Obsessed with Languages

INTRODUCTION

Past tense is one of the three tenses in Nepali, used to denote or express actions that happened or occurred in the past. It can also be used to denote a state that existed. Nepali also uses this tense to describe a past habitual action, and to express one’s unawareness of a scenario. In Nepali, the past tense is called भूत काल (bhūt kāl). For example, statements below in English all denote actions that happened or states that existed (verbs in italics):

John ate the cake. Mary was going to an adventure. I was a doctor.

In addition, Nepali also uses two additional aspects to denote either unawareness or past habituality:

John was a doctor, I didn’t know that. [In Nepali, this phrase is conjugated into the verb itself] John used to be a doctor.

Thus, the past tense is used to denote a sense of the ‘past’ time. There are five aspects of past tense:

Past indefinite tense

Past progressive tense

Past perfect tense

Past unknown tense

Past habitual tense

Now, we shall see how verbs will conjugate according to the grammatical person used.

VOCABULARY

खानु (khānu) = To eat रोक्नु (roknu) = To stop म (ma) = I हामी (hāmī) = We तँ (tam̐) = You (low respect) तिमी (timī) = You (medium respect) तपाईँ (tapāīm̐) = You (high respect) ऊ (ū) = He/ She (neutral respect) उनी (unī) = He/ She (medium respect) उहाँ (uhām̐) = He/ She (high respect) उनीहरू (unī-harū) = They (medium respect)

EXTRACTING THE ROOT OF THE VERB

We first get the lemma, or the basic form of the verb. Now, we simply remove the -नु (-nu) from the verb to obtain the root of the verb. For example:

खानु (khānu) > खा (khā) [Root ending in a vowel sound] /to eat/ रोक्नु (roknu) > रोक् (rok) [Root ending in a consonant sound] /to stop/

EXCEPTIONS

The verb हुनु (hunu) or ‘to be’ in Nepali is irregular and thus does not follow the conjugation rules given below (except for past habitual tense). Thus, you should not try to conjugate this verb. Another verb, जानु (jānu) or ‘to go’, also behaves slightly differently in past aspects (other than past progressive and past habitual). The root ग (ga) should be used instead of जा (jā) for the indefinite, perfect and unknown aspects.

Other verbs are regular and you can apply the rules below for all the other verbs. High honour forms may take different conjugations.

PAST INDEFINITE TENSE

The past indefinite tense, also known as simple past tense, is a tense used to describe actions in past time that happened at a specific time. In Nepali, it is called सामान्य भूत काल (sāmānya bhūt kāl). For example in English, a statement in past indefinite tense would be: John ate the cake.

Steps

If the root ends in a single vowel sound, remove it. If the root is polysyllabic (i.e. has more than one syllable) and ends in an -a or an -i sound, e.g. बिर्स (birsa), discard that sound as well. E.g. बिर्स (birsa) > बिर्स् (birs). Otherwise, skip this step. Example: आउ (āu) > आ (ā)

Add the required suffix (or ending) to the modified root obtained in step 1. depending on the grammatical person. Remember that adding a vowel to a consonant sound creates a syllable. Example: न् (n) + ए (e) = ने (ne) 

I: म (ma), add एँ (em̐)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + एँ (em̐) = रोकेँ (rokem̐) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + एँ (em̐) = खाएँ (khāem̐) आउनु (āunu) = आ (ā) + एँ (em̐) = आएँ (āem̐)

We: हामी (hāmī), add यौँ (yaum̐)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + यौँ (yaum̐) = रोक्यौँ (rokyaum̐) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + यौँ (yaum̐) = खायौँ (khāyaum̐)

You (low respect): तँ (tam̐), add इस् (is)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + इस् (is) = रोकिस् (rokis) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + इस् (is) = खाइस् (khāis)

You (medium respect): तिमी (timī), add यौ (yau)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + यौ (yau) = रोक्यौ (rokyau) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + यौ (yau) = खायौ (khāyau) 

He (neutral respect): ऊ (ū), add यो (yo)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + यो (yo) = रोक्यो (rokyo) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + यो (yo) = खायो (khāyo)

She (neutral respect): ऊ (ū), add ई (ī)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + ई (ī) = रोकी (rokī) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + ई (ī) = खाई (khāī)

He/She/They (medium respect): उनी (unī) and उनीहरू (unī-harū), add ए (e) if masculine or इन् (in) if feminine

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + ए (e) = रोके (roke) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + ए (e) = खाए (khāe)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + इन् (in) = रोकिन् (rokin) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + इन् (in) = खाइन् (khāin)

You/He/She/They (high respect): तपाईँ (tapāīm̐) and उहाँ (uhām̐), leave the basic form intact and add भयो (bhayo) [EXCEPTION]

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक्नु (roknu) + भयो (bhayo) = रोक्नुभयो (roknubhayo) खानु (khānu) = खानु (khānu) + भयो (bhayo) = खानुभयो (khānubhayo)

PAST PROGRESSIVE TENSE

The past progressive tense, also known as past continuous tense, is a tense used to describe actions in past time that was happening as of then. In Nepali, it is called अपूर्ण भूत काल (apūrṇa bhūt kāl). For example in English, a statement in past progressive tense would be: John was eating the cake.

Steps

If the root ends in a syllable or a vowel sound, add ँ (m̐) to the last syllable. If the root ends in a consonant sound, skip this step. For example: खा (khā) + ँ (m̐) = खाँ (khām̐)

Add दै (dai) to the end of the modified root obtained in step 1.

Add a space ( ).

Now add थि (thi).

Concatenate the required ending to the modified root obtained in step 4 depending on the grammatical person. These suffixes are identical to the ones in past indefinite tense. Note that these suffixes or endings are really just different forms of the verb ‘thiyo’.

The below are demonstrations on how you can carry this out.

I: म (ma), add (थि)एँ ((thi)em̐)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + दै (dai) + [space] + [थि (thi) + एँ (em̐)] = रोक्दै थिएँ (rokdai thiem̐) खानु (khānu) = [खा (khā) + ँ (m̐)] + दै (dai) + [space] + [थि (thi) + एँ (em̐)] = खाँ (khām̐) + दै (dai) + [space] + थिएँ (thiem̐) = खाँदै थिएँ (khām̐dai thiem̐)

He (neutral respect): ऊ (ū), add (थि)यो ((thi)yo)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + दै (dai) + [space] + थियो (thiyo) = रोक्दै थियो (rokdai thiyo) खानु (khānu) = खाँ (khām̐) + दै (dai) + [space] + थियो (thiyo) = खाँदै थियो (khām̐dai thiyo)

You/He/She/They (high respect): तपाईँ (tapāīm̐) and उहाँ (uhām̐), leave the verb intact, then add -हुँदै थियो (-hum̐dai thiyo) [EXCEPTION]

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक्नु (roknu) + हुँदै थियो (hum̐dai thiyo) = रोक्नुहुँदै थियो (roknuhum̐dai thiyo) खानु (khānu) = रोक्नु (roknu) + हुँदै थियो (hum̐dai thiyo) = खानुहुँदै थियो (khānuhum̐dai thiyo)

PAST PERFECT TENSE

The past perfect tense is a tense used to describe actions completed prior to some past point of time specified or implied. In Nepali, it is called पूर्ण भूत काल (pūrṇa bhūt kāl). For example in English, a statement in past perfect tense would be: John had eaten the cake.

Steps

If the root ends in a single vowel sound, remove it. If the root is polysyllabic (i.e. has more than one syllable) and ends in an -a sound, e.g. बिर्स (birsa), turn that into an -i sound, i.e. बिर्स (birsa) > बिर्सि (birsi). If else the root ends in a consonant or syllable sound, skip this step. For example: आउ (āu) = आ (ā)

Add एको (eko)/ एकी (ekī)/ एका (ekā) to the end of the modified root obtained in step 1. The first for neutral/masculine singular, the second for feminine singular and the third for plural cases. Remember that the consonant will take on a diacritic while taking up the vowel sound.

Add a space ( ).

Add the required ending to the modified root obtained in step 3 depending on the grammatical person. These suffixes are identical to the ones in past progressive tense, along with the थि (thi). Note that these suffixes or endings are really just different forms of the verb ‘thiyo’.

I: म (ma), add (थि)एँ ((thi)em̐)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + एको (eko) + [space] + थिएँ (thiem̐) = रोकेको थिएँ (rokeko thiem̐) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + एको (eko) + [space] + थिएँ (thiem̐) = खाएको थिएँ (khāeko thiem̐) आउनु (āunu) = आ (ā) + एको (eko) + [space] + थिएँ (thiem̐) = आएको थिएँ (āeko thiem̐)

He (neutral respect): ऊ (ū), add (थि)यो ((thi)yo)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + एको (eko) + [space] + थियो (thiyo) = रोकेको थियो (rokeko thiyo) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + एको (eko) + [space] + थियो (thiyo) = खाएको थियो (khāeko thiyo)  

You/He/She/They (high respect): तपाईँ (tapāīm̐) and उहाँ (uhām̐), leave the verb intact, add भ (bha), then add एको (eko) [or its forms], and finally add थियो (thiyo) [EXCEPTION]

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक्नु (roknu) + भ (bha) + एको (eko) + [space] + थियो (thiyo) = रोक्नुभएको थियो (roknubhaeko thiyo) खानु (khānu) = खानु (khānu) + भ (bha) + एको (eko) + [space] + थियो (thiyo) = खानुभएको थियो (khānubhaeko thiyo)

PAST UNKNOWN TENSE

The past unknown tense is a tense used to describe actions which occurred in the past but the event remains unknown prior to the speaker’s awareness. In Nepali, it is called अज्ञात भूत काल (ajñāt bhūt kāl) [pronounced agyāt]. For example in English, a statement in past unknown tense would be: John ate the cake, it seems.

If you notice a pattern, the conjugations are mostly the same as for present indefinite tense, except you need to add an ए (e) before it.

Steps

If the root ends in a single vowel sound, remove it. If the root is polysyllabic (i.e. has more than one syllable) and ends in an -a or an -i sound, e.g. बिर्स (birsa), discard that sound as well. E.g. बिर्स (birsa) > बिर्स् (birs). If the root ends in a consonant or syllable sound, skip this step. For example: आउ (āu) = आ (ā)

Add the required ending to the modified root obtained in step 1 depending on the grammatical person. Remember to change the vowel sound as well, if necessary.

I: म (ma), add एछु (echu)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + एछु (echu) = रोकेछु (rokechu) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + एछु (echu) = खाएछु (khāechu) आउनु (āunu) = आ (ā) + एछु (echu) = आएछु (āechu)

We: हामी (hāmī), add एछौँ (echaum̐)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + एछौँ (echaum̐) = रोकेछौँ (rokyaum̐) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + एछौँ (echaum̐) = खाएछौँ (khāyaum̐)

You (low respect): तँ (tam̐), add एछस् (echas) if masculine or इछेस् (iches) if feminine

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + एछस् (echas) = रोकेछस् (rokechas) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + एछस् (echas) = खाएछस् (khāechas)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + इछेस् (iches) = रोकिछेस् (rokiches) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + इछेस् (iches) = खाइछेस् (khāiches)

You (medium respect): तिमी (timī), add एछौ (echau)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + एछौ (echau) = रोकेछौ (rokechau) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + एछौ (echau) = खाएछौ (khāechau)

He (neutral respect): ऊ (ū), add एछ (echa)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + एछ (echa) = रोकेछ (rokecha) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + एछ (echa) = खाएछ (khāecha)

She (neutral respect): ऊ (ū), add इछे (iche)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + इछे (iche) = रोकिछे (rokiche) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + इछे (iche) = खाइछे (khāiche)

He/She/They (medium respect): उनी (unī) and उनीहरू (unī-harū), add एछन् (echan) if masculine or इछेन् (ichen) if feminine

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + एछन् (echan) = रोकेछन् (rokechan) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + एछन् (echan) = खाएछन् (khāechan)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + इछेन् (ichen) = रोकिछेन् (rokichen) खानु (khānu) = खा (khā) + इछेन् (ichen) = खाइछेन् (khāichen)

You/He/She/They (high respect): तपाईँ (tapāīm̐) and उहाँ (uhām̐), leave the basic form intact and add भएछ (bhaecha) [EXCEPTION]

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक्नु (roknu) + भएछ (bhaecha) = रोक्नुभएछ (roknubhaecha) खानु (khānu) = खानु (khānu) + भएछ (bhaecha) = खानुभएछ (khānubhaecha)

PAST HABITUAL TENSE

The past habitual tense is a tense used to describe actions that used to occur or happen in the past repeatedly or as a habit, but may not now. In Nepali, it is called अभ्यस्त भूत काल (abhyasta bhūt kāl). For example in English, a statement in past unknown tense would be: John used to eat the cake. 

If the root ends in a syllable (consonant-vowel), add न् (n). If the root ends in a single vowel sound, add ँ (m̐) to that vowel instead. If the root ends in a consonant sound, skip this step. For example: खा (khā) + न् (n) = खान् (khān) and आउ (āu) + ँ (m̐) = आउँ (āum̐)

Add the required suffix (or ending) to the modified root obtained in step 1. depending on the grammatical person.

I: म (ma), add थेँ (them̐)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + थेँ (them̐) = रोक्थेँ (rokthem̐) खानु (khānu) = [खा (khā) + न् (n)] + थेँ (them̐) = खान्थेँ (khānthem̐) आउनु (āunu) = [आउ (āu) + ँ (m̐)] + थेँ (them̐) = आउँथेँ (āum̐them̐)

We: हामी (hāmī), add थ्यौँ (thyaum̐)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + थ्यौँ (thyaum̐) = रोक्थ्यौँ (rokthyaum̐) खानु (khānu) = खान् (khān) + थ्यौँ (thyaum̐) = खान्थ्यौँ (khānthyaum̐)

You (low respect): तँ (tam̐), add थिस् (this)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + थिस् (this) = रोक्थिस् (rokthis) खानु (khānu) = खान् (khān) + थिस् (this) = खान्थिस् (khānthis)

You (medium respect): तिमी (timī), add थ्यौ (thyau)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + थ्यौ (thyau) = रोक्थ्यौ (rokthyau) खानु (khānu) = खान् (khān) + थ्यौ (thyau) = खान्थ्यौ (khānthyau) 

He (neutral respect): ऊ (ū), add थ्यो (thyo) 

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + थ्यो (thyo) = रोक्थ्यो (rokthyo) खानु (khānu) = खान् (khān) + थ्यो (thyo) = खान्थ्यो (khānthyo)

She (neutral respect): ऊ (ū), add थी (thī)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + थी (thī) = रोक्थी (rokthī) खानु (khānu) = खान् (khān) + थी (thī) = खान्थी (khānthī)

He/She/They (medium respect): उनी (unī) and उनीहरू (unī-harū), add थे (the)

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक् (rok) + थे (the) = रोक्थे (rokthe) खानु (khānu) = खान् (khān) + थे (the) = खान्थे (khānthe)

You/He/She/They (high respect): तपाईँ (tapāīm̐) and उहाँ (uhām̐), leave the basic form intact and add हुन्थ्यो (hunthyo) [EXCEPTION] 

रोक्नु (roknu) = रोक्नु (roknu) + हुन्थ्यो (hunthyo) = रोक्नुहुन्थ्यो (roknuhunthyo) खानु (khānu) = खानु (khānu) + हुन्थ्यो (hunthyo) = खानुहुन्थ्यो (khānuhunthyo)

SUMMARY

The past tense is used to denote or express actions that happened or occurred in the past.

There are five aspects: indefinite, progressive, perfect, unknown and habitual.

The root can be extracted by removing the -nu from the lemma.

To this root, we add various suffixes according to the grammatical person.

The high respect form are exceptions as in, they do not usually follow the standard method. Also, the verbs hunu (to be) and jānu (to go) conjugate differently, as in they use different roots for certain aspects.

The past indefinite tense, also known as simple past tense, is a tense used to describe actions in past time that happened at a specific time.

The past progressive tense, also known as past continuous tense, is a tense used to describe actions in past time that was happening as of then.

The past perfect tense is a tense used to describe actions completed prior to some past point of time specified or implied.

The past unknown tense is a tense used to describe actions which occurred in the past but the event remains unknown prior to the speaker’s awareness.

The past habitual tense is a tense used to describe actions that used to occur or happen in the past repeatedly or as a habit, but may not now.

The World’s Writing Systems is a website presenting one symbol from each of the 292 currently-known writing systems in the world, which you can sort in various ways, such as by name, time period, region, or Unicode support (whether you can view it on a computer without needing to use clunky workarounds). From the project description: 

Unicode 11.0 (June 2018) covers exactly 146 writing systems. That’s an important milestone for worldwide communication and typography. But what about the missing scripts? How many of them are still out there? What do they look like?

This web site presents one glyph for each of the world’s writing systems. It is the first step of the Missing Scripts Project, a long-term initiative that aims to identify writing systems which are not yet encoded in the Unicode standard. As of today, there are still 146 scripts not yet encoded in Unicode.

They also have a cool-looking poster to bring attention to how many writing systems exist and which of them aren’t encoded yet. 

This silkscreen poster presents one glyph for each of the 292 known writing systems of the world, together with their names, regions, and timeframes. A four colour code indicates living / historical scripts and Unicode encoded / not yet encoded scripts. 

Lingthusiasm Episode 28: How languages influence each other - Interview with Hannah Gibson on Swahili, Rangi, and Bantu languages 

The Rift Valley area of central and northern Tanzania is the only area where languages from all four African language families are found (Bantu, Cushitic, Nilotic, and Khoisan). Languages in this area have been in contact with each other for a long time, especially in the minds of bi- and multilingual speakers, so it’s a really interesting place to learn more about why and how languages influence each other. 

In this episode, your host Lauren Gawne interviews Dr. Hannah Gibson, a Lecturer in the Department of Language and Linguistics at the University of Essex, about her work on how word order differences between Rangi and Swahili, both Bantu languages, are related to the different languages that they’ve been in contact with. They also get enthusiastic about Bantu languages in general and especially how the famous Bantu noun class system works. (Swahili, for example, has 16 different noun classes. including humans, natural things that aren’t human, abstract nouns, places, and words that begin with ki-.)  

This month’s bonus episode was about naming people, a topic which has been on Lauren’s mind a lot recently! Support Lingthusiasm on Patreon to gain access to this and over 20 previous bonus episodes.

Here are the links related in this episode:

Hannah Gibson, University of Essex website

Hannah on Twitter

Blog post by Hannah on the research process and finding the construction she was working on in another language, Simbiti 

Research talk by Hannah with more details about her research on language contact in the Rift Valley (youtube) 

Paper by Hannah on word order change in Rangi 

Rangi (Wikipedia)

Grammatical gender (Wikipedia)

Lauren’s football fan analogy of linguistics (Superlinguo)

Bantu languages (Wikipedia)

Great Rift Valley (Wikipedia) 

Languages of Tanzania (Wikipedia)

Language contact (Wikipedia)

Word order (Wikipedia)

Auxiliary verbs (Wikipedia)

Noun class (Wikipedia)

SOAS, University of London

University of Dar es salaam: Department of Swahili Language and Linguistics and Department Of Foreign Languages And Linguistics 

Zanzibar University

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yay then I’m your person! this is only to get you started, so there’s not a lot here

this will be farsi-resource heavy, but as a dari learner i’ve included some things for tajiki and dari + classical

resources

grammar: - my google drive full of persian books (farsi, dari, tajiki, old) - an introduction to persian (dari, grammar heavy, slightly confusing + spelling errors, good overall) - persiandee (a goldmine, i use this) - my personal grammar notes (messy, don’t use as a primary source, only as revision) - persian verbs - my persian verb cheat sheet (+ practice charts + 65 most common verbs with present stems) - prepositions

misc + vocab: - AFZA books (1 and 2 are for beginners, VERY good for vocab + practicing) - my 600 word farsi memrise course (does not completely have audio) - list of 600 most common farsi words + transcription - clozemaster (the website) - some flashcards ranging from B1 (intermediate) to C2 (native), don’t recommend unless for cultural exposure - persian foundation

media: - i’m working on a full post for movies and shit  - my persian spotify playlist

@dovalayn I did. I’ve studied English for about 10 years and I have the official diploma for the C2 level (the maximum for a non-native speaker) given by the University of Cambridge.

But it’s still my 3rd language and there will be always things that escape me, mainly the slang. Always. Because you know you are always less than the majority. And it’s tiring.

That’s all I’m saying. It would be nice for once to not have to make the effort. And effort is something that no matter how many years of English class I take will always be there.

But not everyone can do that. Some people can’t afford private English academies or are bad at languages, and they should still be able to exist online as well. Why are you so bothered by people not speaking English perfectly? Or by people posting on the internet in other languages??

Native English speakers are used to having the world, and by extension all non native speakers, accommodate to their language. If someone doesn’t know English then said person is uneducated, isn’t wordly, is not qualified enough. If a person doesn’t pronounce English like a native, they’re pronouncing it wrong. Tourists are expected to speak perfect English and be proficient in it to avoid any inconvenience to native English speakers when travelling abroad to English speaking countries (USA and UK particularly, yet interestingly enough we are demanded to speak in English when these people visit our countries). These are all mindsets and situations that exist and are part of the broader context, in which English does operate on linguistic imperialism grounds on a global scale; I’m going to quote Phillipson really quickly:

Linguicism: the ideologies and structures which are used to legitimate, effectuate and reproduce an unequal division of power and resources (both material and non-material) between groups which are defined on the basis of their language (i.e., of their mother tongue). This condition is best seen within the broader context of linguistic imperialism - an essential constituent of imperialism as a global phenomenon involving structural relations between rich and poor countries in a world characterized by inequality and injustice.

Language expansion is considered an essential part of a core country’s policy of extending its power and influence in order to achieve its imperialistic strategies. Phillipson holds that the legitimization of English linguistic expansion has been based on two notions: ethnocentricity and educational policy, with ‘ethnocentricity’ being the “practice of judging other cultures by standards of it own.” These two practices have been used to impose a distinction between languages. It has also been a way to promote the notion of the assumed inferiority of secondary languages with respect to the norms determined by the dominant culture.

Phillipson takes this notion one step further with ethnocentricity transformed into that of ‘anglocentricity’ with the consequence that the dominance of English is justified in terms of such oppositions as superiority/inferiority, civilization/backwardness, progress/regress, the first element of which is constantly attributed to the dominant English language.

According to Phillipson education serves the imperial center by having three functions: ideological, economic and repressive. The ideological function serves as a channel for transmitting social and cultural values. In this role English is regarded as a “gateway for better communication, better education and higher standards of living.” The second function – economic – legitimizes English as a means of qualifying people to contribute to their nation and operate technology that the language provides access to. The third function – repression – serves to dominate languages.

Linguistic imperialism calls attention to the potential consequences of English teaching worldwide when center country ideologies are embedded in instruction, having the effect of legitimizing colonial or establishment power and resources, and of “reconstituting cultural inequalities between English and other languages.”

[Cited and paraphrased from

-Phillipson, R. 1992. Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford. Oxford University Press. -Phillipson, R. 1988. Linguicism: structures and ideologies in linguistic imperialism. In J. Cummins and T. Skutnabb-Kangas (eds.), Minority Education: From Shame to Struggle. Avon: Multilingual Matters.]

It’s… interesting, for the lack of a better word, how non native English speakers must even accommodate to native English speakers, when in actuality non native English speakers far surpass natives by several millions and, if anything, it should be them who ought to change, not us.

English becomes our second/third/etc language, we use it with several degrees of proficiency, being affected all the time by our L1, or all the other languages that we might know, we are constantly building on our current interlanguage and gaining a better grasp on how to operate with English. When we talk or chat with other NNE speakers with whom we don’t share a language, we make ourselves understood, we manage to sort any misgiving in communication, if we make a mistake we re-phrase, re-arrange, express things in another way. We are communicating, we still get our messages across despite some slips of the tongue, little mistakes or even a few errors here and there.

We are able to engage, through the use of English, in cross-cultural exchanges, in cross-linguistic exchanges that are allowed by using English as a lingua franca. We are making the language ours, we’re reclaiming the language that for so long was used to shush us down and we’re using it as an asset, we’re using it as a weapon, we’re using it so our voices cannot be silenced any more.

Our messages do get across, they can be understood. When native English speakers claim our Englishes aren’t clear, or we aren’t making any sense, they are really not making the extra effort. In short, many are uncapable of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural exchanges and communication. It’s easier to say we don’t make sense, and by extension snuffing us out, than paying attention to what we are saying.

And we don’t only have to defend our languages and our cultures in a globalised world (in which the normalised culture is that of the center), but we also have to use English as a tool for doing it.

Looking for linguistics and language-related films to watch? Mary Ann Walter, a linguist who runs a linguistics film series at Middle East Technical University, Northern Cyprus, has kindly forwarded her very extensive list of linguistically-relevant movies, documentaries, and episodes of TV shows, and given me permission to post it. 

I have only watched some of these movies and have only very lightly edited Mary Ann’s notes, so I cannot vouch for all of them, but I hope this list is helpful to people! If you know of any linguistically-relevant films that we’ve somehow missed, do add them in the comments. Asterisks indicate ones that are available on youtube. 

Sci-fi/speculative

Arrival, 2016

Star Trek Darmok episode, 1991.

Pontypool. 2008. Horror. In a Canadian town, the English language somehow gets infected and makes them zombies.

The Falls. 1980. Mock documentary about something which killed many and left others with strange symptoms, including suddenly speaking new languages.

*Het Dak van de Walvis (On Top of the Whale) 1982 Raoul Ruiz. Parody of much of western academia. A group of field linguists set out to study an exotic language which consists only of one single word, which therefore means everything. Very strange, not a crowdpleaser.

Being John Malkovich. Also features a single word language.

Latin has this word, sic. Or, if we want to be more diacritically accurate, sīc. That shows that the i is long, so it’s pronounced like “seek” and not like “sick.”

You might recognize this word from Latin sayings like “sic semper tyrannis” or “sic transit gloria mundi.” You might recognize it as what you put in parentheses when you want to be pass-agg about someone’s mistakes when you’re quoting them: “Then he texted me, ‘I want to touch you’re (sic) butt.’”

It means, “thus,” which sounds pretty hoity-toity in this modren era, so maybe think of it as meaning “in this way,” or “just like that.” As in, “just like that, to all tyrants, forever,” an allegedly cool thing to say after shooting a President and leaping off a balcony and shattering your leg. “Everyone should do it this way.”

Anyway, Classical Latin somewhat lacked an affirmative particle, though you might see the word ita, a synonym of sic, used in that way. By Medieval Times, however, sic was holding down this role. Which is to say, it came to mean yes.

Ego: Num edisti totam pitam?

Tu, pudendus: Sic.

Me: Did you eat all the pizza?

You, shameful: That’s the way it is./Yes.

This was pretty well established by the time Latin evolved into its various bastard children, the Romance languages, and you can see this by the words for yes in these languages.

In Spanish, Italian, Asturian, Catalan, Corsican, Galician, Friulian, and others, you say si for yes. In Portugese, you say sim. In French, you say si to mean yes when you’re contradicting a negative assertion (”You don’t like donkey sausage like all of us, the inhabitants of France, eat all the time?” “Yes, I do!”). In Romanian, you say da, but that’s because they’re on some Slavic shit. P.S. there are possibly more Romance languages than you’re aware of.

But:

There was still influence in some areas by the conquered Gaulish tribes on the language of their conquerors. We don’t really have anything of Gaulish language left, but we can reverse engineer some things from their descendants. You see, the Celts that we think of now as the people of the British Isles were Gaulish, originally (in the sense that anyone’s originally from anywhere, I guess) from central and western Europe. So we can look at, for example, Old Irish, where they said tó to mean yes, or Welsh, where they say do to mean yes or indeed, and we can see that they derive from the Proto-Indo-European (the big mother language at whose teat very many languages both modern and ancient did suckle) word *tod, meaning “this” or “that.” (The asterisk indicates that this is a reconstructed word and we don’t know exactly what it would have been but we have a pretty damn good idea.)

So if you were fucking Ambiorix or whoever and Quintus Titurius Sabinus was like, “Yo, did you eat all the pizza?” you would do that Drake smile and point thing under your big beefy Gaulish mustache and say, “This.” Then you would have him surrounded and killed.

Apparently Latin(ish) speakers in the area thought this was a very dope way of expressing themselves. “Why should I say ‘in that way’ like those idiots in Italy and Spain when I could say ‘this’ like all these cool mustache boys in Gaul?” So they started copying the expression, but in their own language. (That’s called a calque, by the way. When you borrow an expression from another language but translate it into your own. If you care about that kind of shit.)

The Latin word for “this” is “hoc,” so a bunch of people started saying “hoc” to mean yes. In the southern parts of what was once Gaul, “hoc” makes the relatively minor adjustment to òc, while in the more northerly areas they think, “Hmm, just saying ‘this’ isn’t cool enough. What if we said ‘this that’ to mean ‘yes.’” (This is not exactly what happened but it is basically what happened, please just fucking roll with it, this shit is long enough already.)

So they combined hoc with ille, which means “that” (but also comes to just mean “he”: compare Spanish el, Italian il, French le, and so on) to make o-il, which becomes oïl. This difference between the north and south (i.e. saying oc or oil) comes to be so emblematic of the differences between the two languages/dialects that the languages from the north are called langues d’oil and the ones from the south are called langues d’oc. In fact, the latter language is now officially called “Occitan,” which is a made-up word (to a slightly greater degree than that to which all words are made-up words) that basically means “Oc-ish.” They speak Occitan in southern France and Catalonia and Monaco and some other places.

The oil languages include a pretty beefy number of languages and dialects with some pretty amazing names like Walloon, and also one with a much more basic name: French. Perhaps you’ve heard of it, n'est-ce pas?

Yeah, eventually Francophones drop the -l from oil and start saying it as oui. If you’ve ever wondered why French yes is different from other Romance yeses, well, now you know.

I encountered the character 著 as zhe for quite awhile before finding its other half, zháo. They both appear following verbs, so just skimming wont always help, but here’s a quick rundown that maybe will!

著 (zhe) 

This pronunciation is used to mark an open-ended or continuous action.

狐狸流著口水… húlí liúzhe kǒushuǐ…  The fox drooled…

接上站著很多人  Jiē shàng zhànzhe hěnduō rén There are a lot of people standing in the street.

it’s also sometimes used for commands but y'know I don’t really know why.

吃著！ Eat!

坐著! Sit!

著 (zháo)

This is the resultative compliment version and means the action was done successfully.

猜著 cāizháo To guess successfully

睡(不／得)著覺 Shuì (bù/dé) zháo jiào   To (not) fall asleep successfully

Gryffindor: 

- Has an obsession with romance languages  - Backpacks (or wants to backpack) around the world  - Does a lot of 100 days challenges  - Loves talking to natives  - Uses tons of different study materials  - Reads out loud in their target languages  - Highlights everything in their textbooks  - Goes on Duolingo every day to keep their sreak - Spends way too much time planning their next trips  - Listens to podcasts in their target languages while working out  - Is better at their target languages when they’re drunk  - Fights anyone who says that you can become fluent in three months  - Visits (or wants to visit) all their friends abroad  - Whises to visit every country in the world  - Loves roadtrips, hiking and sleeping in tents  - Tries local alcohols everywhere they go 

Languages: Spanish, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, Arabic 

Hufflepuff: 

- Gives language classes to refugees in their city  - Volunteers abroad  - Spends more time daydreaming than actually studying  - Watches a lot of TV shows in their target languages  - Studies their soulmate’s native language  - Listens to music in languages they don’t know - Loves translating lyrics from their favorite songs  - Cooks food from foreign countries  - Give nicknames in different languages to their friends  - Shares all their travels on social media  - Talks to their pet in their target languages  - Posts pretty pictures of their study space  - Laughs at dumb duolingo sentences  - Always writes postcards to all their friends when they go on vacation  - Makes new friends every time they sleep in hostels 

Languages: English, Japanese, Afrikaans, Norwegian, Hindi  

Ravenclaw: 

- Makes loads of flashcards - Studies way too much languages  - Loves linguistics  - Makes study schedules and bullet journals  - Works on their aesthetic  - Uses the pomodoro technique  - Shares PDFs of textbooks with all their friends  - Reads Harry Potter in all their target languages  - Has an obcession with buying textbooks  - Talks to themseves in their target languages all the time and then gets confused when someone talks to them  - Starts a new language just because it sounds nice  - Uses a different color for each of their target languages  - Makes bucket lists with all the places they want to visit one day  - Makes travelbooks to remember their travels  - Can read five different alphabets  - Dreams of spending a semester in a foreign university  - Has ten different keyboards on their phone and doesn’t use half of them  - Can spend hours looking at memes instead of studying 

Languages: Latin, German, Chinese, Romanian, Persian 

Slytherin: 

- Makes slang masterposts in their target languages  - Studies super hard to be better than their classmates  - Gets really competitive  - Teaches insults in their native language to foreigners  - Studies a language in secret to surprise people by speaking it  - Works on their pronunciation while working out  - Loves trying new food when they go abroad  - Can say “hello” in twenty different languages  - Works super hard to get a C2 level  - Send memes to their friends in languages they don’t even know  - Acts annoyed when their friends asks them to translate something but is secretly very proud to be the official translator of the squad  - Gets mad when they want to tell a joke but it doesn’t translate  - Pauses their music so they can hear a conversation in their target language in public transportation  - Pretends not to know the language a group is speaking so that they can spy on them 

Manne mousse érkennen, d’asse site nicht vie deuïtche haouse

Ok guys! This post might get long so I apologise! This is also kind of a work in progress, so I’m gonna use December as a kind of ‘test’ to figure out some things and make it great so that in 2018 this can be a real working thing! 

SO the idea is a langblr book club. Each month there will be a different book to focus on. The books will be by non-English authors originally written in a non-English language - do you follow so far? Anyone who wants to participate can read the book in the original language, English, or any other language you know/are learning! Still following? Good. Then at the end of the month (or before if you’re a fast reader) you can write a post or film a video in your target language, English, or the books original language giving your thoughts and feelings about the book. It doesn’t have to be a really long or super detailed review or anything, just a few points about what you liked or didn’t like will be more than enough! Did this all make sense? 

I’m going to try to find and share a pdf/audio book/kindle version of each months book in the original language and English, so if you want to take part and read it in a different language I ask that you look for it yourself and share it with other readers if you can! I just won’t be able to find and share the books in every language ya feel? It might be a challenge to find some of the books in certain formats in certain languages, but I really hope it’s doable!

The point of this is to basically expose yourself to your target language or a new language and the culture/literature of that country. This is purely for fun, so there is no pressure to read every book or make a post about all of them. I just thought this would be a nice way to get some of the community together and be a fun way to learn.

The book for December is going to be ‘Norwegian Wood’ by Haruki Murakami. I did some googling and managed to find the English PDF but could only find the Japanese version on Amazon (it’s only like £5). You can also find the English copy and Kindle version on Amazon.  You can also get a months free trial to listen to the audio book for free with Audible (might be worth it this month while things get smoothed over, sorry this is a mess).