Talk about language

On November 20, 2019Dr. Jennifer Delfino gave a guest lecture on “African American Language (AAL) Education and Social Justice.”  Students in Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology posed questions—read their questions and Dr. Delfino’s answers here.

Talking about language in US Census data

Thematic Map of Total Population of 5-17 Year Olds in Middlesex County, NJ Who Only Speak English Click for more options

My goal through the creation of this map  was to identify the youth, children aged 5-17, to determine the number of only English speaking adolescents.  I used the location of Middlesex County, New Jersey to better understand the youth of my own home, Spotswood, NJ.  I would have to say that the vast majority of the data I found to be not surprising.  Areas such as Perth Amboy, New Brunswick, and Madison Park had far less individuals who were limited to only the English language in comparison to areas such as Monroe, Milltown, and to a degree my hometown Spotswood.  What I was not expecting to discover was that the percentage of 5-17 year olds (84.9%) who only speak English is much relatively similar to the percentage of 18-64 year olds (85.2%) who only speak English.  One would expect this number to decrease at a higher rate due to the cultural assimilation to the English language.

Speak English only or speak English “very well”; Population 5 years and over Click for more options

Heres my clickable map of my county (Middlesex county) that shows the amount of people who only speak english or speak english very well.

B. I chose this because English is my first language and it is the only language that I can really speak fluently. Ive lived in middlesex county for a few years now, and I wanted to see how many families in my county speak only English or if there were a variety of different languages that are spoken at home. This map shows that in my town there are many different people who only speak english or speak it very well but there are also a good amount of people who speak a variety of different languages.

People in Ocean County who speak a language other than English at home- Other Indo-European languages Click for more options

A. This is my MAP of people in Ocean County, New Jersey who speak a language at home other than English. This map specifically refers to people who speak other Indo-European Languages.

B. I chose to research Ocean County because I am very familiar with the area. My family has a house in Ortley Beach so I usually spend much of my summers in Ocean County. I chose languages spoken at home other than English because I think it is important to know about diversity in an area. I can only speak English but I think it is fascinating that many people in an area such as Ocean County can be bilingual or multilingual. I chose Indo-European languages because my family is of Indo-European background. My family is Italian and my grandmother is the last of the family to speak fluent Italian. Italian can fall under the range of Indo-European languages that are spoken at home in Ocean County. The population of people who speak Indo-European languages at home is moderate in Ortley beach, but is in the middle of Seaside Heights in which the population is greater, and Lavallette Beach in which the population of people speaking Indo-European is even smaller than Ortley Beach.

Density of Bilingual Chinese-English Speakers and University of California Davis Click for more options

This map is of the Yolo and Sacramento counties in California.  The map contains data from the census track from 2015 and primarily focuses on Chinese speakers who also speak English “very well” in both counties. I grew up in both counties and noticed a higher concentration of bilingual Chinese speakers in Davis, which is in Yolo county, than in Sacramento. Davis is also home to University of California Davis (UCD), a vigorous medical college, and attracts students from across America and internationally.  Although, Davis is where I believed the higher concentration of bilingual Chinese speakers were, I included Sacramento County to see if the concentration was substantially higher in Davis.

The map illustrates that in Davis, particularly around UCD, there is a dense population of bilingual Chinese speakers and that level of density is not found in the neighboring county of Sacramento. I believe this is because the college attracts more varieties of people and that is the cause of the defining traits of Davis listed above.

Youth ages 5-17 who speak spanish at home in Middlesex County New Jersey Click for more options

1.map of Middlesex County. individuals from 5-17 who speak sSpanish at home

2. In the map I created, I have chosen to do the amount of Spanish speaking individuals between the ages of five and seventeen in Middlesex County. I choose this specific topic because from age five in school we had to learn Spanish and  I was curious how many people in my area speak this language outside of school.In creating this map I wanted to see if the number of Spanish speaking youth was higher or lower than I projected in my area Edison, New Jersey. My approximation was about one hundred in Edison but the number was much less. The number ended up being 67 individuals from eEdison spoke Spanish at home which i felt was a low number. I was taken back by this because while growing up i knew many people my age and younger spoke Spanish at home with their families.

People speaking Spanish in Morris and Passaic County from 2000 & 2015 Click for more options

  1. I have attached two maps (Map & Map 2). These maps show Spanish speakers in Morris and Passaic County from the year 2000 and the year 2015.
  2. In these maps I chose the oldest year available and the newest year available of Spanish speaker’s census reports in Morris and Passaic County. I chose two maps and two different years because I wanted to see if there was a difference in Spanish speaking growth or decline in my area in a 15 year period. I knew of certain areas that I knew would have a high amount of Spanish speakers in these two counties and I know of areas that are more likely to not have as much Spanish speakers. I estimated that Spanish speaking would have grown over the years, because of schooling and immigration. I found that in 2000, there were more widely spread over the two counties to have Spanish speakers. In 2015 this spread got more focused in the densely populated areas and where I knew there was a lot of Spanish speaking. Overall, Spanish speaking has appeared to decline in these two counties, and has been more driven into these highly populated areas where Spanish speaking is more likely to be expected. I knew That my town of Bloomingdale had a noticeable presence of Spanish speakers, and learned that my area is an area of Spanish speaking growth since 2000.

A. This is my map of Dutchess County New York, the county I grew up in. Using the “Language Spoken at Home” data.

B. The reason that I chose this map in particular is because I know that Spanish is the second largest language that is spoken in the county, yet I only hear it when I am in the city of Poughkeepsie.  I live a couple towns over from Poughkeepsie, about 20 minutes away in Poughquag. My high school had many of my peers who were from this city of Poughkeepsie, so I am very familiar with the area. I always wondered why I heard Spanish more in this area than anywhere else in my county. I wanted to see how drastic the difference between Poughkeepsie and Poughquag are when it comes to the language spoken at home. In my town in particular, I never really hear much language diversity when going to the grocery store, out to eat etc. Yet, when I go to Poughkeepsie for events, doctors’ appointments etc., I tend to hear Spanish used socially amongst people. In my map, indicated to the left with the darker shade of green is labeled “Poughkeepsie”, the town indicated farther to the right is my hometown (Poughquag) labeled with the blue dot, which is very light green. I was really curious to see how those who lived in the city differed in Spanish language usage than in my area.

It is obvious by seeing this map that Spanish is widely spoken in Poughkeepsie, yet not in my hometown. This is why when I go to the city area I always hear Spanish being spoken freely, much different than the town I come from. This map just further proved that Spanish is spoken much more frequently in Poughkeepsie than in my area, although I was still surprised about the drastic difference between the two areas in my county. Therefore, this map answered a question that I have been trying to figure out for a long time.

A.) I created a map of Russian speakers within Passaic County, NJ, where I have lived my whole life.

B.) I chose this demographic to map out because I have had a great many Polish and Czech friends from my area throughout my life, and nearly all of them and/or their families had spoken their native language, so I was curious as to the amount of Russian speakers in the same area, as Russian is linguistically similar to Polish and Czech, but I had never heard much of Russian speakers near me.

(A).  The map I created displays the number of people able to speak Spanish or Spanish Creole among those able to speak English for 5 years in my home county of Burlington, NJ.

(B).  I was hoping to demonstrate the linguistic plurality I have noticed within my own community.  During the course of my schooling, I attended four distinct schools within the county.  During those experiences, I noticed that being bilingual was always common among a few of my classmates.  Although, the map does demonstrate that there are a few people who fit this criteria, there were not as many as I expected.  This leads me to think that this is a feature unique particularly to the young people population.  If I were to redo the assignment, I would try to adjust for this variable.

Morris County: Less Spanish Spoken at Home Than You’d Think Click for more options

A). I created this map (via Census Tract) to demonstrate the Spanish language spoken at home for ages 18-64 in my home county in New Jersey.

B) I chose this map because I am very passionate about Spanish and I wanted to see its influence around me geographically. I also narrowed it down to the ages 18-64 in 2015 because I wanted to see a targeted age similar to mine in a somewhat recent year. Morris County is very diverse which is why my map surprised me. I thought the patterning would show a greater use of Spanish for my whole county when really it is only my town. My church is bilingual which inspired me to learn Spanish in my community specifically. After thinking about its importance to Morristown particularly, I wanted to see other parts of Morris County that rely on Spanish as a main form of communication and it was not what I expected.There were only about three towns that were a dark green ( data class 1,800-3,300). All in all, I learned that Spanish spoken at home in my home county was not as prevalent as I thought which makes me more thankful that my town is one of the three where it is.

I created a sample map using my home county of Bergen County, New Jersey and chose to focus specifically on the Korean speaking population.

When creating the map, I dropped the transparency to 20% to make differences easier to see, as well as changing the color range to a darker set for the same purpose. Additionally, I changed the classing method to quantile, as it allowed me to see a more clear pattern as to where the language was spoken more. With other options, there were only 2 census tracts that were showing a large population, and the rest of the tracts were blending together, making it harder to distinguish more minute differences. It was interesting to see that, traditionally, the further east on the map you look, the more dense the population of Korean speakers. I struggled when creating the map, because Bergen county, statistically, is not very heavily language diverse. While there are many languages spoken, they are not spoken by many people, and most are almost entirely contained to a specific census tract. It is for this reason that I chose to focus on speakers of Korean in general, whether or not they spoke English well.

A. Here is my example of the map of Bergen County NJ for individuals who speak Spanish that range in age between 18 and 64.

B. The reason I chose this particular map is because I live and work in Bergen County, New Jersey. I found it interesting to see how many people actually do speak Spanish, although compared to the overall amount of people in the area it does not seem like a lot. Spanish was always a popular secondary language in my high school to fulfill a language requirement as well as the language I took here at Seton Hall. I noticed the majority of the towns in Bergen County that have Spanish speaking homes are in southern Bergen County. What really interested me about this was the fact I work for the Paramus Police Department as a 911 Emergency Dispatcher answer 911 calls for 14 towns in Bergen County. 97% percent of the calls we receive that are not “English Speaking” individuals are Spanish speaking individuals which means we have to use the language line service to interpret these calls. The map actually does match up with what I am familiar with when answering calls for Hackensack and Palisades Park, which have a high Spanish Speaking population. Living and working in Paramus, I learned there are 27,000 residents, two major highways, four malls, one of which is among the largest in America and has over 500,000 individuals at any given time in the town itself.  One other thing I have always wondered outside of just Spanish Speaking individuals in Bergen County would be to find the percentage of languages used at any given time in the town of Paramus, with everyone being present at once, from passing motorists to employees to mall shoppers and so forth. I understand this would be quite difficult to track but just the thought of it interested me, being from a city like town during the day to quite suburb town during the late hours of the evening.

A. Attached is the map that I created utilizing data sets from the United States Census Bureau. I grew up in Union County and wanted to see if language was possibly correlated to means of transportation. The map linked demonstrates individuals from Union County who have self identified as native Spanish speakers who claim to speak English less than “very well”.B. I focused on this element of transportation as a representation of  wealth. I made this judgment because individuals who have their own means of transportation tend to be wealthier and have more stable incomes. Likewise, those who take the bus, train, or other inexpensive means of public transportation likely have less financial stability. I then chose to compare it to individuals who have identified themselves as speaking English “less than very well” because this would often indicate that these people grew up without American culture being their native ethnicity. When analyzed together I believed that a suggestion could be made about the expected wealth of individuals who immigrated into the United States rather than being born citizens. While I originally intended to focus on different languages as a whole the available data and typical ethnic composition of Union County, NJ made it easier to identify individuals who spoke Spanish as their primary language and were actively learning, or were only moderately successful in learning English. Individuals who live in an area with less English speaking tended to be consumers of the public transportation system in immensely higher percentages than other areas. For example, I looked at my hometown Cranford and the town directly next to it Elizabeth. Elizabeth is much larger, composed almost entirely of minority communities, and is far more affordable than Cranford. Spanish speakers who lived in Cranford tended to speak English “very well” suggesting that Spanish was actually the second language, or they received formal language education. Elizabeth was the opposite. Elizabeth’s public transportation system was also the main source of mobility for much of the populous. I believe that this correlation demonstrates that individuals born outside of the United States who move here permanently have a harder time accumulating wealth and basic resources unless they moved with money and were able to originate their residencies in higher income areas with established formal education systems. I also propose the concept that many people who speak English “less than very well” are likely to have a more difficult time obtaining a steady and lucrative means of income. Many of the highest paid individuals in our nation are in positions that require a mastery of the English language, and those who did not have often graduated from English driven educational institutions. This considered I would suggest that individuals who immigrate to a nation and are forced to learn a new language to assimilate are frequently burdened by these disadvantages for a prolonged period of time. The inability to speak English at a proficient level would suggest nothing about an individual’s intelligence or skill, but would impeded typical financial growth as measured here through means of public transportation.

People in Hunterdon County that can speak both English and Spanish Click for more options

A. This is the  map   I created to see how many people in Hunterdon County, New Jersey speak another language other than English at home and I selected Spanish as that “other” language.

B. I chose to make a map showing this because my family recently moved to Hunterdon County and I come from a Spanish background.  I grew up in Somerset County where many of the surrounding towns are very diverse and have many Spanish speaking populations. I am not familiar with much of Hunterdon County so I was curious to see which  towns had the highest population of people speaking Spanish. If you zoom in you can see my specific location. You can also see “Lebanon Township” to the left and “Tewksbury township” to the right of me. I am considered “Lebanon township”. I was surprised to see that from all of Lebanon township, My area had the darkest shade of green and the town right next to me, “Highbridge” didn’t even have a shade of green it was just clear. I also noticed that a town south of me, Flemington, had a dark shade of green as well. This didn’t really surprise me because Flemington is more populated than the other towns in this county. Most of the towns with the lighter shades are mainly made up of farm land which in return i think contribute to the amount of census data collected. Over all, this map showed me that my County does not have a large number of Spanish speakers but my town and a Flemington do even though they are not near each other. I named my map ” People in Hunterdon County who can speak both English and Spanish”.

A)Here is a sample map that I generated using the borough of Newark (via Census Tract) and using Portuguese (focusing on those who speak very little English). This is my explanation: B) “My family and I have been going to the Ironbound section ever since I could remember. I’ve never thought twice about how many Portuguese restaurants are cramped in one corner. Or the fact that majority of the older people in that area prefer to (or) only speak their Portuguese verses English. The second generation that came from those families all speak English as well as they speak Portuguese. Every store in the area tend to only hire people who are bilingual knowing that majority of their customers only speak their mother language. Based on the results on this map, it seems that the Ironbound is a great neighborhood to stay connected to my dad culture (Portuguese culture). In fact, my brother is in a Portuguese folklore group that is primarily located in the Ironbound, as well as the cities surrounding it.” C) Then I entitled this entry “How much Portuguese is spoken in the Ironbound area” because this assignment allowed me to examine the fact that English is rarely spoken in the Ironbound if you are bilingual.

People who speak Russian at home in Monmouth County, New Jersey Click for more options

A. Here is an example of the map I created, which reflects the population who speaks Russian at home (5 years and older) in the county where I live (Monmouth County, NJ).

B. I created this map, because it was interesting for me to see which areas of my home county have denser population who speaks Russian at home. I thought all the time that there is a lot of Russian people in my area, who speaks Russian at home, however, the map did not confirm it. According to the map, in the city I live (Tinton Falls, NJ) there is very small population who speaks only Russian at home. However, in the adjacent cities like Eatontown, Oceanport and Little Silver, there is a denser Russian population. Indeed, in the area where I work in medical office (Morganville) in the same county, but to the West, there are a lot of Russian people living around there, which I already know by the contingent of the patients. In conclusion, that’s why my grandmother (who does not speak English very well) always complains that all her Russian friends live in Morganville (she has to travel 30 minutes to see them) and always asks to move there, of course, in a joking manner.

A. Here is the map I created of people who speak primarily Spanish at home in Passaic County whose income is below the poverty line.

B. For this map, I chose to use people who speak mostly Spanish because many people in Passaic County,where I live, are bilingual and people of Spanish heritage make up a pretty sizable portion of the community. What I also wanted to focus on was the poverty level, since most people in poverty tend to belong to minority groups. I feel as if that often gets neglected unfortunately because it doesn’t tell the whole story with poverty in America, especially in regards to urban areas such as most of the area in Passaic County. The data showed that hundreds of people who are Spanish speakers above the age of 18 live below the poverty line. This wasn’t too surprising for me since, while there are affluent towns in the county, there are also areas of impoverishment, like some parts of the city of Paterson. What I hoped to achieve with this map was a perspective with poverty that, as I said before, not many people focus on.

People who speak Spanish at home in Ocean County New Jersey Click for more options

B) In the map I created, I chose to find out how many people speak Spanish at home in the county that my family lives in. I chose this because I am studying Spanish and one day I hope to be a bilingual Speech Pathologist. By creating this map, I wanted to see if there is a large population of people that I might be able to work with in my future career. From the map, I can tell that there are many more people who speak Spanish at home in northern Ocean County because there is a large Hispanic population in the town of Lakewood. While I knew that there was a larger population in that town, I was surprised that there were not more people who speak Spanish at home in my town. In my area, there are between 169 and 389 people who speak Spanish at home and that surprised me because I thought there would be more!

People in Essex Country Who Have the Ability to Speak Italian and are 5 Years Or Older Click for more options

  1. This is the map I created to look at individuals, age 5 and up, who speak Italian in my home county, Essex County, New Jersey. This map shows Italians who can also speak English. I chose to make a map of this because my town, and the areas around it, are heavily influenced by Italian heritage, and I was curious to see how many of the citizens actually spoke the language.
  2. While this data was actually of Italians who can speak English ‘very well’ or ‘less than very well’, this also means that these people are native Italian speakers. Since this is the area in which I grew up, I knew that there would be a high population of Italians in the area. I was curious as to how many of those people actually spoke the language. I achieved this because this map showed me how many people in my area actually spoke Italian. I was surprised that, even in the darkest areas, only 294 people spoke it. I was not expecting there to be a ton of people who spoke Italian, but 294 people seemed like a low number to me. I was also surprised that, in my actual town there was 192 people who spoke Italian. My town is very small, and mostly everyone knows each other. While the Italian culture has heavily influenced my town, I was not expecting so many people to be native speakers because I have never known anyone who actually spoke the language, or was directly from Italy. I was not surprised to see that my town, West Caldwell, was one of the darker areas on the map, because of the amount of Italian restaurants and the various other ways that Italian culture has influenced my town.

Another thing that I noticed came from one of the maps that we looked at in class, which was the number of people who speak Spanish in Essex County. In comparing the two, I noticed that on the Spanish map, most of the people who spoke Spanish were around East Orange, Newark, and other areas in that direction. However, when looking at the map of Italian speakers, there are very few, if any, Italian speakers in that area. I found this interesting because of the shift in the culture of the population in areas that are very close together.

People Who Speak a Language other than English (Middlesex, NJ) Click for more options

Here is a sample map I generated using my home county, Middlesex County in New Jersey, using the “Census Tract” option which focuses on people who speak another language other than English at home. The particular language I decided to focus on was Spanish. Although I was born in Jersey City, I moved to Middlesex County (Edison in particular) when I was just five years old. From living in this county for more than fifteen years, one thing I grew up realizing is that Middlesex stands out for its diversity. For example, in Edison, I hear people speaking different languages all the time whenever I step out of my house. Some languages I hear people speak other than English are Spanish, Hindi, Gujarati (my language), Mandarin, Urdu, Polish, etc. Because of Edison’s high diversity, people come across others speaking different languages on a daily basis whether they are going to a restaurant, gym, park, mall, etc.

The reason I chose to focus on Spanish, however, is because lately I’ve been seeing a lot more Spanish people move into Edison and also other parts of Middlesex as well. What’s so interesting about that is I am very familiar with the Spanish language (speaking and writing) because of where my dad’s liquor store is located (Passaic, NJ). Every weekend, I help my dad out at the store and majority of our customers speak Spanish. Seeing more Spanish people in Edison and other parts of Middlesex as well is exciting because I can continue to learn the language and also make more Spanish friends as well.

https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_15_5YR_S1601&prodType=table

People who speak Other Indic Languages at home in Middlesex County Click for more options

  1. Here is my example of my map of Middlesex County, New Jersey of the “Language spoken at home by ability to speak English.
  2. The reason I chose to create this particular map is because I have lived in Middlesex County for basically my entire life. I moved here when I was two so I spent my whole childhood here and I was curious to see how many people spoke other Indic languages. I fall into that category because I speak Bengali at home and I was always taken aback when I heard strangers at a local store near me speak it because there is not a huge population near me that do. It’s a pretty small county with a lot of the Indian population that speak Hindi since it is the universal language, however, it is rare that I come across or over hear someone communicating in Bengali or any other Indic languages. Especially in the town that I live, I always felt like the odd ball out among my friends who are predominantly Hispanic. I’m not surprised towns like Edison and Menlo Park have a more greater number of people who speak other Indic languages because there is a diverse group of Indian ethic groups that live in that area from what I’ve seen first-hand. My town, Fords is very small so I’m not surprised that it has a value of 0.

People Who Speak Spanish at Home in Nassau County, NY Click for more options

A) This is my map of the county I grew up in which is Nassau County, New York. I was actually born in Brooklyn, NY which is where my mom grew up, but my parents decided to move out to Long Island, which is where my dad grew up. We moved to Nassau County when I was just 1 year old. I made my map focus on those who speak Spanish at home in my county.

B) The reason I chose this specific data set is because I know that in my county there is a large number of towns in which the people speak more Spanish than others. However, I did not know exactly which do. I have been told in the past that Spanish is the next largest spoken language in my county after English, but this assignment allowed me to go more in depth and acquire more information. I live in a town called Merrick, and I’m pretty familiar with the towns surrounding mine, but I don’t know much about every single one. When I am in my own town, and go into towns towards the east of me such as Bellmore, Wantagh, Seaford and Massapequa (which are towns I go to often), I notice there is rarely any other language spoken other than English. However, when I go to towns towards the west of me such as Freeport and Baldwin, I notice that Spanish is much more prominent. After creating this map, the different shades of green are depicting of how prominent Spanish speakers are in each area. The darker the green, the more Spanish is spoke, and the lighter the green, the least amount of Spanish is spoken. In my town, it is at the lightest shade green indicating that Spanish is not a prominent language spoken at home. However, in towns such as Freeport and Hempstead Spanish is a much more outstanding language. Overall, this map showed me how although my town specifically does not have a large number of Spanish speakers, my county as a whole has a decent amount of places where Spanish is spoken often. This is why I decided to name my map “People Who Speak Spanish at Home in Nassau County, NY.”

People in Middlesex County who speak a language other than English Click for more options

Here is a map I generated using people who speak a language other than English in Middlesex County, New Jersey.

This was of particular interest to me as I grew up in a small town called Middlesex in Middlesex County. No one really knows of the town itself because it is so small and I get questioned about it quite often. While growing up, I didn’t have to many friends that looked like me and my very Indian parents didn’t have too many friends in our actual town, but I never truly noticed that until now. The town is predominantly white, even though in the past few years there has been a bit of a shift in favor of diversity. As an English speaker, I didn’t have much difficulty forming bonds with others even if they weren’t my ethnicity; however, my parents always felt more comfortable around people that spoke their mother tongue. I was interested in seeing how diverse in language Middlesex actually is and as I thought it falls on the lower side of the spectrum, whereas, towns like Edison are populated with other language-speakers. It makes sense as to why on the weekends, my parents and siblings would go spend time shopping and eating in our neighboring towns and why those towns had a distinct culture of their own. The culture and liveliness was created by a variety of people.

Language linked with Real Estate Prices Click for more options

A) Here is my map
B) My experiment with this map was to see if Real Estate prices appear to be associated with the ability to speak English very well. I decided to look at Travis County in Texas because that is where Austin is located and I would love to live in Austin one day. I focused on the darkest and largest section that I found on the census map which portrays a number of people who speak English less than “very well.” The dark area of my focus includes the town of Dessau, so I decided to search on Zillow.com (a real estate website) what the homes in Dessau are sold for (Real Estate Map of Dessau, Travis County TX). To my surprise, I can see there could be something between being able to speak English well and the prices of homes. Homes across the street from each other in Dessau go from 250k to 50k. Now, this could be because it is a trailer park-like community. Therefore I looked deeper into this possible link by studying the other dark spots as well as its contrast: studying the lightest spots (the people who speak English very well).

I looked at the real estate prices within the dark area by Pleasant Hill and Onion Creek. Again, a correlation between not being able to speak the English language very well and low real estate prices were seen. Across S I -35 highway west from Pleasant Hill, it seems to be a regional difference of language separated by the highway. People are much more proficient in speaking English and their real estate prices are nearly two or three times the amount of the houses in/around Pleasant Hill.

People Who Speak Spanish at Home in Morris County Click for more options

A Here is an example of my map that I generated using my home county, Morris County and using Spanish (focusing on those who speak it at home).

B  I wanted to look into how many people in my area speak Spanish because at my home parish, St. Lawrence, in Chester NJ, they have Spanish Masses available. Even though St. Lawrence is my main parish, I have gone to mass a few times at St. Joes in Mendham NJ and St. Luke in Long Valley NJ. When I have attended mass at St. Joes and St. Luke, I noticed they do not offer Spanish masses. While I do know a few people who speak Spanish at home in Chester, NJ, I have always been curious how many people in Chester truly speak Spanish fluently enough to prefer Spanish masses vs English masses.

By searching this, I did not succeed as highly as I anticipated. I found Chester, according to the map, was equal to Mendham and Long Valley in terms of how many people speak Spanish at home. I was surprised because I thought Chester would have a much higher amount of Spanish speakers than Mendham and Long Valley because they are the only church out of those three churches that holds Spanish masses. Instead, I found that Dover was by far the most, and perhaps the only town in the area that was highly populated with people who speak Spanish at home was Dover, Nj. Additionally, I found Morristown to be the second most populated town of Spanish speakers.

After researching how many people speak Spanish at home in Morris County, I have inferred that my town offers Spanish masses for a few possible reasons. One, is that Chester may be slightly more populated than surrounding towns, but not enough to show up on the map. Secondly, my parish has two main priests that give mass, Father Nick and Father Rollins. Father Nick speaks only English while Father Rollins speaks both English and Spanish. Father Rollins was sent here to the small town of Chester, Nj from Mexico. This being said, since Father Rollins speaks Spanish, he can actually give the mass. Lastly, I infer the people of Chester who prefer Spanish to English, may have requested our parish to offer Spanish masses. It was incredibly interesting to research the amounts of people who speak Spanish at home in Morris County in relation to the Spanish masses that are offered.

People in Ocean County, NJ who speak German and English “very well” Click for more options

  1. Link to the map of Ocean County, NJ (by Census Tract) focusing on German speakers at home who also speak English “very well”, using the default “natural break” distribution.
  2. Explanation/narrative: When I was in high school I had a choice of a language to take, my options included German, Spanish and French. None of these languages held any meaning to me so I decided to pick German because I thought it was different. Now, years down the road I am still taking German while in college because a language is a requirement to graduate. Since I dedicated so much time and effort in learning this particular language, I wanted to see how many individuals speak it around my home area and to see if learning the language was wasted compared to learning a more wide spread language such as Spanish. Based on the results of this map, it seems not many people speak German, especially in my neighborhood (Forked River). My hometown is not a very diverse place to live and when I started to play around with this mapping feature, it showed. Regardless, I was surprised at the number of German speakers in Ocean County.

People in Union County, New Jersey Who Speak French Creole as well as Speak English “Very Well” Click for more options

Here is my sample map. I live in Union Township in Union County and I didn’t search up my area in class so I decided to search it up for the assignment. I have to admit, I am not that familiar with my county as a whole, but I am pretty familiar with my town of course as well as the neighboring towns. I wanted to search up Haitian Creole because that is what my family speaks but for whatever reason, I couldn’t find it. So instead, I went with French Creole because that’s basically what Haitian Creole is: broken down French. I was pretty surprised by the results. First of all, I had the idea that there were Haitians pretty much everywhere. But I was surprised to learn that while there a could amount of French Creole speakers in my county, for the most part, they are not that prominent. There is really one area in the county that has a lot of French Creole speakers, and it’s actually my area. This wasn’t a surprise to me because I knew there were a lot of Haitians in my town and the neighboring towns. What did surprise me is that my town of Union was not one of the darker towns. A few towns on the east of Union County were darker. There towns in the Elizabeth area having the most French Creole speakers was expected because I know a lot of Haitians live there. But an area near Linden being the darkest was unexpected to me, I thought that color would go to Union.

People Who Speak Spanish at Home (Fluently) in Lyndhurst, New Jersey Click for more options

(a) Here is link to the map of Bergen County, New Jersey (by census tract), which focuses on the total number of people who speak Spanish “very well” at home. I used the default “natural breaking” setting.

(b) My family has lived in Bergen County since 2005. We moved from the Bronx, New York to  East Rutherford, New Jersey and later to Lyndhurst, New Jersey due to a better living condition in New Jersey. There is a very large Hispanic community in New Jersey especially in Bergen County. There are many Dominicans such as my family. There are a few dark purple areas, one in the area of Hackensack and Lodi which are towns near my town. The other is Fort Lee which is right across New York City which is highly populated by Hispanics. Bergen County is near New York City so it does not surprise me the amount of Hispanics in that urban area. I researched this because these are my people and I am proud of my heritage so I wanted to see the expansion of the Spanish-speaking culture in my county.

People Who speak Japanese at Home in Lemoore, California Click for more options

(a) Here is a map of Lemoore, California focusing on the total number of people who speak Japanese at home. I used the default “natural break” setting.

(b) My family recently moved from San Diego, California to Lemoore, California due to my moms job promotion. There is a large East Asian population in San Diego, the majority being Japanese, and I was curious to see how Lemoore compares. You can see on the map there are two dark purple areas, one in the center of town and the other in Naval Air Station Lemoore. I was not surprised to see this because there is a large presence of Japanese-Americans in the Navy. The number of Japanese speakers in Lemoore is much smaller than Sand Diego. I wanted to research this because Japanese culture and language has heavily influenced the San Diego lifestyle and I am interested to see the difference when I go to live in Lemoore.

Italian Speakers Over Age 5 in Staten Island, New York Click for more options

A.  Link to map of borough of Staten Island, New York (by Census Tract).  This map focuses on the “Language Spoken at Home by ability to Speak English for Population 5 Years and Older.”

B. Explanation/narrative: Before moving to South Jersey, my family and I lived in Staten Island, New York.  Staten Island on the south shore (where we lived) seemed to be heavily populated with Italians.  Every time we saw someone out in the mall or on the block it would always be a, “Hey, Maria,” or a, “Hey Carmine,” or some other Italian name.  I wanted to research the Italian speaking population on Staten Island because I was curious to see how many Italian speakers there were and where on the Island they were located.  Predominantly, the Island is home to primarily people of Italian, Irish, and Latino descent.  Upon creating a map, I found that the south shore of the Island was the most densely populated with Italian speakers while the north shore was not as populated with those that speak Italian.  I found this to be cool because it turns out where I used to live was right smack in the middle of the places with the most Italian speakers; my mom being one of them!

Little Variety in Language Spoken at Home in Sussex County, DE Click for more options

1. A link to the map of languages spoken at home in Sussex County, Delaware, using the Census Tract approach.

2. Explanation/Narrative: Before transferring to Seton Hall, I was a student at the University of Delaware. I lived in Newark, DE for almost four years, and during that time I explored most of the state (Delaware is very small — you can cross through the entire state in just a few hours). One of my favorite parts of Delaware is Sussex County and its beaches (Rehoboth, Lewes, Dewey, etc.). I have considered relocating to this area once I move out of my parents’ house, where I live currently. Because Delaware is such a small state, I was curious as to what languages other than English were spoken in Sussex County. Surprisingly, the only categories present in the table I mapped were Spanish, other Indo-European languages, and Asian and Pacific Island languages. I was surprised that these categories were so comprehensive but the numbers were low. It must be because of Delaware’s small size, but I thought there would be more diversity in the languages other than English spoken at home. The languages spoken other than English are concentrated in the central area between Redden and Georgetown, which is not significant to me because I am not too familiar with the area. After completing this assignment, I am seriously reconsidering moving to an area that so greatly lacks diversity.

Spanish-Speakers in the Homes of Essex County Click for more options

  1. Here is a sample map that I generated using my home county (Essex County in New Jersey, using the Census Tract), which focuses on those who speak another language other than English at home.  The particular language that I chose to look at was Spanish, and I used the default “natural breaks” distribution.
  2. Explanation/Narrative: I chose to look at the Spanish language spoken at home in my home county.  I chose this topic because my church back home (St. Aloysius Church in Caldwell, NJ, a Roman Catholic Church) is one of the few churches within the Archdiocese of Newark that offers Spanish masses.  I used to work in the rectory of this church, and I would always get numerous calls inquiring about this mass.  The mass always gets a good turnout, and people travel from around the area to attend this mass.  Because of this, I assumed that there would be a large Spanish-speaking population within the county.  Based on the results of the map, my assumption was correct, however, I thought that it would be more spread out.  There was a larger Spanish-speaking population within the towns of East Orange, Bloomfield, and Newark, and not as large of a population in and near Caldwell.  In comparison to Caldwell, those three towns are on the opposite side of the map.  However, it is only about a 30-40 minute drive from Newark to Caldwell, so only making the trip once a week is not too bad.

Greeks in Brooklyn speaking English “less than well” Click for more options

A. Link to the map of the borough of Brooklyn (by Census Tract) focusing on Greek speakers who speak English “less than well” using the default “natural break” distribution.

B. We chose to move to our neighborhood  about eighteen years ago because it seemed to have a healthy Greek population so that his parents, who spoke no English, could visit and somehow be comfortable spending time in the neighborhood. On the other hand, it also wasn’t too Greek so that members of my Filipino family would also feel comfortable visiting and hanging out with us. Based on the results of this map, it seems we picked the right neighborhood for Greeks (Bay Ridge). In fact, we live just a block away from one of the most statistically dense parts of the neighborhood shown in the map!

Out of curiosity, I wanted to know where Tagalog speakers lived in Brooklyn, and found that there was no clustering in adjoining neighborhoods as observed with Greek speakers. If I mapped Queens, NY however, I would easily find both Greek and Tagalog speakers in very dense, distinct neighborhoods enclaves.

Talking about language on the radio

Way before Siri and Alexa, there was the Voder

While commuting between New York and New Jersey one evening, I tuned to the radio station…Read more of Anastasia Bushey’s post, Monday April 3, 20i7

Talking about language in the news

How much do you know about vowels?

…including how the most common vowel sound in English has no letter! Read more of Michelle Prizzi’s post, Tuesday November 15, 2016

The Fight for Climate Terminology

Posted by Thandiwe Kangwa  at Monday, October 31, 2016 9:28:21 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/opinion/we-dont-need-a-war-on-climate-change-we-need-a-revolution.html?_r=0

This article is about how we need to stop calling the issue of climate change a “war.” It stresses the importance of using different terminology universally so that nobody feels like they are on the “losing” side of the battle based on how much they have contributed to the cause. He analyzes the various lexical words that people tend to use when speaking about the problem that he presents and picks each apart due to their inability to unite people on something bigger than themselves.

 

From Colonization to Creole

Posted by Petal Joseph  at Monday, October 31, 2016 8:49:43 AM

https://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/Madden.htm

Many have wondered how it is that Caribbean creole came about. Why is it that after colonization for so long don’t they speak the language that was basically forced upon them? And though this might seem like a basic question with a straightforward answer, that is hardly the case. Jamaica is one country that was colonized by Britain, and like Britain, Jamaica has come up with their own standard English. But in many of cases such as with politicians, the use of both kinds of English are used.

  • Thandiwe Kangwa said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 10:21:40 AM EDT

It’s interesting how rather than taking on the language of their colonizers, Jamaicans went against the norm and made up their own English. Do you think they did this because they were trying to resist taking up the customs of the British? Was language the only thing that they didn’t adopt form the British?

 

Breaking Barriers in 2016

Posted by Dasia Green  at Monday, October 31, 2016 8:45:39 AM

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/05/18/these-gloves-turn-sign-language-into-speech.html

This article caught my attention because these two undergraduate students at the University of Washington invented a pair of gloves that translate sign language into verbal speech. The gloves read the hand gestures of the of the person using sign language and then the words are verbally translated. In our first class, we discussed artificial intelligence and the use of voice technology like Siri in reference to language. This article is an example of how technology is now a key element in breaking down language barriers.

 

Trial and errors with machine translations

Posted by  Christopher Osolinski  at Monday, October 31, 2016 8:34:38 AM

http://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/machine-translation

The article I picked discusses the growth of machine translations. Translation had become very popular due to the many solders in foreign lands and needing to somehow communicate with the people whom lived there. The ALPAC report decided that only fundamental words and sentences should be used and therefore the funding for these machine translations elsewhere. During the 80’s the machine translation began to become popular once more. Japan helped make this possible due to the number of linguistic willing to help and also a group of translators from the Canada whom were fluent in English and French. Machine translation is one of the most difficult forms of translation due to the fact that many languages have words with several meaning and grammar structures. Many of the translators working with these translation systems often refer to grammar books to ensure that they have the lexical, morphological. After World War Two machine, syntactic, and the semantic components down. By using basic books, it allows the researchers to have a good stepping stone to help them get into more advanced parts of the language.

 

Decades of Research, Decades of Mystery

Posted by  Bryan Sosa  at Monday, October 31, 2016 1:54:46 AM

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/dolphins-conversation-explained-words-sentences-language-animals/

Despite several years of research done on communication between dolphins, scientists are still unsure if dolphins are capable of using language. It is well known that dolphins are capable of understanding arbitrary language, (such as hand gestures and calls by trainers), but whether or not they use language in the wild remains a mystery. This article touches on the ideas of the differences between animal and human phonetics and arbitrary language discussed in class.

  • Derek Porter said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 10:22:17 AM EDT

Dolphins seem to have a some sort of etiquette when it comes to communication as they will not overlap or interrupt each other when communicating.

 

What exactly is an American accent ?

Posted by  Aahbab Chowdhury  at Monday, October 31, 2016 12:52:17 AM

http://www.pbs.org/speak/about/guide/

After reading this article by Robert MacNeil, I found it interesting that he acknowledges this notion of speaking “American,” he asks what does it really mean to speak American. Majority of us would agree that speaking or being American is speaking English. However he argues that it is much more complex than just speaking the language itself. He says that various different parts of the US speak differently which we would consider “accents”. I can relate to this because firstly when I came to the United States I was a little confused about what my friends, family meant by “accents”, not the word itself but the fact that people in the United States could speak the same language differently. The author goes a little into how society and the government plays a part in language. The upper class, middle, and lower class could all speak differently, and also they could have their own different ways of communicating. I found this article interesting because it reminded me about the people in Northern Australia who speak different languages. Even though they have 6-8 different languages they each had their own way of speaking them. These regional differences created their own styles and patterns. I think over time they built new phonetics and even the morphology of the words. Much like in English, we tend to develop a new style of writing, speaking, and even specific words that are regional such as “sidewalk” and “pavement” both mean the same thing but they are separated because of regional differences. There is not a right way to speak a language, in my opinion, language is a very relative form of art, and each individual will speak differently based on regional, societal, and other factors.

 

Not Too Late to Save!

Posted by  Diego Alvarez  at Monday, October 31, 2016 12:09:26 AM

https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=190174

Daryl Baldwin took it upon himself to learn his Native American tribe’s language of Myaamia, through the use of a word list from his late grandfather’s possessions and archived documents he was able to bring this language back to life. In class we have discussed the Death of a Language and this article is interesting to revive a language, which has given Mr. Baldwin incredible credit and furthering advancement in linguistics.

 

Who speaks Myaamia?

Posted by  Kenny Ramdhanie  at Sunday, October 30, 2016 11:39:33 PM

https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=190174

I chose this article as it covers the resurrection of the ancient Native American language, Myaamia, that was extinct for hundreds of years. In class we covered the extinction of language, the factors in which it was lost, but also how a language can be preserved. This article states that thanks to the documentation of the language through writings and recordings of linguist Daryl Baldwin, it is now a “vibrant” language for the Miami tribe in Oklahoma again after all of these years. I relate this article back to my own parents who both come from different cultures, and passed down their language traditions on to me.

  • Arnold Lopez-Majano said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 10:24:06 AM EDT

This is a big movement, restoring a language. Restoring a dead language allows people to get back in touch with their ancestral culture. I think a good question concerning this article is how much does language play a part in forming a person’s identity? Baldwin believes language shapes youth’s identities, but using my own background of speaking Spanish I now also question if it really played a large part in my identity.

 

Lack of Language Diversity in England as a Result of Prestige Language

Posted by  Sophia Lovito  at Monday, October 31, 2016 12:09:11 AM

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/161171-The-language-of-diversity
This article is about the fact that three-fifths of citizens of the UK cannot speak a foreign language, according to a Europe-wide survey. This is incredible to me because in the rest of Europe, more than half the citizens speak at least one foreign language. The reason I picked this article is because it goes against what we learned in class about the spread of language. The UK is one of the most multicultural societies in Europe. Also, the UK being one of the oldest nations, there is international trade and mixing of culture in relationships. One would think that there would be much more language spread. The reason for this the article states is because of the fact that Britain had the largest empire in the world for centuries has created today an intrinsic culture of what could be referred to as linguistic privilege. For example, “while the French have learned in recent decades to swallow their traditional linguistic chauvinism and a growing minority is embracing foreign languages, the British have been cushioned from this by America’s continued global dominance”. This is also relevant to the course because it identifies English as a global prestige language.

 

Sign of things to come

Posted by  Matthew Borriello  at Sunday, October 30, 2016 11:31:28 PM

http://www.aol.com/article/sports/2016/10/28/cheerleaders-perform-national-anthem-in-sign-language-for-all-de/21594129/

A group of cheerleaders at an all deaf school in California performed a cheer in sign language for the hearing impaired. It related to the nonverbal language that we have discussed multiple times in class.

 

Animal Communication

Posted by  Kayleene Wopershall  at Sunday, October 30, 2016 11:18:15 PM

http://www.nonhumanrightsproject.org/2012/11/18/washoe-the-first-chimpanzee-to-break-the-language-barrier/

So this article describes a situation where a chimpanzee was taught ASL and was able to fully use the language, even creating words when the sign was unknown. When it saw a duck in the pond it signed “water” and “bird” to describe it. The chimpanzee was also able to communicate empathy and emotion when the caretaker had said she had lost her baby and the chimpanzee signed “cry”. This definitely gives great support to the idea that chimpanzees can communicate as humans do, they just can’t speak how we do because their vocal chords are not developed as fully.

  • Danielle Patulot said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 10:39:30 AM EDT

It’s interesting to read that Washoe was not the only chimpanzee to learn how to use human communication, and that she even took the initiative to teach others, herself.

 

Speech Pathologists and Linguistic Anthropologists

Posted by  Tyler Sacalis  at Sunday, October 30, 2016 10:50:30 PM

http://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2015/07/09/phonetics-in-the-news/

In class we have discussed phonetics, speech pathology, and talked obviously about linguistic anthropologists. This relates to our class because speech pathologists and linguistic anthropologists have much in common. They both deal with issues regarding perceptions of speaking styles, speaking bodies, language variation, and speech sounds. I find it interesting that phonetics spreads between two related fields and can be explored by both pathologists and anthropologists.

  • Nicholas Keyes said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 10:20:12 AM EDT

It’s interesting how both deals with speech, however, speech pathology is helping people speak “normally” while linguistic anthropology looks at different languages as in normal themselves and study them. Speech pathology is considered a science/medicine to help people formulate the proper pronunciation and flow of words of a language while linguistic anthropology studies the different aspects of languages including the sound, meaning, and usage.

 

From Forbidden to Revived

Posted by  Danielle Patulot  at Sunday, October 30, 2016 10:49:46 PM

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/indiginous-languages-bc-1.3828536

This articles describes the shame brought upon people who spoke indigenous languages while in a residential school. They were often beaten or ridiculed when they spoke their own language as opposed to the prestige language in that school. However, those generations that were not brought up learning their parents’ language have ended up being the key to the indigenous language’s survival. I found such a twist in language development interesting, and it reminded me of our class discussions on monolingualism, multilingualism and a country’s development of prestige languages.

  • Kayleene Wopershall said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 10:37:53 AM EDT

I think it’s really interesting how the parents didn’t teach their children their native language, but, when they got older, the children decided it was important that their language not die and started to learn them. More and more people started learning their ancestors’ language and it became more normative for these indigenous languages to be taught. It completely changed the community to be accepting of these peoples and their cultures.

 

Coaching and the Importance of Paralanguage

Posted by  Caitlin O’Kane  at Sunday, October 30, 2016 10:40:47 PM

http://www.usahockey.com/news_article/show/615790-paralanguage-the-key-to-communication-for-coaches

In class we learned that paralanguage is something that occurs along with speech. These non-verbal elements of speech modify the semantics or meaning of what a person is saying. Some examples of paralangauge include, hand movements, pitch, & intonation. This article talks about the importance of what coaches say to their players as well as how they say it. One example they use in this article is coaching children. When coaching children it is important for coaches to modify their tone of voice, so the message is not perceived as irritated or annoyed with the child. The tone and body language that a coach has when speaking to a player changes the meaning of their message. This relates to what we have been learning in class because it is referencing paralanguage.

  • Brittany Morris said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 8:20:41 PM EDT

This article is interesting to see how differently language is used within sports along with the use of paralanguage among those of a younger age group.

 

Communicating in a Technological Generation

Posted by  Nicholas Demaio  at Sunday, October 30, 2016 9:39:27 PM

http://www.phinational.org/blogs/texting-vs-talking

We discussed non-verbal cues, tone of voice and body language. The article tries to explain that texting is taking over newer generations and that verbal communications are dissipating rapidly. Having a face-to-face conversation is what should be the dominant way of communicating, but technological advances are allowing it be suppressed more and more to the newer generations. It discusses how we cannot hear the tone of someone’s voice or see the facial expression they are making through text. At the same time, it is impossible to see any kind of body language as well. This article stood out to me because it is somewhat saddening when people would rather talk over devices rather than in person.

 

Is language death a bad thing?

Posted by  Evyania Constant  at Sunday, October 30, 2016 9:33:01 PM

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2009/11/whats-lost-when-a-language-dies/29886/

This article in the Atlantic is relevant to our studies of the effects of language loss. It discusses both sides of the argument in regards to language loss, and whether such a loss is inherently bad. However, I think it’s extremely interesting in that talks about the language loss as a sort of “memory loss.” When a language dies out, the way in which that language constructs the world is lost. We lose a unique perspective on life. Thinking of language loss in this way makes it feel like a much more serious issue.

 

Protolanguage vs Arbitrary

Posted by  Mia Clarke  at Sunday, October 30, 2016 8:11:21 PM

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21707183-researchers-uncover-ancient-links-between-majority-worlds

We discussed how language is arbitrary, meaning there is no real meaning to words, this was something that differentiated human language from animals. However this article discusses how words that sound the same, may in fact have the same meaning. William Jones talked about this in his theory of descriptive linguistics when he stated how languages have a parent or protolanguage which the other languages stem from.

 

Impending Language Death & the Fight for Preservation

Posted by  Gabriella Mottola  at Sunday, October 30, 2016 7:24:10 PM

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/blogs/forest-language-age-vikings-may-soon-disappear

This article directly relates to our course and what we have been learning as it has to do with a language that is dying out rapidly due to their regional barriers being penetrated by mass media, and the pending prestige language leaking in. Preservation efforts are being taken by the community to save their language, such as institutionalizing it by creating a preschool that is dedicated to teaching the language to the newest members of the community. I think this article is very cool because so little amount of people still speak this language so it is so incredibly unique to the community that the thought of losing this part of their identity is not possible and they are willing to do whatever they can to keep it alive.

  • Evyania Constant said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 10:20:42 AM EDT

What an interesting article! I wonder though, is it a good thing that these people are attempting to eradicate the Swedish language in order to preserve Elfdalian? Maybe a better approach would be to teach both languages, like those on Goulbourn Island, Australia do with English and their various other languages. It’s interesting to think about.

 

The Internet is leaking

Posted by  Arnold Lopez-Majano  at Sunday, October 30, 2016 6:12:00 PM

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-10971949

This article touches more on the creation of an individual language, the language that the Internet is spoken in. Essentially some of the words used on the Internet have made their way to being considered actual words by making it into the dictionary. I think it relates well to our class on how we come up with words and how we all agree on said words.

 

Disappearing Languages of New York

Posted by  Derek Porter  at Sunday, October 30, 2016 5:14:12 PM

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/nyregion/new-york-today-languages-disappearing-dialects.html

This discusses how “many of the 600 to 800 languages spoken in New York are endangered.” It relates to our discussion of language death, the gradual disappearance of a language by looking at the number of citizens who speak it, or in this case, lack of people who speak it.

  • Bryan Sosa said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 2:29:15 PM EDT

This article draws many parallels with the “Language Matters” documentary. Like Arnhem Land in Northern Australia, New York City is a melting pot of different cultures and languages. We learned in class that when multiple languages exists within a culture, a prestige language always arises. Due to NYC being located in America, it makes sense that the prestige language in the area is English. However the article also mentions other languages that have a strong hold in NYC, (Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Russian, and Haitian). There are hundreds of languages spoken in NYC, however several are considered endangered because those who speak it only belong to a small minority, either in the city itself or the world in general, (such as Hawaiian or Himalayan languages). There are less benefits to learning these languages when compared to the other more popular languages, so they are rarely passed down.

 

Babes among dragons

Posted by  Raniel Jardiel  at Sunday, October 30, 2016 4:18:41 PM

http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21706508-ambitious-parents-give-their-children-start-mandarin-babes-among-dragons?zid=319&ah=17af09b0281b01505c226b1e574f5cc1

This article from the Economist is talking about a prestige language. Contrary from what we talked about in class, Chinese is actually the prestige language in this article. English, especially in Asia, is the prestige language. But in this article, parents in the UK are starting to teach their children Mandrin because parents believe that Mandrin would help their children with business with China.

 

Illegal alien speaking very rare language dissatisfied with court translator

Posted by  Brittany Morris  at Sunday, October 30, 2016 3:35:44 PM

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/10/illegal_alien_speaking_very_rare_language_dissatisfied_with_court_translator.html

This article explains how an illegal alien named Rosa got tangled up within the justice system and because the court translator did not speak Mixtec which is a language that she spoke while in Mexico, it resulted in the removal of her three kids from her care. When Rosa went to court to testify, The court did not have interpretors for Mixtec and she was not able to understand what was going on within the court.

  • Stephen Patel said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 1:46:36 PM EDT

I think this article you picked is very interesting and brings into light larger issues that our justice system may have. The main topic is very clear. The larger issue here is that we have to make sure that our courts are representing people of all backgrounds equally and doing their best to give them all the resources they need to have a fair fight.

Political Speech Patterns

Posted by  Leonardo Alonso  at Saturday, October 29, 2016 11:31:48 PM

http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-speech-patterns-say-about-the-presidential-candidates-1459514959

The ideal way and guideline to rhetoric through political speech patterns. Social and public analysis of using certain phrases, context, and semantics are taken into consideration when identifying each candidates strength and weakness.

·        Raniel Jardiel said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 10:20:25 AM EDT

It’s kind of interesting how people believe how the charisma around a political speaker seems natural but in actuality, it’s all calculated.

The Myth of Confusion in Bilingual Babies

Posted by  Cynthia Cherrez  at Friday, October 28, 2016 12:45:45 PM

www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/health/views/11klass.html?_r=0

This article from the New York Times, explores the idea of being bilingual. However, what makes it much more interesting is that explores the idea of babies being bilingual from the tender months of four to six. According to the article, research has shown that bilingual babies develop different and helpful skills when compared to babies who do not know a second language. Personally, I can say being bilingual is a blessing and would hope this article would encourage parents to introduce another language to their children as soon as possible.

·        Julia Beyer said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 10:21:59 AM EDT

I think this article is very interesting. Coming from a bilingual family, as well, I can see how introducing a new language to a child is beneficial when done at a young age. There are many different advantages of being bilingual including an increased vocabulary, better cultural appreciation, and the ability to converse with a variety of other people who share that language(s).

You say po-ta-to, I say pa-ta-to

Posted by  Nicholas Keyes  at Thursday, October 27, 2016 7:30:27 PM

http://www.businessinsider.com/dialects-of-american-english-2013-12

This article describes the different dialects of the US, across the whole country. It is amazing to see that almost every state, or region of states, have a different dialect which stems from their historical languages.

·        Tyler Sacalis said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 10:21:47 AM EDT

Drawing on the topic of how most every state or region of states have their own dialect, I find the Southern dialect very, very interesting. In the map shown in the article, the Gulf Southern dialect only spans one area over the entire map whereas some other dialects span over a greater area of the nation. I think this is a testament to why the Southern dialect is very distinct and focused.

 

Gorilla fluent in sign language

Posted by  Julia Beyer  at Thursday, October 27, 2016 1:29:19 PM

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jun/14/koko-the-rhyming-gorilla-and-the-woman-trying-to-get-her-pregnant

This relates to the idea that animals are not capable of human-like conversation. While this gorilla named Koko may not be able to articulate actual vocal language, she is fluent in sign language. She is able to invent words such as “finger bracelet” to mean “ring.” While this is an interesting case, it may require revisiting the idea that animals are not capable of human language.

 

Nonverbal Communication throughout the Presidential Debates

Posted by  Logan Perez  at Thursday, October 27, 2016 11:07:50 AM

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2016/09/27/body-language-in-the-presidential-debate-said-more-about-us-than-about-the-candidates/#4c0b1dc95332

This article demonstrates how the Presidential Debates are not only about what the candidates say verbally, but it’s also what they communicate nonverbally. This relates to what we have previously discussed in class regarding nonverbal communication and para language during lectures. My selected article focuses on the candidates’ use of nonverbal signals to communicate status and warmth.

 

My Language is My Heritage…

Posted by  Cristina Cosme  at Wednesday, October 26, 2016 6:44:28 PM

http://blogs.wsj.com/expat/2016/language-heritage-and-a-multilingual-world/

This article talks about raising a multilingual child. Olga speaks about the struggles she encounters while trying to teach her child her language. Like Olga, I also think that it is important for a child to know their parents’ language. Language is a big part of a culture. It is important for a parent to teach their child about where they come from. Through language you can learn so many things from a culture. It relates with the video we saw in class and our discussions about culture. Language is a big part of culture and thus in some countries and in some homes it is ideal for languages to be passed down generation to generation. Knowing the language of your parents is knowing where they come from. No matter how prestigious or not your language is, you should always be proud of it for it is your heritage.

 

Only Humans Can Talk!

Posted by  Nakisha Cossogue  at Wednesday, October 26, 2016 3:19:35 PM

www.alphadictionary.com/articles/ling002.html

I chose the article titled ” Can Chimpanzees Talk?” because it basically supports the discussion we had in class about human language. We learned that animals are limited to certain sounds and while humans have a little more expansive language. The reason for that is because humans became bipedal when we evolved. This statement is supported in the article in which the writer states that chimpanzees “vocal cords are located higher in their throats and cannot be controlled as well as human vocal cords.” Another reason why they cannot talk is because they do not have duality and double articulation, in other words they lack the ability to combine sounds. Even if they were able to make sounds, animals also lack displacement which is the ability to talk about things in the past.

Esperanto: A Language to Unite Humankind

Posted by  Laura Mendez  at Wednesday, October 26, 2016 2:47:18 PM

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/31/a-language-to-unite-humankind

The article details the origins of Esperanto, a language created by a Jewish Russian ophthalmologist as a response to the nationalism and ethnic division caused by language he experienced growing up in the former Russian Empire. Ludovik Zamenhof created Esperanto using a variety of Romance and Germanic languages, with a phonology that is described as Slavic, with a very simple grammar that only recognizes two verb tenses (past and future), has little differentiation according to gender; it is a language that constructs words by adding prefixes and suffixes to existing roots. This article is significant because it examines the idea that language can be a factor of division in places where many groups of people co-exist, just as it can be a tool for unification–and as Zamenhof hoped, peace.

·        Cristina Cosme said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 11:54:18 PM EDT

Zamenhof took into consideration the difficulties of learning a new language, making sure Esperanto was easy to learn in hopes for unification. Same for the importance of having a dictionary and making it freely available for all to see was key in developing this language.

 

Lucy The Human Chimp

Posted by  Andrew Gattas  at Wednesday, October 26, 2016 1:39:50 PM

http://www.radiolab.org/story/91706-lucy/

Lucy is a chimp that was adopted by a psychologist and his wife and they experimented with the chimp to see how human she could become. It turns out that Lucy portrayed very human like behavior and it goes to show that animals are sometimes just like humans in the way we communicate.

Children With Tourette Syndrome Have Language Advantage

Posted by  Alanna Beauchamp  at Wednesday, October 26, 2016 11:53:47 AM

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160929111456.htm

Vigorous experiments have proven that children with Tourette’s are faster at assembling sounds into words which is also known as phonology. They are also faster at putting meaningful parts of words together, known as morphology. These two concepts are crucial in formulating coherent grammar. In class, we have spoken about all the factors that go into creating grammar and I thought this article was very interesting in showing how accelerated skills in each individual component can create faster and more flexible language.

·        Mia Clarke said…

Monday, October 31, 2016 10:22:52 AM EDT

The article you chose is very interesting and it makes me think of the story we read, Flowers of Algernon, how Charlie was able to put together words even though he had a mental disability, like how your article discusses. So if kids with Tourettes are faster at putting meaningful words together, what about the words that aren’t as meaningful (fillers, hedges, etc.)?