Personal assignment 12: Language Myths

For this assignment I was asked to read the myths edited in the book 'Language Myths', edited by Laurie Bauer and Peter Trudgill, published by Penguin Books 1998. ISBN 978-0-14-026023-6.

1.       Myth 1: The Meanings of Words Should Not be Allowed to Vary or Change – Peter Trudgill

Languages change all the time. According to the author this is a universal characteristic of human language; changes appear in pronunciation, grammar and meaning. Some people seem to regret those changes and these purists talk of misuse.

Trudgill shows a few examples of words of which the meaning completely changed over the years but states that although the language changes it may lose something, but it will gain something as well. Therefore there is no reason to talk of incorrect use of language.

I cannot do anything else but to agree with him totally. (94 words)

2.       Myth 2: Some Languages are Just Not Good Enough – Ray Harlow

Immediately after reading the title of this myth the following question came to mind: who determines which language is not good enough, for what? Obviously, we have many different major languages in Western Europe: English, of course, Spanish, French, German and Italian. The speakers of these languages may consider their own speech the best of all and they all would like to see their language as the universal language. Languages that are spoken by less people – the author names the language of the Moari and Romansch in Switzerland – represent important cultures too. I believe that the languages spoken by fewer people, should be helped in order to survive the pressure of the major languages. In my opinion, both major and minor languages are part of world heritage and they should be treated with the importance they deserve. (137 words)

3.       Myth 4: French is a logical language – Anthony Lodge

The title of this myth makes me think about the French classes I took during my years in secondary education. Although I liked the sound of French a lot, I failed all of my grammar tests. To me, it wasn’t logical at all.

Fortunately, French does not turn out to be as logical as the title of the myth implies. The French consider their language logical because it has been the language of great thinkers who used the language in order to express their thoughts. The author mentions that the French tend to think that a French person who uses the language improperly is mentally defective. Taking my use – or misuse – of French into consideration I can say that I am very happy that I am not French. (128 words)

4.       Myth 5: English spelling is Kattastroffik – Edward Carney

At the beginning of his essay, Carney states that if one knows how an English word is pronounced, one should be able to write it down without too much trouble. Since this isn’t possible for all kinds of reasons, Carney believes that it would be best to have one single letter for each speech sound. I believe that the author argues in favour of a phonetic script instead of a normal one. At the same time Carney acknowledges that even in English there would emerge many different dialects in writing, since the phonetic spelling would depend on the speaker.

I understand the English spelling can be catastrophic for some people, but isn’t that the case with many languages? Many people all over the world prove every day that it is possible to write something down without making too many mistakes. I believe that even if we would change our script into a phonetic one, there would be as much trouble for as many people. The development of written English has started centuries ago and the way a ‘main language’ – thus not a dialect – is supposed to be written is determined and thought over on a regular basis. In order to write a phonetic script well, one has to learn which way words are properly pronounced and I suppose this will be equally kattastroffik. (223 words)

5.       Myth 6: Women talk too much – Janet Holmes

I wanted to read this chapter because I was very eager to find out whether or not this ‘myth’ would be disproved. Again the answer is ‘it depends’: on the situation, if gaining status is involved, if  there is an ‘expert’ present, if relationships have to be maintained. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read Dale Spender’s explanation of female talking time. According to Spender men would like women to be silent in – formerly – ‘male’ domains and thus a female contribution will not be valued in a proper way in advance. Even in the classroom it appears as though ‘male talking time’ is appreciated better  than ‘female talking time’. I think this could be true and this may be worth a little experiment in my own classroom in the future.

Do women talk too much? According to several studies they do not. For as long as they use their spare talking time in a fulfilling way, I think that we should respect that female talking time has a very important function, next to the overall respected silence in some contexts. (181 words)

6.       Myth 10: Some Languages Have No Grammar – Winifred Bauer

Bauer describes in a very elaborate way that in fact all languages have grammar. ‘For linguists,’ she states, ‘Grammar is a set of rules which speakers follow when they speak.’ Without grammar it would be impossible to have a conversation, according to Bauer. It would be unclear what one would be talking about or what one would be listening to.

According to some people languages have no grammar when there is no grammar book available. Of course this is not true. I very much agree with the author. Every language has grammar, otherwise we would not be able to communicate via speech. (102 words)

7.       Myth 11: Italian is beautiful, German is ugly – Howard Giles and Nancy Niedzielsky

Giles and Niedzielsky take considerable effort to come to the conclusion that the way one experiences language is personal. I believe that one cannot say that one language or even one dialect is more beautiful than another. On the other hand I must agree with the editors that the way that language is interpreted can be influenced by ‘circumstances’. The feelings one experiences when hearing a language determine whether or not one finds this language or dialect beautiful.

I understand that a ‘common language’ exists in certain countries, for instance ABN in the Netherlands and RP in Britain and that it is necessary in order to produce a language that is understood by all inhabitants and by foreigners as well. Nevertheless I believe that one should not be judged by one’s language or accent; the place of origin and the mother tongue do not determine whether or not one has something interesting to say or if one is successful in life. For instance: one can be a really successful businessman who is well educated in Maastricht, but is still considered a lout in Amsterdam because of his accent… I know this happens and I obviously do not share this view. (201 words)

8.       Myth 12: Bad Grammar is Slovenly – Lesley Milroy

After reading quite some myths about grammar, I wondered what this myth would be about. I believe that in the end the author wants to state that whatever form of grammar one uses, one has to be consistent. I definitely have to agree. I have been working on my own use of grammar a lot during the past school year. My use of grammar improved a lot but I am not there yet; I do not always notice my own mistakes which I obviously regret. Bad grammar is slovenly. I try to be as perfect as I can. (98 words)

9.       Myth 13: Black Children are Verbally Deprived – Walt Wolfram

I consider the title of this myth very shocking to begin with. African-American and African societies have given the world some very powerful speakers, for instance Martin Luther King and Jesse Jackson – among others – in the United States and Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu in South Africa. The myth proves that black children are certainly not verbally deprived, but research tells us that they only score low on tests. This is a shocking fact and I believe that if the test is the cause of a low score, people should look into these analyses. I hope that this myth will vanish soon; the sooner, the better, since it is not true, fortunately. (113 words)

10.   Myth 15: TV Makes People Sound the Same – J.K. Chambers

Change of language is inevitable. The question is why language changes and many people believe it is under the influence of television, or actually: the mass media. The author states that this is not true; he even calls it ‘linguistic science fiction’. Evidence against the influence of mass media is striking: even a boy born from deaf parents, who was encouraged to watch TV a lot, didn’t gain passive vocabulary until he was able to interact with other people who were able to speak and hear. Probably the most likely reason for language to change is the change in travelling. People are able to travel far in a relatively short time. Chambers states that people learn by interacting with others, so I figure that the way people travel and specifically the way they make contact with other human beings actually has its influence on the change of language. (148 words)

11.   Myth 17: They Really Speak Bad English Down South and in New York City – Dennis R. Preston

Preston immediately got my attention with the funny way he starts his essay. To be honest, I could not imagine a surgeon speaking the way the author proposes. Then a lot of figures are shown to indicate how Michiganders think about the English spoken in America. Preston indicates that Michiganders consider their own English to be average. In myth 20, ‘Everyone Has An Accent, but me’, is shown that there are a lot of people who indicate their own speech and the speech of the people surrounding them as average and thus normal. Although people from the south are quite self-conscious about the correctness of their English, they feel it is the most pleasant sounding speech they know.

I believe this myth shows that the experience of language is relative; it depends on how, where and with whom the language is practised. Furthermore I feel that a hint of patriotism has influenced the research of this myth as well. (159 words)

12.   Myth 18: Some Languages Are Spoken More Quickly than Others – Peter Roach

When thinking of the many different languages that are spoken in Europe, it appeared to me that some languages could be spoken more quickly than others, for instance Italian or Spanish compared to English. Peter Roach describes research that has been done to determine if there actually is a difference in speed between languages. All the research that has been done so far did not come up with shocking differences: when words or – even more correct – syllables are counted per minute to determine how quickly a language is spoken, there seem to be no differences at all. The differences in speed between several languages are influenced by personal conditions and what society expects from its speakers. I believe that interpretation of a language depends on someone’s frame of reference. Speed is relative. In the article Peter Roach says that one could interpret a language as being fast when it is spoken by a vivid person. When pronounced by a person that makes a boring impression language could be interpreted as slow. During my holidays in Italy I was often impressed by the speed of the language. After reading this article I believe that it was not only the language speed that impressed me, but that it must have been the temperament of its speakers as well. (216 words)

13.   Myth 19: Aborigines Speak a Primitive Language – Nicholas Evans

To be fair I believe that the title of this myth and the things said about the language of the Aborigines – or any other language for that matter – sound very demeaning. One who thinks he is allowed to judge the language of a people does clearly not realise that this language has enabled this people to communicate in a very sufficient way for thousands of years. This does not make a language primitive, in my opinion. Furthermore the Aborigine language is used in a very creative way. The people have created new words for new items they have to deal with in daily life; where other languages borrow words from others, the Aborigines use and create their own vocabulary. This proves that the Aborigines language is very fit for the 21^st century; maybe even more than all the others. (139 words)

14.   Myth 20: Everyone has an accent but me – John H. Esling

In this myth John H. Esling states that accents are relative and that actually everyone has one. Having an accent depends on a lot of things: where you are from, what you have accomplished in life, if you are male or female and whether or not you stay in an area where all people sound alike. As long as you stay within the group you have adjusted to you will not notice that anyone has an accent. I absolutely have to agree with this ‘myth’, because it describes what happened to me when I was a child. I was born in the south of the Netherlands: in Maastricht. People there speak a dialect that relates to German, French and Dutch. When I was about ten years old, my parents and I moved to Nijmegen. I had never been aware of my accent, because the people I used to meet every day sounded just like me. In my new situation I was the one with the accent. I adjusted as quickly as I could, because I didn’t want to stand out. (181 words)

15.   Myth 21: America is Ruining the English Language – John Algeo

This is another myth about the changes in language. The author states that language or anything else that does not change is dead. This is actually stated before in Myth 1: ‘The Meaning of Words…’ It all depends on how you look at changes. People who do not like changes in language – so called purists – will say that every change is a deterioration and they look for someone to blame. British and American started to change when the speakers of English set foot on American soil, because the colonists had so many different things to talk about. At the same time, speakers in England were changing the language too, and over the years the two languages became completely different.

The statements given by the author at the end of the chapter are actually true. Only when one believes that change is equal to deterioration and if one wants to blame someone for that, it is possible to say that the Americans ruin English. Since British and American English are two different languages –  although based on English – and the changes are based on circumstances that vary a lot in both countries, I believe that one could consider the title of this myth a joke. (202 words)