussed the phenomenon. She suggested that native speakers of English should become familiar with ELF in order to communicate effectively with non-native speakers. I sure this isn’t too much of a problem for those who communicate regularly with non-native speakers, but probably can cause difficulties for others.

In another article about ELF, the author mentions research from Sweden and the Netherlands on the widespread use of English as a medium of instruction in higher education. The research found that “Test results were about ten percent lower on average in English taught courses than in courses taught in the mother tongue.”

Ffordd wahanol

By Simon

Yn ystod yr wythnosau diwethaf, dw i wedi bod yn arbrofi gyda ffordd wahanol o ymarfer fy ieithoedd. Cyn hynny gwrandais ar radio yn y Wyddeleg a’r Aeleg yr Alban bob bore, ac ar Radio Cymru yn y prynhawn. Bellach dw i’n gwrando trwy dydd ar y Wyddeleg a’r Aeleg yr Alban ar ddydd Llun, Mercher a Gwener, ac ar Gymraeg ar ddydd Mawrth, Iau a Sadwrn. Yn y hwyr dw i’n darllen nofelau neu canu caneuon yn yr ieithoedd hyn. Dw i’n ceisio dysgu tipyn bach o Tsieceg, ac i ymarfer y gitâr a’r chiwban, bob dydd hefyd.

Slí éagsúil

I rith na seachtainí seo caite, bím triail a bhaint as slí éagsúil mo chuid teangacha a chleachtadh. Roimhe sin, bhí mé ag éisteacht le Raidió na Gaeltachta agus Radio nan Gaidheal achan mhaidin, agus le raidió as Breatnais achan tráthnóna. Anois éistim le raidió as Gaeilge agus Gaeilge na hAlban ar an Luan, an gCéadaoin agus an Aoine, agus le raidió as Breatnais ar an Máirt, Déardaoin agus an Satharn. Sa tráthnóna bím ag leamh úrscéalaí nó ag canadh as na teangacha sin. Bhain mé triail as giota beag Seicis a fhoghlaim, agus an giotár agus an fheadóg a chleachtadh, achan lá chomh maith.

Teacher shortages

By Simon

According to an article I found today, the numbers of students studying Arabic at colleges in the USA has been increasingly significantly since 9-11. At the same time, there hasn’t been a corresponding increase in the numbers of qualified teachers of Arabic. In some areas, potential students of Arabic have been turned away due to the lack of teachers.

Many colleges are hiring native speakers of Arabic with little or no teaching experience or qualifications. That set up sounds familiar – much of the English as a Foreign Language teaching seems to be set up along similar lines.

Elsewhere, due to popularity of Gaelic-medium education in parts of Scotland, there is a shortage of qualified teachers. There’s also a shortage of Manx-medium teachers in the Isle of Man, of Welsh-medium teachers in Wales, and of Irish-medium teachers in Ireland.

Mandarin learning – a fad?

By Simon

Is the current craze for learning Mandarin Chinese a misguided fad? An article in The Economist I found today suggests that it might be.

Mandarin is now taught at over 400 secondary schools in the UK, and the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust would like to see it made part of the national curriculum. Around the world there are some 30 million people studying Mandarin at the moment, and the Chinese government expects that number to rise to 100 million by 2010.

The article argues that for most people, a knowledge of Mandarin is unlikely to result in a better career. A number of factors are put forward to support this statement: the difficultly of learning Mandarin when compared to most other languages, especially European languages, which means that very few who study Mandarin attain a high level of competence in the language. The lack of regard among British employers for languages skills is another factor. Finally the fact that the Chinese are busy learning English means that British people doing business with China are unlikely to need a knowledge of Mandarin.

The article concludes with a comment from a representative of a Beijing employment agency, who says that:

whereas the value of compensation packages for expat executives has been shrinking over the past ten years, the number of Chinese-speaking foreigners she handles has been rising. Better language skills, she reckons, are a product less of market demand than of a general enthusiasm for China. Reason enough, perhaps, to learn the language.

By the way, I don’t agree with the article myself. Learning any language is a worthwhile endeavour, even if you only acquire the basics. While a knowledge of Mandarin might not automatically lead to a job, learning it certainly isn’t a waste of your time and effort.

Sounds familiar

By Simon

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been learning the Polish version of Silent Night (Cicha Noc). While trying work out how to pronounce the Polish, I noticed that some of the the Polish consonants are similar to those found in Mandarin Chinese.

For example:

  • Polish c [ts] = Mandarin c, as in 次
  • Polish ć & c+i [ʨ] = Mandarin q, as in 七
  • Polish cz [tʂ] Mandarin ch, as in 吃
  • Polish sz [ʂ] = Mandarin sh, as in 十
  • Polish ś & s+i [ɕ] = Mandarin x, as in 西

Comparing the pronunciation of one language to another isn’t always helpful and can be misleading. In this case though, it gives me a better understanding Polish phonology.