Archive for the ‘dialects’ Category

Confusing Conversation

Posted on September 28th, 2013by Melanie
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Double Dutch 2You have absolutely no idea what that person just said to you and your blank look says it all. They might as well be speaking to you in double Dutch!

The term ‘double Dutch’ originated after the Anglo-Dutch wars, a time when all things Dutch were spoken of in an unflattering light by the English. For example:

 

  • Dutch courage – a brash form of bravery induced by alcohol.
  • Dutch comfort – a cold comfort which is only a comfort at all because things could have been worse.
  • Dutch treat – this doesn’t constitute a treat in the general sense as each person actually pays for their own expenses.
  • Dutch defence – a term used for a legal defence whereby the defendant seeks clemency at the expense of those they deceitfully betray.

‘Dutch’ was also the original generic name for Germans, with High Dutch being spoken in southern Germany and Low Dutch being spoken in The Netherlands. As the dialect was so hard for the English to understand, they came to reference all incomprehensible phrases as ‘double Dutch’.

Nowadays, the phrase is still used, although with a much lighter note now that those bad relations between the countries have disappeared.

Do you find it hard to understand other dialects? When was the last time you used the phrase ‘double Dutch’, and can you think of any similar phrases?

New wordbank preserves regional words

Posted on July 12th, 2011by Michelle
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A list of rare regional words and phrases has been compiled by the British Library as part of their Evolving English exhibition.

Around 4,000 words are in the ‘wordbank’, all of which were contributed by visitors to the exhibit at the British Library in London or at regional events. One the bank is complete and has been analysed by linguists, it will be opened up to language academics and others wishing to study the words it contains.

Among those to have been added to the wordbank are bobowler, a Birmingham and Black Country term for a large moth, tittermatorter – or see-saw, in Norfolk – and tranklements, another Black Country expression meaning ornaments.

Some of the words have been in existence for generations. For instance, bishybarnabee – a Norfolk term for a ladybird – is thought to derive from a notorious bishop, Edmond Bonner, known as “Bloody Bonner” for his role in the persecution of heretics under the Catholic government of Mary I in the sixteenth century. (Source: The Telegraph)

Other words have much shorter histories – spoggy for example is the Grimsby term for chewing gum.

What local variations would you add to the wordbank?

More language maps

Posted on January 31st, 2010by Michelle
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I’ve been in Deep South of America for the past month, and it’s definitely been interesting to be surrounded by a range of southern accents. Some are so thick I can only nod and smile in response to comments!

It’s also been interesting to learn more about the many different languages people may not know are spoken in the US. Whilst Spanish is prevalent (even here in South Carolina, many miles from the Mexican border), a lot of minority languages are also spoken, including the many Native American tongues.

Whilst I’ll be looking at these further in future posts, for the moment I’d like to share this – a linguistic map of the states, showing indigenous languages, dialects and regional accents. You can also view maps of Canada, Asia, Europe and Africa. Incredible.

Dialect poetry

Posted on October 14th, 2009by Michelle
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European dialects are apparently much more similar than we think.

Dialects are becoming increasingly rare in Europe, as borders are open and there’s more free movement between states. But dialects help preserve the local language and culture, so some Scottish and German poets have taken up the challenge of translating verse in these regional varieties.

Fitzgerald Kusz, a Franconian poet from Nuremberg, said that in translating Scots poems he was surprised to discover traces of that dialect’s Germanic roots. Kusz has spoken Franconian since childhood and regards his dialect as an intimate and comfortable form of communication.

“On one hand, globalization continues strengthen its hold,” he said, “High German, the unified language, can be heard on television in every village. But there is, in fact, a movement among the people to keep their languages alive.”

And that is one primary goal of dialect literature, he added.

Read the full article on dialect poetry here.

From English to Mandarin

Posted on June 30th, 2009by Michelle
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Speak Mandarin Campaign posterA couple of posts ago I was talking about Singlish, and the Singaporean government’s attempts to promote English.

Now it seems, however, that Mandarin is the favoured language. Whilst the Speak Mandarin Campaign has been around for a long time, now it is being actively promoted over English. This seems to make economic sense at least, with Mandarin spoken by approximately 870 million people and the Chinese economy being the third largest, as well as the fastest growing in the world.

Interestingly, the Minister promoting the campaign also actively discourages dialects, saying:

Learning dialects will add to our children’s burden, and take away time and energy from English and Mandarin. Dialects also cause negative interferences on the learning of English and Mandarin, due to differences in their vocabulary, phonetics and syntax.

With Mandarin, we can connect with the whole of China and its 1.3 billion people. Dialects will confine us to our original village or town or at the most, the province of our ancestors.

Personally I think this is a shame as dialects contribute to the diversity of languages and can be an integral part of a person’s cultural identity. There is debate among linguists however, as to whether people should be encourage to eliminate these “non-standard” ways of speaking. This Singaporean certainly seems to have a stong opinion on the subject.

Aboriginal languages

Posted on June 27th, 2009by Michelle
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UluruMy last post was about Aramaic, the language scholars believe was spoken by Jesus, making it approximately 2000 years old.

Perhaps even older are the languages of the Aboriginal people, the indigenous people of Australia. The Aboriginals, or Indigenous Australians, are thought to have inhabited Australia for around 40,000 years before the first European settlement. Pre-colonisation, Aboriginal people were part of different ‘nations’ spread all over the continent, each with its own language. There were an estimated 700 dialects and 250 distinct languages, which were as distinct as English, Swedish and Mandarin.

Today it is estimated there are 20 – 50 “healthy” Aboriginal dialects. These are spoken mostly in the Northern Territory. “Healthy” means the language is spoken to, and used by kids.

Aboriginal languages are strongly interlinked with their culture, with ancestral creative beings said to have left languages in the country.

In Aboriginal societies language is not only seen as a form of communication but as a method of right to land, forming boundaries for each family group, and language group. Language is used as social control as it has various forms depending on the ages and status of people within a language group. (Indigenous Australia)

Some elements of Aboriginal language have made it into Australian culture (for example, place names such as Canberra) and gone on to take a place in popular culture. Koala, kangaroo, and boomerang are all things we associate with Australia, generally without knowledge of their Aboriginal roots.

So, perhaps next time you think about Ayers Rock, you could spare a thought for this ancient culture and refer to it by its original name, Uluru*.

*Note: the correct spelling of Uluru has a retroflex under the ‘r’, which I cannot recreate here.