Languages in the Big Apple

Loretta Kelsey is the last person on the planet who is fluent in Elem
Pomo, a dialect of the people indigenous to Clear Lake, California
that dates back to over 8,000 years ago. Because Elem Pomo was never
written, only passed on orally, it has nearly vanished; it’s Kelsey’s
goal to stop that from happening. The San Francisco Chronicle ran an
interesting piece about her quest to revive the language:

It wasn’t so long ago that dozens spoke Elem Pomo. When Kelsey was
a child in the 1950s and ’60s, her parents and many other elders in
the 250-member tribe were fluent, and her mother spoke no English.

But as the older folks died off and the younger ones forayed into the
broader society around them to make a living, many native ways were
lost. It was a disintegration that was millennia in coming.

Now, with the help of her nephew, Robert Geary, and recordings of Elem
Pomo made by UC Berkeley linguistic students from the 1940s through
the 1960s, Kelsey hopes to help ensure a future for her native tongue.
What’s interesting is the fact that she hasn’t spoken much Elem Pomo
for decades, Kelsey remembers it fluently. At 59, she’s working
methodically to record the language before she dies by writing a
dictionary and phrase handbook, and conducting language camps for her
tribe.
Let’s hope the revival succeeds!

Original article

MediaMatters just published a funny story on a “body language”
expert’s interpretation of Sen. Hillary Clinton, which aired on Fox
News’ The O’Reilly Factor with creepy Bill O’Reilly.

Tonya Reiman, the purported expert, watched video clips of Clinton
laughing at different moments during her recent interview with Chris
Wallace on Fox News Sunday, and concluded that she “saw some
evil laughter.”

The entire article, which includes the idiotic transcript, is
definitely worth reading in its entirety. Get it here !

But just for kicks, I’ll also excerpt some of it below:

O’REILLY: Well, she looked like she’s having a swell time.

REIMAN: Oh, contrived, contrived. That was the first word that came to mind.

O’REILLY: They — you mean, those laughs weren’t genuine?

REIMAN: They — some of those — I saw some evil laughter.

O’REILLY: Evil?

REIMAN: Evil laughter.

O’REILLY: Whoa! How did — what’s evil laughter?

REIMAN: Yeah, you know, just the way her face contorted — the
different shifts in her face — and then the length of time that you
laugh and smile. You can kind of tell a lot from the length of time
that someone branches out with a smile. Real, genuine smiles are
quick. They flash. She went into a full body laughter, which is
bizarre for this kind of an interview.

The high court of Bombay recently declared that “clean and temperate”
language must be used in divorce petitions.

The case in question also deleted explicit passages from a husband’s
account of his wife’s alleged unnatural sexual demands.

According to the India Times,

The man, who cited these demands as an infliction of “mental
cruelty,” wanted out on these grounds. His wife maintained that the
descriptions in his petition were “scandalous, torturous, indecent and
traumatic” and should be struck off the record. The family court in
Mumbai rejected her plea, but the Bombay high court was more
understanding.

The high court held that a court of law should not permit a divorce
proceeding “to be converted into a source of continued embarassment
and harassment to a party” and struck off the offensive portions from
the written plea. “The judgment will help bring sobriety into nasty
courtroom divorce dramas where dirty linen gets washed,” said a
lawyer.

In courts, “actions and abusive words are reproduced verbatim even in
vernacular languages. This adds to the humiliation of the spouse who
is at the receiving end, irrespective of gender.”

In other news, Britney Spears has said that she hates L.A. and will be
moving to Atlanta, Georgia. Perhaps she should consider India.

Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) recently announced the introduction of a
bipartisan bill called the Plain Language in Government Communications
Act (HR 3584) that would require federal documents such as tax
returns, federal college aid applications, and Veterans Administration
forms to be written in “easy, simple-to-understand language.”

I can’t decide if this is a good thing or if it just means we’re all
getting stupider.

In any case, here’s what Rep. Braley had to say:

“Anyone who’s done their own taxes knows the headache of trying to
understand pages and pages of confusing forms and instructions,” Rep.
Braley said. “There is no reason why the federal government can’t
write these forms and other public documents in a way we can all
understand.

“Writing government documents in plain language will increase
government accountability and will save Americans time and money.
Plain, straightforward language makes it easy for taxpayers to
understand what the federal government is doing and what services it
is offering.

“I’m proud to introduce this bill to make it easier for Americans to
work with and understand their government.”

And here are the Federal Plain Language Guidelines for writing talk
that’s simple-like:

*Use short, simple words
*Use “you” and other pronouns to speak directly to readers
*Use short sentences and paragraphs
*Avoid legal, foreign, and technical jargon
*Avoid double negatives

And just in case you’re dying to see Plain Language in action, go to
plainlanguage.gov to see before-and-after examples.
Yeehaw.

There have been a few articles lately about the popularity of Anglicisms among the Russian youth. English words are apparently finding their way into conversations, text messages, even politics in Russia more so than ever before.

Here’s an example of a young Russian girl’s text message to a friend:

“Hi, Katya. Ne poiti li nam drink coffee? Call asap! Cheers, Masha.”

If you don’t count the two names, that’s six English words to four Russian words.

Still, not that unusual — the language of text messaging and email is an art. Every country has its own methods of shortening and embellishing informal written language. When I was living in Italy, for example, the word per, or for, was written as x in SMS language — taken from the language of math. Sei, as in you are was written as the number 6, which in Italian is pronounced the same way.

Borrowing words from foreign languages also seems to be a habit of the text-messaging youth everywhere — the texts I get from friends often appear as a strange mélange of Spanish, English, and French, with an occasional moshi-moshi thrown in for good measure. And since Anglo-American culture is so visible all over the world, it’s not surprising that Russians are using the slang they’ve heard in movies for years in their text-messages and conversations. But what’s interesting about the way they use it, according to one of the articles, is the way that they’ve shaped it to fit their linguistic needs:

Russians increasingly do more than borrow English words. They bend them to their own grammar, combine them with native words, and generally twist them beyond recognition.

For example, an exciting football match could be described as “drivovy.”

The words stems from the English words “drive,” but has been turned into an adjective. Add to that a strong Russian accent and your average native English speaker would probably not guess that his language was being used at all.”

No explanation for why they’d pick “drive” to mean “exciting,” but you get the idea.

Links to a few articles: here and there.

William Safire, who writes the New York Times Magazine’s weekly column, On Language, recently provided us with a brief history of the word “schlep” and its incorporation into colloquial and written English.

After being surprised at spotting the word in three different “quality” newspapers (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post), Safire embarks on a bit of research and finds that while “schlep” is used by all three as both a verb and a noun, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary only recognizes it was a verb.

He writes:

The recent embrace of schlep by The Times, Post and Journal shows that the dictionary’s incorporation of the word was a wise decision. The verb comes from the German sleppen, adopted with that meaning in the Yiddish schlepn or schlep, meaning “to drag, haul, lug.” “In Yiddish, the verb shlep is standard,” the lexicographer Sol Steinmetz, who spells the verb without the c, informs me, “with the literal meaning of ‘a pull, drag or jerk.’ Our slang meaning — ‘He’s such a shlep!’ — is an English innovation, either a figurative use of the Yiddish word or an adaption of the Yiddish shleper, meaning ‘a bum, tramp, beggar.’ The phrase ‘an ordinary shlep,’ as used in The Times, can be rendered in plain English as ‘an ordinary jerk,’ and the use of the slang phrase in the editorial seems to be an attempt to soften the serious message with a touch of New York humor.”

That Safire has a soft spot for schlep is sort of amusing, considering its Yiddish origin and the authors relation to his own Jewish heritage: born William Safir, he added an “e” and subtracted an ethnicity by adopting the more WASPy “Safire.”

Whether his approval marks a return to his roots or not, good for him for not applying his conservatism to language. Over all, an interesting, informative article. Read it here

Language purists are campaigning to enforce stricter adherence to grammar rules for BBC’s broadcasters.
Ian Bruton-Simmonds, a member of the Queen’s English Society, appeared on BBC’s Today show to explain the group’s proposal: a Language Adviser, or a sort of backstage watchdog who would assist on-air reporters in times of need. (How exactly this would work is unclear — if the reporter is on-air, I’m not sure how he/she could stop to seek advice. “Pst! Larry! Is it Who or Whom?”)
Bruton-Simmonds was one of the many signatories of a letter sent recently to the chairman of the BBC Trust that explained the channel’s need for a language watchdog; a spokesman for the Trust responded by saying:
“On matters relating to editorial standards and how these are ensured, the Trust’s approach is to create a framework which strikes the right balance between clear requirements reflecting the public’s high expectations, and an understanding of the pressures of live broadcasting and the need for creative freedom and some flexibility.”

Source

I think it speaks for itself…

New Jersey, the neighbor-state we love to hate, may be the latest place to incorporate changes into its constitution in an effort to sound less asshole-ish and more PC. The State Constitution currently states that “No idiot or insane person shall enjoy the right of suffrage.”

Other states that categorize their mentally disables as idiots: Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Ohio.

On November 6th, New Jersey voters will decide whether or not to eliminate the offensive terms, which, according to the bill’s advocates, “perpetuate myths” about the disabled.

“The perception is still out there that if you have a disability that you can’t fully function, that you can’t be a participating member of the community,” said Colleen O’Dell-Multer, a Brick resident who has multiple sclerosis and is legally blind. “That perception is totally inaccurate.”

As a 1976 court opinion stated, “A mentally retarded person need not be an `idiot’ and a mentally ill person need not be `insane.’”

But don’t hold your breath — in 2002, voters in New Mexico rejected a bill that would remove the same terms from its constitution.

Still, when you think about it, even if they change the language of the constitution, the rule stays the same. So while mentally disabled people will continue to be excluded from the voting process, idiots will be granted ballots! Quite the conundrum.

Source

William Safire’s latest contribution to the Sunday Times tries in vain to prove that the old man ain’t a square. “Language: translating the lingo of adultalescence” is a brief summary of the colloquialisms of today’s young-but-not-that-young. Let’s take a look at what he came up with:

Sketchy about the lingo being spoken by today’s adultalescents? As those in their late teens and early adulthood like to say, Ah-ite!
The sound of that last word is hard to convey on the printed page. The famous cry in comic books of a man being thrown out a window - Aiee-ee - comes closer to the first semi-syllable of the slurred word, but there is a hint of a at the end. When you ask a young person conversant in this campuspeak (a word created on the analogy of George Orwell’s newspeak) a question like “Would you do this for me?” you are likely to hear the answer “Ah-ite“.
The meaning is “O.K.” The sound is an amalgam of all and right, which used to sound like “aw-rite” but now is compressed into a sliding “a’ight”, as the teen-slanguist Fred Lynch transcribes it.

A few other brilliant translations:

Adorkable = endearing though socially inept
Fauxhawk = hairstyle achieved by combing all of the hair to the center to give the appearance of a Mohawk without shaving the head.”
Ginormous = gigantic + enormous
Chillax = chill + relax

… and a few other words you already know and use, plus several you’ve probably never heard of and were probably the result of some kid pulling old Safire’s leg.

Take a look here.