Updating

Ten of the Enid Blyton Famous Five books are to have their language updated to be easier to read for today's children, according to an article in the Guardian.

"housemistress" becoming "teacher", "awful swotter" becoming "bookworm", "mother and father" becoming "mum and dad", "school tunic" becoming "uniform" and Dick's comment that "she must be jolly lonely all by herself" being changed to "she must get lonely all by herself".

I'm torn. It's true that language changes and those translations make a lot of sense to me, yet how do you signal that the culture of the books is archaic without the language to clue you in? Or are today's kids savvy enough to understand that times were different then without the linguistic clues?

What do you think?

Spelling

There's an amusing twist on Twain's plan to improve English spelling here. Well, it amused me!

Italian is naturally pretty much phonetic apart from knowing where to stress a word. English spelling is a nightmare to learn especially if you're learning it as a second language but I'd find it hard to recognise words if they were spelt fənetikly.

Would it be worth going to a sensible phonetic spelling for the sake of future readers? Or is our spelling too entrenched for that?

First Contact

For those of us interested in science fiction, I wrote in a previous post about the problems of talking to aliens. How could we communicate with beings so vastly different from us? Most of us have enough problems understanding someone from France or Russia.

A lot of people seem to think that drawing and maths are key. I recently came across this article which makes some interesting suggestions.

I'm not convinced that even simple drawings would be understood across such a vast cultural gulf. Suppose the aliens "see" by echolocation? But if we're writing stories we have to assume a lot of commonalities or there would be nothing to tell. Or would there?
 

The Language Problem

If you were to meet a sentient being on another planet, it's not very likely that they would be speaking English. Even on this planet it's not the language with the most native speakers. (According to Wikipedia it comes third.)

In science fiction there are a few well-tried ways to get around this problem, most of them involving hand waving.

1. Have some sort of universal translation device e.g. the Babel Fish


2. Have the traveller live in the alien culture and learn the language over an extended period of time e.g. Out of the Silent Planet


3. Have a reason why the language is like a dead earth language and take along an expert in that language e.g. Stargate


4. Have the aliens intercept our radio and tv signals and decode them, despite the fact that they aren't even compatible worldwide e.g. The Simpsons


5. Use maths and chemistry to start the communication. I'm not sure if you can get to war and peace like this.


6. Ignore the problem, have everyone speak English and hope that no one notices e.g. Star Trek

I have to admit that this last one is tempting although I find it unsatisfying.

If you were writing about someone meeting a totally new group of sentient beings, how would you get them to communicate?

Talking to aliens

When I was at High School we had assembly every day. The whole school assembled in the hall and sang hymns, listened to a Bible reading and joined in prayers followed by the headmistress reading out school notices. I used to sit cross-legged on the floor in my school uniform wondering what it was like in the French schools during assembly and what their school uniforms looked like. What I didn't know was that French schools don't have anything resembling assembly and the children don't wear uniform.

I can't help thinking that when we write science fiction about aliens we are just as blinkered as I was then. Take for example:

At least one species, the Manti, were found to be intelligent. [...] Within several months of first contact, the scientists were able to develop a common language with the Mandi.

(From Conundrum on Titan by Patricia Stewart on 365 Tomorrows.)

I'm not sure that I can believe that if we find creatures that are less intelligent than we are that we will manage to find a common language. We don't seem to have done very well with chimps or bonobos and we certainly don't treat any Earth animals as intelligent beings on a level with ourselves.

If we meet aliens that are more intelligent than us, I wonder if they will treat us as we do the chimps, yet this is assuming that their culture is in many ways similar to ours. Somehow that feels rather like wondering what hymns the French children sing in assembly.

How language affects your thoughts

I've found an easy way to avoid getting lost ever again. All you have to do is to learn the Aboriginal language of the Kuuk Thaayorre and you will always know where you are.

Instead of words like "right," "left," "forward," and "back," which, as commonly used in English, define space relative to an observer, the Kuuk Thaayorre, like many other Aboriginal groups, use cardinal-direction terms — north, south, east, and west — to define space. This is done at all scales, which means you have to say things like "There's an ant on your southeast leg" or "Move the cup to the north northwest a little bit." One obvious consequence of speaking such a language is that you have to stay oriented at all times, or else you cannot speak properly. The normal greeting in Kuuk Thaayorre is "Where are you going?" and the answer should be something like " Southsoutheast, in the middle distance." If you don't know which way you're facing, you can't even get past "Hello."

Taken from: HOW DOES OUR LANGUAGE SHAPE THE WAY WE THINK? by Lera Boroditsky which is a fascinating article that explores the effects of language on the perception of time and colour as well as space.

Beats GPS every time.

Slang, text and LOLcats

Picture taken from LOLcat Pics. I have a guilty love of LOLcats. The cute cat pictures, the funny language.

I enjoy neologisms and playing with words, I love learning languages and seeing how our language develops. New slang, like "cool" and "lame" and "wicked" (OK, it's old slang now but I can't think of anything more recent) fascinates me. For some reason the same doesn't apply to textspeak.

I'm not sure that there is any logic to finding "I can haz cheezburger" funny and hating "C U L8r" but there it is.