Can we save endangered languages through music?

Yes, yes we can. At least this was the opinion brought up in a Ted Talk by Susanna Zaraysky in Santa Cruz. This makes a lot of sense: songs are easier to remember than simply just reading a bunch of words off of a page of text, and many times they contain the culture of the language as well. She brings up the point that when most of us are little, the way we learn our alphabet is through song. Even as adults, when we need to know the order that the letters come in we recite the song from our childhood.

In my personal experience, when I was first beginning to learn Spanish I used to mix up the days of the week. Then I put the days of the week in Spanish into the English "Days of the Week" song I had learned as a child and I was able to remember them almost instantly. There really is value in learning songs to remember language and also to learn it faster. While studying for an exam, putting vocabulary words into song and creating a rhythm can help it stick in your head, and when it comes exam time you can just pull up the song file from your memory. Learning songs that are important to the culture, such as religious or traditional songs can help preserve the culture as well. Younger children will also be more likely to pick up on the parent's language and be more willing to learn it if they are exposed to it through song, because that's how humans seem to be hard-wired. We can perhaps help prevent so many languages from dying out if we educate the speakers of that particular language that reciting songs may be the key. Encouraging learning the language through song may be the only chance that some people have to preserve their language.
This article provides more information about how the brain works and how songs really do aid in memorization, if you're into that sort of thing. The human mind is crazy powerful and music has a huge impact on memorizing information.

Jargon for Retail

Before I worked in retail, I would often hear employees say things that I had no idea what they meant. There's so many words and phrases that retail associates say that would leave everyone else scratching their heads. Here I've come up with a list of 8 things retail associates say that would be considered jargon (language spoken by a specific group of people):
1. SPS: An associate of the store designated as the "security" who oversees that everything is going safely, and keeping an eye on suspicious activity.
example of it's use: "The SPS will keep an eye on your purchased items while you run to your car."
It is a fixed word.
2. Code 50: This means (as an associate) having an SPS check your belongings before you can leave.
example: "Can I get a Code 50?"
It is a fixed word.
3. Run the racks: To put back all of the clothes to the shelves that people have tried on at the fitting room.
example: "Will you run the racks for me? They're getting kind of full."
It can be changed slightly; you can say "Running the racks" or simply "Run a rack", but it always has to have some form of the verb "to run"and the word "rack".
4. Shrinkage: This describes how much stock the company should have and the amount they actually have, usually because of theft or some error.
example: "Take a look at this shrinkage report for this month. Looks like we're getting better."
It is a fixed word.
5. MOS: Merchandise that cannot be sold, due to damage or safety hazard. I think it stands for "merchandise off shelf", but I'm not 100% positive...
example: "Put this in the MOS box. Someone could cut themselves."
It is a fixed word.
6. Markdown: The clearance price of an item after it has been reduced from it's original price.
example: "Can you check to see if this item is a markdown?"
It can be said as "marked down" or "mark it down", but most commonly it's just "markdown".
7. SKU number: A number for each piece of merchandise in the store that is put into the system so they can identify it and look up the price if they need to.
example: "They cut the price off but they left the SKU number on. We can look up the price in the system."
It is a fixed word.
8. Endcap: The shelves for displaying items located at the end of the aisle.
example: "We're trying to make this endcap look nice so people will buy more items."
It is a fixed word.
These words can be learned by everyone just like any other words, but for the majority of the time they are used only by retail associates to maintain a sense of community. Most of the time these retail jargon words are quicker to say and are easy to remember, which makes us more efficient and better able to communicate effectively.

"Joey's Adoption Letter"

If you aren't familiar with the TV show 'Friends', all I have to say is you've got to watch it. Even though it first aired in the 90's and ran through the early 2000's, the show is still laugh out loud funny and contains many creative and unique portrayals of humor. Joey Tribbiani, one of the main characters, is the outlet for a large portion of the funniest moments on the show. He often interprets things a different way than most people do, and this leads to misunderstandings. A good video clip to demonstrate this would be when Monica and Chandler, a married couple (and two of the show's other main characters), are trying to adopt a baby and Joey volunteers to write them a letter of recommendation.

This scene is probably one of the funniest moments from the show, and the only way it could be funny is with our understanding of language. Joey was correct in finding synonyms that mean the same as the original words, however the final letter does not make sense, and that's what makes it funny. The words he chooses don't fit into the given context because the letter is supposed to sound from the heart, and instead it sounds very formal and scientific. The denotation might be very similar, but the connotation of the words is different. He signs the letter baby kangaroo Tribbiani, which if taken literally it does make sense because a baby kangaroo is called a joey, and his name is Joey. This emphasizes the fact that when we are trying to communicate effectively, we must use words that fit into the given context otherwise it will leave the listener lost and confused. Joey might know what he means by "baby kangaroo" but the reader will probably have no idea he means Joey. There is a good article on Dailywritingtips.com that goes more into detail about the problems with using a thesaurus. Just because two words might be slightly similar, using them in different contexts can lead to miscommunication, which often can be humorous.

"What Country Has the Most Languages Spoken?" Review

In a world with thousands of different languages, each country can have hundreds of languages spoken. What is fascinating about this is the fact that even though languages can have similarities, each one is separate and distinct from the other. In the video I watched titled "What Country Has the Most Languages Spoken?", Paul describes the countries in the world with the greatest linguistic diversity. The information appears to come from good sources that he lists in the description of the video, and it really is eye-opening.

Papua New Guinea tops the list of countries with great linguistic variation. 88% of the population lives in rural areas and there are about 820 different languages spoken across the country. Many of the people from different language groups never even come into contact with each other because the terrain is so rugged. Imagine spending your entire life in the confinements of a small village completely oblivious to the fact that there are hundreds of languages spoken all around you. In countries with great linguistic variation like this I speculate that each separate language group is closely knit because they can't really communicate with a whole lot of other people. There are many different language "families" (categories that the languages can be placed in based on slight similarity), however there are some languages spoken in Papua New Guinea that have absolutely no connection to any other language.

The other aspect of the video that I actually found quite neat was about lingua francas. These are basically languages that are used to communicate between different native speakers. For example, even though India is a country with 427 different languages, two lingua francas used to communicate between all those languages are English and Hindi. These people can all come from different language backgrounds, however they can communicate using a common language. I had never heard of the term "lingua franca" before I saw the video and it's something I think I'd like to learn more about because it is a really cool concept the fact that these people who are so different can find a way to communicate.

I know you're probably thinking what does the picture on the left have to do with anything mentioned in this post. First, I thought it was funny and it actually made me laugh a little (okay maybe just some more air than normal quickly come out of my nose) but it also does kind of tie in with the idea of learning a new language and the whole "lingua franca" concept.    
Pig Latin isn't a real language but there are thousands of languages out there with so many diverse speakers (hundreds even in the United States) and I think everyone should at least try learning a new language. Maybe learning a lingua franca language can open up a whole new world for you to explore and connect you to hundreds of different cultural backgrounds of the people who speak it.

"What Makes a Word 'Real'?" Review

When it comes down to it, who really decides what a word means and how it is used? Is it the people editing the dictionaries, or is it society as a whole? English professor Anne Curzan explores this topic in a TED Talk titled "What makes a word 'real'?". After presenting some examples and even admitting herself that dictionary editors are just ordinary people, she concludes that a word is real because people make it real. If a group of people are using a word and they all have the same meaning for it and understand each other, it is real. It doesn't have to be in the dictionary, it just has to be used by people.

When I was in elementary school, I thought that the dictionary was the absolute truth when it came down to proper English language. I always heard from my teachers, "If you don't know what a word means, look it up in the dictionary.". Dictionaries can definitely be helpful, especially for young students, however it should not define your limits for word usage. They are just prescriptive grammar, and are guidelines for what some people consider proper language. In casual settings, most people rely on descriptive grammar and don't keep tabs on whether or not how they are speaking is completely 'proper' and tend to follow how other people are speaking. If other people can understand what you are saying and can communicate back to you, that's all that matters. That's what language is all about anyway, communicating meaning to others. 

If someone begins using the word "bumphead" (a compound word created from 'bump' and 'head') to describe the condition that comes about from accidentally bumping your head on something, and other people catch on, and soon a whole community is using it, they have just created a word. Creativity is what makes a language more vibrant, and humans have the capacity for endless creativity. Some words over the years stop being used, and more new words are created from the ashes. We don't say 'apricity' anymore when describing the sun's warmth on a cold winter day, however we do say 'selfie' when referring to taking a picture of oneself. Overall, watching the video sort of gave me this sense of power because when it comes down to it, we all are in charge of giving words meaning, not just the lexicographers.

"Go ahead, make up new words!" Review

In the video I watched titled "Go ahead, make up new words!", dictionary editor Erin McKean encourages everyone to use their creativity and think up new words. I was interested in this video because I've always been fascinated with how people came up with words in the first place. Erin says that we are born with an innate ability to use grammar in our language, and we unconsciously know when something sounds grammatically incorrect. This type of grammar is called descriptive grammar. Erin also describes another type of grammar called prescriptive grammar, which is the like the "traffic laws" that we are reminded to obey. Both of these types of grammar are important to follow when producing new words, because they must be understood by the intended audience. She describes several different strategies to create new words that can all be fairly simple to understand. The first way she describes is stealing words from other languages. Many words in English are already taken from other languages, such as this image that shows the process of how the word "orange" came to be:

The second method she describes is called compounding, which is basically just taking two English words and squishing them together to form a new word. An example she gives is "sandcastle", which is just two normal words ("sand" and "castle") that were moved next to each other to become just a single word. Another method that Erin describes is blending, and it is used by taking two English words and simply sort of melting them into each other. "Motel" and "brunch" are two examples of this, and in both words some letters were taken off of the original words in order to blend them together. Lastly, she describes how a new word can also be formed by taking a word and changing how it is used, called functional shift. The examples she gives are words like "commercial" and "green", that have changed their previous meanings.

Overall, the video was really entertaining to watch and I loved her enthusiasm about getting people to create new words. In my opinion, I think it is a great way for people to express their creativity and for us to have some fun while communicating. When groups use words that they have created, it brings them closer together and helps bring a sense of common understanding. There will never be a day when someone out there won't be thinking up new words, because our language is constantly evolving. 

All About Me

Hi everyone, my name is Kaitlin Platt and I am the owner of this blog. I titled it 'Brownies for Your Brain' because who doesn't love brownies, right? Warm, soft, and full of chocolate-y goodness.. Yum.

Anyway, I love to bake (and eat) if you couldn't already tell and when I have free time you'll find me in the kitchen with my face twisted with concentration as I furiously mix away, probably making a huge mess. I am a full-time college student with a part-time job in retail and I typically spend most of my time either studying, doing homework, or working. I love being with family, friends, and my fiancé. My goals are to get my Academic Certificate in Language Studies for Spanish and also finish my pre-requisites at Glendale Community College for the dental hygiene program at Phoenix College (so I can apply for that in the fall). My future goal is to get my Bachelor's degree in Dental Hygiene and become a bilingual Dental Hygienist. I plan on getting married next year, and I couldn't be happier.