a language map of the U.S.

A statistics student from North Carolina State came out with this fun linguistics study to see how where you live shapes your language. Give it a try! My results showed that not only am I indeed from California, but I was linguistically shaped by my very county! (The rest of California says "drinking fountain," but just north of San Francisco we prefer "water fountain." A truly profound distinction.)

Were your results representative of where you are from? I really enjoyed the study, until I reached the last question and learned that California is missing out on drive-through liquor stores. Ignorance was bliss, and now I am contemplating a move to Virginia.

(P.S. His next study should focus on rates of drunk driving in correlation with "brew thrus.")

graduation

This weekend I graduated from UC Santa Barbara, officially becoming a Gaucho Alum.

It was a jam-packed weekend full of dinners, graduation parties, pictures, ceremonies, and final nights with friends.

My roommate Maddy and our sisters

The women of the family

Out to dinner at Blue Agave

The Fam

Graduation picnic with families and friends

I'll miss these guys

Most academic departments on campus held small receptions for their graduates. My housemate Deniz, who studied Computer Engineering, said hers was catered with gourmet mini quiches, French-inspired hors d'oeuvres, and artisan pastries. My Linguistics reception had some chips and dip, and a store-bought cake with erroneous icing: "Congratulations LINGUSTICS Graduates." (The department that studies language can't even get English right.) UCSB seems to play favorites when doling out party budgets. Regardless, it was a touching little send-off.

It's been a great four years, and I'll miss everyone so much. Now I'm returning home to sleep for three days straight, and eventually worry if fourteen pairs of jeans is overkill as I transplant my life to Spain.

Isla Vista, I'll miss how wonderfully weird you are

feminist linguistics in Deutschland

I just finished my last German final, and now I can begin the swift process of forgetting a year's worth of material. But even if verb order and plural endings don't stick with me, a recent linguistics study about German articles made quite the impact. At the University of Leipzig, academics are taking feminism to the next level by attempting to change the grammar of German. In English we have no distinction between the gender of nouns--a table is a table, and that is that. Most Romance languages, like Spanish and French, have two genders: masculine and feminine. But German has three--masculine (der), feminine (die), and neuter (das)-and so there has been a big debate since the 1980s over the political-correctness of such forms. In many written documents both the masculine and feminine forms are included, but given the unbelievable length of some German words already (like the mouthful "Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung" for the simple concept of a speed limit), this can make for a cumbersome read! When addressing a group in general, it has been common practice to use the male form. However, many linguists have shown that this can indirectly shape a person's thought--remember this blog entry?

Think of it this way: In German,
                   male president = der Bundespräsident
                female president = die Bundespräsidentin

But when the question is asked in general (thus employing the masculine form), "Who will be the next Bundespräsident?" an image has already formed in most listeners' minds of a male president, since that's what the grammar suggests. Little fräuleins' dreams everywhere of holding high office are dashed.

Some linguists in Germany hope to someday replace the masculine and feminine forms with the simple neuter, representing both. How avant garde of them! Germans are at the cutting edge of automobile and sausage trends--why not grammar, too?

If you're interested, read the full (fascinating) article here.



What do you think about these changes? Should a language be forcibly shaped by progressives and scholars? Or is it best to leave well enough alone, and have any language change be only the result of a naturally occurring process?