For many immigrants with school-age children, parent-teacher conferences are a family affair. The student arrives with a slew of relatives in tow, all with varying degrees of English proficiency, and all working in tandem to fill out paperwork and make sure that the child knows where to catch the bus and how much to pay for lunch. Whereas the American child brings mom or dad, the children of immigrants often have one relative who translates, one who signs the paperwork, and yet another who drives everyone to and from the school.

While it is obvious that immigrants face many challenges in educating their children in America, the method for alleviating these challenges is less clear. Recently, a new study has been released by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Research and Reform, that offers new insights in the field of teaching non-native speakers of English. In this study, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education, researchers examined the developmental progress of Hispanic kindergarten students in low-income neighborhoods. Children were assigned to either English immersion or bilingual classes and study results were drawn by the time the students entered the third grade. Researchers found that no significant difference could be found between the two groups — it was only the caliber of the education that impacted their reading, writing, and comprehension.

This information comes in light of a recent poll sponsored by the Nielsen Company and Stanford University, which found that just 20 percent of Spanish-speaking parents were able to communicate “extremely well” with their child’s school. Furthermore, fewer than half of the parents polled stated that it was easy for them to help with their child’s school. While American children feel comfortable asking their parents for help with their homework, only 57 percent of the Hispanic parents polled stated that their children came to them with questions. This disparity puts Hispanic students at a disadvantage compared with their English-speaking counterparts and, frequently, encourages them to abandon their native language and culture in favor of more readily assimilating. Some schools are combating this trend by providing dual-immersion courses to non-native and native English-speakers alike. Judging from the results of the recent Johns Hopkins study, this approach may be the most beneficial one, allowing students to retain their heritage while providing them with the necessary tools to succeed in American schools.

Linguaphiles and gadget lovers alike are waiting in anticipation for August 27th, when Amazon will finally release the latest version of its popular Kindle e-Reader. The third generation Kindle quickly sold out on Amazon.com, and the product is currently receiving the type of media fervor reserved for Steve Jobs and company. Technology and social commentators throughout the Internet tend to agree that this generation Kindle coupled with the i-Pad will save the publishing industry. That’s not Beyond Words’ call to make, but we can go ahead and join the crowds of eager readers waiting to see what the buzz is all about.

According to Amazon, the new Kindle will feature built-in Wi-Fi, a higher contrast e-ink screen than last generation’s, crisper and darker fonts, a much smaller body size and weight, increased storage space, and even a longer lasting battery. If those product specifications are even half true, old Kindle users won’t be disappointed, and–as the company is hoping for–general consumers may decide it’s finally time to make the jump to e-reading. Already, Kindle’s e-book business has out-shined Amazon’s hardcover book sales.

Still, you don’t even need to buy e-books to take advantage of the Kindle. One of the most interesting features of e-books is the availability of free books from sites like Project Gutenberg and ManyBooks.net. These sites make available thousands of books that are in the public domain due to expired copyright. ManyBooks has a large catalog of public domain books that can be downloaded in the Kindle’s .azw file type. We’ve compiled some of the most interesting free e-books about language from their site. We hope you enjoy these digital reads!

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Salish

As a recently arrived transplant to Kalispell, Montana, I couldn’t help noticing that several of the road signs on Highway 93 are written in English and an interesting looking language that I later learned was called “Salish.” Salish consists of consonant clusters (sometimes as many as 13 in a row) with few vowels. It originated with the Flathead Indians still found today in parts of Montana and Washington.

Here are a few examples of written Salish:

The town of Kalispell is named for a Salishan word meaning “flat land above the lake.” During the 1700’s Salish was so prevalently spoken that settlers who spent time with the Flatheads noted that speaking solely Salish “one [could] converse from the United States to the Willamette without the necessity of an interpreter.” Father Gregory Mengarini, a Catholic missionary sent to convert the Flatheads in the Rocky Mountains, learned the language so well that he printed a Salish dictionary in 1879.

Today, several dialects of Salish still exist. Currently, there are around 50 fluent speakers of Salishan dialects working to keep this endangered language alive. If you would like to hear Salish spoken, the UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive has greatly contributed to the fight to preserve the language by recording and archiving several tribal elders and teachers speaking the language. The Salish Language Revitalization Institute is also an excellent resource for learning more about Salish grammar and vocabulary and the importance of keeping the language alive.

Stay tuned as I explore other Indian languages and cultures during my stay in Montana!

Related Articles

Endangered Language Watch: Shiyeyi

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Images © Copyright Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

Episode 12: The Language News Report

Welcome to ALTA’s Beyond Words Podcast. Our podcasts provide listeners with the latest language news, language-related interviews, and language lessons that can be applied to real-world situations. They’re always brief, always informative, and always entertaining.

During the Language News Report, you’ll hear summaries of the last two weeks’ top language-related stories. You can listen to the podcast on our website or download it for later playback on any standard MP3 compatible device.

This week, you’ll hear about a poll of Hispanics in the US, Japanese companies’ push towards English, and ancient carvings that may contain the remnants of a language. We hope you enjoy listening!

Listen to Episode 12: The Language News Report

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Articles in this week’s Language News Report

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Every month, Now Playing highlights some of the best foreign films currently playing at the theater. This month we’re running a special feature on the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. Since 2003, the excellent Vancouver Latin American Film Festival (VLAFF) has provided audiences with the unique opportunity of viewing Spanish and Portuguese language films in Vancouver.

This year the VLAFF will take place from September 2nd through the 12th. You can view the festival’s lineup of 26 feature films here.

We’re providing you with plot synopses and trailers for three of the films screening at the VLAFF. Hopefully you can make your way to the festival to enjoy these films on the big screen!

Los Viajes del Viento

Director: Ciro Guerra, Language: Spanish, Country: Colombia
Thursday, September 2, 7 p.m. (Opening Night Gala)
Tuesday, September 7, 5 p.m.
Ignacio Carrillo traveled all his life throughout the villages and regions of northern Colombia, carrying music and traditional songs on his accordion, a legendary instrument that is said to be cursed, because it once belonged to the devil. As he became older, he got married and settled with his wife in a small town, leaving his nomadic life behind. When she suddenly dies, he decides to make one last journey to the Northern edge of the country, to return the accordion to the man who gave it to him, his teacher and mentor, so he will never play it again. On the way, he is joined by Fermín, a teenager who dreams of becoming a “juglar” like Ignacio, and to travel all around playing the accordion like he did. Tired of his loneliness, Ignacio accepts to be accompanied, and together they start the journey from Majagual, Sucre, to Taroa, beyond the Guajira desert, finding on the way the enormous diversity of the Caribbean culture and surviving all kinds of adventures. Ignacio will try to convince Fermín to take a different path in his life, having learned that his only led to solitude and sadness, but he will have to face the fact that destiny has different plans for him and his pupil. –© Cannes Film Festival

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Spinning Languages is a monthly feature by Beyond Words that highlights albums from around the world. This month we’re showcasing three great albums from Colombia, Senegal, and Finland. You can order all of them directly from the excellent music store Other Music. Enjoy these August tunes!

Various Artists: Palenque Palenque: Champeta Criolla &
Afro Roots In Colombia 1975-1991 (2010)

Boasting twenty one pulsating tracks drawn from the northern coasts of Colombia, ‘Palenque Palenque!’ reveals a unique and fascinating story of how Afro Colombian music developed from the 1970s onwards and how the local sound-systems in Cartagena and Barranquilla played such an important role in shaping the sound of the Colombian champeta.

Co-compiled by Lucas Silva (resident of Bogota and owner of Palenque Records) and Soundway Records’ Miles Cleret, the album highlights the long relationship that the Caribbean coast of Colombia has with Africa stretching back to the 17th century. Specifically, the rise of the percussion heavy champeta sound, born out of a wave of popularity for psychedelic Afro, Latin & Caribbean music inspired by the DJs of the time.

The influence of the sound-systems spread to local artists as well as re-energising traditional African folk songs and rhythms that had survived since the days of slavery. Record labels recognized the major change in direction from the days when cumbia and porro ruled the hearts of the ghettoes and began employing bands that began experimenting and tapping into these new cultural and musical movements. Disco Fuentes were one of the first labels to recognize this sudden swing and duly signed Wganda Kenya who went onto record some of the first Afrobeat records in Colombia. The trend in recording African music continued at pace with labels like Machuca, Discos Tropical, Orbe & Costeño quickly adapting to the newly adopted sound of the Palenques and bands like Son Palenque, Cumbia Siglo XX and La Cumbia Moderna de Soledad went onto readapt Afrobeat rhythms with a Caribbean slant. –© Soundway Records Ltd

Preview the album’s tracks below. We recommend track 7, “Dejala Corre”:

Episode 11: The Language News Report

Welcome to ALTA’s Beyond Words Podcast. Our podcasts provide listeners with the latest language news, language-related interviews, and language lessons that can be applied to real-world situations. They’re always brief, always informative, and always entertaining.

During the Language News Report, you’ll hear summaries of the week’s top language-related stories. You can listen to the podcast on our website or download it for later playback on any standard MP3 compatible device.

This week, you’ll hear about a new English language resolution in Minnesota, protests over language in China, and you’ll learn about the National Anthropological Archives’ collection of endangered language manuscripts. We hope you enjoy listening!

Listen to Episode 11: The Language News Report

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Chew the fat is a colloquial phrase meaning “to talk or discuss informally, or to talk at length on a variety of subjects.” The phrase has been in use since the early 19th century. There is some debate as to the origin of the term. While some etymologists argue that it is a variation of the older phrase, to chew the rag, and others quibble about the varieties of meats or blubbers that the term’s original users could have been chewing, my favorite origin story comes from Cheapside, London.

To chew the fat could be an addition to the English language from the whimsical and free-spirited Cockney rhyming slang.

The user of Cockney rhyming slang replaces a word with its rhyme or with a phrase in which the last word rhymes with the original. To chew the fat comes from the more mundane “to have a chat.” Further muddling understanding is the fact that, often, the word that rhymes with the intended one is omitted and another portion of the phrase is used. Many examples of this can be found in rhyming slang terms for body parts: the word “feet” becomes “plates of meat” and shortens to simply “plates;” “legs” becomes “Scotch eggs” and, later, just “Scotches;” and “eyes” becomes “mince pies” or “minces.”

Cockney rhyming slang developed in the East End of London and in the suburbs around central London. It was first systematically recorded in 1859 in Ducange Anglicus’s The Vulgar Tongue: A Glossary of Slang, Cant, and Flash Phrases, used in London from 1839 to 1859. Several terms that are still used in and around London could already be found in this text, among them “apples and pears” to mean “stairs,” “Barnet-Fair” to mean “hair,” and “butcher’s hook” to mean “look.” The latter is frequently shortened to “butcher’s,” so that one is told to “take a butcher’s” at something of interest.

Despite recent research which suggests that the Cockney accent may no longer exist in London within 30 years, Cockney rhyming slang shows no sign of going out of use or losing popularity. Many British websites offer tutorials, translators, and even private lessons in the art of rhyming slang. In addition, internationally popular films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and Ocean’s Eleven help add to the appeal of this linguistic game.

Related Links

The Dictionary of Cockney Rhyming Slang

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Illustration by Chew The Fat!

To invent words or not to invent words– that is the question.

On Sunday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin opted for the first choice. In a series of messages from her Twitter account, Palin commented on proposed plans to build an Islamic Cultural Center blocks away from the World Trade Center site. She initially tweeted, “Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate” [sic].

Online heckling about the word “refudiate” began almost immediately, and Palin quickly deleted the message. Instead of replacing it with a new message containing the word “repudiate” she wrote, “Peaceful New Yorkers, pls refute the Ground Zero mosque plan…”. Shortly afterward, she defended her use of her invented word and compared herself to Shakespeare:

“Refudiate,” “misunderestimate,” “wee-wee’d up.” English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it!

Palin certainly isn’t the first politician/ celebrity to create a neologism; however, she might be the first to say she was following in the footsteps of the Bard while doing so. Regardless of whether or not she (or her social media consultant) mistakenly typed “refudiate” into Twitter, the situation reminded me of one of my favorite TED Talks.

If you’re a regular Beyond Words reader, you probably know our writers love the lexicographer Erin McKean, and you might have already seen her wonderful Talk on the evolution of the dictionary. During her 15 minute presentation, McKean actually encourages viewers to invent words. She discusses the invention and legitimacy of words:

People say to me, ‘How do I know if a word is real?’ Anybody who’s read a children’s book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it. That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction. It doesn’t make a word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real.

McKean goes on to metaphorically describe English as a hanging mobile that moves with any change to the language. Its movement, she says, is beautiful, no matter what the language looks like when it stops. Shakespeare definitely set the mobile of the English language in motion. Among the many words he invented are auspicious, bloody, bump, castigate, critic, exposure, hurry, lonely, obscene, premeditated, road, and suspicious.

Is Palin this generation’s Bard of Avon? Our homegrown Bard of Alaska? Probably not (Going Rogue is a far-cry from The Tempest), but if she can learn to really love the word “refudiate,” she can keep all the glory that’ll come with its existence.

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