Sounds like Greek to me

[pavelhons at centrum.cz]

______________________________________________________________
> Od: annevans123 at gmail.com
> Komu: lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
> Datum: 12.12.2008 19:07
> Předmět: Re: Sounds like Greek to me
>
>Since it depends so completely on who is talking, under what circumstances,
>I wonder what kinds of studies could be devised to evaluate peoples'
>reactions to "a language."  When referring to impressions gleaned from
>audible language "a language" is a series of individuals speaking in
>different contexts, and the range of beauty and richness would be extremely
>wide.
>
>I lived in Greece for 11 years, and I would challenge the author to speak so
>glowingly of the tone of mothers screeching "Mi lerothis," (don't get
>dirty), at their kids during a Sunday at the beach.
>
>In Israel the Arabic I heard on the streets was not attractive to my ear, to
>say the least, rough and guttural.  Then one night I heard Arabic poetry
>being read on the radio.  Talk about rich!  It could hardly be identified as
>the same language.
>
>
>On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 11:43 AM, Miriam E Ebsworth <mee1 at nyu.edu> wrote:
>
>> Dear AJS,
>>
>> As I understand it the "psychotypology of languages" refers to inferred
>> relationships among languages by often naive  individuals. I can see the
>> intersection with folk linguistics as such perceptions are based on
>> intuition rather than synchronic and diachronic analysis.
>>
>> In a world where decisions regarding language learning are often made by
>> politicians rather than scientists, this is an important discussion.
>>
>> Best,
>> Miriam
>>
>> Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth, Ph.D.
>> <MEE1 at nyu.edu>
>> Director of Doctoral Programs in Multilingual Multicultural Studies
>> New York University,635 East Building
>> 239 Greene St., New York, NY 10003
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Al Haraka <alharaka at gmail.com>
>> Date: Friday, December 12, 2008 9:45 am
>> Subject: Re: Sounds like Greek to me
>> To: lgpolicy-list at ccat.sas.upenn.edu
>>
>>
>> > Damien and Robert,
>> >
>> >  I am by no means an expert, with my last linguistics courses over a
>> > year
>> >  ago.
>> >
>> >  Nonetheless, I thought professors in sociolinguistics referred to
>> > this
>> >  subset as "linguistic topology."  I am not sure if it is an
>> > independent
>> >  field of study or a hobby among really esoteric linguists.  However,
>> > I
>> >  took a class with Arabic professors on Contrastive (Linguistic)
>> > Analysis
>> >  (or whatever fancy name they had doctored), and the discussion of
>> >  people's impressions on different dialects, the difficulty in
>> > learning
>> >  other languages, was studied under those respective headings.
>> >
>> >  I am not sure that helps.  Someone can correct me if they wish.
>> >
>> >  Regards,
>> >  _AJS
>> >
>> >  Damien Hall wrote:
>> >  > Robert asked about linguists' work on folk perceptions of foreign
>> >  > languages. Miriam said:
>> >  >
>> >  >> I believe that Dennis Preston has done substantial work on 'folk
>> >  >> linguistics.'
>> >  >
>> >  > He has indeed, but as far as I'm aware all his work under that
>> > rubric
>> >  > has been on American dialectology: eg the words that people use to
>> >
>> >  > describe others' dialects ('nasal', 'Southern twang', etc), and the
>> > fact
>> >  > that listeners are able to place American accents on a North-South
>> >
>> >  > continuum with a remarkable degree of precision (when played
>> > sentences
>> >  > spoken by ten speakers, given a map with a North-South line of ten
>> >
>> >  > places on it, and asked to match speaker with place). I'm not aware
>> > of
>> >  > any work Dennis has done on folk perceptions of foreign languages,
>> >
>> >  > though that, of course, doesn't mean to say that he hasn't done any!
>> >  >
>> >  > Nevertheless, the question sounds like one that people in
>> > educational
>> >  > linguistics might well have some tips on. There's a list you cuold
>> > ask,
>> >  > accessible here:
>> >  >
>> >  > http://listserv.linguistlist.org/archives/edling.html
>> >  >
>> >  > All the best
>> >  >
>> >  > Damien
>> >  >
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>
>