A few observations about the joys and traps of language.

I only speak two languages, and a smidgeon of two others. More than some people, way less than many. And yet it has given me an insight into linguistics which fascinates me. As Eddie Izzard once commented, and I paraphrase, at school it used to be recommended that you learn Latin because it gives you an underlying knowledge of all the European languages. Well, why not just learn the European languages?
There is no doubt, for me, that we need to understand where our language comes from in order to comprehend and use it in a more imaginative fashion. But, and it goes without saying, we live in the present and therefore must focus on the usage, the evolution that occurs on a daily basis so that we can express ourselves clearly in a constantly changing society.

Stephen Fry, one of my heroes of the joy of language, (whatever that is), inspires me with his passion and knowledge of language and its nuances, which allow him to play with it. It’s like a ballerina or a singer performing a parody. You can’t mess up convincingly and on cue unless you really know what you’re doing. Fry can allow himself the luxury. Why can’t the rest of us? Presumably because we’re told off for being presumptuous if we use a word of more than three syllables.

Being a teacher, I’m a fan of learning languages, but in the right way, according to me, obviously. I’m terrible at text messaging. I try to shorten words, but not in the accepted form, so basically my texts end up being almost entirely unintelligible. And yet I accept that it is another part of the evolution of language. People have also asked me, as a recognised expert in teaching of course, whether subtitles are a valid way of watching films for learning or not. It’s clear to me that the original version is always better, for the intonation and expression. I remember watching a Korean film, a language of which I have absolutely no knowledge, and the subtitles didn’t distract me. I read and watched and appreciated. Subtitles in Spanish or English for English learners? English, without a doubt, from at least the age of 12.

What I can’t understand is the lack of imagination in the process and applications of learning. Studying, reading, spelling, vocabulary and listening can be tedious tasks, but when given the chance to invent, to create, to express your feelings and thoughts in a foreign language, or and even more importantly, YOUR OWN, and you are simply not interested, confounds me. Don’t you want to show off? Why the embarrassment? I spent 8 months in León, Spain, during my degree, and, granted, I didn’t open my mouth for the first three. However, there comes a time when, simply not to go insane spending all your time in your room, you have to go out and be prepared to make mistakes, even to enjoy those mistakes and, heaven forfend, learn from them. It comes down to curiosity, humility and a mere desire to communicate with other people.

One “problem” with English is that it is a language which is based on usage, not on an official grammar. Although grammar is obviously involved, we have no “watchdog”. We have no Royal Academy, as in Spain, which has the final say. I cannot correct my students on certain points, within, for example, pronunciation, given that it changes so much in all the English-speaking regions of the world. I am loathe to correct them if they say something which is technically incorrect if it is something that we commonly say.
Like the majority of languages, English has developed through the ages, and continues to do so. And it comes from Latin and from Germanic tongues, among others. In fact in one sentence we can see the influences of both, which we have mashed into our own dialect.
Case in point: A line from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: “After (Germanic) a few (Indo-European) moments (Latin), in her black (Germanic) silk (Far East) dress (Latin), Mrs Leaf bustled (Germanic) into the library (Latin).”
When push comes to shove, any modern language is, at its most fundamental, a dialect. Every one of them has influences of another, every one has evolved from others, from invasions, occupations, neighbouring countries, trade, commerce… I could go on.

The only thing we need to do is communicate. And yet language can be used as a tool for hate, for rhetoric, for inciting. Never have I been so aware of this as now. Social networking, politics, the media, can twist language, that which is beautiful, into something hateful. Let’s not forget that language is a tool to build, to share, to evolve, not to destroy.

And with that sermon, I’m off to read a good book. And bathe in the beauty of words.

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Episode 16: Curious Words M to O