Newton and Pecola

In this video blog I analyzed “A Huey P. Newton Story” directed by Spike Lee and compared it to Pecola in “The Bluest Eye.” I focused specifically on how family and education shaped the path of both Pecola and Newton.

Here's the Link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEf1G97X6V8

Review for Exam

Rhetorical Fallacies

Basically a fallacy is something that is presented as a true statement when in fact it is well wrong.

We use fallacies every day in day to day conversations and let’s not even get into the art of debate and persuasion.

Any way here’s a basic APLang review for the most common ones.

Ad Hominem Argument

Argument that is pointing out or addressing a specific individual or person.

Key word is “Hominem” which in Latin means to the man.

Kids tend to use this fallacy the most because it’s an easy way to defend or attack a person for example “You can't believe Jack when he says there isn't any God because he doesn't even have a job.”

False Authority

We tend to agree with the writers ideas or claims because of his or her authority. Usually when the writers are well known or famous in any way they end up having a big influence.

Example:

“This is the best foreign movie that had hit the box offices this week- it’s bounf to win an Oscar nomination.”- Andressa

“This is the best foreign movie that had hit the box offices this week- it’s bounf to win an Oscar nomination.”- Steven Speilberg

Ok so let’s be honest after listening to both of us I’m guessing Spielberg will have  a bigger influence when it comes to making a decision of buying the movie or not.

Appeal to Ignorance

Assumption that whatever has not been proven false must be true and vice-versa. Almost like the basic human right that states that were innocent till proven guilty. This is something that will surely help me remember.

Example:

“No one has been able to disprove the theory that mermaids exist; therefore mermaids do exist.”

Begging the Question

Form of argument where someone assumes that everything  a person says are proven facts.

Example: "The belief in God is universal. After all, everyone believes in God."

It would be logical that this person first try to prove to you that God exists before making such a conclusion.

Hasty Generalizations

A conclusion that is based on insufficient evidence to support its validity.

Example: “ The AP Language exam is the hardest AP exam of all. Last year my two best friends got a 1 as their final score.”

In this case it could be that my friend was taking the course as an obligation and guessed on the multiple choice. There is not enough evidence about the content to convince me that it is a hard exam.

Non Sequitor

 A statement that does not relate to what comes after it.

Example: “I lived in a house without a basement. That house flooded. Houses without basements will definitely flood.”

There is no logical connection between floods and houses without a basement.

Slippery Slope

I take it as the phrase “Well that escalated quickly”

Example:

“ If we stop enforcing the school uniform on the student next thing we know they are all coming to class in pajamas.”

The Classroom Wall

Wrathful: full of fierce and anger.

Nuance: a subtle difference in color, meaning, tone, etc.; a shade or graduation

Analogy: Similarity between the features of two things, on which a comparison can be made.

Bellicose: Warlike or hostile temperament.

Syllogism: Deductive reasoning.

Who Else is a Black Star

The Master had said to the Breedlove’s “You are ugly people”, and just like that they believed black was much more than race, it was a curse. If only Pecola had the chance to play “ Black Star” by Astronomy. Only then would she feel a sense of acceptance, self-actualization, and most importantly pride.

In the first chorus, Astronomy presents a question that is not very easy to answer because at the end it is meaningless.

“Against the canvas of the night 
Appears a curious celestial phenomena 
Called black star, but what is it? “

What is black? What is race?

“It is commonplace and different”

Astronomy believes that there is no fixed definition. It is so personal and at the same time controversial that its mere existence is a fallacy. If there is something I’ve learned is that race does not exist and being black does not mean the loss of aesthetics, on the contrary, Black means Beautiful.

“Black like my baby girl's stare Black like the cheeks that are roadways for tears.“

Pecola can only think of a blue-eyed baby girl doll whose skin symbolizes something more than just beauty, survival. But the second verse gives her the best possible advice when they say “Black like the planet that they fear, why they scared? “ The way they are able to intensify and humanize the smallest details of “blacks” awakens a shift from shame to pride in the voices of the artists. They don’t see cheeks as a just colored skin on a face, but rather a path for tears that mean strength and not weakness. They don’t see a pair of defeated dark eyes that are craving for color, but rather a strong stare that comes innate in every individual.

Another great song that was part of the strong black pride movement in the 70's is " We're a Winner" by Curtis Mayfield.

check it out!

VLOG: The Woe of Child's Reality

"The Bluest Eye"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoImEpn6eRg&feature=youtu.be

 Hello!! In this blog we filmed ourselves commenting on a statement said be Claudia in page 74.

Only My Eyes are Left

Morrison triggers certain feelings as I read every passage. At first, he described Claudia’s self-image so well that I understood her desperation to dismember the blue-eyed doll. Then she lets me stand by the kitchen dinner table and dodge Cholly as he catapults into a stove, feeling every blow to my face and wishing his death just like Sammy did. I feel the cold climb up my spine as I too nag about the lack of coal in this household, because at some point we are all just going to freeze. And now, I want to disappear with Pecola but my eyes are the only thing that keeps me from vanishing. I’m always so close.

Her use of detail and shift in narration, allows me to experience every emotion and feel every stimuli that bounces off the walls of the household. It becomes so detailed that I feel the floor thud as Mrs. Breedlove limps into her room. This is the kind of reaction that every author should achieve through dialogue, exposition, or narration.

We Lost It

Never have I ever encountered so much hatred in a couple of paragraphs. From flesh to flesh, and words to screams, Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove pour out the sum of their articulated fury. Of course every bad relationship starts with our dearest friend alcohol because when you wish somebody dead, it’s probably because they are close to death anyways, “strike that bastard down from his pea-knuckle of a pride”(42). And if that isn’t enough and Jesus is not answering your prayers well them go ahead and trip him into the red-hot stove, “ get him, Jesus! Get him!”(44). That’ll do the job!

But wait I forgot to introduce these characters. It might come as a surprise or it might sound familiar, but they are husband and wife. Makes you want to consider divorce, yet in my case it makes me curious as to how this couple met. How long ago was it when they fell for love at first sight? How would they describe their tender feeling towards each other before reality struck and ripped them away from their placid relationship? I yearn to read about the times when they went out on dates and gushed over their embarrassments as they vowed for true love. But this seems miles away from where they stand now and I can’t help but feel nostalgic for something I hope was real. They are killing themselves inside and they are killing the entire household as they fill it up with hatred. It won’t be long when it bursts.

A Story by Definition

Given the fact that the first chapters are actually told by a child, in this case Claudia, the vocabulary is well…childlike. The words are simplistic and even self-explanatory, but when their definitions are put together they tell a story of their own.

Martydrom: A display of feigned or exaggerated suffering

Schemata: A representation of a plan or theory in the form of an outline or model.

Debris: Scattered fragments, typically of something wrecked or destroyed.

Zest: Great enthusiasm and energy.

Hollyhocks: A tall Eurasian plant (Alcea rosea) of the mallow family, widely cultivated for its large showy flowers

Starch: Stiffen (fabric or clothing) with starch

The family is clearly suffering and the children are mirror images of who they are supposed to be, except that they are shattered wrecked and destroyed. They have been born into an outline of their lives. The way they despise their roots, the way they curse poverty, and the way they accept the fact that they were born into misery is merely proof of the zest they were deprived from since the beginning of their existence. Like Hollyhocks, the minds of the adults are thin, narrow, and still, but the children seem to breakthrough those limitations as long as they stay innocent and naïve when it comes to reality. They are shielded by creation, imagination, and most importantly their ability to question.

UGLYUGLYUGLYUGLYUGLYUGLY

That was the only word that stood out in the text. While I was reading I took the job of a word watcher and decided that there was no better way to analyze the characters than by their lexicon. If I were to classify the usage of this word it would be lined up like this:

“You are ugly people.”

“Their ugliness was unique.”

“They wore their ugliness.”

“Why were they so ugly?”

The narrator has the most disgusted perception of the Breedloves, she expresses the fact that they inherited or perhaps were born into their ugliness, “…they took the ugliness into their hands” (38). Even though she emphasizes every despicable detail of the character’s physique, at the same time she acknowledges the way they adjust to their identity. Mrs. Breedlove takes hers for support of a role she frequently plays, Sammy uses his as a weapon to inflict pain upon others, and Pecola simply hides behind hers as if were a mask that shielded her from life (ironically it is the same thing that haunts her). 

Morrison believes their ugliness does not belong to them, in other words they were convicted to eternal discrimination and still they did nothing to contradict the statement! This can only mean that the author’s true purpose is to demonstrate the true beauty of the family by doing the exact opposite: calling them ugly. It is almost as if he were tempting the reader to agree with his vivid descriptions when in reality he is showing that they can choose to accept their racial background and embrace who they are, but instead they lower their heads and accept to hear that they are branded as uniquely ugly. They fall victims of the imposter syndrome. The human tendency to self-doubt your potential and brand yourself as INCOMPETENT. The Breedloves yearn for the return of their mask.

Peeped

While reading the first chapter I realized there were specific phrases or sentences that were unique when it came to the understanding of the characters and the author’s illustration of their lives.

Sentence #1

“Gone the ink marks from legs and face, all my creations and accumulations of the day gone, and replaced by goose pimples”(22).

Claudia is actually saddened by the fact that the shower is washing away the marks on her skin, yet we usually perceive a shower for washing away the dirt, filth and even memories or emotions. When you are stressed out by a situation there is nothing more soothing than a nice hot bath, but for Claudia it is obviously the worst ending for her day. This sentence emphasizes the childlike narration because children actually HATE taking a shower and what we perceive as dirt and filth, Claudia sees as “creations and accumulations of the day gone”. She feels like her memories are erased every time she steps in and she is fixated on the way the ink runs down her legs alongside the drops of water.

Sentence #2

“ Ain’t nobody even peeped in here to see whether that child has a loaf of bread. Look like they would just peep in to see whether I had a loaf of bread to give her but naw”(25).

Although written in a very informal conversational tone, Mama has a far more important social statement that uses a loaf of bread as her metaphor towards economic injustice. “Ain’t nobody” can perhaps be “old trifling Cholly”, Pecola’s father, who has been out of jail for two days and hasn’t bothered to pick up his daughter. It might also be the government for not supporting her financially now that she is raising a girl that is not even her own. Her irritated tone implies that the problem is not whether Mama is giving her kids enough food, its whether she has food to give them, and nobody has bothered to peep in and realize it.

Sentence #3

“I picked toe jam, Frieda cleaned her fingernails with her teeth, and Pecola finger-traced some scars on her knee-her head cocked to one side”(24).

In a healthy environment when we just sit there, you can say: I fixed my dress, Beatriz finished the last crumbs of her cake, and Andrea painted her nails. This is an event more suitable and typical when it comes to girls of a young age. Obviously an event these three girls are far from experiencing . Toni Morrison uses a simplistic tone in order to exemplify the way tracing one’s scars is just anotherway to entertain yourself, its normal. I hope I’m not the only who agrees to disagree, but the author wants this exact reaction in the reader: I WANT TO LOOK AWAY!

As White as a Rose's Pedal

IWISHIWASABLUEEYEDYELLOWHAIREDPINKSKINNEDDOLLIWISHIWASABLUEYEDYELLOWHAIREDPINKSKINNEDDOLLIWISHIWASABLUEYEDYELLOWHAIREDPINKSKINNEDDOLLIWISHIWASABLUEEYEDYELLOWHAIREDPINKSKINNEDDOLL

While reading the second chapter, as a reader, we finally catch a glimpse of how this family’s life is full of abuse, discrimination and misery. Morrison demonstrated Claudia’s escape from her reality through a blue-eyed doll. But wait. You might think like the rest of the adults, and believe she wants to play house while feeding the precious doll and nurturing it as her mother. You’re wrong. How can Claudia be given such a false representation of beauty, and not be expected to yearn every aspect of it?

Her desire is so powerful that she feels that having it to play with is not enough. So what does she do? Simple, she dismembers it “to see of what it is made, to discover the dearness, to find the beauty, the desirability that had escaped…”(20).

Your reaction: “You-don’t-know-how-to-take-care-of-nothing. Now-you-got-one-a-beautiful-one-and-you-tear-it-up-whats-the-matter-with-you?”

Oh stop it you sound just like her mother!

Morrison creates a character that does not have anything materialistic in her life, and yet she does not want to possess any object. She would rather feel. She would rather be the very thing she holds on to everyday because she believes her race is guilty for everything that happens in her life.

A Single Faithfulness

Our mind runs on contradiction:

I will agree to disagree

Perhaps not

Pause not

But as explained in line 399,” something can be true and untrue at the same time.” This antithetical statement explains how it’s all a matter of ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. Take it as hand eye coordination for example. My dad lacks this sixth sense, therefore, when it comes to driving and changing the song on the radio, you can hear my mother’s scream all the way from the other side of the road. Reading and writing forces you to do the exact same thing. While close reading The Tempest, I have to focus on Prospero’s tone when it comes to his brother, while at the same decoding the island. It’s almost as if you had a multiple choice for interpreting.

a)      There’s something in charge and I wanna get straight with it.

b)      There’s something in charge and it means me no good and I wanna get the fuck out of here.

c)      There’s nothing and everything going on.

I don’t know about you, but when reading for example an essay, I choose option C . When it doubt think about the “essayist’s gesture of striking out toward the unknown, not only without a map, but without certainty that there is anything worthy to be found.” As a reader be open minded! When it doubt, we are alive! We tend to create our own little reality that makes us see what we want  to see and experience what we want to feel. This is why a real story isn’t exactly the official story, but rather my version of the official story.

The Line of Beauty

Finally Shields touched on my favorite topic of all times: reality. Not only is this one of the most controversial subject amongst social media, but it also plays with the role of the word “reality” TV because honestly just how real is real? I guess you can start by saying that shows such as American Idol are real enough for a contestant to commit suicide in front of the judge’s house, and personal enough to reveal the horrific scenes of plastic surgery ending up in the hands of psychologists. But it gets worse. We know something is up with America when more votes are cast on reality TV than the ones cast for the nations president Barack Obama. As Kate Salter, author of The Guardian might say, “ Something about communication, and the fact that he is a stranger, makes them very open.” Individuals such as those willing to cast in these TV shows just want to open out to everyone. Nothing to hide (cameras make sure of this). An interview of one of the girls in The Bachelor is nothing more than a confession, a memoir of feelings and secrets she doesn’t mind communicating to the millions of viewers.

On the other hand, drifting away from television and entering writing, I must agree with the guy who said short-stories are the ones we all love because they manage to “cut to the chase”. Personally as a writer I get stressed out and sweating when I am assigned to write about a topic I want to say so much about, yet find myself limited in space. I will probably stop whining right now because I can’t imagine how Kimball must be feeling about writing biographies on POSTCARDS! Talk about cutting to the chase! But we all hate that feeling while reading a long story about depression and  then looking back and asking yourself what the hell was I looking for again? Kimball manages to do what few writers achieve, “ It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a whole book- what everyone else does not say in a whole book.”

Erasing the Line

 David Shields continues to blur the line that separates fiction and non-fiction, and quizzes the reader into questioning himself when it comes to reality. In chapter g 208, called specifically to “blur” ones interpretation, I stumbled across one of the most interesting points that makes complete sense.  “He”, or in this case whoever he plagiarized from (LOL), explains that once we classify a novel, memoir, or even a Hollywood movie it becomes like “ coloring inside the lines.” I could not agree more with X person because it turns into a tendency to expect a specific structure once you know the category it falls in. If I go in to watch a movie based on a Nicholas Spark novel it better be making my eyes tear the first 30 minutes of the movie, and if it doesn’t then it just becomes a huge disappointment. On the other hand, if I had no idea the plot of the film, the audience it targets, nor the director, then it will probably be journey from the beginning to the credits.

Skipping onto chapter h, which focuses on the “Now”, a short yet reflective phrase is stated in 242. “Our culture is obsessed with real events because we experience hardly any” (82).  We experience paintings, novels, and movies that come focus their works on real people, or as we’ve all been attracted to everything that says “based on a true story.” It almost as if we find it the most intriguing thing when something actually happened and it’s not made up. But why do we tend to experience these emotions if we live in real events 24/7 on our own personal lives? What makes it so mystical about a real story? Something to think about…

Chapter I captures the same idea in part 252. The speaker invites his documentary nominees up on stage because they share a common ground when it comes to non-fiction, but this only happens because we live in a fictitious world. We live in a world where our reality has already been used up to a point where it loses its reality and these producers are now forced to create a new one. It sounds confusing but that’s exactly what Shields is trying to do. Blur.

Audio Commentary

Listening to my audio commentary I realized that even though I tried to fix my thesis it was still in passive voice, therefore, making it longer than it should be. Another thing you pointed out was the fact that I was being too general in certain phrases such as “typical up-bringing of girls.” The ‘typical’ in the sentence may be controversial in the sense that I can’t assume all girls are raised the same way in order to prove my point. Also, in my word choice I decided to use the word ”dominated”, which I understand is a word that contradicts my thesis and what the series is trying to show. You suggested that I use “oppressive world” and this way women are seen not in a weakening stance, but rather a reality that is kept silent.

My conclusion was in fact rushed in the way that was I was saying was truly important and I just left it unfinished. I could have gone more from the specific to the general in order to talk about the true implications of lexicon in the feminine world.

Away with the Old, Bring in the New

Both Reality Hunger and Futuristic Manifesto are based on independent literary and artistic views, and express an urgent need for the development of literature genres and human perspective. The Futuristic Manifesto , as stated with its name, is a time traveling journey that starts from the epoch of mythology  and furthers on into modernization. Marinetti finally leaves the ages of god and goddesses to the time where man is born, and his tone can only reveal one thing, and that is the simple fact that he was tired of a setback in society and yearned something more realistic, “Alone with the engineers in the infernal stokeholds of great ships, alone with the black spirits which rage in the belly of rogue locomotives.” He travels to the time of the guillotine and the “cruel Queen” of absolute power, all the way to the era of industrialization with the dirty ditch and factories, “Oh maternal ditch, half full of muddy water…a factory gutter!”  

The originality of this manifesto is that it creates a motive behind their travels and ends up in the holy bible. Marinetti was now wise, he had all the experience in the world and therefore, he was ready to create a testament to speed up change in the world. On the other hand, Reality Hunger wants to change rather than reject a past that has managed to break “larger and larger chunks of ‘reality’ in to the world.” He relies on an artistic movement that looks to blur the distinction between fiction and non-fiction, almost as if Inception was Shield’s final testament. 

Britain takes the Challenge

After establishing the true influence of the English language on a global level, let’s focus on how the British Empire was able to establish its tongue in India. During this time period, Britain’s English represented an empire capable enough to establish itself into nothing less than a country with over a thousand million people: India. And this time, not only was population a problem, but English was now competing with 200 other tongues spoken by the people as well. What dazzles me is the way this foreign potency was “accepted” even though it was basically obligated. Their manipulation of power led a humongous country such as India to be linguistically influenced to the point where rebellions are driven by posters in English and advertisement ads are also subtitled in this very same language. With this phenomenon the English language was enriched immeasurably no matter if it was seen with a sense of pride, shame, or corruption of one’s culture. English had made its way and it was bound to stay.

This demonstrates the influence an empire poses over a “conquered” country. One that was indirectly forced to speak an idiom that went against its beliefs and religion, but it became crucial to the development of their economy and industry. The question becomes, why are descriptivist’s so concerned about the standardization of a language where change is inevitable? Listen to a native from India speak English and notice their extreme accent and burrowed words from their native tongues. I believe it is almost natural for this to happen and I do not consider it a corruption of English, but rather an adaptation.

The Adventure of English. Dir. Nigel Wattis. Perf. Amanda Root and David Gwillim. LWT, 2003. Youtube. 19 Sept. 2011. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.

Destruction or Immortality?

It all began in the late 17^th century with the Age of Reason, when our language found itself caught in massive political turmoil inside the walls of Britain. Not only had the king fled to Oxford College, but civil war was crumbling the walls of an empire. One strong enough to impose a language that merged cultures, created neologisms, burrowed lexicography from Latin, and at the same time standardized its usage with dictionaries.

John Locke wrote an essay titled “Human Understanding”, in which he introduces the idea that with a better use of language the end of disputes would be reachable. In other words, he believed that if they all agreed upon the definition of words it would only mean one thing: peace. I won’t dare to say I disagree with his rational idealism because after all isn’t racial discrimination, one issue most countries hope to eliminate, based mainly on the usage of insulting words? We give it our own definition. Rap songs written and sung by African American’s are bombarded with the word “nigga”, usually meaningless in between themselves, but when used by others to describe them it is extremely racist and insulting. BANNED. I will agree that language is a “master of life”, as expressed by Locke, and at the same time should not be a “vicious abundance of phrases” (John Locke, The Adventure of English).

While Newton was changing the meaning of words according to his studies, Jonathan Swift expressed concern about the rapid change of our language. He questioned a writer’s ability to write with creativity and enthusiasm while knowing that in a couple of centuries the future generations to follow won’t be able to understand it. They were starting to clip vowels and abbreviate words such as “pos” for positive and “mob” for Latin vulgus. Instead he found “purity” when it came to Greek and Latin. His theory stated that these two languages had survived because they hadn’t changed. But is this true in 2013? Is Latin popular amongst my generation? I will have to agree to disagree with Mr. Swift.  English on the other hand, has been changing faster than we can control it, and as far as I know it is the number one language in the whole world. Sure enough it is a newborn compared to others, but will its constant malleable usage destroy it or make it immortal?

The Adventure of English. Dir. Nigel Wattis. Perf. Amanda Root and David Gwillim. LWT, 2003. Youtube. 19 Sept. 2011. Web. 28 Jan. 2013.

Americanisms

 And now here comes America! This episode analyzes several theories about American English from the Declaration of Independence and Revolutionary war, all the way to the 1920’s. In this blog entry I have decided not to write endless paragraphs about our linguistic history, but rather examine certain terms and vocabulary words that are worth knowing and employing.

Buffalo Bill:” Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West Show” was the introduction of what would become America’s voice. The age of cowboys and Indians would be the epoch that fired the English language with the Westward movement of the American pioneers.

Yorktown: A village of southeast Virginia on the York River north of Newport News. It was the site of Cornwallis's surrender of the British forces (1781) in the American Revolution. During the Civil War Union troops occupied the town after a siege in 1862.

Tremor: (n) A shaking or vibrating movement, as of the earth.

Melancholy: (n) Sadness or depression of the spirits; gloom

Endowed: (tr, v.) To provide with property, income, or a source of income.

Lexicographer: (n) One who writes, compiles, or edits a dictionary.

Americanisms: An English word or phrase--or a feature of grammar, spelling, or pronunciation--that originated in the United States and/or is used primarily by Americans.

Advocate: (tr. v.) To speak, plead, or argue in favor of.

The Golden Age ay Scottish

As I watched the episode “The Guid Scots Tongue”, I was impressed with the fact that Scottish, being one of the oldest tongues in Britain with the Anglo Saxon tribes, might have become a language of its own. The video is introduced with a news broadcaster who blabbers away in what seems to be our English, yet with a slight twist in accent. It sounded like she had swallowed pepper as was struggling in every word to just spit it out, taking advantage of the r’s to breakthrough a sweat. There were clear subtitles at the bottom, but it was almost as if she was talking in Gibberish the whole time. I did a little research and with the help of the narrator I was able to make out these words with their corresponding translations:

“Ken”                                                NO

“Bide”                                               Stay

“Wee”                                               Small

“Gang”                                              Go

Thanks to our reading of The Stories of English, I was able to connect Scotland’s Golden Age with “received pronunciation”. During this era Scottish was the main tongue of the kings, queens, and aristocrats in the country. Not only was it considered prestigious, but the people started to imitate the upper class just like we learned with Received Pronunciation. This is how the idiom quickly became popular amongst the lower and middle classes of Scotland. This I would consider to be a sociological explanation for a linguistic phenomenon that even today is used in the northern part of the country. 

Personally I find the Scottish accent rather disturbing, but this is just me being intolerant of change. Anyhow I found a cool video from actor and voice coach Garreth Jameson. If you are intrested in learing how to imitate a Scottish accent well the be my guest and enjoy the video!

“The Guid Scots Tongue.” The Story of English: First Season. Writ. Robert MacNeil,Robert MacCrum and William Cran. Dir. William Cran.BBC, 1986. DVD.

Sassenach an' its infectioos ways (English and its Infectious Ways

Sae Ah guess whit Ah hae learned sae far abit th' basic ancestral cabre ay uir sassenach leid is 'at it originated frae a body ay seven tribes. these waur called th' angles. they ur better knoon nae frae generations ay sassenach 'spikin, but frae their tendency tae droon fowk in bugs…yeah bonnie savage. anyhaw, thes is whaur it aw started an' its worth rememberin' th' gory details if it’s gonnae help ye identify them later oan coz Ah ken it will sure stick tae me. durin' th' second episode ay thes fascinatin' an' intriguin' season, we ur introduced tae tois coosins frae Weels whose names ur stoaner tae enaw tae min' lit aloyn write. apparently they spick varieties descended frae th' sam selic leid. their wuid an' vocabulary ur common tae baith languages, but their sassenach is still spoken wi' a raither strang welsh accent. these characteristics includin' th' rolled “r” an' extended pauses atween syllables originated frae th' selic warriors fa waur knoon fur fightin' wi' fury an' ecstasy in their voices. thes phenomenon Ah believe explains th' welsh accent, meanin' 'at linguistically 'spikin, culture an' ways ay life main hae played a big role in determinin' th' tain, accent, an' e'en writin' ay th' future generations. as we can see th' coosins ur a perfect example ay whit david crystal, authur ay th' stories ofenglish, woods a caa a “hybrid leid.” their mixed tongue, a blend atween welsh an' sassenach, allows them tae introduce words ur phrases frae a body leid tae th' other. we can e'en see thes linguistic trend reit haur in th' famoos “spanglish” 'spikin students ay cng. we can deny it aw we want but we jist can’t help mixin' sassenach an' spanish, uir tois mammy languages, intae a horrific soondin' new hybrid. whit Ah also learned frae th' video, which ance again proves 'at sassenach is in fact invadin' an' endangerin' natife idioms, is th' fact 'at only 20% ay th' population claims welsh as their first leid. they seem tae feel they cannae bide an entire day withit th' use ay sassenach tae increase their popularity an' opportunities in international markets. it is th' start ay a period ay transition.

TRANSLATION BELOW!!

So I guess what I have learned so far about the basic ancestral tree of our English language is that it originated from one of seven tribes. These were called the Angles. They are better known not from generations of English speaking, but from their tendency to drown people in bugs…yeah pretty savage. Anyhow, this is where it all started and its worth remembering the gory details if it’s going to help you identify them later on because I know it will sure stick to me.

During the second episode of this fascinating and intriguing season, we are introduced to two cousins from Wales whose names are hard to enough to remember let alone write. Apparently they speak varieties descended from the same Celtic language. Their word and vocabulary are common to both languages, but their English is still spoken with a rather strong Welsh accent. These characteristics including the rolled “r” and extended pauses between syllables originated from the Celtic warriors who were known for fighting with fury and ecstasy in their voices. This phenomenon I believe explains the Welsh accent, meaning that linguistically speaking, culture and ways of life may have played a big role in determining the tone, accent, and even writing of the future generations.

As we can see the cousins are a perfect example of what David Crystal, author of The Stories of English, would a call a “hybrid language.” Their mixed tongue, a blend between Welsh and English, allows them to introduce words or phrases from one language to the other. We can even see this linguistic trend right here in the famous “Spanglish” speaking students of CNG. We can deny it all we want but we just can’t help mixing English and Spanish, our two mother languages, into a horrific sounding new hybrid. What I also learned from the video, which once again proves that English is in fact invading and endangering native idioms, is the fact that only 20% of the population claims Welsh as their first language. They seem to feel they cannot live an entire day without the use of English to increase their popularity and opportunities in international markets. It is the start of a period of transition.

“The Mother Tongue.” The Story of English: First Season. Writ. Robert MacNeil,Robert MacCrum and William Cran. Dir. William Cran.BBC, 1986. DVD.

The Battle of English

 Did you know that English is the universal language amongst airlines in all 157 countries of the world? That half of the telephones that ring are in English speaking countries? It is used in 10,000 newspapers around the world, and yes that includes Cairo and Jerusalem if you were wondering. It even gets to the cardinal point where European hit parades have a playlist of more than half of American songs. This only lead me to the obvious and general curiosity of finding out just how big of an influence English is. Based on these mesmerizing facts, it seems to me like it is infecting other cultures, it is invading historical media, and it is indirectly imposed so that the world has no other option than to adapt this talk. It has been called a “super dialect” by Dr. Burchfield editor of Oxford English Dictionary, but how can it be super if it's native population only makes up 4.5% of the world's.

World War II was the highlight of BBC English, but ironically American Edward Almoro was the one to call the victory in Europe on 1945, signalizing the beginning of American English. And so the battle begins. We ask ourselves this: if the British Empire was slowly crumbling and the era of decolonization had begun, why didn’t American English immediately take over? This question is easily analyzed by Prof. Braj Kachro of University of Illinois, and surprisingly makes perfect sense. Instead of a shift of British English to American English, we see the rise of native languages. It’s hard enough to picture why a country so big such as India would want to maintain a tongue that only symbolizes colonization in their history, and most importantly one that is no longer being imposed. Apparently, English has the advantage that it is and forever will be a neutral communication among these countries. It is no longer a nation’s native language symbolizing patriotism and years of foundation, but instead it has become a chain that links India with the rest of its competing English traditions. As mentioned in episode 1, the government and most offices function in English and even protesters who fight for internal affairs use an international idiom to express their demands. This is only a brief episode about the story of English, yet we already start to realize how powerful and vital it has become for the development of foreign nations across the Atlantic Ocean.

 

“An English Speaking World.” The Story of English: First Season. Writ. Robert MacNeil,Robert MacCrum and William Cran. Dir. William Cran.BBC, 1986. DVD.

“ The Mother Tongue.” The Story of English: First Season. Writ. Robert MacNeil,Robert MacCrum and William Cran. Dir. William Cran.BBC, 1986. DVD.