Amanda
Table of Contents
Who I am
My name is Amanda D'Avirro, I am 20 years old and I am studying Italian as my major and German as my minor in the Language Program. I am the middle child of three, I have an older sister and a younger brother, as well as a dog named Biskit. I am Italian and French, and I hope to one day move to Italy with my family and live there for the rest of my life alongside my boyfriend. I am very family oriented and although I do not want kids in the future I do want dogs and cats who will be apart of my little family. The career path I have chosen is to be a professional make-up artist, and I aspire to one day become a celebrity make-up artist.
I love to travel and hope to experience as many countries and cultures that I possibly can, which is what influenced me to join the Language program at Dawson. I love being able to talk to people about their lives and what they have been through, especially in different countries because often culturally they grew up entirely differently than I did. Thankfully thus far I have visited countries in which everyone I have spoken to was able to speak English in return (For example; Cuba, Domenican Republic, Florida, Italy, Spain, etc.) and I was able to learn more about where they were from and their life experiences but through the linguistics program I hope to achieve at minimum a base level knowledge of a few more languages in order to communicate to people in their mother-tongue.
Topic
How Languages Influence Each Other in their Region
When a new language comes to a region with an already existing language, the two languages rarely ever remain the same, they begin to influence each other. Overtime, the two (or more) languages blend words or phrases from each other and create a "dialect" of their original language. My primary example is Italians in Montreal, the italian dialect in Montreal is considered to be a 'slang' in comparison to "real" italian due to the influence of both english and french, which are dominant languages in Montreal.
My blog and paper will discuss how languages influence each other within the region, native versus foreign, it will also speak on how the develop relationships within the language, and what is the most common aspect of language that gets influenced, as well as how a native culture of a region affects the foreign language.
It is very common for languages to be influenced by English, which is known to be the 'universal' language of the world, especially in business. Borrowing words from the English language, French or Latin as well, develops a language to become its own variation of an already existing language.
When languages come into contact with one another often the superior of the two will influence the inferior. The morphology and phonology of the inferior language will slowly become more similar to that of the superior language. Languages such as English have adopted words from other languages like the French language through language contact, close proximity, or language crossing.
When languages come into contact with one another for an extended period of time they can either eliminate the inferior language, adopt words/phrases/expressions from each other and grow the already existing language, or they can create a whole new language with influence of the two or more around.
I chose this source because I think that it is important to understand the basis of what my topic will be covering, this is why this source is wikipedia because it is the most generic and quick way to obtain information about a topic. With this source I was able to pin point exactly what else I wanted to research and what point i wanted a more clear understanding of.
Source #1:
LANGUAGE CONTACT
- Non-Academic Source -
"Lanuage contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other."
"When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for their languages to influence each other."
Examples:
- Romanian is one of the many languages that was influenced by a neighbouring language. Roman was influenced by the Slavic languages in tribes close to them after the fall of the Roman Empire centuries later.
- Many Indo-European families have adopted languages that are similar to European languages, Chinese, India, etc. because of the crossing of the languages.
Trying to learn a new language in a new, already existing environment is hard and by finding people who are in similar situations as you and understand what you are going through is what allows you to grow.
I chose this source because I wanted to find real life experiences about the examples I will be using in my text and this article is a perfect example and allows me to grow my example.
Source #2:
MOVING TO CANADA FROM ITALY
- Non-Academic Source -
"Canada’s landscape of Italian dialects is so rich today thanks to immigrants."
For Italians to migrate to Canada, speaking in their mother-tongue, then eventually speaking their dialects allowed for an easy transition from Italy to Canada. Not only did migrants find comfort in speaking their proper language, but also through communities within places like 'Little Italy' which allowed for Italians to feel at home along with other Italian migrants from either the same region or other regions.
"I feel proud to be able to speak it. At the same time, there is a small sense of embarrassment at times because it is not universally understood by others of Italian descent and sometimes certain words or phrases can sound funny to others’ ears."
Being from a family of Italian migrants I can understand first hand how hard it can be for someone to integrate into a new society. I was speaking to my boyfriend's grandmother (who also migrated from Italy over 40 years ago) about what it was like when she first came here and her reaction was not something unexpected. She had said on her first week here she tried to buy milk but did not know what the word for milk was in french or in english so she told the sales clerk in italian what she wanted and the sales clerk was aggressive towards her because she could not articulated what she was trying to ask for. His grandmother, Carmella, still cannot speak english, she does speak french however because it was easier for her to learn than english was.
EDIT: This article has since been removed from the page, I used it in my research paper as an example reference and sadly the link is no longer applicable and the article cannot be found.
Source #3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWDKsHm6gTA
"Groups of people that shared a single language and culture often split into smaller tribes. As the migrated and settled into different places, they developed in different ways."
The main reason I chose a video source is because I am a visual learner and although it is considered non-academic, the information that is provided is factual and helped me navigate my topic paragraphs. I really enjoyed watching this video, I have watch it over a dozen times trying to pick out new information that is provided in such a small period of time.
Upon Further research
- Non-Academic Source -
I realized that my original topic was not studied by academics and therefore I have changed my topic into one that is more broad, simply how languages influence each other in their regions or locations, with the example of the italian language being influenced by french and english in Montreal. Understanding how a language develops and how it changes, either regionally or culturally because of the influence of other languages in the same area is what allows a language to grow and develop.
Language alone cannot be discussed without the influence of culture as well. When a foreign language meets with a native language the cultural impact on the foreign language is just as influencial as the native language.
Source #4:
TED TALK - HOW LANGUAGES SHAPE THE WAY WE THINK
"Languages are living things"
- Non-Academic Source -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k
Discussed in this TED TALK, "How languages shapes the way we think" presented by Lera Boroditsky, is how language, depending where you are in the world, varies on meaning and description, affecting not only terminology but also differetiating colours and numbers, directions and defining masculine, feminine and neutral objects.
If a language were to emerge it would be heavily influenced by the way the people in the area would speak. For example, given by Boroditsky, German and Spanish speakers describe the sun and the moon as different genders, therefore if a spanish speaker would move to germany, the way their language is spoken would change because when speaking to a German speaking person their understanding woukd be different than that of a Spanish speaking person.
I chose another video reference because of the same reason as prior, i am a visual learner and by watching this TedTalk and listening to what is being said I was about to get more examples and branch out my research even further from these examples. It is a more generic video in relation to my topic but a lot of the points that were being made were relevant to the overall concept of my paper and I wanted to provide myself with this information whether I would use it or not in the end.
About Lera Boroditsky
Boroditsky is a cognitive scientist and professor in language and cognition, and is currently one of the main contributors to the Whorfian theory of linguistic relativity. Whorfianism is a theory that claims that the "structure of a language affects its speakers' world view or cognition, and thus people's perceptions are relative to their spoken language."
Boroditsky studies focus on the interaction between language, cognition and perception which combines methods from linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, and anthropology. She focuses on how people with different linguistic backgrounds behave different or react when in specific situtations. She interests herself in how the language we speak or understand influences the way we think.
I chose this source for obvious reasons, the primary discussion of this paper is about how languages influence each other which is a direct link to my paper and provided a lot of helpful information in my paper which allowed me to develop my ideas further. I also enjoyed the different aspects and points of view that were introduced in the paper because it made me realize that there is more information I should be looking at from a broder perspective.
Source #5:
HOW CULTURE INFLUENCES LANGUAGE
- Academic Source -
"Language is always cultural in some respects. Language should be conceptualized an integrated as part of a society and its culture."
Many different things like pop culture, music, television shows, movies, and other common social media outlets influence a culture, and henceforth influence a language. Especially a new language coming into an already existing community, the language can become influenced in the same way as the original language in the community which would make the languages further resemble one another.
"language is not only a product of culture but a symbol of it."
When learning a new language, or when developing a language, learning about the culture around it and the impact it has is what aids a person in learning the language. A language cannot be learnt simply by reading and listening to the language, there must be cultural aspects learned in order to grasp the language and gain a broader understanding of it.
As a new language begins to develop, the cultural influence around the language influences the way it grows and the way it is understood. Regionally made languages often take into account the culture around it and work from that.
Source #6:
LANGUAGE RELATIONS
- Academic Source -
When learning a secondary, native or foreign language, often people will refer to prosodies and language cues. Prosodies is the stress and inotation in a language which is often assumed to be similar for languages that sound the same. For example, when learning a new language a person will try to relate what they are learning to what they already know, coordinating similar sounding words and sounds to one another, but often they do not mean the same thing.
Cues in a language are also different, referring to phrase-final boundaries and word-initial boundaries. Phrase-final boundaries is when you add emphasis at the end of the phrase or pause at the end of the sentence to add emphasis. Whereas word-intial boundaries is when you lengthen, shorten, add extended syllables and/or ratio equalization for words in order to emphasize them.
This source was important in understanding how a person understands a new language and how a person will relate what they are learning with something they already know. This pertains to my paper and was very helpful because when new languages emerge from two pre-existing languages it is most often understood because the people who now speak it have correlated what they know with what they don't know and created something new from that.
This article was written to compare the language in Japan and the way it has developed based on less isolation and more language influence versus in Ryukyuan where they have more issolation but less "potential contact".
This article also compares how the same way that genetics can be passed down from generations amongst people, languages also derive the same way. People develop speech patterns to acclimate to the speech pattern of the person or people they most commonly speak with. It is known as linguistic gene flow, which henceforth means that the "interaction will, for logistic reasons, be more intense between people that are close to each other" and they will influence each other the most in speech and language.
I chose this source for one main point that i was trying to prove in my essay which is that a geographical location affects languages and how they develop. This was a paper that was extremely useful for examples and correlations to other sources, it acted almost as a bridge source to connect many different ideas.
Source #7:
GEOGRAPHICAL CONFIGURATION INFLUENCES LANGUAGE DIVERSITY
- Academic Source -
Taking into account how much a language is influenced by its geographical location changes the way language development is viewed. A place like Japan has a lot of linguistic influence to drive languages within it to grow and allows the country to develop new languages and dialects. Whereas Ryukyuan islands do not have the same amount of social influence as well as cultural influence and therefore do not abide to the same linguistic developments. Geographical locations, whether it be in a big city, small country-side, island, etc. has a huge impact of the way a language develops because of the potential influences around the language.
There is commonly more diversity in a language when the language has been used there longer, the example given in the article is English from England, introducing dialects such as Cockeny, Yorkshire, Sussex, RP, etc. As a language develops the dialect or branch of this language slowly becomes more and more different from the original and develops its own meaniings and pronunciations.
~ Tentative Outline ~
Thesis statement: Languages influence each other through the cultural impact of a foreign or native region, commonly spoken languages that integrate into everyday life, and through dialects and slang that come about from the collision of two or more languages.
1. Languages influence each other when they come into contact with one another, creating a dialect.
a. They often coexist and become a variation of one another, borrowing words from the native language influencing the foreign language and vice-versa.
b. Cultural influence: Because language is a part of culture, a linguistic shift can be caused when a lnaguage comes into contact with a different culture, which will further the growth of the language and the dialectal changes within it.
2. English is the "universal language" of the world and is most commonly the language that influences other languages.
a. English is the most commonly spoken language in the world and is seen to be one of the most influential languages alongside French and Latin.
b. In business, English is strongly recommended due to how common it is spoken/understood.
3. New languages come into existence when two or more pre-existing languages influence each other in a specific region.
a. Slang and dialects are very popularly known to be new "languages" or new versions of a language(s) that already exist.
b. Primary example: Italian speakers who immigrated to Montreal now speak in a dialectal version of Italian and English/French mixed.
c. When groups divide and move onto new territory, they acquire the language of the territory and integrate it with the language they already speak and know.
Linguistic Principles
Principle 10: The Native Language Effect
"The native language of learners exerts a strong influence on the acquisition of the target language system. While that native system will exercise both fascilitating and interfering effects on the production and comprehension of the new language, the interfering effects are likely to be the most salient."
I have chosen to include this in my blog entry because this specific principle, principle number 10, is relevant to the topic of my paper as well as the information on my blog. A linguistic principle is techniques which then show how to use a language, basically it is a set of principles that appear over and over again across elements of language that are used in persuasive text and speech. Due to the fact that my topic pertains to how languages adapt to one another, allowing for the creation of new languages, dialects, or a concoction of two or more languages, this principle/quote emphasizes the submissive language being a target of influence for an inferior language.
This picture was added to my blog because I think its a beautiful picture to incorporate. This is the "language tree" that shows the roots of many language and showcases the biggest and most influential languages known to this day.
"Petite Italie - Montreal"
There is pride in the way that a person speaks and when someones speech pattern is made fun of or there are negative connotations against a person's dialect it becomes increasingly difficult to continue to carry that pride. With many dialects that emerge from a previously existing language that is so loved (like Italian-Montreal dialect coming from the cross between Italian, English, and French) there is a negative undertone and constant backlash towards the dialect. Dialects are still not fully recognized as a language by people, many of these people being linguists. Which is why I included this source, having first hand experience as an example used in my blog shows that this is real and it is something that people do experience.
Source #8:
IDENTITY AND THE ITALIAN-MONTREAL ACCENT
- Non-Academic Source -
Many dialects are judged or not taken seriously as languages and are therefore frowned upon, in this article the discussion along with my primary example is that of the Italian-Montreal dialect. Writer of the article, Rebecca Ugolini, expresses how her accent that comes with her Italian-Montreal dialectal makes her feel less professional and less business-oriented, which is also the case with the people she interviewed for her article as well as for a lot of other Italian-Montrealers that I have personally spoken to. Ugolini expresses that her mother feared that "speaking with a heavy accent is associated to negative portrayals of Italians in the media", associating the dialect to being uneducated, not serious, unintelligent, amongst other things.
Source #9:
DIALECTS AND INFLUENCES ON THE ACADEMIC EXPERIENCES OF COLLEGE STUDENTS
- Academic Source -
*This paper is based in the United States of America*
This paper is one of the more interesting papers I have read for this research assignment, the whole paper is based off of the different experiences college students have based on their accent and the dialect they speak. Focusing comparisons are people who have a stereotypically less sophisticated dialect versus those who have a sterotypically sophisticated dialect.
Stigmitized dialects can alter the experience of a college student, while a college may advertise inclusivity, often there is a "standard" English that is assumed throughout the campus and this english relates to an upper class standard - white, middle to upper class, speakers. As stated in an article I wrote about prior in this blog, often the system will convince speakers that their english or their speech patterns make them appear less intelligent or uneducated - where I relate once again the example of the Italian dialect in Montreal. To reject a person's language is as if you are rejecting them as a person and/or their culture because these coincide with language and speech. There is a distinct disadvantage to those who do not speak the "standardized" English, often they will have a harder chance at getting into a college and once in the college they can face the either subtle or not subtle approach from their peers, teachers, and administration to change their speech pattern to follow the pressumed "correct" form of the English language.
"However, a student who speaks a nonstandardized dialect such as African American Vernacular english (AAVe) will often be taught in school that certain grammatical constructions of her native dialect are incorrect and viewed as a “failed attempt” at the standard."
Speaking up in class becomes more difficult for students who have been taught to feel that their dialects/accent/way of speaking does not follow the "normal" speech patterns that is expected of them. The comfort in a course is much less because of the stigma that a teacher may have for the student with the different way of speaking which causes teachers to expect stereotypical stigmas from the students; an example given was a student who had a more country accent who was constantly looked at and given the acting roles of country characters or paragraphs to read in class that were targeted to his group of people.
Often, whether in school or out of school, speech patterns are stigmatized and not taken as seriously as a typical white, upperclassman accent would.
This source was probably the most interesting to read because it relates to a group of people who are around my age. The paper had a constant flow of information that proved itself to be important and vital inofrmation that I used to correlate my ideas to one another. The topic of dialects in college is relevant to my life as well, because in the language program there are a lot of people with different backgrounds who constantly speak different languages to one another and it is an easy place for there to be streotypical slurs, but the program I am in with the people in it in my grade are all kind to one another and I have never experienced discrimination towards myself or my peers within the program. This made it that much more interesting to read the article.
German + English
English is a very influential language but according to this article, English was influenced by other languages as well, which is assumed. About 80% of the English vocabulary was borrowed from other languages which is a large number that shocks me a bit because I did not know it was that infleunced but it does make sense because of how much the language has grown over the centuries. Examples include: kindergarden from German which is kindergarten, royal from French which is equivalently royal, and coyote from Spanish which has also remained the same.
Languages continue to grow by being influenced and influencing other languages however it is "in our hands which words we use from other languages and which ones we continue to use in our native language."
English is obviously a big part of my life and many, many others and that is why i have included this source. Because English influences the most languages and has been influenced itself I wanted to showcase that and allow the English language to have it's own place in my blog as well as in my paper to give solid and concrete examples.
Source #10
THE INFLUENCE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ON OTHER LANGUAGES
- Non-Academic Source -
The English language is now considered to be a requirement and not just a perk in the world of languages, it is spoken by many people worldwide and it is the language that is most likely spoken when encountering someone new.
In situations such as the quick technoligcal advancements, the english language has words that had to automatically be developed into foreign languages because of how quick technology was evolving. Termonology used in technology is adopted in foreign languages simply as they are in English because of the rapid growth and the easy understanding of it, rather than creating a word in the foreign language. Even when there is an existing translation of the word, other languages still use the English termonology; for example, in Germany words like aftershave have a direct translation which would be rasierwasser, but they prefer to use the English word, but there are also words such as scanner that do not have an equivalent.
Self-Assessment
In regard to my blog and the work I put into it I believe I have a lot of strengths and weaknesses that collide with one another. My biggest strength for my blog is my determination to keep at it and to constantly put in the effort in order to make the blog flow and keep its intellectual standpoint, but a weakness that contradicts that point is my laziness and lack of motivation. I am the type of student who leaves everything until the last minute, I have been doing this technique since I started high school nice years ago and I do not intend on changing that habit but it did make it rather difficult to encourage myself to do the research and stay on top of my blog. I also used the incentive of making it look pretty and being creative as a way to push myself to get it done and continue working on it to make myself proud of my work. I learned a lot through this experience, I enjoyed that the assignment of the blog was continuous and that I could work on it whenever I felt I wanted to and at the same time I learnt that I work better when I can do things on my time and not feel pressured by a due date. I also learned a lot about my topic which is an obvious answer, but it made me look deeper into the Italian-Montreal culture, which was indirectly where my topic derived from, using it as an example throughout my blog and my essay. When I began doing my research I read every paper, article, academic thesis’ and more from the beginning to the end and I realized towards the end of the semester that that was not an ideal way to get more information about my topic considering the fact that I disregarded most of those readings because in the end they did not apply. I incorporated a lot of what I saw in my peers’ blogs into my own which I think was the best aspect of this assignment: being able to see everyone else’s blogs and get inspiration from them. I think that the blog concept itself is amazing when you need to write a paper because all the ideas and research is already done, it just needs to be put into paragraphs. The only comment I would make about improving it is perhaps a chat room where we can exchange links and references that we find that might pertain to another blog and help the others out.