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World Turned Upside Down
Jul. 18th, 2006 05:56 amI was having a conversation yesterday with a person who speaks excellent English, but whose mother tongue is something else. A little way through the conversation she started referring to problems with a bay leaf, possibly causing an infection in her eye.
This was a new one on me, but I assumed that it was possible. After all, I tend to react to olives (insert old jokes here about "Olive's what?) but not to olive oil.
Anyway, after some moments of confusion, it transpired that she was referring to a "bailiff" acting incorrectly, but that the stress of this might have caused the eye infection. Ahh.
Vowels are shit. The marginal difference between the long "ee" and the short 'i' is marginal enough in terms of sound formation to make it easy to mix up. In fact, the differences in forming various vowel sounds are so small that there are variations within languages, as well as between them (e.g. the short 'a' and the long 'a', which even seems to have changed in southern England over the past 30 years. While Vietnam (short 'a') has followed American usage and become Vietnam (long 'a'), Pakistan, and many other words, seem to me to have moved in the opposite direction, with a long 'a' shifting to a short 'a'. How on earth is Johnny Foreigner meant to cope when we can't make up our own minds?
The upside to vowels being shit is that people in London are used to it. Any vowel sound can (usually) be interepreted, so long as the consonants are correctly placed and the shift in vowel sound does not turn an arrant confiscating bureaucrat into a plant much used for cooking purposes.
Consonants, on the other hand, have a kind of immutability about them. When languages that use the Roman alphabet start pissing around with consonants, we get into trouble. Fortunately this problem only tends to impinge on Londoners when politicians or footballers arrive.
Albanians, for example. What possessed them to use the Roman alphabet anyway? How did so much of it get gnarled? Apparently it comes from Illyrian. Illyrian is extinct, which perhaps says a lot about Albanian.
Dh becomes the first sound for 'that", while Albanians probably pronounce Qatar as "Chatar". The differential between "dh" and "th" actually makes more sense than our use of "th" for two different sounds. But then they go and spoil it by having Xh for "edge" and "Gj" for "adjust", two consonantal sounds that I hand't really thought of as different at all.
Anyway, I shouldn't pick on Albanian; the English have trouble with any language that uses consonants differently.
But consonants aren't, on the whole, shit. Vowels are.
And to end, in the immortal words of Mr Ward, "Did I mention the fact that it's fucking hot?"
This was a new one on me, but I assumed that it was possible. After all, I tend to react to olives (insert old jokes here about "Olive's what?) but not to olive oil.
Anyway, after some moments of confusion, it transpired that she was referring to a "bailiff" acting incorrectly, but that the stress of this might have caused the eye infection. Ahh.
Vowels are shit. The marginal difference between the long "ee" and the short 'i' is marginal enough in terms of sound formation to make it easy to mix up. In fact, the differences in forming various vowel sounds are so small that there are variations within languages, as well as between them (e.g. the short 'a' and the long 'a', which even seems to have changed in southern England over the past 30 years. While Vietnam (short 'a') has followed American usage and become Vietnam (long 'a'), Pakistan, and many other words, seem to me to have moved in the opposite direction, with a long 'a' shifting to a short 'a'. How on earth is Johnny Foreigner meant to cope when we can't make up our own minds?
The upside to vowels being shit is that people in London are used to it. Any vowel sound can (usually) be interepreted, so long as the consonants are correctly placed and the shift in vowel sound does not turn an arrant confiscating bureaucrat into a plant much used for cooking purposes.
Consonants, on the other hand, have a kind of immutability about them. When languages that use the Roman alphabet start pissing around with consonants, we get into trouble. Fortunately this problem only tends to impinge on Londoners when politicians or footballers arrive.
Albanians, for example. What possessed them to use the Roman alphabet anyway? How did so much of it get gnarled? Apparently it comes from Illyrian. Illyrian is extinct, which perhaps says a lot about Albanian.
Dh becomes the first sound for 'that", while Albanians probably pronounce Qatar as "Chatar". The differential between "dh" and "th" actually makes more sense than our use of "th" for two different sounds. But then they go and spoil it by having Xh for "edge" and "Gj" for "adjust", two consonantal sounds that I hand't really thought of as different at all.
Anyway, I shouldn't pick on Albanian; the English have trouble with any language that uses consonants differently.
But consonants aren't, on the whole, shit. Vowels are.
And to end, in the immortal words of Mr Ward, "Did I mention the fact that it's fucking hot?"
