May 2019, Issue #12

May 2019, Issue #12

The Magazine for Language Lovers

Fanakalo
The Magic
of First Words
Whistled
Languages

WeTraitors
Grammar Nazis :
Word Fascism Day-to-Day
Part 3:
Languages of Italy
Modern Hebrew
Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers May 2019, Issue #12

4 The Magic of First Words 16 Parts of Speech 32 Minority Languages

By Camille Masson By Jan Pinc By Cath Fincher
6 What Language Learning Means to 20 Modern Hebrew Morphology, Part 3 36 Languages of Italy: - Part 3
Me By Gil Cohen By Simone Villano
By Hanna Crawford
24 Fanakalo 40 Captain, we’ve got Consonant
8 Grammar Nazis: Word Fascism Day-to- By Tom Priestly Clusters in the La�n Quadrant!
Day
By Stefano Nunes 27 Have a Laugh! At Yourself, At —Engage!
Learning, But Not at Languages By Apio Frito
11 S is for...Substan�ate By Charles Wilson 44 A Dream of Sovngarde
By Christopher Davy
By Diana Vereris
14 Whistled Languages 48 We Traitors
By Elena Sheard
By Marcos Santarrita, Translated by
Tom Moore

two / 2
This week’s page number language is English
Front cover photo by Cflgroup Media from Pexels
This page photo by Kevin Delvecchio on Unsplash
Contents 3 / three
Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
A child’s first words are an exci�ng moment for any parent! But what lies behind their
produc�on? Unseen in this milestone, which announces a new stage of communica�on, is a
complex and interes�ng process. Let’s dig in deeper…
First words limita�ons:
There are several elements that limit the pronuncia�on of first words. The first element is the
physiology of the ar�culatory system. Before a certain age, the ar�culators (tongue, teeth,
nasal cavity etc.) of the child are simply unable to produce the targets necessary to sound out
words. The second limi�ng element is par�cular to each child. Think for example about their
interests, their hearing, and their learning style, which we will discuss further later.
The third and last element limi�ng the child's produc�on is specific to the environment. In
par�cular, I am talking about their ambient language. A child who lives in an English-speaking
household, but has a French nanny, may learn some common French words such as lait (milk)
or encore (again) before learning English ones. This, however, will depend on the child’s
exposure to both languages.
The
Magic
of First
Words
By Camille Masson
four / 4
May 2019, Issue #12
Moreover, three constraints are proposed by the linguist Holly Storkel (2006) concerning the
produc�on of first words. The first is an inventory constraint. Obviously, it is not possible for
the child to produce a word perfectly if it contains a phoneme they are not yet able to
produce! The second constraint is of posi�on. For example, the child may be able to produce
/p/ at the beginning of a word, but not in the middle of another. The third constraint is of
sequence, that is, the limits of co-occurrence of segments.
It is also important to note that a child’s first word will be influenced by their learning style. In
the elements influencing learning style, we find tolerance for variability, ranging from
systema�c and stable, to exploratory and variable. Thus, a child of the first type will be more
word-oriented, more intelligible, focusing on the segmental level, and will have a consistent
pronuncia�on. A child of the second type will be more oriented on intona�on (prosody), will
be less intelligible, emphasizing the suprasegmental level, and will have a variable
pronuncia�on. Both of these types of learning styles will influence the first word a child
speaks.
However, first words also have certain consistent elements between children. For example, the
first consonants to be produced are o�en /p/, /b/, /t/, /m/, /n/ and a greater diversity of
consonants are present in the ini�al posi�on in a word (E.g. papa). Also, first words are usually
composed of 1 or 2 syllables, which are o�en reduplicated (E.g. bobo, dada, mama...).
First word’s aspects
The produc�on of first words is composed of several dimensions. Intelligibility being a very
important one. Children o�en are first intelligible to their parents, because they spend more
�me with them, and are only later intelligible to foreigners. Intelligibility depends on
ar�cula�on, phonology, and vocabulary.
Another important dimension is prosody (men�oned above). This is the accentua�on,
intona�on and rhythm of speech. Intona�on is acquired before accentua�on. And it is
accentua�on that children to make mistakes in as their language development begins.
This is just a high-level summary of what hides underneath the seemingly simple act of speech.
I hope that you will now be able to be�er understand the magic you hear when your li�le ones
begin to talk!
5 / five
Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
What Language
Learning Means to Me
Hanna Crawford
I began my language learning journey at the beginning of secondary
school. I vividly remember some of the ac�vi�es we completed
together in those first few weeks. In fact, I s�ll use some of those
ac�vi�es with my own pupils 17 years on (there’s nothing quite like
an ac�vity coming full circle). My young self was very excited at the
prospect of having a ‘secret code’ in which I could communicate
with those special few in the know, almost like a secret club.
From an early age, I was well and truly cap�vated by the French,
their language and culture and, all else they had to offer. The truth
is, I am s�ll cap�vated by all things French. Having received a good
grade at GCSE, I went on to study French at A-Level. I enjoyed the
new challenges ahead of me and was also known for having an
argument with the Oral examiner as I disagreed on his opinions
regarding public transport.
six / 6
Photo by Helena Lopes from Pexels
Fast forward a couple of years, I went on to study French at
University and decided that one language simply wasn’t enough to
sa�sfy my languages needs. So I began to learn Italian. At University,
I met many like-minded people and fell further in love with my
chosen subject. I studied a range of new topics, such as cinema and
literature, and felt, at �mes, more French and Italian than English.
From François Truffaut to Nanni More�, I was en�rely immersed in
my new culture. I took every opportunity possible to delve further
into my new world, from themed evenings with friends, to
University organised trips.
During my year abroad, I was fortunate to have been hired as an
English language teaching assistant in a school in Italy. At the �me,
I saw this as the next logical step to improve my language skills and
discover this new and exci�ng culture. A lot of people talk about the
wondrous highs of their year abroad and, yes, I had plenty of those
(I discovered a new and beau�ful country and met some wonderful
people who really looked out for me).
However, what people don’t o�en focus on is that actually, living in
a foreign country with no ‘old’ friends or family nearby can be really
lonely at �mes. What is more, throwing yourself into a brand new
culture and forge�ng your own iden�ty can be really damaging to
your own sense of reality.
During my year abroad, a�er I had launched myself full force into
my new language, culture and way of life, I began to ques�on my
absolute love of languages. It would be a number of years before I
realised that I didn’t need to become French or Italian to truly love
the language. I could stay true to my English roots whilst
apprecia�ng my new found interest. However, as a 20 year old
discovering properly for the first �me how to live alone, manage
daily tasks and survive in a new place (in a foreign language at that),
was, at �mes, a li�le overwhelming.
The end of the year quickly approached, and with it, came my
return to University for my fourth year. It was a bi�er-sweet year. I
yearned for my former home in Italy but loved learning more and
more about French history and interpre�ng. I was surrounded by
people discussing how absolutely amazing their year abroad had
been.
May 2019, Issue #12
In talking to people I have come across very few who men�on any
‘dark’ moments during their �me away. Their lives seemed to have
been en�rely ‘Instagram perfect’. In reality, I know that everyone
has their dark �mes and social media isn’t always a place for the
raw, honest truth. Finals overtook me with fast-paced deadlines and
challenging language. Languages seemed to lost their shiny lustre
and their hold over me was slipping.
The excitement that I had felt at the age of 11, at the prospect of
being part of an elite club of happy linguists, had all but waned.
Suddenly, perfec�onism became more important than discovery
and communica�on. The end of University quickly approached and
I did what any well-adjusted ‘grown up’ would do when faced with
the prospect of having to go out and get a ‘proper adult job — I
chose to stay at University and apply for a Masters.
During my MA, I had �me to re-discover my love of languages. I
mastered my art and felt proficient in my favourite subject. I also
began to work as a freelance Liaison Interpreter and loved every
moment of it. In doing this I discovered a new style of literature and
developed my love of transla�on. There were �mes when I doubted
myself and I wouldn’t say that my posi�ve rela�onship with
languages had been completely restored at this stage but things
were certainly going in the right direc�on.
So, how can I summarise my feelings towards language learning?
It’s been roller coaster ride but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I
read somewhere recently that we only regret the things we haven’t
done. For me, this is en�rely true. I don’t regret any of the
experiences I have had on my journey. Each one has shaped me into
the person I am today. Now I have a family, I intend to teach my li�le
one the value of learning another culture and language but
emphasise the importance of not losing your own iden�ty along the
way.
7 / seven
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being perfectly comprehensible, they are not abiding by an arbitrary set of rules presided over
I don’t think it’s an exaggera�on to say all of us who are interested in linguis�cs, languages, by nobody, and that makes them inferior to you.
words and other writy-speaky stuff have either met or are so-called “grammar Nazis”. These
are people whose skin crawls at the sound of a mispronounced word, a verb used as an
adjec�ve, and ineffable divinely powerful en��es forbid you to brazenly end a sentence with a Obviously, this has real-life implica�ons. How many Human Resources people in charge of
preposi�on. These people have a need to immediately correct any split infini�ves, double interviews have judged a candidate harshly for saying “axe” instead of “ask”? How much of
nega�ves and lack of Oxford commas. that judgment comes from a preconceived percep�on that African American Vernacular is an
inferior form of English spoken by inferior people? If Snoop Dogg became Presidizzle of the
United S�zzles, would it be ridiculous if he spoke like that?
I understand that they think they are doing the language a favor by upholding its rules,
maintaining a high standard for proper communica�on, and, in fact, doing the correctee
(vic�m) a favor by improving their knowledge of the language. That would be great if linguis�c Would it be ridiculous because no other old white man spoke like that? Or because this form
prescrip�vism¹ wasn’t a bad disguise for classism, xenophobia, and indeed racism. I would of language is somehow unacceptable in the Oval Office, even though it has been understood
even argue that ‘grammar na�onal-socialism’ carries the seeds of actual fascist or fascist-like and/or adopted by anyone who has ever heard Snoop Dogg speak. Is it because it’s ‘gangster
tendencies in our day-to-day lives. speak?’ Or is it gangster speak because people who speak like that have been grouped
together as an inferior group of divergent language users, outsiders in a community where
Now, I understand prescrip�vism – though I wholeheartedly disagree with it – in a language they do not belong, not least because they have been linguis�cally segregated.
like French or Spanish, where there is an actual en�ty dedicated to dicta�ng the rules of the
language. I understand that some people voluntarily become subjects of the Real Academia Speaking ‘proper English’ requires that you learn it. BBC English is even called “received
Española or the Académie Française, in the same way so many people agree to remain pronuncia�on”. This alone implies a form of ins�tu�onalized eli�sm; in order to learn
subjected to a Monarch; this makes sense to me, that there could exist some sort of ‘linguis�c something, you need to be taught, ideally by a teacher, in a quality structure like a school, and
establishment’ that you either abide by or dissent from. to prac�ce it with peers who also have been taught ‘properly’. This serves to feed a bigger
problem, educa�on-based eli�sm, or the idea that certain jobs are more ‘dignified’ than others
However, I cannot wrap my head around grammar Nazis in English, a language that is a potato because they require certain intellectual skills or proper�es.
salad mishmash of mixed up languages with conflic�ng sets of rules and pronuncia�ons. For in
English you can have two different words for doing everyday ac�vi�es, one etymology for the This form of eli�sm has been forged into the language, as we call those jobs requiring a formal
lower classes (to drink) and one for the higher classes (to imbibe). English has no academy,

eight / 8 9 / nine
Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers May 2019, Issue #12

S is for...
educa�on “skilled labor”; let’s get one thing straight right now, there is no such thing as
unskilled labor, every job requires a specific set of skills, otherwise, they would not be jobs.
There seems to be an understanding that if you do things ‘correctly’, follow the rules of the
game, the rules of language, and you ascend socially and linguis�cally, that you will also ascend
in society.

Another nasty habit of Grammar Nazis is the policing of others. The arrogance of invoking an
immutable authority, the ‘rule’, in order to correct someone’s speech, effec�vely leveraging

Substan�ate
power over that person, in order for them to correct themselves, or simply to feel superior by
correc�ng someone. Being a Grammar Nazi requires par�cular vigilance, you have to be on the
lookout for grammar mistakes, like some sort of Linguis�c Gestapo listening for your next slip
up.

This habit makes it easier to forge ac�ve compliance with the Law, even if the Law is racist or
xenophobic. How much easier is it to call the police on a brown family having a picnic if you
already judged that they speak like foreigners? How easy is it to feel scared and call the police
if a black man is knocking at your door speaking with a heavy ‘ghe�o’ accent, that you
By Christopher Davy got to substan�ate it. Don’t believe me...?
immediately recognize as being ‘bad English’ even though the person is a na�ve English ....You can see where this is going, right?...
speaker, and their family has been for genera�ons. “ is for...
Last �me I wrote about S
Scientific Study (Issue 11). This
�me it is Substan�ate. Why substan�ate, Ok then, SUBSTANTIATE your reasoning as
Grammar Nazis, and linguis�c prescrip�vism come, in general, from a sort of perpetua�on of you ask? to why you don’t believe me. As to why
colonialism. Now, the most extreme form of prescrip�vism is going to a foreign country and you don’t have to/or think you won’t have
replacing their na�ve language with your own, obviously more correct language. The 21st- to substan�ate it in some capacity? (Even
*Ahem, clears throat in smug fashion.*
century version of that is going to a foreign country and being indignant that people don’t if it’s just with yourself.)
speak English well enough. There is also colonialism at an individual level when you establish a
hierarchy of power based on an arbitrary measure, say, proper English, and proceed to exercise Well, please allow me to...you vguessed
that power by requiring the individual to abide by your rules. it...substan�ate. *Chris takes a deep relaxing sigh and
wallows in his own self-righteousness.*
We see a tenuous line being drawn between linguis�c purity and pure prejudice when *Oh, I know, it’s good isn’t it?*
addressing the ques�on of gender neutral, or gender fluid pronouns. Although nobody has Chances are, at some point, someone is
ever had a problem with using “they” as a neutral pronoun instead of “he/she” in everyday going to ask you why you are doing what
Substan�ate because this is what it’s all you are doing. So basically, what I’m
speech, as soon as someone decides that is their prefered gender pronoun, out come the
about. This is what linguis�cs is all about. saying is, if you can jus�fy why you are
gramma�cal rules.
This is what language is all about. This is doing what you are doing, then I believe
what communica�on is all about. This is you can have more faith and confidence in
Linguis�c prescrip�vism is as obsolete as it is ridiculous. We have done away with ideas of what learning is all about. This is what doing what you are doing. As a result of
racial purity, we laugh at the no�on of intelligent design, and we ridicule flat earthers, and yet progress is all about. No, I’m not bored of this, you will ul�mately have more
there are people who con�nue to insist that we cannot split infini�ves, or that sentences wri�ng ‘is all about’. This is what the S is success. At the very least I believe you will
cannot end in preposi�ons, that “y’all” and “y’ain’t”, and “aight” are not ‘real words’, despite for...Something System, IS ALL ABOUT! achieve serenity. Which, in itself, is
consistently finding these words in the ‘wild’. Substan�a�ng. something worth striving for.

English is, at its heart, an inclusive language, it has enough flexibility to absorb, evolve, create, But seriously, if you want to learn or If you can’t substan�ate what you are
reform, renew. Don’t let the Nazis destroy this freedom. Down with prescrip�vism! progress at something. Anything. You’ve doing, then sooner or later I would say,

____________________

ten / 10 1 The a�tude or belief that one variety of a language is superior to others and should be promoted
as such; in other words, the idea that there is such a thing as ‘correct’ or ‘proper’ English. 11 / eleven
Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
you are going to struggle. Which is why we can
have so much conflict at �mes. Internally and
externally. Because A LOT of substan�a�ng is
based on taste and personal opinion:
“Because I like it.”
Which at the same �me may be based on fact:
“Because that’s the most logical way to do it.”
It’s always going to be a ma�er of juggling the
subjec�ve vs. objec�ve. Now it may be a fact that
you like something or believe in something, but
what are you basing liking it on? Fact or taste?
How did you come to accept it as fact? How did
you come to like it? Or has it just always been that
way and is now an established part of your
comfort zone?
*At this point we might unleash the demon.*
Because these are considered pre�y intrusive
ques�ons for a lot of people. Especially if you
don’t know them; the ques�ons or the people. But
it’s more about how you ask the ques�on. In this
instance, I’ve just wri�en the words. You applied
the tone.
*Hmmmm interes�ng*
When we reach this point of ques�oning, “Why?”,
if we aren’t successful for whatever reason, we
fail. We might not see the light at the end of the
tunnel. We might not get the results we want. We
might feel like giving up. We might not be sa�sfied
with our substan�a�on, and when we reach this
point of struggle, we may produce something that
looks like this:
twelve / 12
“What’s the point? I can’t do it. It doesn’t make
any sense. I’m just not (insert superla�ve/some
quality you think you lack here; stereotypically
‘good’) enough.”
(Said in sulky, disheartened tone).
And if you are struggling when someone tries to
ask why you are doing something. You might
produce these responses:
“I just am, it’s none of your business.”
Or “I don’t know. My Mum does it this way. Shut
up.”
Or [mute] (vacant expression)
We o�en apply some kind of quick fix. Some kind
of defence mechanism. We snap. To get it over
and done with quickly. But is it really
substan�a�ng why you are doing it? Yeah, kind of,
but not really. It does solve the situa�on you are in
and allows you to get on with your life and deal
with the feelings later. But ahhhhh, those good old
feelings, they’ll probably be there wai�ng. Wai�ng
for next �me.
(Side note – my version of Word doesn’t quite like
the above sentences “We apply some kind of quick
fix. Some kind of defence mechanism.”
Hahahahahaha! It says “Consider using concise
language.” Hahahahahaha! To that I say. Shut up
Word you damn fool! I’ll do what I damn well want
thank you!)
So, substan�a�ng. How do you do that? Well,
clearly in that last sentence I’ve already started for
you. But essen�ally you scru�nise, (How? Why?
When? Where? What? Which? Who? etc.), and
then in answering all those ques�ons, and any
others that crop up along the way, you will have
____________________
*h�ps://www.etymonline.com/word/substan�ate#etymonline_v_22271
2 Please be aware that other ‘S’ words are available. Substan�ate was used for clima�c emphasis in the previous paragraph; for the reader’s entertainment.
At no point do I, Chris Davy, take full responsibility for the wholehearted advocacy of a single ‘S’ word above all others. (Apart from maybe sandwiches.)
May 2019, Issue #12
hopefully substan�ated your reason for doing…
something. With… something that hopefully
“Because my Nan now lives in Bulgaria and has a
makes sense. Substan�al sense. Something that
pet pig called Hristo. I just want to be able to say
sa�sfies the soul.
hello to Hristo in Bulgarian. Obviously, he won’t
understand me if I don’t speak Bulgarian, will he?!
Taaah daaah! He’s a Bulgarian pig.”
Take this arena, for example, linguis�cs. Why do Your reasons are your own. If you are truly
you want to learn a new, or get be�er at a sa�sfied with them, then that’s a great start. If
language? not, just spend some �me working on them. When
“So, I can feel more comfortable and confident you’ve got your reason, use it. Use it to fuel your
when I go on holiday in a foreign country.” drive. You know it makes sense. I’ll give my
substan�a�ng answer as to what I do, and why, in
a future ar�cle. And yeah, for the record it does
“Because I now have new family members that
begin with ‘S’. See If you can guess what it is. I’ll
speak a different language to me. I need to be able
give you a clue, it’s not
to pretend that I want to get along with them.”
supercalifragilis�cexpialidocious.
“Because there is a book that I want to read in the
Finally, if you really want to kick some ass… try
language it was originally wri�en in.”
breaking down the structure and etymology of the
word substan�ate.
“So, I can order food in a foreign country and not
kill myself, because I have specifically 247 food
Now I don’t know about you, but I think.
allergies.”
That. Is. Sa�sfying.
“Because I really like this music, but I don’t
understand what they are singing.”
Substan�ally, sa�sfying.
“Because there is a ho�e that I want to chat to,
but they only speak Cornish.” Now if you can’t be bothered to think too hard, try
to begin by breaking down the noun substance,
into sub- (under) and -stance (standing). Or just
“Because the voice in my head has go�en bored
have a look online, perhaps star�ng here*.
with my na�ve language and accents. It wants to
have some new friends.”
“Because if I don’t do this then the whole integrity
of the space-�me con�nuum will be compromised
which could lead to the end of life as we know it!”
“Because it’s my life and I can do with it as a
bloody well please.”
13 / thirteen
Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
WHISTLED LANGUAGE or whistled speech, is a complementary style of speech found in
over thirty languages. As implied by the name, these languages use whistling as a sound
source instead of the vibra�on of vocal cords. Whistled languages are language-specific and
language-dependent. This means that whistlers rely on selected salient key features of their
spoken language, such as tone or vowel quality, which are then encoded into the whistle
through modula�ons in amplitude and frequency.
The resul�ng acous�c signal encodes the words of the language in ques�on. Whistle languages
contrast with other 'language surrogates' as they do not create a separate subs�tute for
language with separate rules or syntax. Instead, whistlers claim they whistle exactly as they
think in their language, and interpret whistled communica�ons as being in their language too.
So, what is a whistle? Phone�cally, a whistle is produced as compressed air in the cavity of the
mouth is forced either through the smallest hole of the vocal tract, or against an edge. The
whistler's jaws are fixed in place by the �ghtened lips, and the muscles of the neck and jaw
(and poten�ally the finger, depending on the technique). Movements of the tongue and larynx
control the tuning of the sound. These movements enable regula�on of the pressure of the air
expelled, and the produc�on of modula�ons in frequency and amplitude. This, in turn,
ar�culates words.
Typically, whistled speech is produced between 80 and 120 decibles (dB), and its general flow
is 10%-50% slower than normal speech. This means that whistling uses the same strategy of
shouted speech (typically produced between 90–100 dB), but over greater distances and
without requiring the vibra�on of vocal folds. Whistling, therefore, enables people to
communicate over greater distances, and with greater ease, than shouted speech would allow.
This is especially useful in rural environments that have a lot of background noise.
Whistled$
! Languages
By Elena Sheard(^*
May 2019, Issue #12
The nature of the whistled ar�cula�on is dependent on whether the language in ques�on is
tonal or non-tonal. For non-tonal languages, whistlers approximate the form of the mouth of
the spoken voice while whistling, adap�ng the usual vowel quality into a simple frequency.
Consonants are created by the sudden shi�s from vowel to vowel. For tonal languages,
whistlers instead encode the dis�nc�ve tones carried by vowels by transposing the
fundamental frequency of the normal voice to the resonance of the vocal tract. In effect, this
recreates the 'melody' of the spoken language.
In simpler terms, whistled languages based on non-tonal languages rely on the formant
frequencies of vowels, while those based on tonal languages rely on their tones (fundamental
frequency). In both tonal and non-tonal languages, higher sounds are produced at the high
front part of the mouth (at the palate), and lower sounds are produced further back in the
mouth.
Whistled languages are found among a diverse range of languages and language families
across the world. Whistled languages in North and South America include ones based on Yupik
(Alaska), Taos (New Mexico), Otomi, Zapotec and Desano (Mexico), and Pirahã (Brazil). In Asia,
there are whistled languages based on Bai (China), Hmong (Vietname), Chin (Burma), Chepang
(Nepal), and Turkish (Turkey). In Europe, the whistled Silbo Gomero, Occitan language and
Sfyria are used respec�vely in villages in Spain (and the Canary Islands), France and Greece.
There are also whistled language based on Bench (Ethiopia), Bafia (Cameroon), Bobo (Burkina
Faso) and Yoruba (Nigeria), along with many others across Africa. For those who are familiar
with Papua New Guinea's linguis�c diversity, it will not be a surprise to know that there are
several documented whistled languages there as well, including Gadsup, Abau and Bauzi.
This list of languages includes both tonal languages (e.g. Hmong) and non-tonal languages
(Greek, Spanish, Turkish). They tend to occur in low-density popula�ons that live in the
mountains or dense forests; these contexts mean the inhabitants are predisposed to rela�vely
isolated ac�vi�es during their everyday life, such as shepherding, hun�ng, and harves�ng in
the field. These geographical landscapes increase the necessity of communica�ng at a
distance, and the presence of vegeta�on restricts both visual contact and the propaga�on of
sound in a rela�vely noisy environment.
Like many spoken languages around the world, some whistled languages are facing loss and
ex�nc�on. Most living speakers who use the whistled Kuşköy in Northern Turkey are ageing,
and it is predominantly spoken only by shepherds. The speakers of Sfyria in An�a, Greece, are
also ageing with few younger speakers who can use it. A similar decline is taking place in
Chinantex where changing social needs and technology make learning a whistled language
less of a necessity. This does not mean that local speakers do not take pride in their linguis�c
heritage; the Kuşköy village holds an annual Bird Language Fes�val, and Silbo Gomero is
taught as a school subject in the Canary Islands.
15 / fifteen
Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers May 2019, Issue #12

In this ar�cle, these nine parts will be Verbs are generally the most complex part

Parts described first; a�er that, there are several

parts of speech that are absent from English,
but prominent enough in other languages to
deserve a men�on.
of speech, since they (along with the noun)
form the core of the sentence. Besides
agreeing with the subject (being able to
describe its number, person and/or gender),
they can also provide informa�on about the
�me of the ac�on (tense), repe��on or
Let’s start by saying there isn’t a single

of universal defini�on of the noun.

Gramma�cal defini�ons (defining nouns by
their prefixes/suffixes, or by their syntac�c
roles) are language-specific, while seman�c
defini�ons (“nouns are names of persons,
uniqueness of the ac�on (aspect), rela�on
of the ac�on and the subject (voice),
speaker’s a�tude towards the ac�on
(modality), and an alterna�ve way to
express the modality (mood). While all of it
is undoubtedly interes�ng, anything more
things, proper�es, ac�ons and so on”)

Speech
By Jan Pinc
always seem to get stuck at some words that
don’t fit into any category. With those
‘proper defini�ons’ being way too long and
technical for purposes of this ar�cle, it is
assumed that the reader already has some
detailed than this brief overview would
merit a separate ar�cle for itself.

Adjec�ves are simply used to modify a noun

preferred defini�on of the noun.
Photo by Mike Bird from Pexels
Part of speech is a category of words within a language that have similar syntac�c, seman�c, Nouns are almost always divided into
or morphological proper�es. Their oldest defini�ons come from studies of Sanskrit (5th-6th proper nouns (represen�ng unique things)
century BC) and they have come a long way since. Since parts of speech are a key feature of and common nouns (represen�ng
every language, let’s talk a bit about their classifica�on, usage, and a�ributes. everything else). Another way of classifying
them is either as concrete nouns (physically
exis�ng) or abstract nouns (for thoughts and
In the broadest sense, four basic parts of speech can be dis�nguished – substan�ves, concepts). Nouns usually have number,
adjec�ves, verbs, and adverbs. These are autoseman�c, which means they possess some gender, and case. Number is quite
inherent meaning regardless of the context. On the other hand, synseman�c parts of the straigh�orward, depending on the count of
speech (such as conjunc�ons, preposi�ons etc.) are useless without context, as they don’t en��es (with the opposi�on of singular-
carry their own meaning. plural being the most common, although
numbers such as dual, trial, or paucal –
There are three main criteria for classifying parts of speech – morphological, syntac�c, and designing “a few” en��es – also exis�ng).
seman�c.
• Morphological is expressed as “What gramma�cal categories does it possess?”
Gender is assigned to a varying degree by
• Syntac�c is “what is the role of this word in a sentence?”
seman�cs (where gender corresponds to a
• Seman�c means “is this word usable without context?”
real life trait of the en�ty), with morphology
being useful for determining the gender of a
These criteria are variously combined to create a system that as intui�ve and comprehensive
word (some suffixes are typical for just one
as possible – it should be no surprise though, that there are plenty of excep�ons and unclear
gender). Case specifies the rela�on of the
cases.
noun to other parts of the sentence and is
decided by the noun’s declension paradigm.
English grammar commonly lists eight or nine parts of speech: noun, verb, adjec�ve, adverb,
pronoun, preposi�on, conjunc�on, interjec�on, and (some�mes) ar�cle or determinant.
or a nominal phrase. They o�en share
gramma�cal categories with nouns, but
there are three notable addi�ons. First, they
agree with nouns, although the extent of
the agreement varies between languages.
While English adjec�ves don’t agree, French
adjec�ves must agree in number and
gender, and La�n adjec�ves must agree with
the noun in number, gender, and case.
The second addi�on is the order. Adjec�ves
can be cumulated when modifying a noun,
but there is rigid order of the determiner
(e.g. an ar�cle, numeral…), opinion (e.g.
impressive, nice), size (e.g. li�le, giant), age
(e.g. new, old), shape (e.g. pointy, round),
color (e.g. yellow, dark), origin (e.g. English,
terrestrial), material (e.g. plas�c, stone), and
purpose (e.g. part of compound nouns, such
as “hun�ng rifle” or “town hall”). While
many speakers are unaware of this exact
rule, they nonetheless use it intui�vely,
feeling ‘wrong’ if they swap the order of
some words. This order is, however,
some�mes overruled by other rules, e.g. the
phrase “big bad wolf” does not follow the
expected order of opinion before size, and

sixteen / 16 17 / seventeen
Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
this is due to rules about sounds.
Third, the adjec�ves are comparable, being
able to create a compara�ve (“more X” or
“X-er”) and a superla�ve “the most X” or
“the X-est”). Although some adjec�ves, at
first glance, shouldn’t be logically
comparable (such as “final” or
“meaningless”), they can s�ll be compared
in specific circumstances or in spoken usage
(for example when considering mul�ple
op�ons, some might seem “more possible”
than the others… though it’s best to avoid
this in wri�ng).
Adverbs commonly specify circumstances of
the sentence, by ques�ons like “where?”,
“when?”, “how?” etc. They are very similar
to adjec�ves, with the main difference being
syntac�c – adjec�ves modify nouns, adverbs
don’t (adverbs can modify adjec�ves,
though). Many languages possess a fairly
simple way of changing adjec�ves to
adverbs, most typically by use of a suffix.
Adverbs created in this way can inherit some
proper�es of the original adjec�ves, for
example being comparable.
Pronouns are part of speech whose func�on
is to subs�tute other parts of speech – most
o�en nouns, adjec�ves, or adverbs. One of
the most important features of pronouns is
a fact that they are deic�c – that means
their seman�c meaning is fixed, but their
denota�onal meaning changes with the
context (for example “you” is always used
for addressing someone in the second
person – however, who exactly is meant by
“you” will vary depending on the situa�on).
This makes them not only incredibly
versa�le, but also very resistant to
changes/addi�ons, as there is a finite
number of posi�ons that can be filled by
eighteen / 18
pronouns, elimina�ng the need to introduce
new ones (preposi�ons and conjunc�ons
are generally also pre�y stable).
Preposi�ons might seem compara�vely
simple, although it’s not exactly true. (You
may also see the term adposi�on used like
preposi�on as a general term for all such
words no ma�er where they fit syntac�cally.
) In addi�on to your standard preposi�ons,
there are also postposi�ons (these less
frequent than preposi�ons in English – for
example, “cut down” – but Finnish loves
them), circumposi�ons, and, if you want to
shine, also inposi�ons and interposi�ons.
Furthermore, the preposi�ons are
commonly divided into simple and complex;
the defini�on of complex preposi�ons is
usually “groups of words that act as one
object” (for example “next to”). Other
languages dis�nguish between primary and
secondary preposi�ons, where secondary
means “originally derived from another part
of speech”. In inflected languages, the role
of the preposi�ons is somewhat diminished,
since some cases don’t require them.
Conjunc�ons are mostly pre�y
straigh�orward, divided into coordina�ng
and subordina�ng, with the only issue being
whether to count them as one part of
speech, or two separate. Their func�on is to
link two words or phrases together, nothing
more and nothing less. One excep�on would
be the belief that it’s incorrect to begin a
sentence by “and”, “yet”, “but”, or
“because”; however, there actually isn’t a
rule against this, this usage depends mainly
on the context and the word order.
Interjec�ons are probably THE weirdest
part of speech of them all, as they very
May 2019, Issue #12
o�en onomatopoeic (= they are trying to While they are virtually unknown in Europe,
imitate an exis�ng sound), and thus they are they feature prominently in Asian languages.
some�mes presumed to be the oldest parts Classifiers (or “the measure words”)
of the language. They are commonly divided complement the noun, being dependent on
into voli�ve (pertaining to someone else, for their referent (= the class the noun belongs
example “hey!” or “sup?”), emo�ve to) and frequently being present along with
(expressing one’s emo�ons and thoughts, numerals when coun�ng en��es.
such as “yeah!” or “oh.”), and cogni�ve
(rela�ve to circumstances, like sounds of
Finally, par�cles, at least in English, are a
things and animals). An interes�ng feature
catch-all group for the words that don’t fit
of the interjec�ons is their ability to create
elsewhere. One possible approach (u�lized
an u�erance by themselves – or, in other
in some Slavic languages, unfortunately,
words, exclama�ons like “ouch!” can carry
less-than-op�mal for English) is to define
and express an explicit meaning despite not
the par�cles as words that say “no” to all
having any noun or verb.
three criteria (= cannot be inflected, aren’t
dis�nct part of the sentence, don’t carry
Determiners, on the other hand, are a meaning outside of the context). Par�cles
category that is s�ll evolving, as they are are most o�en used as a means to modify or
more and more recognized as an ‘official’ intensify the meaning of the sentence,
part of speech. Since this magazine is although their exact usage will vary slightly
Anglophone, the reader can be expected to depending on the language.
have a reasonable grasp of the determiners.
However, this feature is not universal – even
though English uses them regularly, they are
s�ll only semi-frequently counted among
parts of speech (that’s why the number of
parts of speech fluctuates between eight
and nine), and Slavic languages, in general,
lack them en�rely. If determiners aren’t
treated separately, they are split between
adjec�ves and pronouns.
Several languages also consider numerals as
a dis�nct part of speech. Since these are
usually put together from various
nouns/adjec�ves/adverbs, their defini�on is
purely seman�c – and also quite
problema�c, as (among other things) nouns
and adjec�ves are flexible, but adverbs are
not. Various languages solve this problem
differently, of course.
Another peculiar case is that of classifiers.
19 / nineteen
Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers May 2019, Issue #12

Welcome back to Modern Hebrew Morphology! This �me we’ll talk about
other aspects of Hebrew morphology, like nouns and adjec�ves.

Let’s start with nouns!

Hebrew has two genders, masculine and feminine. Like other languages that have gender, the
division of nouns between genders is irra�onal, random and some�mes just plain weird.
Obviously, we have many nouns that their gender does correspond to their real natural gender.
In Hebrew, the word we use for “gender” in “gramma�cal gender” is the word min, which
means either sex (yes, sex) or type, kind (as in “what kind of computer is this?”).
Here are a few examples of nouns with natural gender:

• The word for “man” is ish, and for “woman” is isha.

• The word for “male spider” is akavish, and for “female spider” is akavisha.
• The word for “male cat” is khatul, and for “female cat” is khatula.

As you can see, for these nouns, if you add an /a/ sound at the end of a masculine noun that
represents something that is naturally male, you can turn it into a feminine noun that
represents something that is naturally female. Unfortunately, that rule doesn’t apply to all
nouns. For example, the word for “male camel” is gamal, but the word for “female camel” isn’t
gamala, but na’aka³, but na’aka s�ll ends with the /a/ sound!

Let’s look at a few fruits and vegetables, which don’t have a natural gender (as far as I’m
aware):

• melafefon (cucumber), gezer (carrot), batzal (onion) and tapu’ah (apple).

• agvanya (tomato), banana (banana, what a shocker), khasa (le�uce) and te’ena (fig).

Wait, does this mean that the /a/ sound at the end of a noun means that it is a feminine noun,
and if a noun doesn’t end with the /a/ sound, does that mean that it’s a masculine noun?

That rule doesn’t apply to all cases, but that is a general rule that’s useful if you ever want to
learn Hebrew.

Let’s see a few excep�ons to the rule:

• The word for “notebook” is makhberet and the word for “pumpkin” is dla’at. Both end in
/t/ and not in /a/, yet their gender is feminine. Coincidence? We’ll see about that
shortly.
• The gender of body parts which we have two of, is feminine, even though most of them
Modern Hebrew
don’t end with /a/: ayin (eye), ozen (ear), yarekh (thigh), yad (hand), regel (leg), and
shok (calf).
• The word for “male donkey” is khamor, while the word “female donkey” is aton!

So what’s up with that /t/ ending?

Morphology, Part 3
By Gil Cohen
twenty / 20 21 / twenty one
Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
For that, we must delve a bit into Hebrew grammar. There is a construct that is very common
in Semi�c languages (like Hebrew and Arabic), which is called a “construct state”. It marks a
connec�on between two nouns (usually) or between a noun and an adjec�ve (rarely, mostly
obsolete).
For example, if I want to say “the neighbor’s male cat”, I can say hakhatul shel hashakhen (ha
is our definite marker, khatul means “male cat”, shakhen means “neighbor”, and shel, means
“of” in this case), but I can also say khatul hashaken, and it means exactly the same. This is a
construct state. So far, the noun that means “cat” doesn’t change.
But what happens if I want to refer to a female cat that lives with my neighbor? Like before, I
can say hakhatula shel hashakhen (khatula means “female cat”), but I can also say khatulat
hashaken. Hey, it’s that /t/ ending again, and it’s a feminine noun too!
So where does this /t/ ending come from? The original Semi�c feminine noun ending was /t/,
and over �me, it eroded, and simply became /a/. It remained in Hebrew in a construct state,
and in some words that remained like that. For example, the word for “Ms.” Or “lady” (as in
Ms. Obama) is giveret. The word is usually used in a construct state, like giveret Obama (Ms.
Obama), but now and then, I hear u�erance like hey, giveret (like “hey lady, you dropped
something”), and the word remains the same, even though it is not in a construct state.
When words are borrowed into Hebrew, they tend to follow the aforemen�oned rule: if it
ends with /a/, it’s Hebrew-ized as feminine, and otherwise, it’s Hebrew-ized as masculine. For
example, the Hebrew-ized version of “informa�on” is informatsya, and is a feminine noun, and
the word for “wi-fi” is (usually) pronounced the same, and is a masculine noun. But some
words that end with t do not follow that rule! For example, the word for “internet” is
pronounced the same, yet it is masculine.
An interes�ng anecdote regarding the word for sock: the word for “sock” in Hebrew is gerev,
which doesn’t end in /a/ or /t/. Up un�l recently (I don’t know how recently), it was a
masculine noun, but over the years, it transi�oned into a feminine noun. According to
prescrip�vists, it s�ll is a masculine noun, yet it is almost always referred to as a feminine
noun. I don’t know the reason for that transi�on, but I have an idea, and that leads us to our
plurality system!
How do we make nouns plurals? There is a general rule for that: if it’s a masculine noun, add
the suffix -im, and if it’s a feminine noun, add the suffix -ot. For example, the word for “male
cat” is khatul, and the word for “male cats” is khatulim, and the word for “female cat” is
khatula, and the word for “female cats” is khatulot (the /a/ ending is omi�ed).
The problem with that general rule is that it has so many excep�ons: there are many
masculine nouns that their plural form ends with -ot, and many feminine nouns that their
twenty two / 22
May 2019, Issue #12
plural end with -im. For example, the word for “table” is shulkhan and is masculine, yet the
word for “tables” is shulkanot, and the word for “egg” is beytsa and is feminine, yet the word
for “eggs” is beytsim. In some languages, when a noun takes the plural form of another
gender, it actually becomes that gender, gramma�cally⁴. But that is not the case in Hebrew,
beytsim is s�ll feminine.
We can deduce that there are more nouns that abide by the rule than excep�ons because a
common mistake (is it really a mistake?) amongst children learning Hebrew is saying beytsot
instead of beytsim.
Some of the world languages have a dual plural form. That means that two of the same thing
are referenced. It has been common among Semi�c languages, and some have retained it, like
Arabic, but Hebrew hasn’t really retained it. What do I mean by that? We have some dual
forms le�, but it’s not produc�ve: we don’t use it to mark the dual form any more.
Remember the body parts I men�oned before? The ones that are feminine even though they
don’t “look” feminine? Well, they all retained their dual form, and they don’t have a “regular”
plural form.
Here are a few examples:
• The word for “hand” is yad, and the word for “hands” isn’t yadim, but yada’im.
• The word for “calf” is shok, and the word for “calves” isn’t shokim, but shoka’im.
We have a few nouns that have a dual form (and not “regular” plural form), that aren’t body
parts, but do come in pairs. An example of this kind of noun is the word for “shoe”: the
singular form is na’al, and the word for “shoes” is na’ala’im, and that noun is also feminine!
Remember the word for “sock”? This is also true in this case: the singular version is gerev, and
the plural (dual, actually) form is garba’im⁵.
That’s it for this Ar�cle! Next �me we’ll explore other parts of nominal morphology in Modern
Hebrew, so see you next �me!
____________________
3 The ’ means that “a” and “a” are not part of the same vowel, but are actually part of two different
syllables.
4 In Italian, the word for “bone” is osso, which is a masculine noun, while the plural form is ossa, which
is a feminine noun!
5 Ignore the fact that the word seems like it changed a lot, it has to do with roots and the way most
nouns are formed in Hebrew, like verbs. I will write about that next �me, so stay tuned!
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Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
Fanakalo
By Tom Priestly
As I wrote previously, Swahili, now (in one form
or another) the lingua franca across a wide swath
of Africa, must have started out as an Arabic-Bantu
pidgin on the coast of what is now Tanzania: a
gramma�cally simplified language-variety used
for communica�on where there was no common language.
Its use persisted and it became the first language of speakers who therefore now spoke no longer a pidgin,
but a creole; and in various forms it spread and changed from being just a simplified trade language to a
fully gramma�cal form of communica�on among speakers of Arabic, Bantu languages, the languages of
Southern Asia, and Portuguese and English; and even became a standard language, namely of Tanzania.
Further south, in the mines, farms and townships, another simplified means of ‘contact’ communica�on
came into being: the pidgin which is usually called Fanakalo (on other names, see below). This developed
among speakers of, on the one hand, Afrikaans and English (in what is now the Republic of South Africa
[RSA] and also Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique and Zambia); and on the other hand speakers of
Zulu and other local Bantu languages such as Xhosa, Shona and Bemba.
In South Africa, its major input came from English and Zulu. Like Swahili, and it has different localized
varie�es, usually categorized as ‘Mine Fanakalo’ and ‘Farm (or, Garden) Fanakalo’. Because its structure
stabilized and it is used in limited contexts, it is labelled a "crystallized pidgin." It is typically used, as
Mesthre and Surek-Clark state, "in work situa�ons: on farms, in the mines of the Witwatersrand, which
draws a mul�lingual workforce from all over southern Africa, in other urban labour and trade situa�ons,
and in domes�c employment (between employers and maids, cooks, gardeners).⁶"
According to Holm (1989) there are/have been⁷, worldwide, as many as 88 pidgins and creoles: 35 based
on English, 14 on French, 9 on Portuguese, 3 on Spanish, 3 on Dutch, and 24 based on other languages. His
criteria for inclusion in his list are broad so that both Swahili and Afrikaans are included; but he draws the
line so that he excludes English, which, in fact, may well have developed from a (FrancoNorman-Saxon)
creole. Swahili- and Afrikaans-speakers will probably object to this, but it is probably one of these
instances where categoriza�on is arbitrary.
twenty four / 24
May 2019, Issue #12
In Swahili I (Silly Linguis�cs 5) I described how as a child I came to speak Kisetla with some fluency. Nearly
20 years later, I was exposed to Fanakalo. This was in 1959, when I had the chance, in the ‘long vac’ from
university, of a cheap flight to Johannesburg with a job provided for me when I got to South Africa. The job
turned out to be as a "Learner sampler" in a gold mine in Welkom, Oranje-Vrystaat/Orange Free State.
As a student of linguis�cs, I was fascinated with the chance of exposure to Afrikaans and to Fanakalo,
especially because I had just finished a course in ar�culatory phone�cs and was keen to hear and try to
imitate the clicks that Fanakalo "took from" Zulu. I s�ll own the li�le handbook that we were issued,
‘Miners' Companion’ (Andreasen 1953). This has English and Afrikaans sec�ons on pronuncia�on,
vocabulary and ‘useful phrases’ — but, tellingly, no sec�on on grammar.
The pronuncia�on presents few problems: as with Swahili, one pronounces consonants as in English and
vowels more or less as in Italian. There are five excep�ons: the lateral frica�ve known as "the Welsh ll"
(spelled HL, e.g, llala (wait)) and its voiced counterpart (spelled DHL); and the three clicks. Two of the last-
named are familiar to speakers of English like myself: the dental one (used by us to express pity or shame,
o�en wri�en "tsk!") and the lateral, side-of-the-mouth one (used to encourage horses to move). The third
is a palatal ("popping") click.⁸ These are represented with the le�ers "C, Q, X" respec�vely.
They are easy enough for English-speakers to produce separately, but difficult when they are combined with
other consonants and even more so in syllables with vowels (e.g., nqwelo (wagon), gqoka (to wear)), and
when this occurs, all are usually replaced by the /k/ sound. For example, my fellow non-Bantu workers such
as my Afrikaner ‘shi� boss’ (Afrikaans sko�aas, Fanakalo tshif-bas) would normally pronounce “Qala
sebenza!” (start work!) as /kála sebénza/. I had precious few chances to prac�se the click, other than in this
word for "start": when I got to know my main assistant (my "boss-boy"), a�er a rest period I might say
"Qala manje?" with a ques�on intona�on, meaning "Shall we start now?" but I had few such, and almost no
other, chances.
This last sentence exemplifies the "lack of grammar", shown by grammar not being men�oned once in the
‘Miner's Companion’. As in the simplest kinds of Kisetla-Swahili (see "Swahili III"), there is no varia�on in the
forms of nouns, verbs and so on. Since (a) (as in the former most common use of Kisetla) it was only
commands that were used nearly all the �me, and (b) impera�ves in both Swahili and Zulu (like many other
languages)⁹ are the indeclinable form of the verbal root¹⁰, this was the first — and only!— verbal form to be
learned; and nouns also had, normally, just one form.¹¹
What I would have had to know to converse with my ‘boys’ — had I ever had the opportunity! — was,
therefore, the vocabulary. Most sources give its origin as about 70% Zulu, 24% English, and the rest
Afrikaans. Quickly leafing through my ‘Miner's Companion’ I now find very few Afrikaans-origin words (e.,
stelek (strong) from sterk and spor (railway track) from spoor, a word which became common Anglo-
African); ‘Farm Fanakalo’ presumably had more. Almost all of the English-origin words have to do with the
technical and prac�cal side of gold-mining.
The name ‘Fanakalo’¹² is considered ‘pejora�ve’ in some lis�ngs¹³, but a specialist at the University of Cape
Town writes: "A�tudes to Fanakalo can be pejora�ve (as black intellectuals link it to 'command' and 'cheap
25 / twenty five
Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers May 2019, Issue #12

labour'), but the label isn’t objected to as far as I know" (Rajend Mesthrie, via e-mail). It is aso
called "Basic Zulu", "Isilolo", "Isipiki" in the RSA, "Chilapalapa" in Zimbabwe, "Cikabanga" in
Zambia.¹⁴ Other names are/were very definitely pejora�ve, e.g.: "Silunguboi (language of
boys)", "Isikula (language of coolies)", "Kitchen kaffir".�� The word Fanakalo is a portmanteau
word, composed of (Isi-)Zulu fana + ka + lo (sort of this), i.e., "like this", "in this kind of
(language)".

Sources:
Andreasen, A.H.E., ed. 1953. Miners' Companion in English, Afrikaans and Fanakalo. Issued by
the Chamber of Mine Services (Pty.) Ltd for the Preven�on of Accidents Commi�ee of the
Transvaal and Orange Free State Chamber of Mines. Johannesburg.
Hogg, Richard & David Denison, eds., 2016. A History of the English Language, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Holm, John A., 1989. Pidgins and Creoles. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mesthre, Ranend, and Clarissa Surek-Clark, 2013. "Survey Chapter: Fanakalo," h�ps://apics-
online.info/surveys/61.

____________________
6 Mesthre and Surek-Clark 2013, sec�on 1.

7 On his map Holm (1989: xxii-xxiii) marks 13 as being ex�nct.

8 Wikipedia, "Click consonant," has details and the symbols used in the Interna�onal Phone�c
Alphabet.

9 Of the languages I know anything about, English "Give!", German "Geb!", French "Donne!" Spanish
"Da!", Turkish "Ver!" use the bare stem for the impera�ve. Russian "Дава-й!", Slovenian "Da-j!"and
La�n, for some verbs, "Curr-e"! (run) have a dedicated suffix. Most of these have an extra suffix to
show plurality (and duality for Slovenian).

10 Indeclinable, that is, except for verbal number: in both languages, the plural is shown with the suffix
–ni (Zulu qala! qalani!, Swahili anza! anzani! (begin! (in both singular and plural respec�vely))). This
ending was/is omi�ed in Simplified Kisetla and o�en in Fanakalo.

11 "Mine Fanakalo has ma- as a plural marker… In Farm Fanakalo, … no regular noun plural exists. If
plurality needs to be clarified or emphasized, speakers use the periphras�c zonke 'all'", (Mesthre &
Surek Clark, sec�on 5). In my weeks down the Welkom No. 3 mine, I never heard any plural nouns.
12 Also spelled "Fanagalo", "Fanekalo".
13 "Pidgin Bantu", Ethnologue (on line: h�ps://www.ethnologue.com/language/fng); "South African
History online", h�ps://www.sahistory.org.za/ar�cle/fanakalo-language-mining-culture.
We all love languages. And we all love laughing. That’s why we’re fans of Steve the Vagabond and Silly
Linguist. And, it’s very likely that we are all learning languages, so we need to connect and share
experiences about language learning. That’s o�en done by sharing the heart-ache, and finding some
ways to therapize and cleanse ourselves from the struggle that is learning a language (or mul�ple
languages)! Humour is a brilliant remedy. Laughing is so healing. But, I would like to be serious for a
moment, and draw your a�en�on to the serious side of language-related humour:

14 "Isi-", "Chi-" and "Ci-" are the prefixes used for languages in Southern Bantu, like "Ki-" a nd "Lu-" in
Eastern Bantu.
15 For this very derogatory slur see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_(racial_term).
It’s not okay to laugh at languages.
I might be preaching to the choir here, but bear with me! I’m not telling anybody to stop joking and
laughing when it comes to the mistakes you’ve made (see my previous ar�cle about taking the
seriousness out of language learning) or your obsession with languages and language learning (see
pre�y much all of Steve’s Facebook posts).

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Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers May 2019, Issue #12

However, as a speaker, researcher, and campaigner of two minority languages that are pre�y So many things wrong with this guy’s ignorant comments, but that’d be a whole new ar�cle.
much under constant a�ack, the smallest and most harmless comment is a micro-aggression (Okay, just one thing I need to say, though: “isn’t it difficult to type any language that you
for me. Before reading on, check out this* amazing explana�on of micro-aggression on don’t know??? Einstein” *sarcas�c tone*). Or, how about this tweet, which I’d argue is as
YouTube because I’m gonna refer to it: ableist as it is xenophobic:

So, let me tell you about the biggest micro-aggression ever to a speaker of two minority
languages: Welsh and Sco�sh Gaelic. Welsh and Gaelic use the La�n alphabet in a very
different way. I tell my students that they have to think of it as learning a whole new alphabet,
as though they were learning Russian or Greek, and not think of it as ‘the La�n alphabet’. I
partly tell them this because I am sick of the micro-aggression that is this

So, how do we have a laugh without walking on eggshells? I certainly don’t want people to
think I can’t have a laugh! Well, the first thing I o�en say to students or an audience is that,
really, we are talking about people. Languages come with people a�ached. They don’t exist
without people. Being sensi�ve to languages is about being sensi�ve to their speakers. Just
use some common sense and some empathy – do you want someone making fun of you? I
doubt it.

Here are two ques�ons I make my students ask themselves before using a word or statement
to describe Welsh or Gaelic:
• Does this make the speakers sound stupid?
• Does this make the speakers sound dirty?
Funny, right? No! I’m sick of it! For If the answer is yes to either, don’t use the word or statement. Or, in the terms of this ar�cle,
thirty plus years, I’ve had to deal with don’t use the joke. The chances are that you are not being that original, and the speaker has
comments like this on almost a weekly heard that comment about their language a million �mes before. And, in the case of minority
basis. It’s the oldest joke ever. languages: be they autochthonous¹⁶ or immigrant, the speakers have probably been figh�ng a
Soooooooooooooo old. And people ba�le all their lives to be accepted and treated with respect.
always think they’re the first person to
think of it. The joke’s on them! But, If you’re learning a language, you want to engage with or join a speech community. A
actually, these jokes are the kind of community made of wonderful people with so much to teach – about life, culture, history,
mosquitoes that carry threatening geography, environment, as much as about language. And you won’t be accepted if you don’t
diseases (you watched the video, right? respect them. And you can respect them by not making fun of them. (PS. Not learning a
From 1:19 on). These sorts of joke are, language is not an excuse to disrespect the it, though).
frankly, xenophobic. Here is an excerpt
from a newspaper ar�cle, which turns So, I’ve been preaching. Perhaps a li�le harshly (I’d rather think of the term ‘passionately’,
the joke into a genuine threat against personally)! I’ve been saying what not to do. So, what can you do?
our validity and legal rights in the UK:

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Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers May 2019, Issue #12

Well, firstly, bear in mind the difference between the English preposi�ons at and with: laugh Thirdly, share any frustra�ons you have with fellow learners – not with the na�ve or fluent
with languages, not at them. By extension, you’re laughing at or with the speakers. Laughing speakers. Yeah, you probably need humour – a form of therapy – but speakers don’t want to
with speakers will also build a rela�onship with them. Try something like this: hear it… again.

Finally, just make sure that your learning experience is fun. Hang out with posi�ve energy – be
it from fellow learners or the speech community itself. If you’re ha�ng a language that much,
it might not be the one for you. Try another language, and don’t rain on the parade of those
who love that language.

Remember: learning languages is loving life!

Secondly, try making fun of yourself or your experiences. If you think the orthography (spelling
system) of a language is insane – turn it onto yourself. Obviously, the orthography works or
the language wouldn’t exist – so, it’s clear that any reac�on you have to it is a result of your
own experiences and assump�ons. Challenge those experiences and assump�ons, like this:

____________________
This*: h�ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDd3bzA7450

16 A really cool word meaning ‘indigenous’, but without robbing indigenous peoples of their
experiences of oppression and struggle for cultural, even physical, survival.

Photo page 27 by Ryan Franco on Unsplash

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Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers May 2019, Issue #12

There are some 5000 languages in the world, some with billions of speakers, some with
only one. It is es�mated that half of those languages will become ex�nct over the
course of the current century – an average of one language lost every two weeks, or
two languages between each issue of this magazine!

Languages become ex�nct when the speakers of that language change to using another
language – usually a ‘na�onal’ or ‘interna�onal’ language - for all purposes. In bilingual and
mul�lingual communi�es it is common for different languages to be used in different
environments – perhaps at home, at school, at work, or in worship.

People don’t suddenly all switch from one language to another, the process is gradual, from
one environment to another, down through the genera�ons. It isn’t, except in the case of
genocide, a case of a language dying overnight – it takes genera�ons. When people change to
another language in all of those environments, then there is no longer a language community.
At some point, the last na�ve speaker of that language will die, and the language will be lost.

O�en it isn’t lost completely, there may be people who have learned it as a second language
or some people who know a few words. There may be recordings, dic�onaries, word lists,
grammars, but the understanding that a na�ve speaker has, the nuances, the unusual
gramma�cal structures, the obscure metaphors and phrases – they will be lost to our

Minority
understanding.

At other �mes all knowledge of that language is lost completely, we know nothing of the
grammar, the lexicon, the rich descrip�ve language of the environment. We don’t know what
the people called a certain plant, or animal, or their name for the mountain in the distance, or
the cove near the se�lement. We don’t know their mythologies, their hopes, or beliefs.

Languages
Causes of language death
There are many causes of language death, and o�en those causes act together. If the language
is a neighbour to a more ‘powerful’ language, spoken in many countries, then there are many
reasons for speakers to change. What we can say categorically, that there are no ‘linguis�c’
reasons for language change. No language is inherently ‘be�er’ than others, whatever the
prejudices of speakers.

Some languages can be used more easily for certain things, for example, the complex Welsh
poe�c form cynghanedd is easier in Welsh language because of where the stresses fall in the
words, and because the beginning of words ‘mutate’ in certain circumstances, making
assonance easier. Because the stress, rhyme and assonance of cynghanedd is difficult in
By Cath Fincher English doesn’t mean that it is impossible to express the sen�ments.

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Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers May 2019, Issue #12

Switching to a more powerful language break out regularly in the UK.

Languages like English, French, Spanish and Arabic are interna�onal languages, and are spoken
in many countries. When a language is economically more powerful than a minority language
When my late grandmother was born as the youngest of eight in South Wales in 1903 the
in the same geographical area there is pressure on speakers to switch in certain environments
schools s�ll used the now notorious “Welsh Not”. This was a wooden board (some�mes made
– in business or the marketplace, for example. Once the switch has been made in order to
of lead instead) bearing the words “Welsh Not” or “W. N.” which was hung around the neck of
access those environments, then there is o�en further pressure to switch in other
any child heard speaking Welsh in the schoolyard. The way to get rid of it was to report
environments.
another child for speaking Welsh. At the end of the day, the child wearing this board was
beaten. There are reports of this con�nuing un�l the 1940s in some areas.
My par�cular linguis�c interest is Cel�c languages, especially Welsh. My great-great-grand-
parents lived in a �ny village in North East Wales, not very far from the border with England –
This policy has been deliberately used to suppress minority languages in many places around
but a place that is s�ll majority Welsh speaking. They lived in a Welsh-speaking environment,
the world. La Vergonha (The Shame) was the suppression of the Occitan language in southern
but they were also proprietors of a large pub. This was one of two such pubs in the village,
France, by the Francophone authori�es. This resulted in a decline in the percentage of
which were there because the village was on a drove road. Wales exported a lot of ca�le to
speakers of Occitan from 39% in 1860 to around 7% by 1993. A similar policy was used to
parts of England and so before the coming of the railway to Wales in the mid-1860’s ca�le
suppress Breton in North West France.
which had been raised on the coastal plain and on the Isle of Anglesey were driven in their
thousands to the markets of London and South East England.
Boarding schools for Na�ve American children also forbade the use of the na�ve languages in
North America and Canada, and children were beaten for speaking the languages up un�l the
When my ancestors died they were buried in a large box tomb with an inscrip�on in English,
1960s. In the past, there was a belief that some languages were inherently be�er and more
unlike almost everyone else in the village. Although they were Welsh speakers they also spoke
suited to cultural pursuits than others. Fortunately, this is dying out, but there are s�ll people
English because of the trade that went both ways along the drove road, it was economic
who believe that one language is be�er than another.
pressure that made them learn English, and a display of status that they chose to be
commemorated in English, rather than the language that they must have spoken every day.
Cultural assimila�on
A more dominant language will start to have effects on the use of the minority language
For a large chunk of the 20�� Century Welsh was considered by many people in Wales to be a
beyond changes in the environments that it is spoken in. There may be changes in vocabulary
burden, and if you wanted to get on in life you didn’t speak it. Ambi�ous parents thought that
– in Wales, Welsh o�en borrows new terms from English but there can be changes in grammar
just being a Welsh speaker would be a mark against their children and a whole genera�on was
as well. For example, there is a slow, but steady shi� from Edrych ar y teledu (Look at the
bypassed in favour of speaking only English at home. I know people today who regret that
television) to Gwylio ar y teledu (Watch the television) on the model of English. Structures of
they were cut off from the language of their heritage because their parents thought that it
the language may be remodelled on the lines of the more dominant language, so that younger
would limit their chances to do well in life.
people have different structures to the older speakers.

Deliberate suppression by speakers of a more powerful language
Some�mes the speakers of the more powerful language take deliberate steps to suppress the
minority language. Speakers are told that their language is sub-standard, not fit to be used in
polite society, possibly even li�le more than grunts. The very word “barbarian”, meaning an
uncultured, bru�sh person is an onomatopoeic word supposedly mimicking the sounds of
‘barbarian languages’ and comes from the Ancient Greek βάρβαρος (barbaros) which was
used to describe non-Greeks, as they thought all other languages sounded like “bar bar”.
I will look next month at the history of the Cel�c languages, but it should be noted that of the
six Cel�c Languages, two are now ex�nct, although, there are strong efforts to revive them
(Cornish and Manx), three are considered threatened (Irish Gaeilge, Sco�sh Gaelic, and
Breton). The only Cel�c language that is not considered under threat is Welsh, although there
are reasons to be concerned for its long-term survival.

Welsh as a language has been deliberately suppressed by English speakers over several ____________________
centuries. The list of derogatory comments about Welsh people and the Welsh language is 17 A feature common to Cel�c languages is the muta�on of some ini�al consonants in certain
long and is o�en driven by a lack of knowledge about the deep history of Welsh culture. circumstances. An example of this can be seen in Welsh: cath (a cat), y gath (the cat), fy nghath (my
Arguments about the usefulness and status of Welsh as a language compared to English s�ll cat), ei chath (her cat).

thirty four / 34 35 / thirty five

Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
This is the last ar�cle of this series on the Italian
dialects, where we’ll discuss the key aspects of an
ideal linguis�c map of Italy in the current days,
focusing on the two most important (and most
Languages of Italy: complex) dialects of this area, the other linguis�c
minori�es and, most of all, on the situa�ons of
dialects as of the current days.
a journey through
Islands and Alps
the idioms of the There are two dialects that are very different from
the ones discussed in the previous ar�cle: these are
Italian peninsula –
the Sardinian and Friulian languages, spoken
respec�vely in the island of Sardinia and in the
North-eastern Alps in the region of Friuli-Venezia-
Part 3
Giulia. The Italian Cons�tu�on formally recognizes
these two dialects as minority languages to preserve
so, when compared to other dialects, there is a larger
number of ac�ve speakers, ranging from 300000 to
By Simone Villano 600000 for Friulian and around a million for
Sardinian, as of the last survey, conducted in 2016.
May 2019, Issue #12
They received very different treatment because scholars have believed them to be different
branches of Romance languages. Street signs in both areas are bilingual, with the informa�on
wri�en both in Italian and in Sardinian or Friulian.
Sardinian is a very interes�ng language, being one of the most direct descendants of La�n.
This is due to the fact that the island of Sardinia is… well, an island, so it has been isolated for
most of its history, with less contact with other popula�ons when compared to other areas of
Italy. Not only has this led to linguis�c isola�on, but to a cultural one as well. In fact, ‘Sardinian
iden�ty’ is one of the strongest regional cultures s�ll present this day, and the Sardinian
language is one of its most fundamental aspects.
This dialect shows many characteris�cs that can be directly linked to a slower, more
conserva�ve evolu�on from La�n. For example, Sardinian retained most of the /k/ and /g/
sounds, without them changing into palate-alveolar /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ (kentu (100), gheneru (son-
in-law) and kerbu (deer), from La�n centum, gener and cervus, instead of Italian cento, genero
and cervo).
Another very interes�ng difference from not only Italian but many other Romance languages
as well is the ar�cle: Sardinian ar�cles su and sa are derived from the La�n pronoun ipse
(himself/herself/itself) (and this is shared in part by Catalan as well). The other romance
languages tend to take their ar�cle from the La�n demonstra�ve pronoun ille (that).
Furthermore, many words have a -u- as a last le�er, coming from the La�n nomina�ve cases in
-us and -um, instead of -e- or -o-, which come from the abla�ve cases. Finally, Sardinian has
what is known as a sigma�c plural, that is when plural nouns differ from singular ones
because of an /s/ sound (like in English!).
Friulian has been influenced by a very unique set of languages: it is a romance language with a
Cel�c substratum (the area of north-eastern Italy/modern day Slovenia was inhabited by the
Carni people (a Cel�c/Gaulish tribe), before the Romans came in), and influences from their
German, Vene�an and Slavic neighbours, mostly visible in its vocabulary with words like
gubane (from Slavic guba� (sweet)), clap (from Cel�c krap (rock)) or trop (from Old German
thorp (herd)). Like Sardinian, it has sigma�c plurals (plan�s, fradis, mans), but it retains the -s-
sound in other words like mens (from La�n minus (less)) or �mps (from La�n tempus (�me)).
Friulian has some unique phone�c traits as well, with the palataliza�on of /k/ and /g/ even
before /a/, becoming /kj/ and /tʃ/ in cian, from the La�n canis (dog), ciar from carus (dear)
and gial from gallus (rooster). It also differen�ates between short and long vowels, so that lăt
means “milk”, but lāt means “gone”. In the past, scholars grouped Friulian with Romansh
(spoken in Switzerland) and Ladin (a minority language na�ve to South Tyrol), but now it’s
subject of debate whether they belong to the same group or not. Nevertheless, they show
similari�es that can’t be ignored.
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Greeks, Slavs and Occitans

Italy is not only full of dialects, but there are many foreign languages as well, either brought
here by people of neighbouring regions, or legacies of larger migra�ng communi�es that
se�led in Italy centuries ago. The Italian government officially protects these languages as
well, although they are quite small as far as the number of speakers is concerned.
We can find all kinds of languages: French and Occitan speaking communi�es in the areas
bordering France and Switzerland, German minori�es in South-Tyrol, where German is an
official language together with Italian, and Slovenian speakers on the eastern border.
As far as lesser, more ancient minori�es are concerned, the whole peninsula is do�ed with
these “linguis�c islands”. There are Franco Provençal minori�es in Sicily and Calabria, Croa�an
se�lements in Molise, German-speaking communi�es in Piedmont, Albanian minori�es along
the eastern coasts (the so-called arbëreshe), Catalan speakers in the city of Alghero, in
Sardinia, and many Greek communi�es sca�ered across Puglia and Calabria (their language is
known by scholars as Grico d’Italia).
These isolated communi�es are of great linguis�c interest because the languages they speak
have followed their own evolu�on, which is very different from the one of their area of origin.
They are o�en influenced by the surrounding dialects and by standard Italian, but retain more
archaic features, some�mes lost in their motherland.
The situa�on as of today
In the current day, dialects and minority languages are not faring well. In fact, dialects are
slowly disappearing, as a result of educa�onal homogeniza�on throughout the peninsula. This
means that in the larger, more developed ci�es, especially the ones in the North, less and less
young people learn dialects. And why would they? The only language they need to
communicate with others is Italian, the language that they’re taught from a very young age,
and that they will use for all the ac�vi�es of their daily life: in educa�on, when reading the
news, socializing, dealing with bureaucracy and so on.
However, despite all this, there’s a huge legacy of ar�s�c works and tradi�ons linked to
dialects, like Neapolitan plays or Milanese poetry, not to men�on the world of Maschere, the
masks origina�ng from the old Commedia dell’arte, or the many films in which dialects are an
essen�al part of the characters’ cultures and personali�es.
But the ques�on s�ll remains: Are dialects slowly dying?
Short answer: yes.
Long answer: yes, but there’s more.
We already men�oned that Italian has influenced dialects and vice versa. This led to the birth
of real dialects of Italian, that is, dialects derived from the Italian language, with the regional
dialects working as a basis (or substratum) for them. These ‘new dialects’ are much more
intelligible to each other, while s�ll retaining accents, some�mes even sentence structure, and
making limited use of a regional lexicon.
From a linguist’s point of view, this is a fascina�ng topic, as it is an event that’s happening right
in front of us: the death of a language and the birth of a new one. Or is it? When or where
does a language end, being replaced with a new one? Is it really a new language, or is it just a
very rough evolu�on? This is a huge topic, one that needs a lot of �me and space to be dealt
with, maybe in another ar�cle. On that note, I encourage you to do your research on the
argument, maybe even on this magazine!
This is the end of this small series of ar�cles regarding the languages of Italy, I hope you
enjoyed reading them as much as I did while wri�ng and doing research. Stay tuned for the
next ar�cle, which will cover the subject of linguis�c iden�ty as seen by Brian Friel in his work
Transla�ons!

And so they don’t need dialects and they can’t learn them, because adults will o�en speak in
Italian and textbooks of dialects are extremely rare to find and even more complicated to
write. That leaves us with a very small number of dialects speakers, mostly comprised of the
elderly. They will o�en use it in informal situa�ons, with other elderly people.

The government officially protects linguis�c minori�es, which includes dialects too, but in
reality, it does very li�le to actually preserve them. Some regional and provincial
administra�ons have tried to insert the teaching of regional dialects in schools, but this has
only led to some very limited results derived from the hardships of codifying something so
fragmented and arbitrary as a dialect in a book. The situa�on is be�er in the South,
nevertheless speaking in dialect is discouraged by educa�on and is seen by the society as
somewhat rude, or sign of li�le educa�on, which o�en corresponds to reality.

thirty eight / 38 39 / thirty nine

Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers May 2019, Issue #12

By Apio Frito
Imagine you’re a peasant in a late Western Roman province.
Everything’s going down the drain like a state-wide culinary disaster
(an Imperial crumble, perhaps?). What is it that you fear and hate
the most? Is it the rowdy barbarian se�lers? Is it the bandits and
pirates? Is it the corrupt army? Or is it the money-gouging
la�fundists (Footnote Owners of la�fundia, which were massive
farming estates powered by slave labour.) sucking life and denarii
out of you?

Pah! It all seems laughably unimportant when you face groups of

consonants strung together and aren’t up to being accurate in your
speech for a second of your life! Captain,
As La�n went from Classical to Vulgar to Romance, it saw many
phone�c changes, and one of them was the increasing aversion
we’ve got
towards consonant clusters: many of the Classical La�n ones were
reduced, transformed, lost and simplified through various
Consonant Clusters in the
processes. However, some of the clusters were not lost, or were not
only in some languages, lending us a �ny peek into the pa�erns of
Latin Quadrant!
how Romance languages diverged and have become what they are
today. So, where do we start looking?
—Engage!
Palatalisa�on
We start looking at the hard fleshy bit at the top of our mouth
cavi�es: the (hard) palate. Why so? Based on the place of their
ar�cula�on, the consonants of Classical La�n could be divided into
three groups: labial (like /b/ or /m/, pronounced at the lips),
alveolar (/t/ or /s/, in the rough area behind the upper teeth), or Photo by Darina Çiço fr
velar (like /k/ and /g/, pronounced at the back of the mouth). om Pexels
Which leaves us with a huge opening around the palate, with no
palatal consonants at all!

Over the centuries, speakers of Vulgar La�n con�nuously encroached into this formerly blank area, crea�ng quite a few post-alveolar and palatal sounds.¹⁸ This whole process was named based on the evolu�on of the
vowel /i/ into the palatal semivowel /j/ and then other, mostly affricate
consonants (/tʃ/, /ts/, /dʒ/, /dz/) in some contexts (e.g. C. La�n facies /ki/, to Vulgar La�n facja /tsj/, to Spanish haz /s/ or/ θ/, to Italian faccia /�ʃ/, to French face /s/: feel free to guess what the English word is).

This process did involve a transforma�on of consonant groups, because consonant sounds preceding the newly-fangled semivowel weren’t stable: we’ve already seen above that the /tsj/ cluster in La�n facja that has
mostly been altered or simplified to a single consonant.

The same fate awaited the likes of /kkj/ and /ptj/, such as Vulgar La�n bracchiu /kkj/ (“arm”, as you can see in “bracelet”), which gave us brazo /s/ or /θ/ in Spanish, braccio /�ʃ/ in Italian and even bras /∅/ in French;

forty / 40 41 / forty one

Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
Vulgar La�n cap�are /ptj/ resulted in cazar, cacciare and chasser, respec�vely, and I think it’s
pre�y obvious what sounds this cluster has turned into. A few other groups of consonants, like
/ktj/, /�j/, /skj/, have pre�y much the same story, so let’s check something else out, shall we?
Some palatalisa�on processes began when the Western Roman Empire had already broken
up, which meant less communica�on and less language contact among its former provinces,
with a few Romance language ending up not being ‘in on the secret.’ The syllable-ini�al /fl/
(flamma, (flame)), /kl/ (clavis, (key), see “clavicle”) and /pl/ (plenus, (full), as in “plenary”)
appear to have mostly been supplanted by other things, like chama, chave and cheio (/ʃ/
everywhere) in Portuguese, or fiamma /�/, chiave /kj/, pieno /pj/ in Italian.
Spanish follows suit, and it’s actually French’s �me to be surprising, because it has none of this
at all, with the ini�al consonants of flamme, clef and plein matching the La�n ones. In fact,
other Gallo-Romance languages, like Catalan and Occitan have this conserva�ve phone�c
feature.
Posi�on of speech sounds is a big deal in phone�cs, and when /kl/ appeared at the ends of
syllables (/fl/ and /pl/ simply didn’t occur in this posi�on in La�n), it developed in a completely
dis�nct way. Classical La�n oculus (eye) turned into Vulgar oclus (/okl.us/), which turned into a
proper terrible mess of different pronuncia�ons: /kj/ in Italian occhio, /x/ in Spanish ojo, /j/ in
French œil, /ʎ/ in Portuguese olho and Catalan ull.
The madness mounts as we discover a whole gang of syllable-final clusters like /ks/ in dixi (I
said), /kt/ in factus (done), /lt/ in multus (numerous) and others, which do appear to have
been transformed in one way or another in all of Romance languages, clearly showing that this
change is a much earlier one.
Leni�on
Leni�on is a big process of historical ‘weakening’ of intervocalic (located between two vowels)
consonants, which affected most of West Romance languages; it involved voiceless sounds
becoming voiced, with voiced stops becoming voiced frica�ves¹⁹, and originally voiced
frica�ves some�mes becoming lost altogether. What’s interes�ng to us today is that these
changes are a chain of events that are likely to have been triggered by consonant clusters
becoming different in Vulgar La�n.
Classical La�n dis�nguished its consonants by their length: in other words, there were short
ones, represented in wri�ng by single le�ers, and long ones or ‘geminates’, wri�en down as
double le�ers. Compare anus (ring, and that, too) and annus (year): these words only differ in
the length of the /n/ sound. Curiously, Vulgar La�n saw a significant increase in the number of
possible geminates, because its speakers tended to simplify a number of original La�n
consonant clusters.
forty two / 42
May 2019, Issue #12
And so, among other things, /ps/ turned /ss/, ipse > isse (used variously as a demonstra�ve
pronoun); /rs/ also became /ss/, persica > pessica (peach), /pt/ gave way to /�/, as in scriptus
> scri�us (wri�en), and /mn/ got us /nn/, see alumnus > alunnus (pupil).²⁰
Because the resul�ng consonants clashed and caused mix-ups with what geminates there’d
been before, this process of leni�on con�nued, and in most Romance languages, these new
long sounds turned short, producing, for example, isso /iso/, pêssego /pesəgu/, aluno, escrito
in Portuguese;²¹ oh, and pêche /peʃ/ in French: now you know where “peach” comes from.
This transi�on to short vowels caused the ‘old’ short voiceless vowels to become voiced
ini�a�ng all the other consecu�ve changes that are known as leni�on (see above), with most
Romance languages eventually losing all contrast between long and short consonants.
However, there is s�ll a major language that just couldn’t be asked and was quite comfortable
with just simplifying the consonant clusters, thank you very much. Which one? Italian! Those
geminates didn’t go away, mostly, and the language s�ll dis�nguishes consonants of different
lengths. Look: esso /esso/, but pesco /pesko/, and then scri�o and alunno.
There, we’ve successfully scraped the surface of what it was like to be an unassuming group of
consonants in the red-hot-chilli-pepper mel�ng pot of somewhere in between Vulgar La�n
and early Romance languages. More details are hiding out there, and that odd Italian pesco is
already �ckling my curiosity (why isn’t that /s/ long?), but that’s certainly something for
another �me.
____________________
18 English isn’t big on palatal consonants either, with just the /j/, as in “yarn”; post-alveolar English
sounds include /dʒ/ and /ʃ/, as in “jeep” and “sheep”.
19 Stops (plosives) are consonants that involve a complete obstruc�on of the airflow at some point
during speech. See ini�al sounds in “tank”, “gill”, “brick”. Frica�ves, on the other hand, create only a
par�al obstruc�on, a constric�on of the airflow, with the organs of speech crea�ng a narrowing in a
par�cular area, which results in a white noise-like hissing sound. Try the ini�al sounds in “chic”,
“thorough”, “zap”, “hollow”.
20 Many such examples can be found in ‘Appendix Probi’, a 3–4th century cheat sheet on how to write
good La�n. It’s a list of helpful phrases in the style of “YOUR, NOT UR”, offering us a glimpse of how
La�n phone�cs were actually changing through the typical spelling mistakes people made some 1600
years ago. Prescrip�vism does pay off some�mes.
21 A par�cular consonant cluster was probably so hated that it went straight to the short consonant
form, bypassing the gemina�on stage altogether. It’s /ns/, with La�n mensa (table) giving us mesa in
Spanish and Portuguese.
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Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
A •
Dream
of Sovngarde
By Diana Vereris
Have you ever heard of Valhalla? And what about Vikings? Surely you did at some point in life.
At this point though, you might think of Sovngarde, and this might bring some memories to
light, memories of a good place where all the long gone heroes may finally rest... If you played
‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim’, of course.
What has this got to do with linguis�cs though? Nordic! Nordic language! Of course, there are
few Norse languages that already exist, but why not examine this fic�onal one, especially now
that I have covered almost all the other languages from The Elder Scrolls now.
Linguis�c History
The Nordic language is quite old and has spent a significant �me evolving, but is nowhere as
old as all of the Elvish languages. It is generally considered to have 5 stages. Proto-Nordic,
Ancient Nordic, Old Nordic, Middle Nordic, and Modern Nordic.
Proto-Nordic was spoken by the early Nords un�l the �me of first kings, a�er which it is
considered to be the Ancient Nordic period. The language has changed quite considerably in
tandem with large changes to the culture. Have a look at:
• Proto-Nordic: Kynewyng fal âl ysmi âl Miriol, el mer illyngli eyn. English: The sky-
children [first Nords] are the lords of the North, not the blasphemous elves.
forty four / 44
May 2019, Issue #12
Ancient Nordic: Wul�arþu ysjeþ êl nurþinas, êl mêres uvere âfal. English: Wul�arth
ruled over the north, but the elves killed him.
Some of the more important changes from Proto-Nordic to Ancient Nordic include the
development of gramma�cal gender and a new forma�on of plural of words (which was
previously done by vowel changes). A�er these changes, Ancient Nordic then divided into
three main dialects spoken in three different regions.
These are Skyrim (the na�ve land of the Nords), Nord-controlled parts of Morrowind and,
Nordic se�lers in High Rock. Only the dialect spoken in Skyrim survived into the modern era.
The changes have been so great, that the end of the Ancient era marked the crea�on of Old
Nordic era. If we compare the Ancient Nordic we saw earlier with some Old Nordic, you can
see a few similari�es, but also major changes.
• Ancient Nordic: Wul�arþu ysjeþ êl nurþinas, êl mêres uvere âfal.
•
•
Old Nordic: Ul�arðo sernave um él nurðinn, él elfer áfa joffrave uver
English: Wul�arth ruled over the north, but the elves killed him.
Perhaps the most characteris�c change to the language has been the -r ending which became
used for the plural in many cases. This can be seen in the change from mêres to elfer. The root
word itself has changed but you should also be able to see the way the ending has changed
from -s to -r.
Over �me Old Nordic itself changed and at the �me of emperors could be said to have
changed enough to now be considered Middle Nordic. This was contemporary with the Old
Cyrrodiilic (Cyrrodiilic being the language of the Empire and the one the player supposedly
speaks during The Elder Scrolls gameplay). And so to go back to our example text, see how it
has changed again, yet is s�ll just about recognisable:
• Old Nordic: Ul�arðo sernave um él nurðinn, él elfer áfa joffrave uver
• Middle Nordic: Ul�arð styrver um el nørðinur, ak el alfar offravi uvr
The difference between Middle Nordic and Modern Nordic (s�ll spoken) is perhaps a bit
greater than between Shakespearean English (Early Modern English) and the Modern English,
that we speak today.
How Modern Nordic Works
Now that we got to the part of an up-to-date (as of the events of the game) version of the
language, we can dive more into the details.
Most consonants are pronounced as in English, though there are some differences:
• g – always strong and pronounced, as in “good”
45 / forty five
Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
• h – always pronounced, never silent
• j – always as in “you”
• a – as in “father”, always short
• aa – a long version of a
• e – as in “tell”
• ai and ey – as in English “hey”
• i – as in “still”
• ie – long “i” sound as in “pie” or “hi”
• o – as in “hold”
• y – similarily to French “u”, never a consonant
• æ/ä – as the “a” heard in “cat”
• ø – a harsh vowel sound present in many Scandinavian languages, but not existent in
English.
Note that the pronuncia�on is overall more similar to actual Nordic languages, and some
Slavic ones, than it is to English, therefore the comparisons to English are made to bring the
language closer to English speakers who are the target of the magazine, given its current state.
In Modern Nordic, noun declensions have simplified a lot, melding together the old
gramma�cal genders of masculine and feminine into a common gender and retaining the
neuter gender (and so resembling Danish). It also keeps the nomina�ve and geni�ve as in
English.
Adjec�ves are not declined and have no plural form, just as in English. Modern Nordic has a
definite ar�cle for both genders: va for common and a for neuter. This works as an
independent word when preceding a noun, but if there is an adjec�ve or preposi�on before
the noun, it [the ar�cle] becomes a suffix a�ached to whichever of the men�oned two is
preceding a noun.
The language’s pronouns work quite similarly to those of English, with a different nomina�ve
form and accusa�ve form, as well as a geni�ve form.
The basic form of the verb is the infini�ve with the suffix -a.. which is used similarly to the
English infini�ve (“to verb”, e.g. “to walk”), but Nordic does not use preposi�ons.
forty six / 46
May 2019, Issue #12
The language also has two verbal tenses – the present and the past. The present is formed by
adding a suffix to the verb: -ar for singular and -a for plural. The past instead uses the suffixes -
vir and -vi, which used in the same manner as the present suffixes.
Adjec�ves have the ending -and which can be considered as an equivalent of the English
par�ciple ending -ing is -and, and is used as adjec�vally. So would not be used to translate the
English “I like walking”, but could be used for “the flying bird”. Adjec�ves can be turned into an
adverb by adding -i.
To form some sense of past, the suffix -t is used in the same way as the English -ed, with the
help of the verb “to be” when needed.
The impera�ve mood (the command form) appears similarly in appearance to the indica�ve
(normal form).
The nega�ve is formed by using the nega�on word ej-, placing it before the verb. The nega�on
word is undergoing a huge change from a par�cle to verb, as it has become common to add
the verbal suffixes to the nega�on word and leave the actual verb in the infini�ve form, for
example:
• Tradi�onal usage: uve ej fryktavir va bern (he feared not the bear)
• Modern Nordic usage: uve ejvir frykta va bern (he feared not the bear)
The basic word order is Subject + Verb + Object, changing to Interroga�ve + Verb + Subject +
Object for ques�ons.
There's a dic�onary of Nordic words and many other examples of it (including wri�en texts!)
on the Imperial library in the sec�on on Nordic. As always, consuls U.E.S.P. for more lore on
Nords and the Nordic language itself and thank you for reading.
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Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
We Traitors
By Marcos Santarrita, Translated by Tom Moore
The expression tradu�ore, traditore (translator, traitor) is well-known, and prac�cally a
proverb – more a wi�cism than a verity. The most famous transla�on, the ‘Vulgate’, a
transla�on of the Bible into La�n by St. Jerome, is s�ll current, with the force of law, a�er 1500
years. For a large part of the Modern Age, many of the Greek and Roman classics which
shaped the Western mind were transla�ons of transla�ons – from the original into Arabic, and
from the Arabic into La�n or other European languages.
It is clear that, as with any reproduc�on, the work, especially a literary work, loses something
in being brought into a language different from that, in which it was conceived; in pure poetry,
almost everything is lost; and if not, the translator creates his own poetry on top of the
original, which con�nues to be lost. This is a limita�on of the art, and not of the ar�san. There
is, however, no denying that, just as in any field of endeavour, there are good and bad
professionals, and that in Brazil the la�er predominate. But there are serious reasons for this.
Our publishing industry, especially in the literary field, is almost exclusively devoted to
May 2019, Issue #12
licensing foreign authors; it has no need for the Brazilian writer, and would happily dispense
with them, if it could. Like all the rest of Brazilian commerce and industry, it exists for short-
term gain, which never created great work, nor famous names. Within this framework,
however, one would hope that the translator could be the absolute master of the situa�on,
since the publishers make their living from the sweat of the translator’s brow.
A sad misconcep�on. Here, more than in any other part of the civilized world, the translator is
the poor rela�on of literature. The translator receives wretched fees, and must defini�vely
alienate the fruit of his labor – the transla�on is sold, irrevocably, with abusive contracts which
dispossess children, grandchildren, and all other descendants. He can scarcely be a
professional, and live from his voca�on. Hence there is a prolifera�on of those who translate in
their spare �me: journalists, lawyers, diplomats, and whoever has spent some �me in a foreign
country; hence, also, the poor quality of the transla�ons.
It is not only the publisher, however, who is treading the professional translator underfoot. In
Brazil, absurdly enough, the press has set itself up in judgement in the ma�er of the language
and literary taste, as if the writer or translator should adhere to the newspapers’ style
manuals. If the transla�on seems good to the gentlemen of the press, who rarely are qualified
to judge, nothing is said about it; the jus�fica�on for this is that the translator has done
nothing more than his duty, as if transla�ng a literary work were like working on an assembly
line. If it doesn’t seem good, the simple newspaper reporters, who are barely able to do copy
edi�ng, roll on the floor when they discover, or think they have discovered (generally the
la�er) a slip in an otherwise good piece of work.
In reality, it would be ideal if the translator were a writer as well, at least in the case of literary
works, but how many would be ready to live as a professional with such meagre returns? This
does not mean that non-writers – that is, authors of their own works, fic�on, poetry, essays –
are not good translators.
One of the best translators working today, Donaldson Garschagen, has never published, to my
knowledge, a volume or piece of any sort. Others, equally good, are at the most original
writers on rare occasions, or simply have whims in that direc�on. Be this as it may, at least in
this case the ideal is fulfilled, since the good translators are writers.
The first requirement for being a translator is not, as it may seem at first glance, the mastery of
the language from which one is transla�ng, but of one’s own. One who does not know how to
express his own thoughts in wri�ng will have difficulty in confron�ng the much more difficult
task of expressing those of others.
One could push this statement even further with an example. Un�l today, one of the best,
perhaps the best, of Goethe’s Faust into Portuguese is that of Antônio Feliciano de Cas�lho.
Well then, it is said that the good Visconde de Cas�lho simply did not know German. How did
he do it? He asked a German living in Portugal to translate the words, preferably adap�ng the
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Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers May 2019, Issue #12

syntax, and only then set to work on the sprawl that the man had created.
In most of our poor transla�ons, this is precisely the problem. Not infidelity to the original, but
badly edited Portuguese. For this reason, excrescences such as “ele levou sua mão à sua
cabeça e alisou seus cabelos” (a typically English construc�on – Portuguese would not require
the possessive) abound. The unnecessary repe��on of the name of the character, or of “he” or
“she”, innumerable �mes in the same paragraph (the Portuguese verb does require the use of
the pronoun), are holdovers from the original where the adjec�ve cannot stand alone as it
does in Portuguese. And so result in poor wri�ng such as “a mulher americana, o homem
velho, o homem branco”.
A�er a hundred years of the cinema, many translators – including or especially those working
in films – have s�ll not figured out that “A�en�on!” in the military does not mean Atenção!
(pay a�en�on!) but Sen�do! (stand at a�en�on!)
whom (self-styled authori�es on the master), never manage to discover what he is saying, and
draw on all sorts of exo�c interpreta�ons for lack of anything be�er to do. The worst of it is
that they cannot even make it out in transla�on, and put the blame on the translator, who
ought to have transformed James into Maugham, in order for them to finally be able to read
and understand.
And so it is a tremendous ba�le, but what can be done? Transla�on, even if not on the grand
scale in which it takes place in Brazil, is indispensable, and many people who only know how to
write need to earn a living, even if only a precarious one. And so, as with everything here in
Brazil, we, must grin and bear it, and, even those who are not believers, pray for be�er days to
come. For now, that is what there is for the plundered of the earth, who are always the ones to
blame: the traitors. t

It is errors of this sort, and not those which are really serious, which a�ract a�en�on, since
supposed cri�cs in the newspaper are unlikely to have the possibility (either from an
intellectual or material point of view) to compare the transla�on to the original. And here we
have the really important ques�on: what is a bad transla�on? Is it one which is poorly wri�en,
with li�le irrita�ng errors, or one which is actually poorly done? Because the translator really
can be a traitor, and many are, presen�ng impeccable texts, which nonetheless are serious
betrayals of the original texts.

What one wants is for a translator to be working with the writer, concealing their errors and
vices – in short, to be co-author, which would be, indeed, the supreme act of treason. Great
literature today is ever more restricted to the university ghe�o, which has its own, rather
specific language, full of neologisms. Current ‘thinkers’, especially the French, have become
veritable factories of new words, in the absence of anything new to say.

The poor translator, in rendering the linguis�c juggling of these texts, is slammed for the
reason that the words they use “are not in the dic�onary”. There are even cases in which the
reviewer sets themselves to correct non-existent mistakes for this reason. Someone who
knows the language will soon see who is at fault; but for the majority of readers, however –
and the publishers – the translator is the illiterate one.

Another serious problem is the author with a difficult, elevated style, Henry James, for
example. It is said that this American snob (naturalized English) could not even express himself
directly while speaking, and one of his cri�cs asserts, in his favor, that while in the works of
other authors the reader seeks to learn about the character or characters, in James the
objec�ve is to discover what he intended to say.

It is not surprising that he is idolized by the preten�ous around the world, the majority of Pg 48 Photo by Peter Forster on Unsplash

Pg 51 Photo by Rohan Makhecha on Unsplash

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Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers

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