fari 🜲

Linguistics is the science and study of languages. How we speak. How language evolves. How culture affects our language. How it doesn't affect our language.

Linguistics is the curiosity of why you do that thing with words, rather than correcting you based on "rules" that don't really exist anyway. Linguistics is the crooked questioning eyebrow when you said something in a way I've never heard before! Where did you grow up, who did you learn that word from, where did they grow up, did you watch any international television shows by chance?

Linguistics is a love letter to languages. It's a science, don't get me wrong. It's a study, careful and precise, and wildly whimsical all at the same time. Because much like any science dedicated to the living, it is curious for what is actually happening, not in controlling the reactions or measured responses. No, please tell me how you really feel! Please talk to me in the way you really speak! Does that change in writing? Does that affect your studies?

In English, we often try to attempt the native pronunciation of loan words. And we don’t allow our writing system to control the way we pronounce foreign words. For example, we don’t pronounce “faux pas” as “fowks pass”, and if a friend asked for a “tor-till-ah” instead of “tor-tee-ya”, or “ka-rah-jee” instead of “kara-ah-gee”, you might politely correct them.

In Japanese however, it seems like no such effort is made. Foreign words are transposed into the Japanese writing system, and then read phonetically with seemingly little effort at maintaining the original pronunciation. Muhk-don-aldz becomes ma-ku-don-aru-do; work becomes waa-ku.

In English we know that a Spanish-origin word with two consecutive Ls makes a Y sound. Why then, don’t Japanese people know that you don’t need to pronounce all the extraneous vowels that the Japanese writing system forces into English-origin words? Japanese people certainly use more English loan words than English people use Spanish loan words, so it’s not an issue of familiarity.

I have a theory to expain this phenomenon. First, we have to assume the following things are true:

Some sounds or combinations of sounds that exist in one language don’t exist in many others. This means when a word is borrowed from a different language, the borrowing language often can’t reproduce the pronunciation perfectly as it appears in the native language.

People generally try to pronounce words correctly, as this leads to better communication and understanding, even if this effort is subconscious.

My theory is this, and it applies to any language: the “correct” pronunciation of a loan word is not the native pronunciation. It is actually the pronunciation that gets the closest to the native pronunciation while still only using sounds and combinations of sounds that exist in the language borrowing the word.

I was really satified when I came up with this because it explains a few odd happenings.

It explains why Japanese people make no effort to avoid pronouncing the extraneous vowels they add between consonants in English loan words (because such combinations of sounds simply don’t exist in the Japanese phonetic system).

It explains why people find cooking show hosts pretentious when they suddenly pronounce an ingredient with its native pronunciation, like “parmesan” (because the native pronunciation is “overshooting” - they did not use the agreed upon english pronunciation of the loan word).

It explains why, if I ask a supermarket staff member where the “tofu” is, with perfect Japanese pronunciation, they most likely will not understand me.

and some extra questions, can you tell me/us about czech book prices, are there some that you look for when choosing books?

Oh yes, it was

15. Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them? I think that I definitely didn't read any books nominated for awards this year, since I only read one book that came out this year.

As for the Czech book prices, here's a list of them. I think the most known is Magnesia Litera (it's similar to Augustpriset in that it's goal is to promote books to people). I don't really care about prizes when choosing a book. I've read some books nominated for Magnesia Litera and didn't really liked them. I usually have different taste in books.

(Looking at the list of books that won Magnesia Litera, I realised I read one book this year that won an award - Do tmy by Anna Bolavá, it won a Magnesia Litera in 2016.)

Black Deaf Culture Through the Lens of History (BASL and ASL-centric)

Understanding Deaf Culture by Paddy Ladd (which can also be found on archive.org)

Many Ways to Be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities

the British Deaf Association website

directory for Deaf Australia’s “Our Deaf Ways” video podcast (presented in Auslan with audio from an interpreter and accurate closed captioning for all episodes)

The Irish Deaf Community by Patrick A. Matthews

Breaking the Silence: The Education of the Deaf in Ireland, 1816-1996

the Canadian Deaf Culture Center website

History of Hawai'i Sign Language and Hawai'i Deaf People by Barbara Earth, with Linda Lambrecht

helloooo, good evening everyone (or whatever time of day you're seeing this)

i finished putting together my "most used vocabulary" spreadsheet so that i can start filling it out for every language that i'm interested in (not all at once though).

this spreadsheet has gone through several versions and i initially got the first version for portuguese from nathaniel drew's website* and from there i've made multiple versions adding things and taking things out, trying to make it work for me. there are definitely a few words i've added at some point that still seem common and important enough to keep on this spreadsheet (or maybe that's my inability to prioritise talking).

i want to make my version available to anyone who might find it helpful so through this link you should be able to make a copy on google drive or download it. i also plan on strategically going through this list and publishing my progress here, so we'll see how that goes. i will be using a slightly different list to do that, which will include some more "niche"** vocabulary that i use regularly but that isn't in the "top most common words"—things like sewing and fashion terminology to talk about my uni lessons, and bookish vocabulary so i can talk about what i like to read.

anyway here it is in all it's glory :)

and for anyone interested in my personal (and unfinished) list, it's here:

with additional categories so far being school, sewing, art, books, baking, true crime (content warning), and holidays.

if you have any suggestions for words or phrases i should add, let me know!

*nathaniel drew's spreadsheet available here. his version also features pages on the spreadsheet that focus on verb tenses, whereas mine is just focused on the vocabulary. you do have to sign up for his newsletter though if you want to access the original resources.

coming of age stories are usually not my favourite, but i'm really glad i read la insolación. i loved the way it describes the spanish culture in the 1940s and covers certain themes like internalised misogyny and homophobia