French was the first foreign language I'd heard as a child, which made me aware of the many different ways people all around the world communicate with words.
150 speakers left of this dialect on Okracoke Island in NC's Outer Banks. Very cool.
I just stumbled on this this morning while looking for something else.
(Sorry, don't know how to make a one word link in these comments. )
I love how language is in a constant feedback loop with everything else in the world. A beautiful thing our brains do. Great piece Portia, and there's nothing stodgy about that cake either.
Thank you for this interesting post, Portia! Disconnections between language variants? Don’t get me started! In Guangzhou, a Cantonese city where I’m from, if you want to take away food, you’ll ask the restaurant to have it ‘打包’, which literally means ‘pack (the food) up’. But apparently in Hong Kong, another Cantonese city, this word means ‘pack dead bodies up’. Long story short, once in Hong Kong, I asked them to pack up the dead body of my wonton soup …
By the way, that Gianduja chocolate cake looks delicious. Who among us has not over-roasted a few (dozen) nuts? And the ganache appears glossy and lush. It must have been a sweet cake and a sweet gift.
Another intellectually stimulating essay, thank you! Coming of age in the UK, when I moved to the US I had to stop calling cigarettes “fags”. But that barely touches on the differences in culture in the apparently same language of English. The directness of southeast English parlance by people known to be reserved compared to the opacity of the speech of unreserved Californians is one of life’s mysteries. “Toilet” vs. “bathroom” is just one example. But on the other hand, meaning can be more obscure in a southeast English interaction than in California. It’s all so confusing and I’m still trying to learn not to swear so much, ha.
Does donkey sound like year in French? Is that another possibility? Though I’m partial to the theory that the expression is because baby donkeys look cute.
Really enjoyed this. When I lived in Italy, I was taught some Bergamasco - I'd then be invited to trot it out (and everybody would roll about laughing)...
There are 2 cities in S. Korea called Gwangju, one larger and one smaller, but in different provinces and both spelled the same way in modern Korean, which is phonetic. However, their names are based on different Chinese characters, the classical Chinese writing system having been the literary language of the country's upper class until the 19th century. The similarity in pronunciation was merely coincidental.
As someone who doesn’t have so much as an attached lobe for languages ( I live in Italy and I’m hopelessly shit ) it’s really interesting hearing about these little multilingual intricacies.
Borrowed from Stephen Hawking's idea, with Pink Floyd's 'Keep Talking' in the background: 'For millions of years, we lived like animals; then we learned to talk.' The saying goes, 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.' Humans expressed themselves through sounds and writing.
I find language evolution interesting and enjoy exploring the linguistic tree at times. European languages possess a unique charm, sounding distinctly pleasing and romantic. While reading your post, which I found it interesting, I checked the linguistic tree of Western Romance languages – take a look here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Romance_languages.
https://www.visitocracokenc.com/island-brogue/#:~:text=“Hoi%20Toider%2C”%20as%20the,of%20the%20area%27s%20extreme%20isolation.
150 speakers left of this dialect on Okracoke Island in NC's Outer Banks. Very cool.
I just stumbled on this this morning while looking for something else.
(Sorry, don't know how to make a one word link in these comments. )
I love how language is in a constant feedback loop with everything else in the world. A beautiful thing our brains do. Great piece Portia, and there's nothing stodgy about that cake either.
Thank you for this interesting post, Portia! Disconnections between language variants? Don’t get me started! In Guangzhou, a Cantonese city where I’m from, if you want to take away food, you’ll ask the restaurant to have it ‘打包’, which literally means ‘pack (the food) up’. But apparently in Hong Kong, another Cantonese city, this word means ‘pack dead bodies up’. Long story short, once in Hong Kong, I asked them to pack up the dead body of my wonton soup …
By the way, that Gianduja chocolate cake looks delicious. Who among us has not over-roasted a few (dozen) nuts? And the ganache appears glossy and lush. It must have been a sweet cake and a sweet gift.
Another intellectually stimulating essay, thank you! Coming of age in the UK, when I moved to the US I had to stop calling cigarettes “fags”. But that barely touches on the differences in culture in the apparently same language of English. The directness of southeast English parlance by people known to be reserved compared to the opacity of the speech of unreserved Californians is one of life’s mysteries. “Toilet” vs. “bathroom” is just one example. But on the other hand, meaning can be more obscure in a southeast English interaction than in California. It’s all so confusing and I’m still trying to learn not to swear so much, ha.
Does donkey sound like year in French? Is that another possibility? Though I’m partial to the theory that the expression is because baby donkeys look cute.
Love the story about how the MIL started thawing due to Tanya’s language prowess.
Love to have you!
Really enjoyed this. When I lived in Italy, I was taught some Bergamasco - I'd then be invited to trot it out (and everybody would roll about laughing)...
There are 2 cities in S. Korea called Gwangju, one larger and one smaller, but in different provinces and both spelled the same way in modern Korean, which is phonetic. However, their names are based on different Chinese characters, the classical Chinese writing system having been the literary language of the country's upper class until the 19th century. The similarity in pronunciation was merely coincidental.
As someone who doesn’t have so much as an attached lobe for languages ( I live in Italy and I’m hopelessly shit ) it’s really interesting hearing about these little multilingual intricacies.
I wonder do words annoy you in other languages?
Borrowed from Stephen Hawking's idea, with Pink Floyd's 'Keep Talking' in the background: 'For millions of years, we lived like animals; then we learned to talk.' The saying goes, 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.' Humans expressed themselves through sounds and writing.
I find language evolution interesting and enjoy exploring the linguistic tree at times. European languages possess a unique charm, sounding distinctly pleasing and romantic. While reading your post, which I found it interesting, I checked the linguistic tree of Western Romance languages – take a look here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Romance_languages.
Salve Portia, come mi piace questo stack(! come si dice in italiano!). Auguri.
What do you know about the Bread and Roses Strike.