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HotForWords Forums » Philology and Etymology

language and culture

(118 posts)
  • Started 11 months ago by buzzword
  • Latest reply from preter-dexterity
1…34

  1. Warren
    Member

    @greatestpotential,
    Ha- ha, wow- how did you guess? I just checked my YT page and I don't have him listed. I should since I remember at a very young age reading stories by him. Robert Heinlien, Jack London, John Steinbeck, Roger Zelazny, soo many that I can't keep track.
    Yes, tribes should be mandatory.

    Posted 9 months ago #

  2. Greatest Potential
    Member

    When I was around 14 I received a collection of science fiction stories by Ray Bradbury from my father for a birthday present and was mildly surprised because I didn't expect to get such a cool gift and all the stories are keepers so I just had to mention Ray here

    Posted 9 months ago #

  3. bsomebody
    Member

    I read some Bradbury, but I was a huge Heinlein fan, especially the Tarzan series. Tarzan is another literary figure who was completely bastardized in later "reinterpretations." Alice in Wonderland is another figure that has very little in common with the contemporary interpretations. One of my all-time favorite literary figures, though, is Yossarian, from Catch-22, by Joseph Heller. Full of contradictions, ambiguities, and paradoxes, it demonstrates the exreme complexities of war and the absence of war. Definately anti-war in its message, it in no way simplifies the alternatives. Awesome read and very, very funny.

    Posted 8 months ago #

  4. Greatest Potential
    Member

    Don't forget Kurt Vonnygut's Slawterhowze Five. Yes(?)

    Posted 8 months ago #

  5. bsomebody
    Member

    Believe it or not, I still have not read Slaughterhouse Five. I know, I know. It is on my short list. Right now, for school, I have to read two books each week. That is just for the weekly work. I also have two big projects that I have to keep moving. I plan to get to it sometime in Summer, 2011.

    Posted 8 months ago #

  6. Greatest Potential
    Member

    I'm sure glad teacher decided to put Slaughterhouse Five on the class required reading list rather than Tolstoy's War and Peace- yet both books are worthy reads, english translation of War and Peace is over 1000 pages, easy, whereas Slaughterhouse Five is under 200 pages in length

    Posted 8 months ago #

  7. Che Rambler
    Member

    Buzzword or Alex, I always wonder how did regional accents come about.

    In the US ppl pronounce words differently in different parts of the country.

    Also I notice while living in Mexico ppl have regional dialects there.

    So how are accents passed on from one generation to another?

    Do other countries have regional accents?

    How about some feedback from other countries?

    Posted 8 months ago #

  8. Che Rambler
    Member

    Some culture seem to be more polite than others e.g. in Mexico when greeting a merchant the conversation would start off by saying, good morning, or afternoon ect
    in the US I just don't see that.

    Also in small towns in MX when you past someone on the street you greet them. Exception is if it is a women she must initiate the greeting first then you can politely return the greeting.

    Posted 8 months ago #

  9. bsomebody
    Member

    @Che. That is one of the things I liked about living in a small town in NC. While driving down the road, people wave to each other. Whether pedestrians or other drivers, this simple courtesy is still exchanged. The reason I like it is that it is a simple acknowledgment of the other person's humanity. "You are not just another driver or someone walking by; you are a human being, and I recognize you." I think that is cool.

    Posted 8 months ago #

  10. bsomebody
    Member


    Posted 8 months ago #

  11. Che Rambler
    Member

    Since living in MX I now start off my conversation with a Good Morning or Afternoon.... it really catches ppl off guard, they are just expecting to give your order or state your business.
    This type of greeting does not work so well at the drive thru window.

    @bsomebody do you speak with a Southern accent?

    Posted 8 months ago #

  12. Warren
    Member

    @ greatistpotential, @Che Volay and @Bsomebody-
    First:I haven't read Slaughter House 5 yet- actually nothing by Vonnegut (now I must investigate).
    Second: Accents have always made me stop and wonder why?
    I know people that speak with a Southern accent and yet they grew up in Northern California.
    Sometimes I wonder if people use an accent to associate or disassociate themselves with/from certain groups.
    Third: I always say Hello or some other greeting to people and most of the time a get a polite response returned to me although I never expect one. Luckily I live in a “city” (more like a small town) and most of the people wave as another drives by them- amazing.

    Posted 7 months ago #

  13. Greatest Potential
    Member

    Hello Warren!

    Sometimes I wonder if people use an accent to associate or disassociate themselves with/from certain groups.

    I read about people who take on particular accents that seem out of place with their actual surroundings. A person may pick up a Bulgarian accent from somewhere and yet have lived in Kansas all of their lives. I think certain people form associations with language and culture from watching movies or listening to old radio shows and may get influenced by magazines and then fall in love with a particular language style and then they want to characterize their lives in a similar fashion so they will take on an identity and play act it out and eventually they may decide to drop it all together and re-invent themselves.

    Posted 7 months ago #

  14. bsomebody
    Member

    As for my accent, it depends on whom you ask. Local folks think I have a "city" accent (not really sure what that is... ), Mrs. Somebody (from So Cal) thinks I do have a Southern accent. My guess is that I have lived in so many places across the world, that I have picked up lots of different mannerisms, linguistic and otherwise. I spent most of my later childhood and young adulthood in the mountains of NC, and I am pretty close now, so I would guess that my accent is predominantly Southern.

    As far as greeting people, I try to give everybody some type of greeting. Whether I say "hello," "good morning," or simply a nod, I really like the idea of acknowledging the people around me. I try to refrain from phrasing my greeting as a question, such as "How's it going?" unless I actually want to inquire how it actually is going.

    I will have a couple weeks off from school, this summer. Plan to spend a week at the beach with Mrs. Somebody and my oldest daughter's family. Maybe I will pick up a copy of Slaughterhouse 5 to read at the beach. Don't know if my eyes will rebel or not. My school schedule has me reading from 3 to 6 hours every single day. I did not know that reading could be so physically draining.

    Posted 7 months ago #

  15. Greatest Potential
    Member

    When I'm giving presentations my voice sounds like a younger version of Microsoft Sam.

    Posted 7 months ago #

  16. Warren
    Member

    Buzzword takes a break from Forums

    Posted 7 months ago #

  17. buzzword
    Member

    @warren yeah, a break. physics this quarter! getting my ass kicked! the forums would be a break from this stuff.

    Posted 7 months ago #

  18. bsomebody
    Member

    Yeah, I feel the pain. I have been studying two different nineteenth century American eras, emphasizing social (for me, specifically racial and class) change - just in case you couldn't tell.

    Posted 7 months ago #

  19. buzzword
    Member

    @bsomebody do you mean eras or errors?

    Posted 7 months ago #

  20. bsomebody
    Member

    @buzzword, yes.

    Posted 7 months ago #

  21. beevee14
    Member

    The southern accent and the north-eastern accent (think boston) are just derivations of the british accent. Although texans dont want to hear it, same with the south-west. Northern mid-west (chicago,milwaukee) cities accents are predominately eastern european. That flat mid-western sound that every news caster in the country tries to affect is a combination of both. I think. I believe you are correct about different people using accents according to there surroundings.

    Posted 7 months ago #

  22. buzzword
    Member

    here is a link to a map of u.s. dialects. interesting to consider the different forms in which a borders exist beyond geography.

    Posted 7 months ago #

  23. beevee14
    Member

    @ Buzzword
    Excellant link! Now if only I would have looked at something like that before I wrote the above! Actually, my observations were based on good old fashiond life experience(still the best teacher...sorry,Marina :wink:) since I have lived in all of these places.

    Posted 7 months ago #

  24. bsomebody
    Member

    I think the concentration on language is interesting. Buzzword made the link to geography. I just think it is interesting seeing how two of the "five building blocks of ethnicity" are 1)language and 2)geography. The others are 3)religion, 4)race, and 5)common history (another term is "chosen trauma," I like that one.) We use ethnicity to define "us" and "them." Arguably, all five are fairly malleable terms and definitions, so we can change the definitions of Us and Them accordingly, depending upon who we want to be pissed at today.

    Posted 7 months ago #

  25. buzzword
    Member

    increasingly diverse people are becoming united under the common experience of having a multiethnic or multicultural background. increasingly, their shared experiences of society will alter common concepts of identity. a dutch/chinese may find commonality with someone who has a black/white heritage in the u.s. as bsomebody noted, they may share a chosen or perhaps a common trauma.

    the responses to this change will vary from one culture to the next. however, considering historical events, resistance and conflict with these changing world views can be expected. check out these video series, mixed race and ethnicity and identity

    how do you think language will change, will words from distant language groups be shared and become increasingly common? will this contribute or restrain potential cultural conflicts?

    Posted 7 months ago #

  26. Evan Owen
    Member

    The coming of the Internet continued the advance of Bad English as everyone's second language (if not their first, as in the case of Americans.)

    While it's great to be able to communicate with everyone, it's still important to retain local languages so that we don't all lose our identity in a global McDonaldization.

    200 miles from London, ancient heart of the English language, one group fights to maintain its linguistic identity:
    http://www.byig-wlb.org.uk/Photo%20Library/Lluniau%27r%20Wefan/20080228%20GC%20Census%20Map%202001.jpg
    (Linguistic Map of Wales)

    Posted 2 months ago #

  27. muggins
    Member

    Children should be taught a second language early. In the U.S., in public schools,
    it starts in high school when the student is 13...biologically, that's adult age,
    and much too late. Like musical instruments, children should start learning another language as soon as possible, before the age of six if practicable, when their minds are capable of absorbing languages.

    Posted 2 months ago #

  28. preter-dexterity
    Member

    I live in the midwest at the moment, though I'v lived in the SE AND SW, as well. during my time in the "old south", a man once asked what I thought of "inter-racial" marraiges. I looked at him with an astonished visge and replied. "You mean there's ANOTHER SENTIENT species, other than human, I can cohabit with?..."

    He LOOKED at me funny...PD

    Posted 2 months ago #

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