In International Encyclopedia Incorporated explained that Philology is the study of written relics of ancient languages ​​and forms that are older than the existing language. Philology is not just talk about and discuss the words in a text only, in a broader sense to discuss and investigate the culture of a nation based on the manuscript. We can know the background of the national culture that produced the manuscript.

Philology objects found in the form of an old manuscript in the library. The meaning of the text is all the handwritten materials. In terms of the written heritage of Philology all written by hand of our ancestors on paper, papyrus, bark, and rattan, called a script.

Largest manuscript libraries in various cities in Indonesia are well known include: Jakarta (National Library and the Faculty of Letters University of Indonesia), London (Museum Sono Budoyo), Surakarta (Radya Mangkunegaran Library and Kraton), Bali (Bali Museum, Gedong Kirtya, and University Press).

Based on the materials used, can be classified on the text:
A. The manuscript is written on paper and daluwang
2. Manuscripts written on palm leaves
3. Manuscripts written on palm leaves
4. The manuscript is written on the bark
5. The manuscript is written on bamboo
6. The manuscript is written on rattan

Can be concluded that philology is the branch of linguistics that examines ancient texts and determine the original form and meaning to know the culture of a nation that has the text. Or. philology is a science that investigates human culture based on ancient texts of human creation.

In the 7Th century, Islamic holy book Quran appeared in the Arabian Peninsula. With the coming of Quran and the prophet Muhammad, the age of ignorance was ended and a new age of enlightenment began for the Arabs. Quran’s language was very sophisticated, so to understand it better and completely, Muslim scholars began studying Quran’s grammar. They conducted researches on phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics of the Arabic language of Quran. They became skilled linguists of their time.

With the expansion of Islam, Arabic language spread out to Africa, Asia and even Europa. Not only Arab scholars, also Iranian, Syrian, Turk and African scholars made deep researches on the grammar. These researches were detailed linguistic studies which not only contributed to Arabic, also to whole world. Islamic scholars expanded their works to other languages as well, such as Latin and Greek.

The ancient Greek and Latin written works were in the brink of extinction. However, Islamic linguists translated them to their own languages. Then, Europeans translated them back into their languages from these translations. Hence these ancient works have survived.

India, a region of many cultures and languages. The earliest linguists originated from this region. Since the beginning of the ancient times, Indians put a great emphasis on how to speak correctly. Indian linguists studied mainly on the Sanskrit language. They thought that the language must have some rules. They created grammatical systems and rules. The one of the most important of these linguists was Panini, who lived around 500 B.C.

Panini formulated 4000 rules for the grammar of Sanskrit. His grammar was really practical. Even he formulated it nearly 2500 years ago, the modern computer language’s grammar which is used in coding and encoding of the computer processing is very similar to Panini’s Grammar.

Later on, many more Indian linguists carried on the researches of Panini. Sanskrit Grammar became the most sophisticated grammar in those times. Another important contribution of Indian linguists came from Bhartrihari, who lived around 500 A.D. He invented a theory about the idea of act of speech.

According to Bhartrihari, the act of speech was divided into four stages. When someone tends to speak, he forms an idea in his mind at first. Secondly, verbalize and articulate it. Thirdly, he sends out his speech into the atmosphere. Then finally, the listener interprets his speech from the air. This concept is still valued highly in our time.

As we read these examples of how Islamic and Indian civilizations contributed to linguistics, we can clearly understand that they have played a very important role in the development of linguistics. In our time, still Quran and Sanskrit grammars incorporate many sophisticated linguistic concepts. Studying these languages and their grammars are very important for linguists to increase their level of understanding the language systems and the concept of the language.

This is a university essay written by me, please share with credits.

As human beings, we realize that to interact with other people we always use language, because we know that language is main a tools of communication. We use language to express our idea, feeling, emotion also share our responses. And the important means of communication is language. Korzybsky, as quoted by Condon (1972:3) believe that “language influenced not only in our thinking but also all of human behavior”.

People communicate to one another. Many things we can get through doing the communication. By communication, people easily can share information to each another, express their ideas and interact with others. In interacting and communicating with others, therefore they need a means of communication, which is called a language.

Language plays an essential role in communication. A language facilitates communication. Keller (1994: 85) states that human language using words emerges as a medium of transport for the information flow. It is the system, which conveys the information. Wardhough (1977: 7) states that people use the language to say things to each other and express their communicative needs.

According to Morris, “language is an aspect of human behavior that involves the use of vocal sound in meaningful pattern of form, express, and communicative thought and feeling (1969; 736). It is an established fact that without language we surely cannot do anything, because language plays a role in our life. Therefore, language and society are two things that cannot be separated because language will not exist if there are no people use it to interact or communicate and vise versa.

Another thing that also cannot be separated with language is the meaning. We can understand a language by means of meaning. Everyone who knows a language can understand what is said to him or her, and can produce string of words that conveys meaning. In linguistic, the study that related to meaning is called Semantics. Fromkin states that semantics is the study of linguistics meaning (1983: 166). While according to Goddard, semantics is the study of meaning, stand sat the very centre of the linguistic quest to understand the nature of language abilities (1998: 1)

In the past, semantic debate was largely concerned with discovering what exactly the word meaning is. The enquiries have undoubtedly increased our understanding of the nature of the problem, but an accepted definition of meaning is still argued. In modern linguistics, then, meaning is studied by making detailed analysis of the way words and sentences are used in specific contexts. It is an approach shared by some semanticist.

Fromkin and Rodman state “Learning a language includes learning the agreed upon meaning of certain strings of sounds and learning how to combine these meaningful units into larger units that also conveys meaning” (1983: 166)

Language without meaning is useless. However, people are not free to change the meaning of these words at will, for if they did, they would not be enabling to communicate with anyone. When a person hears someone speaking without knowing the meaning of the utterances, for him those utterances are not a language. They are merely a noise. Therefore, if he wants to understand a language, he must know about the nature f language and the conceptual meaning of the language.

Language is used in some fields, for example in music, science, economic term and other. For instance in one example, everyday we often listen to music and almost in every where we can find sound of music. We often listen music because it can not be denied that music is an expression of human feeling and emotion.

There are a lot of commercial songs that are popular in the world. The examples are English songs that are singing by a singer, a boy band or a group band. In here the writer will discuss a song from a boy band named “Christian Bautista”. Christian Bautista as a new comer could attract a lot of people with his songs, his fans are come from many countries. But some of them do not understand the meaning involved in Christian Bautista’s songs. They just listen enjoy the music. Like to give her thinking about the meaning involved in Christian Bautista’s songs. So that the fans and the music mania of Christian Bautista could understand about the lyrics and useful for them.

“The way you look at me”

no one ever saw me like you do                                                    (1)

all the things that i could add up too

i never  knew just what a smile was worth

but your eyes see everything,

without a single word.                                                                   (5)

coz’ there’s somethin’ in the way

you look at me

it’s as if my heart knows

you’re the missing piece

you make me believe that there’s nothin’                                      (10)

in this world i can’t be

i never know what you see but there’s

somethin’ in the way you look at me.

if i could freeze a moment in my mind

it’ll be the second that you                                                 (15)

touch your lips to mine

i’d like to stop the clock

make time stand still

coz’ baby this is just the way

i always wanna feel                                                                       (20)

coz’ there’s somethin’ in the way

you look at me

it’s as if my heart knows

you’re the missing piece

you make me believe that there’s nothin’                                      (25)

in this world i can’t be

i never know what you see but there’s

somethin’ in the way you look at me.

i don’t know how or why.

i feel different in your eyes                                                 (30)

all i know is it happens every time.

coz’ there’s somethin’ in the way

you look at me

it’s as if my heart knows

you’re the missing piece                                                                (35)

you make me believe that there’s nothin’

in this world i can’t be

i never know what you see but there’s

somethin’ in the way you look at me.

the way you look at me                                                                  (40)

The first analysis is about lexical meaning, the researcher will start at synonymy, the word see in the sentence “but your eyes see everything” (line 4) and look at in the sentence “you look at me” (line 7) are synonymy, both look at and see have the same sense in meaning. Another are moment in the sentence “if i coud freeze a moment in my mind” (line 14), second in the sentence “it ‘Il be the second that you touch your lips to mind” (line 15) and time in the sentence “make time stand still” (line 18), the italic words are nearly the same meaning as another, and it function is to show a period whether in the past, present or future. So that, it calls synonymy.

Comparing with synonymy, the researcher doesn’t find the antonym in this song, in according to the explanation, after analyzing antonym, it continues to hyponymy. There are some words whose meaning is a spesific instance of a more general word. They are the word eyes in the sentence “but your eyes see everything” (line 4), heart  in the sentence “it’s as if my heart knows” (line 8), and lips in the sentence “touch your lips to mind” (line 16). All of eyes, heart, and lips are hyponym of subordinate of part of organ of human body.

Denotation also found in this song, besides that, connotative meaning also found in this song. In this case the researcher will start from denotative meaning. The words which have denotative meaning are eyes in the sentence “but your eyes see everything” (line 4) and the referential meaning of word eyes is each of two organs on the faces that are used for seeing. The other word is heart in “it’s as if my heart knows” (line 8 and 23), in this sentence, the use of the word heart shows that it is really the organ in one’s chest that pump blood through the body, while lips in the sentence “touch your lips to mine” (line 16) also denotative meaning, the word lips are particularly refer to either of the soft edges of the opening of the mouth.

Some words also have conotative meaning, in this song the researcher finds the word freeze in the sentence “ if i could freeze a moment in my mind” (line 14), and the word missing piece in the sentence “you are the missing piece” (line 9, 24 and 35). The italics words are connotative meaning. It means, based of the context above, the word freeze can’t be translated as the changing something from liquid to solid. But the means that the word freeze same as the word stop, while the word missing piece also can’t be mean as the missing piece, but it means that the word missing piece refers to the word heart in the previous sentence.

After explaning and analyzing about denotative and conotative meaning, the researcher continues to explain about homonym, it calls homonym if the word has the same written but different meaning. And the researcher finds it in word saw in the sentence “no one ever saw me like you do” (line 1). The word saw is can be in the position either verb or noun. If the word saw in the position verb like wise in the first sentence in this song, it means to become awake of somebody or something using the eyes. While the word saw in the position of noun, it means a tool that has a long blade with sharp teeth on one of it edges. Another word contains homonym is second in the sentence “it’ll be the second that you” (line 15), the word second has meaning more than one, the first is second of a short of time or moment used in measuring time. While the other meaning is the position after the first.

There are also some word different in writing but same in pronounciation, and it calls homophone, and the word contain homophone are; word in the sentence “without a single word” (line 5) and world in the sentence “in this world i can’t be” (line 11). Both “word and world” are homophone. These words are different in writing but same in pronunciation. Another is mind in the sentence ‘if i could freeze a moment in my mind” (line 14) and mine in the sentence “touch your lips to mine” (line 16). These words are spelt same each other and the word pronounced also same. So that it calls homophone.

In this song the researcher found the sentence which make the singer or reader feel confuse, there is the sentence “It’ll be the second that you touch your lips to mine” (line 16, 17). In this case, the researcher emphasizes on the word second only, just like the explanation above in homonym, that the meaning of second is more than one. So that, applying in this line, this sentence is confusing whether the singer wants to use the word second as to measure time or to show the grade after the first. In addition, in this explanation about confusing word, if classified into ambiguity discussion.

Still in the discussion of lexical meaning, the researcher continues to analyze about figurative language, there same kinds of figurative meaning in this song and the researcher will peel it clearly. First category about figurative language is simile it is the style of writing by showing direct comparison between one thing with another. And the sentence contains simile in this song is “no one eyes saw me like you do” (line 1). To know the sentence contains with simile, it can be seen from the word like. It is directly compare between you and no one. In this sentence, it means that there is only you who can see me like you do , no one else. Another direct comparison is metaphor, it calls metaphor if the word directly compare without the word like, likewise in the simile. And the sentence contains metaphor “you are the missing piece” (line 9). It’s clear that the word missing piece indicate to you. In the other side, the singer wants to make direct comparison that you are like something missing piece.

The next explanation of figurative meaning is repetition, it calls repetition if the word of the sentence repeated more than one in this song, and repetition happens many times such as in this song is dominated by repetition. Usually the function of repetition is to emphasize the word or the sentence to be more clearly to the listener and to be easy to be understood the meaning used. There are many repetition in this song, they are; “coz there’s something in the way” (line 6), “you look at me” (line 7), “It’s as if my heart knows” (line 8), “you are the missing piece” (line 9), “you make me believe that there’s nothin’” (line 10), “in this world i can’t be” (line 11), “i never know what you see but there’s” (line 12), and “somethin’ in the way you look at me” (line 13). The sentence in lines (6 – 13) repeats in lines (21 – 28) and also in the lines (32 – 39). The conclusion at this song is there are three stanzas repeat in this song and it almost dominated as the chorus position, the other repetitions are in lines (39 and 40). The sentences are “somethin’ in the way you look at me” (line 39) and “the way you look at me” (line 40). It seems the function of the line 40 is to close the song and to make the song so softly is listening.

There are lots of reasons for not overdoing your texting – it’s dangerous (when driving), it’s rude (when you’re texting while someone is talking to you), it can cause health problems (strains and pains in your hands and fingers). But, now there’s another reason to limit your texting – it could make you dumb!

That’s not an overstatement according to a study by a Canadian expert in linguistics. She claims that texting has a negative impact on people’s linguistic ability to interpret and accept words. In other words, the more you text the less your ability to assess the meaning of words and be able to converse at a high level.

Image via Wikipedia

Testing Texters

To prove her theory the researcher asked a group of university students about their reading habits, including text messaging. She then gave them a range of words that were both real and made up. She also collected data having to do with how well the volunteers grasped grammar, and the extent of their exposure to various media (the number of text messages received per month and the number of books read in the past year, for example).

After analyzing her findings, the final study showed that the students who texted more were also the ones less accepting of new words. On the other hand, those who read more traditional print media such as books, magazines, and newspapers were more accepting of those words. In other words, with more of their focus on texting, where word use is limited and where grammar and spelling are of little value, the high texters were less open to learning and the use of words because that’s not a high value when all they are doing is sending and receiving short messages to convey a point or emotion. On the other hand, people who read traditional media are demonstrating their interest in words and word craft in order to fully understand a subject. The study suggests that reading traditional print media exposes people to variety and creativity in language that is not found in colloquial peer-to-peer text messaging.

What Does It Mean For Society?

“The people who accepted more words did so because they were better able to interpret the meaning of the word – or tolerate the word – even if they didn’t recognize the word,” said the researcher. “Students who reported texting more rejected more words instead of acknowledging them as possible words.”

“Texting is associated with rigid linguistic constraints which caused students to reject many of the words in the study. This was surprising because there are many unusual spellings – for example, textisms such as ‘LOL’ – in text messaging language.”

What do these findings mean for the future? It’s not a particularly pretty picture. If fewer people are reading, or know how to communicate well because they lack linguistic skills, can society function well? The next time a distracted driver almost runs you over while you are crossing the street you may have the answer.

Click here for more articles by The Writin’ Cowboy.

There are as many reasons for creating a new language as there are people who do so. It could be to facilitate communication between people who do not necessarily speak the same language or dialect but would often come into contact with each other. These constructed languages are sometimes called auxillary languages. Conlangs appear in some works of fiction in order to create a sense of credibility.

Languages which are developed for practical use and are genuinely intended for a significant number of people to use on a regular basis tend to be called planned languages. Those which don’t sometimes become known as artificial languages, which can often be seem as a derogatory term. It seems that even natural languages are planned at least to some extent. Different conlangs derive vocabulary from many different sources. Interlingua is a conlang which takes its vocabulary from a small set of natural languages, so much so that its users would be unlikely to perceive it as artificial in any way.

It is common when analysing constructed languages to group them in one of two categorisations. There are priori languages and posteriori languages. Priori languages are ones whose words are made up by the language’s inventor without any basis on another language. This is as opposed to posteriori languages which are often based on other natural languages and are modifications or simplifications of it. Klingon is perhaps the best known priori language and Esperanto is the best known posteriori language.

Posteriori languages can be subdivided further into two main subcategories. There are schematic languages in that the vocabulary fits in with the rules of the language and naturalistic languages which keep some of the character of the natural language on which it was originally based. An example of a schematic posteriori language is Esperanto and an example of a naturalistic posteriori language is Interlingua.

Engineered languages are ones whose original intention is to analyse the whole process of language building and for experimenting with the whole process of inflections and conjugations, for example. They are not necessarily intended for people to speak. Auxiliary languages are actually intended for people to use across language barriers, to create a new lingua franca. Artistic languages are ones used in works of fiction or are secret languages used between friends.

You may be interested in reading:

How To Make Lactose-Free Milk

How To Make Petrol (Gasoline)

Islam’s Rise

Biobutanol

Royal Jelly

Hunting For Truffles

So, the first thing that foreigners notice when they visit NZ is, undoubtedly, our accent — which is completely different to any of the American, British (or even Australian) accents. Our way of speaking is often confused (by people in America and Britain) with the Australian accent, but you really don’t want to say that to a Kiwi. We have a bit of a love-hate relationship with our closest neighbour, so any New Zealander would go to great lengths to point out the differences between our two tongues (but, deep down, we love the Aussies…)

The New Zealand accent came from a mixture of the Southern British accent, Irish English, Scottish English and a little bit of influence from our buddies across the ditch in Australia. Other influences were ‘Received Pronunciation‘ (or ‘Queen’s English’) and the Maori language.

Pronunciation

The New Zealand accent is one of the newest native speaker varieties of the English language. Although it is a little similar to the Australian accent, there are some distinct differences. The most obvious difference between the two accents is the short ‘i’ vowel sound. For example, a New Zealander says the word “Pin” much like an American would. However, an Australian pronounces this word as “Peen” — rhyming with the word “Scene”. 

However, on that subject, an Australian would say the word “Pen” much like an American would (maybe only slightly different). A New Zealander, on the other hand, would say “Peen” (the same as the Australian “Pin”). This is true for a lot of words with a short “e” vowel sound, such as “Left” (”Lee-ft”), “Head” (”Hee-dd”) and “Red” (”Ree-dd”). 

The difference between the two languages becomes obvious when you compare some sentences:
Australians might say “Halve you gotta peen?”, while a Kiwi would say “Have you gotta pin?”. On the other hand, an Australian might say “I’m using a pen”, while a Kiwi would say “I’m using a peen”. New Zealanders often accuse Australians of saying the words “Fish and Chips” as “Feesh and Cheeps”. Aussies often accuse Kiwis of saying “Fush and Chups“. So, basically, I’m saying that the accents are quite distinct.

There are only two properly distinct dialects of New Zealand English. These are the standard Kiwi accent and the so called “Southland Burr“. Southland, a region that is (funnily enough) located at the very south of New Zealand, has had a greater Scottish influence in the development of its accent. So, when ‘normal’ New Zealanders say the words “Purple Work Shirt”, they don’t pronounce the r’s (another characteristic of Kiwi Speak — the word “Girl”, for example, is pronounced somewhat like “Gill”). Southlanders, however, say “Purrple Worrk Shirrt”. This phenomenon is famous throughout New Zealand and is the source of some ridicule in the country. 

If you want a classic example of Kiwi pronunciation, try listening to the Flight of the Conchords — a New Zealand duo who shot to stardom within NZ and even made a little bit of a presence in the US. On their HBO sitcom, one of the duo, Bret, constantly has his name ‘mispronounced’ due to the difference between the NZ and American accents — in New Zealand, it is pronounced “Bree-t”, but American’s pronounce it similar to the word “Brat”.

Words

There is a lot of slang that has developed in New Zealand that is completely different from the English of America and Britain. Although there are many similarities with Australia (due to proximity) and, to some extent, Britain (a left over from our time as a colony) there is also many distinct words and phrases. Here are a few examples:

~As – Used to emphasise an adjective. Eg, “Sweet as“, “That car is cool as”
Au, Ow – Used mainly by Maori or Polynesian youth, can be used to emphasise a question, eg, “What’re you up to, ow?” meaning “What the hell are you doing?!”. Also used ambiguously to add emphasis but may add very little meaning at all. As in the phrase, made famous by the animated sitcom Bro’town, “Not even ow“. 
Bach or Crib – A modest holiday home, usually at a beach or lakeside location.
Bei – a mutated form of the slang word “Bro”. Mostly used around the area of Gisborne.
Bikkies, Bikky – A biscuit/biscuits, cookies.
Big Bikkies – Worth lots of money. Eg, “He’s worth big bikkies”
Bottle Store – Alcohol shop, Liquor Store.
Boy Racer – A young person who races their car on the street. Has negative connotations in the news media etc.
Bogan – A type of person typified by classic rock/metal inspired attire and heavy alcohol consumption. New Zealand’s version of white trash.
Bugger – Damn, An exclamation of regret. Also can mean unfortunate. Eg, “Oh, that’s a bugger”
Buggered – Tired, Exhausted
Cheerios – Red cocktail sausages
Chilly Bin – Cooler
Chocker, Chocka, Chocka Block – Full, Overflowing
Choice – Great, Excellent
Chunder – Spew, Vomit
Cock Up – Mistake, Also a verb, eg, “Bugger, I cocked up!”
Cockie – A farmer
Cuz, Cuzzy Bro – Cousin. Also used to refer to friends, compare “Mate” and “Bro”
Dodge – Dodgy, Unsafe, Strange, Not to be trusted. Eg, “It’s pretty dodge… I wouldn’t trust it”
Dole – Government funded unemployment benefit
Dairy – A convenience store, a corner store.
The Ditch – Refers to the Tasman sea, the dividing body of water between NZ and our closest neighbour, Australia.
Egg – Dork, Idiot. The use of egg as a friendly insult was widespread in the 1980’s and regained popularity in 2010 following it’s use in the NZ film “Boy“.
Footy – Rugby
Greasies – Fish and Chips
Gummies – Gumboots, Wellington Boots.
Hokey Pokey – Hard, gold coloured sugar candy. Most popular in Crunchie Bars and hokey pokey ice cream
Hottie – Hot water bottle
Ice Block – Popsicle
Jandals – Flip Flops, Thongs
Jug – Electric kettle. Eg, “Boil the jug”
Ka Pai – A Maori saying meaning well done, good job etc.
Kia Ora – Indigenous Maori greeting but commonly used throughout NZ
Knackered – Tired
Lollies – As with Britain, in NZ, candy is called lollies.
Marge – Margarine
Mean – Awesome, Cool, Good
Munted – Broken, destroyed
Nick – To steal
Pav, Pavlova – A meringue pudding with fruit and cream
Piss – Alcohol. Eg, “On the piss” means a night drinking, “Piss up” means an alcohol fuelled party, “Pissed” means drunk.
Primo – Excellent, Great. Similar to “Choice”
Puku – A commonly used Maori word meaning stomach
Rattle Your Dags – Hurry up!
Root – Have sex with someone
Scull – To consume an entire drink in one go. Often used when challenging someone to ’scull’ an alcoholic drink, like a bottle of beer.
She’ll Be Right – Commonly used expression meaning that something isn’t a problem. The “She” in this phrase isn’t actually referring to any particular female.
Shot – Thanks
Shout – To buy something for someone. Eg, “Dinner’s my shout”
Skite – Brag, Show off
Sook – Wimp, Person showing little courage
Squiz – A brief look. Eg, “Can you take a squiz at my car? It’s not going”
Stink – Bad, Unfortunate, Unskillful, Ungenerous, Mean . Eg, “Oh, that’s stink”, “Don’t be stink”, “I’m stink at surfing”
Suss – To figure out. Eg, “We’ll have it sussed by the morning”
Sweet As – A very versatile saying meaning great, good, no problem, thanks etc.
Ta – Thanks
Togs – Swimming trunks, swimsuit
Trolley – Shopping Cart
Vivid – A popular brand of permanent marker, the name of which is now just used generically for all similar markers. Sharpie, Texta
Whanau – Commonly used Maori word for family.
Wop Wops, Wops – The country, An extremely rural area, The middle of nowhere
Yeah, Nah – A commonly used phrase in NZ that confuses foreigners. It basically means something along the lines of “Yes. (No) Don’t worry, I understand what you said and I agree…” or “Yes, I understand what you said but…”. It is used very vaguely and most Kiwis don’t realise how often they say it! Maybe this is one that only New Zealanders will ever understand.

Bear in mind that this is a nonexhaustive list and there are many new slang words that come into use every year. However, these are some of the ones that have survived the test of time and are still in common use in most places. 

So now, if you ever come to New Zealand, you might actually be able to understand what we’re all saying. So please, take this as an invitation to our beautiful and interesting country. Please come, if for nothing more than to hear this “Kiwi Speak” in action!

There is a great amount of variety in both the semantics and in many incidences the vocabulary of these different types of Chinese. They are all tonal languages, however. Tonal languages are ones that have different meanings for words that would otherwise have an identical sound and meaning. Standard Chinese has four standard tones, for example. Standard spoken Chinese is often known as Putonghua, and it is derived from the dialect which was originally spoken in the region around Peking (Beijing). It is China’s official language, is one of the official languages of the United Nations and is among Singapore’s four official languages.

It is believed among most Sinologists (experts in the study of the Chinese language) that many of the languages native to the Far East are descendants of a common language which they call Proto Sino-Tibetan. Despite a large amount of investigation into this hypothesis, it is difficult to determine the sounds of the words that would have been spoken, and any comparison with Modern Chinese is purely speculative.

There have been many attempts, notably from Europeans, into a systematic method of categorising the Chinese language. Among the earliest of such attempts was made by Bernhard Karlgren about a century ago, and the process seems to be an ongoing and neverending task.

The Chinese language that was in use in the earlier periods of the Zhou Dynasty is referred to as Archaic Chinese. The Zhou Dynasty ended in the Third Century BC. Pieces of work which have been produced during such times include history and poetry of Shijing and Shujing. Many of the characters written in this style of Chinese contain radicals which give the reader clues as to how the character is spoken and the deeper, and often abstract, meaning it has. Other languages which have borrowed characters from Chinese, most notably Korean and Japanese, offers hints towards their original pronunciations in some incidences.

The Chinese which was spoken and written during the Middle Ages became to be known as Middle Chinese. It is the variety of Chinese that was in use during the Song and the Tang Dynasties. Clues regarding how different Chinese words were pronounced at that time come from many different sources, such as foreign word translations and various dictionaries that were compiled by contemporaries.

The Chinese language has followed a rather complicated path from its earliest foundations as inscriptions of oracles in bones and shells to the modern day. The complex geography of China has played a profound role in the development of its language. The plains across Central China allowed the more dominant and widely used Mandarin to spread, whereas the more mountainous areas of the country affords a more diverse range of influences in both ideas and phrases to its inhabitants.

There have been many attempts in the past three hundred years or so to make the more spoken Mandarin, and especially that regional variant spoken in Peking, the standard across the country. This had little success until the latter half of the Twentieth Century, however, when local people still continued to use their local language. In many parts of the country today, people can understand both the standard dialect and their local one.

It was the state education system in China which ensured Mandarin’s dominance over the other regional dialects. With the exception of Hong Kong, all school children from a young age must study in Standard Chinese. This step made Standard Chinese intelligible to just about everyone on the Chinese mainland. Mandarin is having more and more of an influence on day to day life in Hong Kong in spite of the status Cantonese has there.

You may be interested in reading:

How To Make Lactose-Free Milk

The Synthesis Of Petrol (Gasoline)

Islam’s Rise

Biobutanol

Royal Jelly

Hunting For Truffles

In more modern times the theories discussed can be roughly divided into two great classes, the anthropological and the biological. Adherents of the biological theories seek the origin of language in the characteristics and tendencies of the animal world; adherents of the anthropological theories look in the history of language for its most early constitutive elements and concentrate particularly on the speech of non civilized tribes.

 The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel via Wikipedia

The principal anthropological theories are more numerous: the babble theory seeks the origin of language in the spontaneous babbling of children. Words like pop, daddy, mammy and many others are adduced in support of this view; the song theory, accepted by most of the ancient Greek philosophers and by many moderns, holds that singing was the original form of language; the symbolical theory, values are attached to pictures, sounds, objects, and these values are symbolically expressed in language; the contact theory, emphasizes the relation of the individual to a social unity. It regards language as the result of a natural trend in all social creatures toward reciprocal contact, understanding, and approach; the utilitarian theory maintains that language originate from the practical necessities of human-cooperation.

Cuneiform is one of the first known forms of written language via Wikipedia

The more important biological theories fall into two classes: the theory of animal sounds seeks analogies to the origin of the human language in the sounds emitted by animals, especially in those that can be observed in the study of apes; the theory of expressive gestures and sounds derives language from the natural movements that express passions. Since interjections supply important evidence for this view, it is sometimes called the interjectional theory.

Various methods are open to the study of language origin. Some look to the careful study of languages in general for light on the origin of language, for example, shows that the linguistic categories of the adjective and the article, and probably also the conjunction and the adverb, are of late creation, whereas verbs, nouns, and interjections are very old. Adherents of the biological theories of language origin enter still another field in their investigation, studying the utterances and gestures of the animal world. Others seek the early stages of speech in the archaic languages of primitive tribes; their studies have resulted in valuable discoveries, but it is probable that even the most primitive languages have a long past. The theological theories of the origin of the language maintain that language is a gift from God, or that it is the effect of wisdom inherent in nature through the will of God.

Learnability and Evolution of Languages: Order and Chaos Both Required

Languages are characterized by both “ ‘pockets of systematicity’ ” and arbitrariness. Pockets of systemacity transpire in such cases as the following: A multiplicity of English words that begin with “sn” display affinity with the nose, e.g. sneeze, snort, snot. “In many languages,” words describing something big (such as a boulder) have incorporated into them “vowels made with the back of the tongue, such as ‘o’ and ‘ah’.” By contrast, “vowels made at the front of the mouth, such as ‘ee,’ often denote something smaller (flea).” Whether these pockets systematicity are paradoxical accidents or have something integral to do with language learning is unknown, according to Padraic Monaghan of Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. Arbitrariness is given instance by the fact that “microorganism” is a long word compared to the object it denotes whereas whale is a short word compared to the object it denotes.

To ferret out  what role systematicity and arbitrariness play in language learning (and perhaps, in the evolution of language), Monaghan and his group used computer algorithms to create “ ‘alien languages’ ” that were then “taught to human volunteers” by pairing words with pictures. The computer-generated alien languages displayed either extreme systematicity (e.g. big objects were always described by long words) or extreme arbitrariness (e.g. no relationship between the size of words and the objects they denoted). The volunteers found learning either of these alien languages difficult.

Monaghan and his group then developed an alien language that was half arbitrary and half systematic, e.g. “describing big things with short words, but long vowel sounds.” The volunteers “learned this language” with greater facility, suggesting that both arbitrariness and systematicity are required for language learning. An explanation Monaghan offers why this must be so is as follows: If words were not arbitrary and “words denoting similar objects all sounded alike, we would be more likely to confuse those objects.” That this hypothesis has at least some foundation in fact was revealed by an analysis conducted by the group of 5000 of the most common nouns and verbs used in English and French: The analysis revealed that “these words have both systematic sounds and arbitrary ones within each word.”

The results of a study done by “[l]inguist, Simon Kirby, of the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom,” appear to support Monaghan’s results that both systematicity and arbitrariness are required if language is to be learnable and therefore acquire the capacity to propagate and evolve . Kirby also used computer-generated languages in his study. Initially, he gave volunteers “long lists of random syllables and told them they were words that described pictures.” As might be expected, because of the randomness, the words were recalcitrant to being learned.

In the next phase of his study, Kirby incorporated the answers of his first group of volunteers into a slightly modified language meant for another group of volunteers. The next group found out words began emerging which served to put objects into categories. “For example, the volunteers created words or sounds within words that indicated an objects’ color or its shape: words ending in a “k” sound, for example, might be red.” In other words, the language became more systematic to temper its arbitrariness before it became learnable.

Their results have impressed both Kirby and Monaghan that the learnability and consequent evolution of a language operates pretty much like natural selection in biological evolution: “ ‘You make mistakes, but those mistakes aren’t random,’ Kirby says. They modify the language slightly, making it ‘easier for next person to learn’.”

(Reardon, Sara. 2011. “Calculating the Language of Babel.” Science. 23 September.)