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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You can subscribe to the Beyond Words Podcast on iTunes. Every time we release a new episode, your iTunes library will automatically upload it. Just follow the link — SUBSCRIBE.

Download

To download Episode 11 for playback on any MP3 compatible device, simply right click and “save link as” or “save target as” — DOWNLOAD .

Articles in this week’s Language News Report

Lino Lakes approves English-only resolution
As English Spreads, Indonesians Fear for Their Language
Cantonese in China protest over language loss fears
Mendota tribe struggles to keep language, culture alive
National Anthropological Archives Receives Grant from President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities

Other noteworthy language-related articles
Does language influence culture?
Research by the UJI shows that bilingualism is associated with brain reorganization that involves better efficiency in functions
Colleges strive to make foreign languages relevant
English skills taking off among pilots

If you’re interested in receiving a daily dose of language-related articles and media from around the web, you can friend us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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ALTA has provided language training to government agencies and corporations for 30 years. To learn more about our programs, please visit Online Language Training.

All music and sound effects were provided by The Freesound Project.
Thank you to the following people for use of their field recordings and samples:
Genghis Attenborough and Djgriffin

                          

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!

                          

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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You can follow ALTA on Twitter (where we rarely invent words, but always let you know when celebrities do). And if you’re interested in receiving a daily dose of language-related articles and media from around the web, you can also friend us on Facebook.

                          

The case, which started in Plainfield, New Jersey’s, municipal court, revolved around Marquez’s refusal conviction. Marquez, a Limited English Proficient citizen, admitted to both the DWI and careless driving convictions, but he said he didn’t understand the officer’s breath test request at the accident scene because he didn’t speak enough English.

New Jersey’s Chief Justice Rabner delivered the opinion of the Court, stating:

The statute’s obligation to “inform” calls for more than a rote recitation of English words
to a non-English speaker. Knowledge cannot be imparted in that way. Such a practice would permit Kafkaesque encounters in which police read aloud a blizzard of words that everyone realizes is incapable of being understood because of a language barrier. That approach would also justify reading aloud the standard statement to a hearing-impaired driver who cannot read lips. We do not believe that the Legislature intended those absurd results. Rather, its directive that officers “inform,” in the context of the implied consent and refusal statutes, means that they must convey information in a language the person speaks or understands.

New Jersey is one of the country’s most culturally and linguistically diverse states. It’s also among the states that offers the driving test in the most languages– Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Is it misleading, or even a double standard, to expect a driver who was allowed to take the driving test in a language other than English to fluently understand English when pulled over? Many commentators have used this court case as an opportunity to rehash old anti-immigrant arguments.

Writing about the court decision for The Star-Ledger, George Berkin states:

Marquez was arrested in the United States. And here, in New Jersey, the official language is English. In the past, the unspoken “agreement” was that immigrants will assimilate – that they will become fully Americans…The court’s ruling is neither good public safety policy, nor helpful in encouraging immigrants to become full participants in our national life.

Berkin’s judgment on the case’s effects on public safety policy are dubious at best. It’s inaccurate to interpret this ruling as an invitation for intoxicated drivers to overtake New Jersey’s roads. Already, recorded interpretations of the breath test request have been made available to state officers, and soon officers will receive printed copies of the instructions and warnings in the state’s most common languages. In effect, the ruling on Marquez’s case prevents future citizens from becoming the victims of unlawful convictions. And a guarantee of equal civil rights (contrary to Berkin’s argument) might even give immigrants a renewed reason to become “full participants in our national life.”

Nevertheless, sentiments similar to Berkin’s continue to spread throughout the nation. Tim James recently ran his gubernatorial campaign on a promise to limit the offered driving tests in Alabama to only English. In April, the Arizona Department of Education announced its crackdown on accented teachers in classrooms learning English. And only a day after the New Jersey Supreme Court ruling, the 30,000 person Homer Township in Illinois symbolically adopted English as its official language. Officials in Homer Township also declared support for the recent Arizona Law- or “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act”- which is one of the strictest pieces of anti-immigration legislation in US history.

It’s difficult to pinpoint what’s causing all this national linguaphobia, but it’s safe to say that many of its manifestations have been misguided or aversively racist. Only a minority will argue that immigrants in the US shouldn’t learn English. So, these discussions should be dominated by the different methods currently available for immigrant language education.

Organizations like New Jersey’s Diversity Dynamics, recognize that English might not be the official language in the United States, but that it remains integral to success in the nation. Diversity Dynamics, which provides resources on the topic of immigrant adult education, states:

The ability to understand, speak, read, and write English as the nation’s common language is crucial to the successful integration of immigrants into our society. Without English, immigrants are locked into low wage jobs, blocked from advancing on the job, denied full access to health and other services, and shut off from contact with the larger society.

Should both the national government and local governments promote more language assistance plans for immigrants and make foreign language interpreters and translators more readily available? We can look at such services as crutches for new immigrants, or we can look at them as gateways to healthy assimilation. We can argue that our parents’ or grandparents’ generations didn’t have or need these services, or we can argue that for every generation, issues surrounding immigration deserve a fresh and progressive approach.

                          

Welcome to the tenth episode of 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. We hope you enjoy listening!

Listen to Episode 10: The Language News Report

Subscribe on iTunes

You can subscribe to the Beyond Words Podcast on iTunes. Every time we release a new episode, your iTunes library will automatically upload it. Just follow the link — SUBSCRIBE.

Download

To download Episode 10 for playback on any MP3 compatible device, simply right click and “save link as” or “save target as” — DOWNLOAD .

Articles in this week’s Language News Report

CIA unusually public over need for Arabic, Farsi speakers
Potawatomi language lives on
Extinct Alaska Native language interests French student
Catalonia can call itself a ‘nation’, rules Spain’s top court
Univision sets record for World Cup game

Other noteworthy language-related articles
Computers Learn to Listen, and Some Talk Back
Is English Killing Other Languages?
Seeing Languages Differently
Kagan hearings a short course in Legalese 101
Foreign doctors need adequate English and better regulation, says BMA chief

If you’re interested in receiving a daily dose of language-related articles and media from around the web, you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
ALTA has provided language training to government agencies and corporations for 30 years. To learn more about our programs, please visit Online Language Training.

All music and sound effects were provided by The Freesound Project.
Thank you to the following people for use of their field recordings and samples:
Genghis Attenborough and Djgriffin

                          

Márcio Local: Márcio Local Says Don Day Don Dree Don Don (2009)

Márcio Local stands at the crossroads of two great traditions in modern Brazilian music, with one foot in samba, the heavily percussive Afro-Brazilian dance music that took its modern form in the early twentieth century, and the other in soul, the African American music rooted in the blues that attracted a mass audience in Brazil in the 1960s and 1970s. Once regarded as a faddish import, soul music has been effectively Brazilianized such that it now constitutes a local tradition in big cities like São Paulo and Márcio’s home town of Rio de Janeiro. Márcio has also discovered ways to combine these two traditions to forge new variations of samba-soul by exploring the ever-expanding modern soundscape of Rio. He is also something of a sensual romantic who makes music thinking about lazy Saturday afternoons at the beach, a game of soccer, the drama of sexual seduction, and the bustle of the urban scene. In this way, he belongs to another tradition in Brazilian music that celebrates the pleasures of everyday life and the redemptive power of a catchy tune. –© Samantha Tillman, Luaka Bop

Preview the album’s tracks below. We recommend track 5, “Sentimento Rei”:

Check out the full album at: Other Music Digital

Various Artists: Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music
From South Africa (2010)

My name is Richard, my stage name is Nozinja, from Nozinja Music Productions. I’m from Giyani in Limpopo. I’m an engineer, I’m a producer, I’m a composer. It’s my record label. I’m the marketing manager. I transport them — I’ve got a micro-bus. I do everything on my own. I’ve got manufacturing. I buy CDs, I will silk-screen myself. I sing, too.

We don’t use the sounds of the hip-hop guys, or the afro-pop, or whatever, we’re using Shangaan sounds. The traditional Shangaan music is fast. You play it slow, they won’t dance. Shangaan is fast. While others play at 110, we are at 180, 182, 183. And when you hear those marimba beats and that live guitar through the keyboard, you know it’s Shangaan. You hear those toms, then you know, this is Shangaan music.

Shangaans don’t typically love Joburg. They work in Joburg, but their heart is in Limpopo. People want to go back to the country and to their families. Limpopo is rural. It’s hot, very hot and vibey. Shangaan music is about love. It’s about a wife and a husband. We are family-oriented musicians. Now Shangaan music is both, rural and urban. We jumped the boundaries by changing that bass into playing with the marimba, that’s when we touched the nerves, and now it’s all over. –© Nozinja, Honest Jon’s Records

Preview the album’s tracks below. We recommend track 10, “Uya Kwihi Ka Rose”: