Introduction to Intercultural Studies: Language and Culture

intrinsic

(adj.) belonging to someone or something by its very nature, essential, inherent; originating in a bodily organ or part

build out

-reconstruction, e.g. knocking down walls -requires work letter - terms are negotiated and described in this as amendment to lease

Can we always translate and communicate fully between languages?

Some aspects of meaning may be lost

https://daily.jstor.org/cozy-linguistics-hygge-untranslatable-words/

The Cozy Linguistics of Hygge and Other "Untranslatable" Words

http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/EskimoHoax.pdf

TOPIC... COMMENT The great Eskimo vocabulary hoax Most linguistics deparllnents have an introduction-to-language course in which students other than linguistics majors can be exposed to at least something of the mysteries of language and communication: signing apes and dancing bees; wild children and lateralization; logographic writing and the Rosetta Stone; pit and spit; Sir William Jones and Professor Henry Higgins; isoglosses and Grimm's Law; Jabberwocky and colourless green ideas; and of course, without fail, the Eskimos and their multiple words~for snow. Few among us, I'm sure, can say with certainty that we never told an awestruck sea of upturned sophomore faces about the multitude of snow descriptors used by these lexically profligate hyperborean nomads, about whom so little information is repeated so often to so many. Linguists have been just as active as schoolteachers or general knowledge columnists in spreading the entrancing story. What a pity the story is unredeemed piffle. Anthropologist Laura Martin of Cleveland State University spent some of her research time during the 1980s attempting to slay the constantly changing, serf-regenerating myth of Eskimo snow terminology, like a Sigourney Weaver fighting alone against the hideous space creature in the movie Alien (a xenomorph, they called it in the sequel Aliens; nice word). You may recall that the creature seemed to spring up everywhere once it got loose on the spaceship, and was very difficult to kill. Martin presented her paper at the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association in Washington D.C. in December 1982, and eventually (after a four-year struggle during which bonehead reviewers cut a third of the paper, including several interesting quotes) she published an abbreviated version of it in the 'Research Reports' section of AAA's journal (Martin 1986). This ought to have been enough for the news to get out. But no, as far as widespread recognition is concerned, Martin labored in vain. Never does a month (or in all probability a week) go by without yet another publication of the familiar claim about the wondrous richness of the Eskimo conceptual scheme: lmndreds of words for different grades and types of snow, a lexicographical winter wonderland, the quintessential demonstration of how primitive minds categorize the world so differently from us.

standard dialect

The designation of a specific dialect as the norm or authoritative model of language usage

inhibit

To get in the way of; hinder

day-to-day

happening every day as a regular part of your job or your life

conduct

lead; guide; escort

variation

A change or slight difference in condition, amount, or level.

Vernacular

Everyday language of ordinary people

Check your understanding Question 1: What are the key differences between a dialect and a language? Question 2: How reliable is the distinction between a language and a dialect? What other factors might affect how these are defined? Question 3: What influence do you think the written version of a language has on connecting or dividing people? Question 4: Can we talk of English as being a single global language?

Educator feedback Question 1 feedback: A language is a distinctive system of grammar, sounds and vocabulary. Dialects are variations within a language, usually based on geographical region or socioeconomic differences like class. Different dialects within a language are usually still intelligible to all speakers of that language. They are just as systematic as languages but the differences between them are smaller. Speakers of different languages cannot usually understand one another. Question 2 feedback: The boundaries between a dialect and a language are not always clear-cut. Differences between dialects can make communication very difficult. For example, speakers of American English can find it hard to understand some regional varieties of British English, such as the dialect spoken around Newcastle (known locally as 'Geordie'). Equally, similarities between languages may make understanding broadly possible. For instance, Czech and Slovak speakers have little difficulty in making themselves understood to one another. Social and political factors are very important in the decision to either categorise linguistic varieties as separate languages or to group them as related dialects. Although similar, the differences between the Norwegian and Danish languages helped to build separate national identities. In China, differences between Chinese languages have been downplayed so as to include all their speakers as 'Chinese'. The status of 'Serbo-Croat' and its four 'dialects' has altered according to changing socio-political pressures. Question 3 feedback: The written form of a language can be used to connect speakers of different languages. Two Chinese people may not be able to speak to each other in their own dialects, but they can communicate via the writing system. Writing can also be used to create distance between the speakers of similar languages. Croatian only uses a Latin script, whereas in 2006 the Serbian Constitution made Cyrillic the official script for all government publications. Question 4 feedback: Although English is spoken all over the world, and is learned and spoken by many people as a second language, there are many variations in how it is used. Different versions of World English can have significant differences between them in terms of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. For example, South African English has around 10,000 words (including ones derived from Afrikaans and Zulu) that are not shared with British English or American English. There are also many differences of vocabulary and grammar between UK and US English. For instance 'got' vs 'gotten', or 'pants' vs 'trousers' are just two examples of how these Englishes vary. Distinguishing between these versions of World English helps to identify the different communities of speakers within it. It is also important to recognise the different and distinctive (usually post-colonial) histories and circumstances of each. Every variation reflects the relationship between the indigenous languages and the version of English imposed on them.

It is important that you don't feel pressured to complete all the elements of the course. Your learning journey is individual, and you should decide what elements are relevant to your learning needs.

In this video, Dr Bethan Davies introduces you to the course, and explains the intrinsic relationships between language, culture and identity. You will see how languages can both connect and separate us from different groups of people.

idiolect

Language use that is typical of a particular person

cobs

chronic organic brain syndrome

mutually

in a mutual or shared manner

amongst

in the middle of a group of people or things:

play down

make something appear less important

http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/

The online edition of the Atlas is complementary to the print edition It does not reproduce the regional and thematic chapters of the print version, but it offers additional information on the listed endangered languages. Via this interface, you can browse through them, using combinations of search criteria and/or zooming in the map below (see Browsing functionnalities ). For more detailed information, please consult the Languages mapping , Contribute your comments and FAQ pages. For remarks on a specific language, please use the in-built forms ('submit a comment' tab) of the Interactive Atlas. If you wish to suggest an endangered language to be included in the Atlas, please fill in this form. For more general comments, please email atlas_AT_unesco.org.

"Was there a need for a modern translation, then? Of course there was. Shakespeare is updated, adapted, modernised, and otherwise rewritten all the time and nobody makes a fuss. Those approaches, in my eyes, are a tribute, a celebration, an acknowledgment of the enormous debt we owe him," said the scholar, drawing parallels between the situation in Spain and the uproar that greeted an Alabama publisher's excision of the word "nigg*r" from Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. "Its rationale was that in the States young African Americans weren't reading the book because it is offensive to modern sensibilities. Intellectuals and the media vilified the effort. The publisher responded rather intelligently by saying that the project wasn't about censoring Mark Twain's novel but about making it more available," said Stavans. "That, I think, is what Andrés Trapiello is doing."

Trapiello's edition is introduced by Nobel literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, who writes that the new version "rejuvenates" Cervantes' novel, while allowing it to remain itself. Many readers, said Llosa, are discouraged from reading Don Quixote from beginning to end because of the "antique vocabulary" and the scholarly footnotes. But after enjoying Trapiello's version, he adds, they might feel encouraged to tackle the original text. With Don Quixote translated into 145 languages today - Restless Books' new edition, which marks 400 years since the second volume was published, uses John Ormsby's version - Trapiello told the AFP that it was a "paradox" that foreign readers could enjoy the novel "without any problems" in translation, "but Spanish-speaking readers can't understand half of it unless they read it with notes". "There are a great many people who have not read it or who have given it up several times because it is so hard," he told the agency. "They are obliged to read it in language that is not understood nowadays. They make you read it at school and lots of people have bad memories of that."

For dialects, we would look for differences in the words used to name particular things. For example, for differences in pronunciation, or for differences in grammar. The important thing to note is that these variations will be very systematic - there will be a right or wrong way to say things in every dialect.

We learn to distinguish between different languages, because we see and hear them in our communities. Even if we don't speak a particular language, we may well recognise what part of the world it comes from because of what it sounds like. Equally, we may recognise a language (or the region associated with a language) by its writing system.

Some words are embedded in culture. To be able to understand words in context one need to have some level of literacy in the culture of the indigenous speakers of the language. In Africa where people grow up speaking at least three languages- mother tongue, national language, and educational language translation has become part of the culture. First, second and third language of individuals varies with cohort, place of birth, status of parents, and communities. Culture influences language and thought. (edited)

What makes something untranslatable or difficult to communicate? The intention taht one gives to the word. The way we say it also has some influence in the meaning we give to it. Were there any comments by other learners that you found interesting or hadn't thought of? There were lot of comments which made me realize the cultural richness present in these kind of platforms that sometimes we tend to see so distant just because you're learning through internet. If you could sum up your learning from this activity in three words, what would they be? Interesting, communication and cultures

criterion

(n.) a rule, test; a standard for judgment or evaluation

https://daily.jstor.org/indigenous-arctic-languages/

318 Words for Snow: How to Preserve the Indigenous Languages of the Arctic How scientists, linguists, and activists are working together to preserve indigenous languages in the Arctic—as well as the region's biodiversity.

variety

A number of different kinds; assortment

Languages Spoken in Each Country of the World The table below lists the official language of each country as well as other languages spoken. In selected countries, the percent of the population that speaks each language is also given. https://www.infoplease.com/languages-spoken-each-country-world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_spoken_languages

Afghanistan-Dari Persian, Pashtu (both official) Albania-Albanian (Tosk is the official dialect),Greek

In Kenya, the official language is English, whereas Kiswahili is deemed to be the national language. Kiswahili is widely spoken in Coastal region and in urban areas. English is the language of the educated. The country faces the challenge of consolidating the nation on language due to the diverse education acceptance among communities. In the effort of streamlining administration the country has been going through changes of borders. For example what used to be assumed to be Central province with the KIkuyu language presumed the regional language, the region is now being referred to as Mt. Kenya with the other languages previously assumed to be dialects now being recognized as autonomous languages. Currently, Meru, Embu, Kirinyaga and Kikuyu are considered separate languages. In this region and the other non-coastal regions prefer English as a unifying language while Kiswahili is regarded as a foreign language.

I live in South East Sheffield, just a few yards south of the what was the ancient border between Mercia and Northumbria. My house used to be in Derbyshire but now it's in Yorkshire. These borders do not necessarily match the point where language changes, i.e. the isogloss. The accent where I live is totally different from the 'Dee-Dah' suburb of Hillsborough in the north of Sheffield. I live in a 'house' whereas my brother, a Dee-Dah, lives in an 'arse' in North Sheffield. If the definition of a London Cockney is one born within hearing of Bow Bells, then the definition of a Dee-Dah should be one born within parking distance of Sheffield Wednesday's football ground but it's not that clear cut. There are people living in parts of NE Derbyshire who live in an 'arse.' Tracking the point where this language changes is fascinating. Yorkshire poet Ian McMillan calls this isogloss the 'house/arse' interface. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/mar/21/language-derbyshire-barnsley-pronunciation-dialect The Leeds accent is identifiable by the habit of dropping the 't' from the end of words e.g. ca' for cat or nigh' for night. It would be fun to map that isogloss.

How many words do Eskimos have for snow? Do Eskimos really have hundreds of words for snow? And what would it mean if they do? In this step, you will explore how this linguistic example arose from the way in which language is structured.

In 1911 Franz Boas, an American anthropologist, referred briefly to the languages of the peoples who inhabit the arctic regions of North America. He raised the idea that they could differentiate more detailed information about snow than was possible in the English language. An urban legend has grown from this small idea, claiming that the Eskimo language has as many as 300 words for snow. As the linguist Geoffrey Pullum points out, this claim is problematic in many ways (1991). Firstly, there is no such language as 'Eskimo'. There are Eskimo peoples across the huge circumpolar region, but they speak a variety of languages, with a lot of variation, particularly with respect to vocabulary. So to say that 'Eskimo' has many words for snow doesn't make much sense. This claim needs to be narrowed to a language grouping, or preferably to a single language. Secondly, it's important to establish what a 'word' is in this context, though this may not be as easy as it sounds. Different languages will define a 'word' in very different ways. For example, some just count the word stem (eg 'eat') whilst others consider all the different word forms that use that stem (eg 'eat', 'eats', 'eating' etc). Think about your own perspective using the example 'walk'. Are 'walk', 'walked' and 'walking' three different words or just one word?

Research task: Assignment Effectively communicating your research and ideas is a key academic skill.

In this step, you have the opportunity to use your research to write a short report. Your task: Write a short report about an example of a word or group of words that are specific to a particular culture in your own language or dialect. How challenging would it be for you to translate these words for someone outside your culture (for example, into another language, or for a non-specialist audience)? Why? Can we always assume that speakers within a culture understand concepts in the same way? What does this tell us about intercultural communication (and communication in general)? This report should be no more than 250 words long. Share your assignment with other learners by posting it in the Comments. Writing your assignment: When you write your report, you should: take a reflective approach to your writing present a careful and considered analysis demonstrate an ability to apply the learning from the course so far aim to spend no more than 45 minutes planning and writing your report. Have your say: Take some time to look at the information gathered by other learners, and discuss your findings in the Comments. Use 'Like' to identify any findings that you find inspiring. You can sort the posts by 'Most liked' to view the most popular responses.

The fight over DACA has put a spotlight on the strange position of undocumented people in the United States—people who work, study, and build lives in the country just like citizens but remain fundamentally different because of their legal status. Mae M. Ngai explains how the concept of "illegal alien" came to the United States nearly 100 years ago. Before the late nineteenth century, Ngai writes, U.S. officials generally approved of almost all immigration, which provided settlers and workers for a growing nation. In the 1870s and 1880s, Congress began passing laws excluding some immigrants, particularly those from China but also paupers, polygamists, and people with "dangerous and loathsome contagious disease." Still, Ngai writes, "Little could be done if they evaded detection and entered the country." In the early years of tf the twentieth century, a million people a year immigrated to the U.S., but only two or three thousand were deported each year—usually after ending up at an asylum, hospital, or jail. Things changed dramatically in the 1920s. Nationalism spurred by World War I, combined with stereotypes of poor Southern and Eastern European immigrants in the nation's urban slums, created a new hostility to immigration. The Immigration Act of 1924 restricted legal immigration from Europe to 150,000 people a year and allowed for the deportation of anyone who entered after that year without a valid visa. Congress also created the nation's first Border Patrol to limit entry across the country's land borders, and it turned unauthorized entry into the country into a punishable crime. The new emphasis on clear-cut national boundaries particularly transformed the area around the Mexican border. Although Mexicans were not subject to immigration quotas, to enter legally they had to pay taxes and fees, so many crossed clandestinely. Prior to the 1920s, Mexicans had moved freely in and out of the Southwestern U.S., finding work building railroads and working the region's mines and farms. But by the 1930s, the new Border Patrol was patrolling the southwestern countryside, using extra-legal violence and conducting sweeps that apprehended hundreds of immigrants at as time. The expulsion of immigrants ramped up quickly, from 2,762 in 1920 to 38,795 in 1930. With new laws came new language to describe "illegal aliens." In 1925, in language familiar to anyone who follows the news today, the Immigration Service warned that the presence of people "whose first act upon reaching our shores was to break our laws by entering in a clandestine manner" was a "potential source of trouble, not to say menace." This idea—that the most important question about immigrants was their legal status, rather than moral character, willingness to work, or presence or absence of loathsome disease—was new, a product of an emerging twentieth-century world in which national borders were more important than ever before. As Ngai writes, "This view that the undocumented immigrant was the least desirable alien of all denotes a new imagining of the nation, which situated the principle of national sovereignty in the foreground." Share

It's very easy to look at current maps of the world and take for granted the permanence of the lines that mark the boundaries between countries and the status of particular languages within those territories. But the historical reality of national boundaries is rather different. In the Americas, the boundary between Mexico and the USA changed radically between the early and mid-19th century. Spanish is still widely spoken in many areas of the United States that used to belonged to Mexico. We often attribute that entirely to the idea of Mexican immigration rather considering the fact that these territories had previously been claimed by a Spanish-speaking nation. When national borders change, much of the general population tends to stay where they are, and they don't immediately start speaking another language or at least not in their homes. If we look at Europe, there have been many changes to borders over the centuries. Most of the nation-states that we now recognise did not come into being until the late 18th and early 19th century. This was a period when national languages were starting to be standardised and codified, and this is not a coincidence. France and England were the first to do this with a Dictionnaire de l'Académie Francaiaise in 1694, and Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language in 1755. Other countries then followed suit through the desire to build a language fit for the new nations that were coming into being. Borders were also redrawn and countries remade after both the first and second World Wars. The territories that now form the countries of Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia are a case in point. After the First World War, these became part of a new state, Yugoslavia. After the Second World War, this now communist state used language as one way to promote unity across its six constituent republics. Its dominant language was known as SerboCroat thus officially reducing what are now known as Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian to dialects. However, as nationalistic feelings start to become more prominent in the 1980s, the Croatians, in particular, started to identify their nationalism in terms of their language. Yugoslavia broke up in the early 1990s in a period of war between the different states. With the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the demise of Serbo-Croat rapidly followed. Now, Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian are officially recognised as separate languages internationally. The underlying historical relationship between these languages has not changed at all in this period. Even though they have been considered first as dialects of one language and then as four separate languages, now as then they are linguistically very similar. In most cases, a group of people speaking a combination of these languages would be able to understand each other. They are considered to be mutually intelligible. Serbian and Croatian have marked some distance between themselves in terms of the official scripts used for each language. Serbo-Croat used both Latin and Cyrillic scripts a pattern that both Bosnian and Montenegrin follow. However, Croatian now only uses a Latin script whereas the Serbian constitution in 2006 made Cyrillic the official script for all government publications. The way in which these languages have been used to build national identities, both in Yugoslavia and the current four nation-states, shows clearly that language is as much a sociopolitical entity as a linguistic one. Language is very important in our conception of community and our understanding of our identity.

distinguish

Make clear the differences between two or more concepts or items.

https://daily.jstor.org/language-of-migrants-refugees-expats/

Migrants, Refugees, and Expats: How Humanity Comes in Waves The language we use for people fleeing their home nations may define them as less than human.

heritage

(n.) an inheritance; a birthright

Ukraine was part of the Russian empire and had no official borders so everyone lived where they wanted. After our countries separated, the linguistic map changed. Kuban and other areas which were predominantly settled by Ukrainians and now are a part of Russia see a constant decline in Ukrainian-speaking population. The same can be said about Ukrainian land once populated by Russians. More and more of them declare Ukrainian language as their mother tongue. Or take Western Poland. Once the land was controlled by Germany and German was spoken there. After the WWII the land became Polish and in a matter of decades the linguistic map changed drastically. The borders DO define the choice of language.

Agreed, Alex. I have never visited a Ukraine but I recently took a trip from Warsaw in Poland to Helsinki in Finland (driving through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) and learned how many times the borders of these countries have changed over centuries. People having to speak German, Russian, Swedish, instead of their own language, depending on who was in power. Our guide in Finland explained how important folk singing has been as a way of keeping the language and culture alive.

Have your say: Think about the country where you live. Consider the following questions: -How linguistically diverse is the country where you live? -What is your country's official language (or languages)? How does this reflect what is actually spoken? -How is the 'standard' version of your country's language decided? -Do speakers of certain dialects find it difficult to be understood? Why?

Answers to this question will be different because of different geographical locations. This will also be because of our perceptions of what makes speech different enough to constitute a dialect, and where the boundary falls between a dialect and a language. Linguists have a word to refer even to the particular variety of language spoken by an individual - ''idiolect''. The way each of us speaks will be slightly different to everyone else. The most likely distinguishing factors for dialect are geographical region or social class. Are you aware of variation around your country in terms of the different regions? Is there a particular variety of the language that is taught in school or is considered to be 'standard'? If so, that is likely to be a social dialect

Research task: Communicating interculturally Learning how to research and report on a topic is an important skill that you will develop throughout this course.

Background information In the next step, you will be asked to write a short report about the relationship between languages, cultures and concepts. Your task In this task, think of an example in your language or dialect of a word or group of words that are specific to a particular culture. For example, this might be a word from a dialect or something you might find difficult to translate. If you are struggling to find an example in your general language, then think about this from the perspective of 'small cultures' (ie concepts that you know about because they relate to a specialist activity you participate in). Use these questions to help you focus on key issues and remind you to consider a range of materials. How challenging would it be for you to translate these words for someone outside your culture (for example, into another language, or for a non-specialist audience)? Why? Can we always assume that speakers within a culture understand concepts in the same way? What does this tell us about intercultural communication and communication in general? How long you spend on this activity will depend on how much research you do, but we recommend you spend no more than 20 minutes on this task. You will use the information gathered from your research in the assignment in the next step. Share what you've found using the Comments section, and discuss each other's findings by comparing and contrasting your responses. Have your say: Take some time to look at the information gathered by other learners and discuss your findings in the Comments.

Single languages can have more than one dialect, which often overlap with one another. The concept of mutual intelligibility cannot explain the way that linguistic systems are categorised as 'languages' or 'dialects'. The list of the world's languages would look quite different if this criterion were strictly applied.

Different dialects or different languages? The Norwegian and Danish languages are linguistically very similar. This is not surprising, because Norway and Denmark are geographically very close and were joined in a form of political union until 1814. Danish was the standard written language of Norway for most of this time, alongside spoken Norwegian dialects. One written form of Norwegian, Bokmål, is very close to Danish. Another written form, Nynorsk, was constructed out of the spoken varieties of Norwegian as a planned and painstaking project. By developing a new written variety of Norwegian in this way, the intention was to differentiate Norwegian from Danish - to make it a clearly separate language.

https://www.pnas.org/content/104/19/7780.full

English and Russian color terms divide the color spectrum differently. Unlike English, Russian makes an obligatory distinction between lighter blues ("goluboy") and darker blues ("siniy"). We investigated whether this linguistic difference leads to differences in color discrimination. We tested English and Russian speakers in a speeded color discrimination task using blue stimuli that spanned the siniy/goluboy border. We found that Russian speakers were faster to discriminate two colors when they fell into different linguistic categories in Russian (one siniy and the other goluboy) than when they were from the

Staff, I believe there's a mistake in the map above. The U.S. has no official language. There are certainly people trying to make English our official language, but that hasn't happened. Further, Spanish is overtaking English in many areas. About 10 years ago the favorite name for a male newborn in California was "Juan." "Many people are surprised to learn that the United States has no official language." [snip] "Almost every session of Congress, an amendment to the Constitution is proposed in Congress to adopt English as the official language of the United States. Other efforts have attempted to take the easier route of changing the U.S. Code to make English the official language. As of this writing, the efforts have not been successful." https://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_lang.html Like9 Likes 9 Reply B

I believe that one of the problems of the post-colonial era is that it left us with country borders that do not correspond to ethnic/linguistic borders. Dozens if not hundreds of ethnicities end up living in the same country though they don't share the same culture and history. This then sometimes results in bloody wars. On the other hand, one ethnic group may be divided between multiple countries and don't have their own country. I wonder why in 1960s they all accepted the borders as they were and didn't even try to find better ones. Were they afraid of even bloodier wars and a total chaos?

I guess the linguistic situation in the USA is far from perfect (as in any other country) but it shows that free use of language encourages evolution. Without the development of languages, you would now try to explain complex modern concepts from physics or economics or whatever using only Old Germanic (as an ancestor of English) or Latin (ancestor of Spanish). The development of language must go hand in hand with the development of society.

I live in Ukraine where the only official language is Ukrainian. There are 13 recognized minority languages, among them Russian which is spoken by a 1/3 of population and understood by almost everybody. The standard Ukrainian dates back from the 19th century, from a dialect spoken in central part of the present country. Some features are taken from other dialects, too. Almost every dialect is mutually understandable except some dialect from mountainous rural areas in the west mostly due to their lexical differences caused by seclusion of those areas.

I totally agree with you Joyce that most of our communicating done by body and facial actions. I remember being in Italy and was suprised the amount of body actions were used there. Italy is not the only one but a lot of other countries and culture use it too. Very good point.

In Greece our mother and father taught us to speak with glances. Each glance have different meaning. That's why... Because the children should now what to do or not to do when they are surrounding with older people. There is a priority to a lot of daily things. That is because of our culture. My grandmother's are from the coastal area of Turkey (nowadays, before belong to Greece). Because of that we have a different way of seeing things than other people from other places in Greece. = redundant, si in alte culturi se poate intampla aceasta, contactul vizual, dar sa ne gandim ca este un subterfugiu cultural

https://daily.jstor.org/inventing-the-illegal-alien/

Inventing the "Illegal Alien" What's an illegal alien? The idea that the most important question about immigrants is their legal status is a relatively new one

What distinguishes a language from a dialect? Everyone uses language on a day-to-day basis and can state the languages they speak. For example, Bethan can speak English, some French and a little Welsh. But what makes them different languages? How do we know that different dialects count as a version of a particular language? For example, why are dialects such as Cockney, Geordie and Scouse still considered to be English, whilst Walloon and Romansch are separate languages from French? Linguists say dialects are mutually intelligible, whereas different languages are not. So what does mutual intelligibility mean?

Mutual intelligibility Mutual intelligibility is the idea that the linguistic differences in grammar, pronunciation and words should not prevent speakers of different dialects from understanding one another. For example, people speaking English in different dialects should be able to understand each other. However, they would not expect to be understood if they spoke English to a monolingual German speaker - that is, someone who speaks only German. Similarly, they would not expect to understand the German spoken back to them as the distance between these two linguistic systems is too great. Dialects are considered to be variations within a language. There will usually be a 'standard' form of the language that is used by governments, schools and often by the media. This is one dialect amongst many. Linguistically, the standard dialect is no more systematic than any other dialect - all have their own grammatical rules, ways of pronouncing words and their own vocabulary. Dialects are typically thought of as being associated with particular regions, but there are dialectal variations across the social dimension, too. What is recognised as the 'standard' form of a language is usually a social dialect as well. It is determined by class and/or education rather than by geographical location. The linguist Max Weinreich is often credited with the observation that "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy". Weinreich is saying that 'languages' are often socio-political constructions, rather than linguistic systems that meet a precise set of criteria. The standard form of a language may be developed or maintained by those in power.

fund

bottom

social dialect

denote social class and educational level

painstaking

extremely careful; taking pains

unified

formed or united into a whole

basis

foundation

-A group of Chehalis First Nations -Map of Europe,showing country borders -Image of the Dan Brown novel Origin, translated into Turkish -An image of London,showing red buses and the London Underground -People walking in the street in Pushkar,India -Saint Patrick's Day parade in Dublin,Ireland -Women in traditional Albanian dress -Two Japanese women in traditional dress

images references

launch

to start

prevent

to stop something from happening before it occurs

deliberate

to think over deeply REFLECT

signage

signs collectively, especially commercial or public display signs.

sedation

state of being calmed

statehood

the condition of being a state

reinforce

to make stronger with new materials or support

intelligible

understandable

Hello everyone, I'm from Turkey. The reason this course interests me is that I think culture and language cannot be understood or learnt separately. For example, one of my english teachers told us that when she graduated from the university, she was talking like book or novel and native people were looking at her confused or weirdly. Furthermore, I believe nowadays there are different cultures rather than national ones.

"And is the difference in linguistic code the only difference that needs to be negotiated by the participants in these interactions?" No. Aside from cultural differences in general, there's the fact that over 80% of our communication is done non-verbally; and we generally aren't taught much of anything about this. It causes a great deal of confusion even when we're from the same culture. When we're from different cultures or even different subcultures, it can really confuse an issue! I suppose they're still doing this: Walt Disney World teaches people not to use their hands when speaking and what signs definitely not to make since our signage can have quite unexpected meanings when dealing with people of other cultures.

In the video, Bethan discusses how national borders have changed around the world. Below you will see three sets of maps which will allow you to explore how borders have changed in three locations: 1. between the USA and Mexico 2. across Europe 3. in the Balkans.

1. The US-Mexico border The boundary between the US and Mexico changed radically between the early and mid 19th century. Scroll through the images below to see how the border changed This is a map of the US-Mexico border, 27 September 1821, the year that Mexico achieved independence from Spain. At that time, its territory included a lot of land in North America which would later become the US states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. This is a map of the US-Mexico border, 6 November 1840. By this time, the region of Texas had declared its independence and is shown here in the colours of its new flag. However, the border between Mexico and the new Republic of Texas remained in dispute. This is a map of the US-Mexico border, 17 August 1848. In 1845 Texas was admitted as a state of the USA. However, its border with Mexico was still disputed. These disputes led to the Mexican-American War (1846-48). After the war, Mexico gave up about half of its territory to the United States of America This is a map of Mexico as it is today. Parts of the US-Mexico border have moved further south. 2. Changing national borders in Europe There have been many changes to borders in Europe over the centuries. Scroll through the images below to see how new countries were formed in the late 18th and 19th centuries. This is a map of Europe in 1789. Note how the geographical area which would become Germany was made up of many different small regions. This is a map of Europe in 1812. In the early 19th century, the Napoleonic Wars reshaped much of Europe. Borders changed considerably, especially in central Europe This is a map of Europe in 1839. By this time, new countries had emerged: the Netherlands and Belgium were formed from territories previously owned by France. Greece also gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire. This is a map of Europe in 1860. At this time the process of Italian unification began. The map shows fewer borders within the region that would become Italy. This is a map of Europe in 1890. The process of Italian unification was complete, and Germany had also unified. 3. The Balkan states and Yugoslavia The Balkan region in south eastern Europe has changed dramatically over the past hundred years. Scroll through the images below to see how Yugoslavia was formed and then broke up during the 20th century. This is a map of the Balkan region in 1913, showing Austria-Hungary, Serbia and Montenegro. Before World War I, the Balkan region was dominated by Austria-Hungary. Serbia and Montenegro were independent states. This is a map of the Balkan region in 1945, after World War II. After World War I, Yugoslavia was formed, including Serbia, Montenegro and territories which had previously belonged to Austria-Hungary. The dominant language of Yugoslavia was known as Serbo-Croat. This officially reduced what are now known as Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian to dialects. This is a map of the Balkan region as it is today, showing the countries of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia. Yugoslavia broke up in the early 1990s in a period of war between the different states. The demise of Serbo-Croat rapidly followed. Now, Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian are officially recognised as separate languages internationally.

Modern version of Don Quixote declared 'crime against literature' Andrés Trapiello's modern-language version of Miguel de Cervantes' classic is 'necessary' says expert, as Spanish academics rebel

A new edition of Miguel de Cervantes' 17th-century novel Don Quixote, which sees the classic story of the would-be knight errant adapted into modern Spanish, might be making waves in Spain, but Don Quixote scholar Ilan Stavans has said that Andrés Trapiello's new version is needed if Spaniards are to keep on reading one of their country's most celebrated works of literature. Trapiello's Don Quijote de la Mancha, which "faithfully" and "in full" adapts Cervantes' 17th-century vocabulary into contemporary Spanish, was ninth on the Spanish bestseller list in late July, according to AFP. But it has also caused controversy, with Madrid academic David Felipe Arranz describing it as "a crime against literature" to the AFP last week, adding: "I ask the booksellers in Madrid and they tell me no one buys Cervantes' original novel anymore because readers prefer the 'light' version ... you cannot twist the flavour of the words of the greatest writer in our language." "Nothing upsets Spain more than people - often, its own people - meddling with Don Quixote," admitted Stavans, the Lewis-Sebring professor in Latin American and Latino culture at Amherst College in the US. But Stavans pointed out that Trapiello's adaptation of the novel follows the bestselling author Arturo Pérez-Reverte's abbreviated edition from the Real Academia Espanola last year, and said it was a necessary development. Sign up for Bookmarks: discover new books in our weekly email Read more "Why did the RAE embark on it? Because if it doesn't do something about people not reading Don Quixote, the institution itself will become irrelevant," he said. "As a result of a number of factors, including school curriculum changes, young people in Spain aren't reading. The thermometer is Don Quixote and it has been abandoned ... My own impression ... is that nine out of every 10 people who read Cervantes's novel today are outside Spain. And a large portion of those readers access it in translation." Stavans, who has written the introduction to a forthcoming new edition of Don Quixote in English for Restless Books, as well as the forthcoming Quixote: The Novel and the World, said that while it "isn't true that Spanish readers can't understand Cervantes's language", with the language ageing less than English over the last 400 years, "by which I mean that Shakespeare is harder to understand today than his contemporary Cervantes", a new version was still required.

My name is Bethan Davis, and I am a lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Leeds. My research concerns how we use language in everyday life. On the one hand, this involves investigating how we convey and understand meanings. But there are also social meanings that we create through language. I am also interested in how we maintain social relationships through our language choices, and how the languages we speak relate to our sense of self. In this course, you will learn about some of the ways in which language and culture are interconnected. In moments of intercultural contact, we accept that, sometimes, individuals will be using a language that they did not grow up speaking. How does that affect those interactions?

And is the difference in linguistic code the only difference that needs to be negotiated by the participants in these interactions? This leads us to ask questions about what languages are. How do languages relate to cultures? And how do they relate to our feelings of identity? In the first week of the course, you will explore the relationship between language, culture, and nation. You will learn how languages are distinguished from each other, both linguistically and politically, and how language can be used as a nation-building resource. You will also investigate the extent to which cultural understandings are encoded in the languages we speak. Does the language we speak restrict us from thinking outside of the cultural frame it encodes? In the second week, you will discover some of the issues that we can encounter during intercultural contact. You will explore why translation is a cultural activity, as well as a linguistic one, and why perceptions of being polite vary across cultures. You will also learn how language can be an important part of how individuals understand their identity, and how they connect to their cultural heritage.

I would be interested to read any studies which substantiate the figures you quote, please Joyce. When you say nonverbal communications are something that `we aren't taught`, do you mean this language is innate? In my ignorance I thought that `Disnification` is a passive, non-aggressive (except for Donald Duck) anthropomorphism of life whose characters `sign` their nature with child-like features, big eyes and heads on small bodies. Interesting that MM has white gloves to mark his hands.

As a nurse who used to work in intensive care, with many patients who were unable to communicate verbally, either because of their condition, or sedation, or sometimes simply because they didn't speak English, I learnt to watch for non-verbal communication. Later, when supporting people living with dementia this was even more important. Even when speech is no longer possible, people can still communicate - we just need to be aware and receptive.

Linguists use the German word ausbau ('building out') to refer to this process of developing and codifying a language in a deliberate fashion. It is intended to give a language greater status, often to make it fit to be the national language of a country. Sometimes differences between languages are played down to reinforce the idea of a united language and consequently a united nation. China is a good example of this. Given China's size and huge population, it is not surprising that it contains a lot of linguistic diversity. In terms of spoken language, there is probably as much variety as across the Romance languages in Europe. So this means what is understood as 'Chinese' involves as much variation as we would experience across languages like Italian, Spanish and French.

Chinese dialect groups: -mandarin(worldwide) - jin(usually grouped with Mandarin) -wu -hu -gan -xiang -min(including Taiwanese) - cel mai putin vorbit, PING Map of China showing all of the Sinitic languages. The Sinitic languages, sometimes referred to as the Chinese dialects, are a family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken primarily in China and Taiwan. Many of the different 'dialects' in China are not mutually intelligible in their spoken form. Schoolchildren are taught the Beijing dialect of Mandarin as their standard variety. However, the writing system for Chinese is unified - all the main dialects share the same writing system. This means two Chinese people may not be able to speak to each other in their own dialects, but they can communicate via the shared standard variety of Mandarin and the writing system.

I live in the U.S. Because we're a country of immigrants, there are probably hundreds of languages spoken here. Although there's a great deal of anger about it from some parts of the population, we don't have a national language; however our government runs on English. I don't know of any local governments that run on other languages, but the possibility exists. Translation services are a given in many instances and are available in many languages. When I get paperwork from my medical insurance company, there's a page that lists the translation services that are available. If I wanted to do so, I could get my social security statement in Spanish; I think it's available only in English and Spanish as Spanish is very common here. I went to a national pharmacy and saw all of the various language translation services listed on the wall -- point to yours.

English in the U.S. grows and changes as it will; if something's accepted by people, it becomes part of the language. We have no central board as France has telling us what's right and what isn't. I think the verb "to Google" came into being two months after Google launched its search engine (my timing might be slightly off). The word went "viral" and became an accepted part of the language. "Definition of google "transitive verb "to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (someone or something) on the World Wide Web" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/google Merriam-Webster is a highly respected dictionary.

The languages of the Baltic countries have survived centuries of Russian an German occupation because the occupiers did not integrate with the local people who mainly worked on the land and were probably considered inferiors. Little attempt was made to educate them so these ancient languages have fortunately continued to this very day. In comparison, Welsh and Irish speakers are disappearing despite attempts to encourage the languages' use in countries where English is overwhelmingly the language of interactions at every level of society.

German is the official language of Germany, Austria and one of the three official language of Switzerland. Modern German ("Hochdeutsch" ) is the language of administration, education, literature and mass media. As a written language German is uniform, as a spoken language there are many dialects. German speaking people have settled in Europe for over 2000 years. Each tribe had their own dialect and their own customs. In the medieval times only a few people from the upper classes could read or write. This changed with Martin Luther (1483 - 1546) who translated the Latin Bible into a version of German, based on the German spoken mainly at the Saxon court, but rephrasing it for everybody ("the common people") to understand. Luther united the German speaking areas by creating a uniform style for the German language. With the invention of the printing press (Gutenberg 1455) more and more people could afford to read books and a form of Standard German started. In 1763 public education officially began, thus helping to establish Standard German as a means of education. In the 19th century began the rise of standard German and the decrease of dialectal variety.

References for Intercultural Studies: Language and Culture Aitchison, J. (2012) Words in the mind: an introduction to the mental lexicon. London: Wiley. 4th edn. Baker, P. (2006) Using corpora in discourse analysis. London/New York: Continuum. Boas, F. (1911) Handbook of American Indian languages. Washington: Government Print Office. Brown, P. and Levinson, S. C. (1987) Politeness: some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cervantes Saavedra, M. de (2015) Don Quijote de la Mancha. Translated into modern Castilian by Andrés Trapiello. Barcelona: Ediciones Destino. Crystal, D. (2000) Language death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Crystal, D. (2013) 'World Englishes'. Interview with David Crystal. British Council of Serbia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_q9b9YqGRY. Dauenhauer, N. M. and Dauenhauer, R. (1998) 'Technical, emotional, and ideological issues in reversing language shift: examples from Southeast Alaska'. In Grenoble, Leonore A. and Whaley, Lindsay I. (eds). Endangered Languages: Language Loss and Community Response. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.57-98. Fishman, J. A. (1987) 'Language spread and language policy for endangered languages'. In Proceedings of the Georgetown University Round Table on Language and Linguistics. Washington: Georgetown University Press, pp.1-15. Flood, A. (2015) 'Modern version of Don Quixote declared "crime against literature"'. The Guardian 19/08/2015. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/19/modern-version-of-don-quixotedeclared-against-literature. Garfinkel, H. (1967) Studies in ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall.

Goffman, E. (1967) 'On facework: an analysis of ritual elements in social interaction'. In Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior. New York: Anchor Books, pp.5-45. Holliday, A. (1999) 'Small cultures'. Applied linguistics. 20(2), pp.237-264. Katan, D. (2009) 'Translation as intercultural communication'. In Munday, Jeremy (ed). The Routledge Companion to Translation Studies. London: Routledge, pp.74- 92. Ladefoged, P. (1992) 'Another view of endangered Languages.' Language. 68(4), pp. 809-811. Malotki, E. (1983) 'Hopi time: a linguistic analysis of the temporal concepts in the Hopi language'. Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs. 20. Berlin, New York, Amsterdam: Mouton Publishers. Mithun, M. (1998) 'The significance of diversity in language endangerment and preservation'. In Grenoble, Leonore A. and Whaley, Lindsay I. (eds). Endangered Languages: Language Loss and Community Response. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.163-191. Mooney, A. and Evans, B. (2015) Language, society and power: an introduction. London and New York: Routledge. 4th edn. Nettle, D. and Romaine, S. (2000) Vanishing voices: the extinction of the world's languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ngugi wa Thiong'o (1986) Decolonising the mind: the politics of language in African literature. London: Currey. Pinker, S. (1994) The language instinct: the new science of language and mind. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Pullum, G. (1991) The great Eskimo vocabulary hoax and other irreverent essays on the study of language. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Whorf, B. (1956) Carroll, John B. (ed). Language, thought, and reality: selected writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf, MIT Press. Winawer, J., Witthoft, N., Frank, Michal C., et al. (2007) 'Russian blues reveal effects of language on color discrimination'. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 104(19), pp.7780-7785.

The language experiences in Africa are more complex. For instance, some community languages lacking some English alphabets have difficulties in pronouncing words with those letters. For example, Kikuyu language lacks letter 'L'. When it comes to pronouncing 'rivers' and livers' they tend to interchange. In Kamba language with its lack of letter 'h', any word with that letter pose challenge in pronouncing it. Kiswahili, which used to be a social language in the East African coast is now being generally adopted all East African regions includind Ruanda and Congo. This has inreased versions of Kiswahili from the traditional two - Mvita (Mombasa) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). There is a likelihood of Kiswahili gaining acceptance to Bantu-speaking Southern African regions like Zambia

I think this link is relevant here https://theconversation.com/why-native-english-speakers-fail-to-be-understood-in-english-and-lose-out-in-global-business-54436

The socio-political effect on language in Yugoslavia and the countries that were restored/formed after it's dissolution are fascinating. Very interesting that the concocted, "unifying" language of Serbo-Croatian has now reverted to four or more distinct (but related) languages, associated with the current nation-states. The US's borders have been pretty well fixed for the past 150+ years, but like the UK (see earlier comment), a great deal of immigration has brought multiple languages and cultures. All of these have influenced American English, depending where these immigrants settled. Longer-term changes in borders (especially the Southwest US, as noted in the video) were clearly influential on the absorption of language and culture. Some French is still spoken at home in far Northern New England (near the border with the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec).

It is an interesting experience for me as a learner of Croatian. When I look for language exchange partners for online practice, many times Bosnians or Serbians contact me to teach me Croatian. At my beginner's level, it hasn't been a big issue. :) However, it's worth noting that the languages of former Yugoslavia also have their own dialects (e.g. Croatian variations in Zagreb, Dalmatia or the Istrian Peninsula: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Linguistic_maps_of_Croatia#/media/File:Croatian_dialects.PNG).

When these nations gained independence, the colonial languages were often so deeply embedded in the country's social and political systems that they have persisted in official contexts. As such, they can still indicate a 'good' education and 'high' social standing. These waves of colonialism led to new communities of speakers that would eventually outnumber the speakers of these languages in their original settings. For example, the number of Spanish speakers in the Americas is now much larger than those in Spain, as you can see in the image below.

It is now recognised that multiple locations offer different varieties of languages. The peninsular Spanish of Europe is distinct from the versions in the Americas. British English (as spoken in the UK) is just one of many World or Global versions of English (such as that spoken in Northern America or in the Indian subcontinent). World English It is often argued that the global status of English was first established by the reach and status of the British Empire. That position was then consolidated by the emergence of English-speaking America as a key global power, just as Britain's own influence was waning. British English and American English are probably the most recognised variations of English. Each one of the other varieties has differences in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.

Sorting tokens into types Imagine that you have a pile of wooden blocks in front of you. Someone tells you that a small, shiny yellow block is called a clee, a big red oblong block is called a smeck, and a medium-sized blue matt block is called a grat. You are then asked to sort the remainder of the pile - a complete mixture of colours, sizes, shapes and finishes - into those three categories. How would you decide the principles by which to do so? There would be many possible solutions to the problem but only one would align with the expectations of the person setting the task.

It is very unlikely that you would produce exactly the same conceptual divisions as that person at the first attempt. Like a child, you would probably require quite a lot of feedback before you could reliably sort all the tokens into the three different types denoted by clee, smeck and grat.

What is language Welcome to the course (00:05) Introduction from Bethan (00:10) What do you think? (00:05) •Language, nation and cultural identity Languages and dialects (00:10) Language and nation (00:15) Languages with multiple national homes (00:15) Check your understanding (00:15) •Language and thought How do words relate to concepts? (00:10) How do children acquire concepts? (00:15) "Untranslatable" concepts (00:15) Check your understanding (00:15) •Do languages affect the way you think? How many words do Eskimos have for snow? (00:10) Language control (00:15) Linguistic relativism and linguistic determinism (00:10) Does language shape the way we think? (00:20) Communicating interculturally (00:20) Assignment (00:30) Reflecting on your assignment (00:05) •The relationship between language and culture Glossary Reflection on the week (00:05) • The week ahead (00:05) Migration and language loss (00:10) Language shift and endangerment (00:15) Retaining cultural identity (00:10) Why preserve languages? (00:10) Investigating vulnerable languages (00:15) Assignment (00:30) Provide feedback (00:15) Reflecting on your work (00:05) Discuss and reflect (00:05) •Language and translation Times are approximate What makes a good translation? (00:10) Exploring the art of translation (00:15) Translation across time as well as space (00:10) Language and politeness Language and identity What is being polite? (00:10) Politeness within and across cultures (10:00) How do we view each other? (00:10) Discussion on politeness (00:20) Check your understanding (00:15) Core learning = 4 hours per week Additional learning = 1 hour per week

Learning outcomes: -Investigate how languages shape cultural identity both within and across political borders. Assess the extent to which language both supports and inhibits the sharing of ideas between cultures. Debate the ways in which language can shape and control how we think. Explore the relationship between language, culture and politeness. Reflect on the association between language and cultural identity and the effects of language loss and endangerment on communities. Discuss the notion that translation is as much a cultural process as a linguistic one. Syllabus: The history of intercultural contact and the effects of globalisation. Intercultural competence - the skills necessary to interact effectively with people from different environments and backgrounds. How critical incidents and rich points can provide fertile ground for developing intercultural awareness. The effects of returning to 'home' cultures following periods spent in another environment. How preconceptions and assumptions affect intercultural contact. Looking beyond national identity to find ways in which connections between people can be established. An introduction to the way in which ethnography can be used to investigate cultural environments.

Languages with multiple national homes What about languages with multiple national homes? There are clear connections between language and socio-political forces, so let's look at the role of colonialism in the spread of certain languages across the world, including the linguistic variations that have developed. The video in the previous step showed you how languages can be used as a tool of nation-building. Sometimes, one language variety becomes elevated to the status of a 'national language'. There are also circumstances where one language becomes the main linguistic system in more than one country

One reason for this is geographical proximity. For example, varieties of German are spoken across the neighbouring countries of Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Italy. Another reason is colonialism. Language and colonialism Early waves of colonialism established English as the dominant language in Australia, New Zealand, America and Canada. This infographic shows places in the world where English is the official language, and the approximate number of speakers in each country. A more accessible PDF version of the map is also available in the Downloads section. Likewise, Spain and Portugal claimed large territories in the southern regions of the Americas. Different islands in the Caribbean were taken over by a number of different European powers. Where white Europeans became the dominant ethnic group, earlier inhabitants were often displaced and their languages and cultures suppressed. Further waves of European colonialism in many African, Indian and East Asian contexts established languages such as Dutch, French, Portuguese and English as the language of government, education and institutions. Therefore, only the local elite could advance and local languages were restricted to family and other informal contexts.

lease

a contract granting use or occupation of property during a specified time for a specified payment

How linguistically diverse is the country where you live? India is a multi-linguistic society. What is your country's official language (or languages)? The official language used in India is English. But its national language is Hindi, since spoken in a majority of Indian states. How does this reflect what is actually spoken? The official language is spoken only by a minority in the metro cities. 90% of Indian prefers to speak in their vernacular languages. How is the 'standard' version of your country's language decided? Usually, the standard language is that which used by the educated (not merely literate) and in print. Do speakers of certain dialects find it difficult to be understood? Why? Yes. The extreme diversity of dialects of many languages in India makes many dialects mysterious to comprehend.

Standard German is the only official language in Germany and it is taught in schools. There is a great variety of traditional dialects, minority languages, youth languages, urban dialect etc. Dialects and minority languages are seen as forming a cultural or regional identity and Standard German is seen as useful and necessary - Standard German is a requirement for getting a job. Regional dialect and minority languages are protected and provided with funds. The four protected minority languages are: Danish, Frisian, Sorbian and Romani, spoken by Roma and Sinti. Each minority language has less than 500.000 speakers but its own traditions and culture. Recently there has been a revival of dialects and literature and songs have been released in various regional dialects. There is no central authority but local councils on state level monitor the usage of Standard German. Spelling and punctuation is suggested by the Council of German Orthography and usually leads to endless discussions to have it accepted by all 16 states. The German dialects are very varied and some are very different from Standard German. If the topic is personal or emotional a non-dialect speaker will not understand.

During the course you will explore the role of languages in different forms of intercultural contact. You will examine the ways in which language is associated with both statehood and cultural identity. You will consider how languages can both facilitate and inhibit cross-cultural contact, by taking a deeper look at what 'intercultural communication' actually means. You will discover how the languages we speak can and do shape our understanding of the world, by analysing the way that languages work. Intercultural communication involves communicating across linguistic and cultural boundaries. This might be through translations of texts across languages or navigating different cultural expectations about what is considered polite or impolite behaviour. You will discover some of the challenges involved in understanding each other successfully.

The languages we speak can be important to us in terms of our identity and feelings of belonging. You will find out how these perceptions of ourselves can be affected by language shift or language loss within communities. This first week, you explore the relationship between language, culture and nation. You consider the question 'What is a language?' and look at how language can be used as a nation-building resource. You also explore the relationship between language and thought, and find out whether languages actually affect the way you think. In Week 2, you will discover some of the issues that you might encounter when you are in intercultural contact. You explore language and translation, language and politeness, and look at issues of language loss.

In English, good examples are different regional names for bread rolls, and also for narrow passageways that run between houses. When I moved to Leeds, I had to get used to bread rolls being called 'breadcakes'. Over the border in Lancashire, they are 'barmcakes'. Where I grew up in Birmingham/the Black Country, they were 'cobs'. In Edinburgh, 'baps' seemed to be the dominant term.

The type of narrow corridors that run between terraced houses also varies a lot nationally. I grew up calling them 'alleys' and 'gullys' (rather boring). In Yorkshire, you find 'ginnel' and 'snicket'. Other variations around the country are 'close' (Scotland), 'twitten' (Sussex), 'jetty' (East Midlands), 'ten foot' (Hull), and many more. So why do these survive when many other dialect words have died out? I think the key thing is that bread and immediate local spaces are very much part of our day-to-day lives. They are also things we are likely to talk about with members of our local community - when I moved to Leeds I had to adapt to 'breadcake' or go hungry. Words live on because we use them. We can see this in core English vocabulary, for example, 'man', 'woman' and 'home'. These are words that have survived into present use from Old English, despite alternatives offered by the advances of Norse, Norman French, and so forth, into modern English.

baps

a breakfast roll [n]

syllabus

a brief outline of the main points of a text or course of study

Italy is a linguistically diverse country. Its official language is Italian which is understood and spoken by almost everyone living here. Then there are the French-speaking minorities (living mainly in Valle d'Aosta) and the German-speaking ones (living mainly in Alto-Adige). Other minorities speak: Venitian, Ladin, Slovenian, Friulan, Greek, Albanian, Sicilian, Catalan and Sardinian. The "standard" version of Italian is decided by an institution called "Accademia della Crusca". All Italian dialects are pretty different from each other, so that understanding a dialect is pretty difficult if you didn't grow up by hearing it. I think this is due to the various folks which settled in Italy throughout the centuries. Idioms spoken in the main islands are pretty isolated, for obvious reasons and they're the most difficult to understand.

Ukrainian is the official language in Ukraine, but in practice most speak Russian. This is all because Ukraine and Russia (and other countries) have been part of the USSR for a long time, so the majority speaks Russian. And despite the generally accepted language, it is Ukrainian, it does not have great dialectical differences. But for example, I live in the Transcarpathian region, where there is a particular dialect - surzhik. here we speak Transcarpathian language (a mixture of Slavic, Hungarian, Rusyn, Polish, Sovetskaya, Russian and others) Here in Brazil we speak a variety of Portuguese, known as Brazilian Portuguese. I couldn't tell if our language is considered a dialect overseas, but here we are pretty sure that what we spesk is a language called Portuguese. As a country with a wide cultural diversity we have many language differences across the country - we can easily tell whether a person is from Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo, for example, just by the accent. We also have huge vocabulary variations. But I have never heard anybody saying that we have diferent dialects within Brazilian Portuguese. And I actually don't believe we do. Off course we have still many native indigenous communities that nourish their traditional languages, although they are at risk of extintion. But the contact with these languages is very restriced for most brazilians. What I know is that for the first 1,5 century or so of european colonization the main language spoke here was Tupi-Guarani, which the foreigns learned to deal with the natives, specially the missionaries. It was only after the massive trade of slaves from Africa that the Portuguese became the dominant and most spoken language.

I doubt that there's any language that doesn't evolve. The differences between us and some other countries are that our evolution can be done much more quickly and it definitely follows the "will of the people."

Well, in Ukraine we have Ukrainian as official language. Despite this fact in the East of our country and in the central regions most of the people talk Russian. In the west regions, Lviv for example, people speak almost 'clear' Ukrainian, but in the Transkarpathian region people talk on different dialects. It depends on the town they lived.

South African English The linguist David Crystal (2013) estimates that South African English has around 10,000 words that are not shared with British English or American English. Some of these are borrowed from other languages spoken locally, such as braai ('barbecue'), derived from Afrikaans. Another example is babalaas ('hangover'), originating from the Zulu word ibhabhalazi ('after-effects of drinking'). Other borrowed words have dropped out of use in the original language. For instance, South African speakers refer to a traffic robot rather than a traffic light. This may seem odd to British English speakers now, but it was the original term in the UK in the 1920s. Differences in vocabulary can cause confusion or embarrassment. Recently I went to see an American band at a local venue in Leeds. The female lead singer reported that on the previous night she had accidentally shocked the audience. Normally, she wears a skirt when she is performing. On that night she wore trousers. She had explained this to her audience by saying that it was cold in the venue, and then saying that 'she didn't usually wear pants on stage'. As an American English speaker, she had forgotten that 'pants' means 'underwear' in British English. Have your say:

What differences are you aware of between different varieties of English (or varieties of another world language)? Have you ever experienced difficulties in communication because of this? This infographic shows places in the world where English is the official language, and the approximate number of speakers in each country. Data: 57 million people in the UK speak English Half a billion people in the world speak English One billion people are learning English Countries where English is spoken as an official language: Canada - 18 million Ireland - 3.7 million South Africa - 4 million New Zealand - 3 million USA - 220 million Australia - 16 million

Languages and dialects What are the differences between languages and dialects? How can politics and society affect them?

What is a language? A language is a system of communication, comprising of distinctive grammar, sounds and vocabulary. On the other hand, a dialect is a regional or social variety of a language, distinguished by pronunciation, grammar or vocabulary.

Language and nation In this step, you explore the role languages can play in the formation of nations, and how languages are frequently caught up in concepts of 'nationhood'. The video looks at some of the political changes that happened in Europe and the Americas in the 19th century. It also explores how languages were codified and developed as part of these, to help build concepts of 'nationhood'. In the video, Bethan discusses some examples of how changing borders affect the languages that people speak. To explore these for yourself, select the image below. When you have finished, use your browser's 'back' button/arrow to return to the step. A more accessible PDF version of the activity is also available in the Downloads section.

What is the relationship between languages and nations? The seemingly neat alignment between speakers of a language and the country they reside in is often taken for granted. For example, Spanish being spoken in Spain, French in France, German in Germany and Italian in Italy. However, this hides a much greater degree of linguistic variation. All of those countries also host a range of minority languages. Often, these minority languages were suppressed in order to give the majority language greater status and to construct a nation-state that was entirely unified. This was true of General Franco's regime in Spain (1939-1975) and also in France for much of the 20th century.

and so forth

and so on

codify

arrange and set down in writing

monitor

display consisting of a device that takes signals from a computer and displays them on a CRT screen

overlap

extend over and cover a part of

Semiotics STUDY OF SIGNS WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica See Article History Alternative Title: semiology Semiotics, also called semiology, the study of signs and sign-using behaviour. It was defined by one of its founders, the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, as the study of "the life of signs within society." Although the word was used in this sense in the 17th century by the English philosopher John Locke, the idea of semiotics as an interdisciplinary mode for examining phenomena in different fields emerged only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the independent work of Saussure and of the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce.

https://www.britannica.com/science/semiotics

required

necessary

count

returns the number of cells in a range that contains numbers