Language classes, Monday

[game-of-you.livejournal.com]

Good morning.

There seems to be some questions regarding the in-class presentations. I expect every student to do one. It should be between three and five minutes long, regarding some aspect of history or culture of any of the languages you are studying. For the first presentation you may do it in English or your native tongue. Visuals are encouraged: let me know if you will need a VCR or projector. If you need ideas, see me during office hours or lab.

I will have a sign-up sheet and more instructions at my office.

And, yarr.

Comments

Re: 10:00 - 11:30 MWF Indo-European

[janet_fraiser]

*is starting to remember the things she's listened to Daniel talk about*

I think that would be tough, wouldn't it? I mean, didn't language originate as hard bookkeeping or something like that, not as something to represent abstract concepts with?

Re: 10:00 - 11:30 MWF Indo-European

[game-of-you.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

You may be aware of the ancient Mayan system of record-keeping, which recently archaeologists have begun to interpret. The Mayans tied knots into strings to represent basic statistics as well as more complicated messages: how many soldiers an enemy was sending to do battle, for exmample.

It is fair to say Sumerian writing began the same way. Perhaps if the Mayan civilization had continued they would have developed more abstract written communication, as well.

Stories and such have been around since communication began, yet they were rarely written down for many centuries. Any thoughts on why this is?

Re: 10:00 - 11:30 MWF Indo-European

[janet_fraiser]

*wracks memory* *tries not to laugh at mental image of Xipe Totec--Lord Zippy to the Colonel--sitting in class, because in this place, it could happen, headdress and all*

The system of writing was too complicated? Too concrete? I mean, how do you say-- *tries desperately to remember anything from any Classical text and fails* How do you describe a battle in interesting terms if you don't have the terms to describe them?

Re: 10:00 - 11:30 MWF Indo-European

[game-of-you.livejournal.com]

*nods* Very good.

It's safe to assume that abstract concepts existed in the spoken language long before there was a written way to express them. Oral histories and minstrels kept the tales going--the earliest writings are a transcription of sung tales. The Iliad, for example: the version that we read today is just one of the hundreds of sung versions in circulation in Homer's time. It was written down, however, because the written language had evolved enough to capture the intricacies of the poetry--and as the culture changed, people began to fear their oral traditions would be lost.

Language and a culture's perception of the world are intertwined. You don't need a word for something if it doesn't exist for you.

Thoughts? Particularly for those of you who speak other languages? Are there words you've learned for concepts that just don't exist in your native tongue?

Re: 10:00 - 11:30 MWF Indo-European

[janet_fraiser]

*does not actually speak another language fluently, and so decides to shut up for a while and listen*

*really wishes Daniel were here*