Glotters - Language Challenges

Challenge: cognates, loanwords, foreign words, calques

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:57:00 +0000

Language Alpha went to see the historical linguists to get a wider overview about his changes. The historical linguists asked a lot of questions and tried to put Alpha’s elements into categories: cognates, loanwords, foreign words and calques. Alpha gave a list of words to the linguists, but he was in trouble with categorizing them. He collected three words for each category.

Here is the list:

Music, world view, cafè, father, by heart, magazine, déjà vu, night, daughter, joy, mea culpa, flea market.

Put the words into categories. Write your answer in the comments!

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Challenge: calques

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:54:00 +0000

Long, long ago, when the world was new and the animals could talk, Language Epsilon and Language Rho went to the same school. Today they are going to do a test, but unfortunately Language Rho hasn’t prepared for the test. The first part will be describing the types of calques and give examples of each type. However, Language Rho doesn’t even know what calque means. So, he decides to cheat by copying what Language Epsilon writes. Rho is an experienced cheater, so he will not copy exactly word-for-word from Epsilon, but he will translate the answers into his language. Epsilon has already written down the categories: semantic calque, phraseological calque, syntactic calque, loan-translation and morphological calque. Now she has just to write some examples: marché aux puces, gratte-ciel, souris, surhomme, sourd-muet, Cela va sans dire, L’esprit de l’escalier.

How did Rho translate them into his language which is English? Which categories do these calques belong to?

Write your answers in the comments!

Challenge: pidgin, creole and mixed languages

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:51:00 +0000

There was a magical kingdom very far away, called Glottaland. All languages originate from Glottaland. All languages were born in a very small but magical house where three magician creators were creating the languages. They worked from orders. One day they got three similar orders from a client. They were asked to create a pidgin, a creole and a mixed language. The ingredients were put in small jars, but unfortunately there were not labeled as to which languages each ingredient was for. In addition, the ingredient manager magician took a day off. So, the other two magicians had to manage the situation. They started reading the ingredients and tried to find out which jars belong to which languages.

These words were written on the first jar:

Two languages; fluent speakers of both languages; persistent code-switching elements; grammatical materials, for example: nouns, numerals, definite/indefinite articles, possessive pronouns, some adverbs and adjectives from the dominant language; lexicon of the other language.

Here are the ingredients of the second jar:

A natural language; native speakers of the language; innate linguistic capacities; fully developed vocabulary but essential vocabulary are taken from the parent languages; semantic transparency; more complex grammar rules with new features; fixed phonology, morphology and syntax.

And the third jar:

Two languages; regular contact between two languages; no fluent speakers of the other language; a need for communication; simplified grammar; core vocabulary; onomatopoeia; monophthongization; uncomplicated clausal structure.

Which ingredients are for which languages? Write them in order in the comments!

Challenge: cognates, false cognates

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:49:00 +0000

Many years ago, in the early ages of the world, there was a huge and tall tower in the center of Glottaland. The tower was a very important place for the languages and language elements because they had reunions and organized events and programs there. One day, a birthday party of the English language was organized there but not everyone was invited. As they had experienced a terrible event in the tower in the past, a big confusion of languages and they wanted to avoid a similar event this time. That’s why, the organization decided that only cognates of English words could enter in order that everyone could understand each other. Everybody was asked to prepare a descendant certificate that they had to present at the entrance.

A group of words arrived and wanted to enter. The security asked everyone to show their certificate.

The first word was ‘Stern’: ‘I am a German word. I share the same origin and meaning as the English star.’

The second word was ‘habere’: ‘I am a Latin word and I share the same origin and meaning as the English ‘have’.

The third word was ‘mucho’: ‘I am a Spanish word with the same meaning and etymology as the English ‘much’.

The fourth word was ‘ego’: I am a Greek word and I have the same derivation and meaning as the English ‘I’.

The fifth word was ‘papier’: I am a French word with the same meaning and etymology as the English ‘paper’.

However, two of them couldn’t enter the party because they were false cognates. Which words are these? Write your answers in the comments!

Challenge: code switching, code mixing

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:45:00 +0000

Did you ever hear the story of the twins, code-switching and code-mixing? Well, I will tell you. They have a very very big problem. They were so similar to each other that nobody could distinguish them. Not even their mother. In addition, sometimes they also got confused which is one and which is the other. One day their mother has decided to solve this problem. That’s why she sent them to a linguist.

The twins introduced themselves but they were so confused that they didn’t remember their names any more.

One of them started the introduction:

‘I am confused. My mother speaks one language, my father speaks another one. When I was child, I mixed elements of these two languages. I went through a long period in which I was borrowing elements from one language to another without being aware of what I was doing. I was producing expressions by combining elements of both languages and putting them into the same sentence. I was doing this because sometimes I didn’t know the right word in one language while I remembered it in the other language. I don’t do it consciously. I think, I speak my mother’s language better than my father’s language’

The other brother introduced himself too:

‘I am also confused. I also live in bilingual situations as our parents are the same. I speak both languages very well. I put elements from the other language while I am with my friends. We have some special words to express special concepts and it’s cool to use them between us instead of the standard versions. So, I do it consciously. It can happen that I don’t have the right term in one language and that’s why I prefer to use a term from the other language, but usually I do it in technical situations. As you can see, I am a very conscious person unlike my brother. This is our main difference.’

Which one is code-switching and which one is code-mixing? Write your answer in the comments.

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Challenge: extinct languages

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:43:00 +0000

Language Alpha has gone to the language cemetery because he wants to visit his ancestors. He encountered some language ghosts on his way there. In the beginning he was a little bit scared but gathered his courage and asked them who they are.

The first language introduced himself:

‘My name is Partatua. I am a very old language ghost. I come from Eurasia and I am a warrior. Linguists classified me as an Indo-European language, more specifically, an Eastern Iranian language. I am surprised how they did it because I didn’t leave much traces of my language, only personal and tribal names. But you know, linguists know this stuff. In addition, some scholars claimed that I had two dialects: the Alanian languages and Saka languages.’

The second language continued:

‘Hello. I am Cato and I am a politician. I come from the Italian Peninsula. I am a classical language and belong to the Indo-European language family. I am very famous. My word roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. I was an official language of some European states. I am a synthetic, fusional language. My regular nouns belong to one of five main declensions. I have seven noun cases. I have four main verb conjugations.’

Here is the third language’s introduction:

‘I am Nesha, a princess from north-central Anatolia. I am an Anatolian language but I am also classified as an Indo-European language, but I don’t have all Indo-European features. For example, I don’t have genders or subjunctive and optative moods, and aspect. My language records are attested from the 16^th century to the 13^th century BC. I used a cuneiform writing system. I am famous from my cuneiform tablets and inscriptions erected by the kings of my realm.’

And here comes the last one:

‘My name is Lianna. I am a priestess of a Ziggurat in a city state in southern Mesopotamia. I am the most ancient language in the word that has been found until today. I was first attested in about 3100 BC. I am a language isolate. I have two main dialects: eme-ĝir and eme-sal. I also used a cuneiform writing system. I am an agglutinative, split ergative, and subject-object-verb language.’

Which languages did Alpha encounter? Write your answer in order in the comments.

Challenge: Language change 2

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:42:00 +0000

Language Alpha has gone to the hospital for further diagnosis because he has been going through changes. He has to go to etymology, onomasiology, semasiology, and semantics. However, he has forgotten where he had to begin. That’s why he asks information from the reception.

Alpha: ‘Hello. My therapist referred me to several places in order to better understand my changes, but I don’t remember where I have to begin. He told me to go to another therapist first who will ask me questions like ‘how do you express an X object or concept?’. It must be in the department of lexicology. According to my therapist, I have difficulties in classifying the thing to be named and I avoid words that are phonetically similar or identical to negatively associated words.’

The receptionist seemed to have trouble finding out which department Alpha was talking about, but after some hesitation, he answered: ‘I think, you are searching for etymology.’

Alpha: ‘Ok, thanks. Well, for the second one, I have to go another place. Can you help me to find its name? My therapist told me that we have to understand the origin of my words and how they changed over time. I remember, that this specialist works with the comparative method to find the word roots.’

The receptionist: ‘Aha! You have to go to semantics.’

Alpha: ‘Great! After that, I have to go to another specialist who also will ask questions, but in the opposite way: ‘what does the X word mean or how do you express X ideas or concepts?’ This specialist must work in lexicology too.’

The receptionist: ‘Yes, I know this specialist. She works in the department of semantics.’

Alpha: ‘Ok, and the last one is a specialist who will analyze the meaning of my units of my discourse like words, phrases and sentences. Actually he will discourse analyze me. I am a little bit concerned because it’s a long process and he will know everything about me: the relationship between my signifiers—like words, phrases, signs, and symbols—and what they stand for, their denotation.’

The receptionist: ‘I know him. He works in onomasiology.’

Language Alpha followed the receptionist’s directions but surprisingly, he went to the wrong places. Where should he have he gone first, second, and so on? Write it in the right order!

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Challenge: Language change 1

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:41:00 +0000

The big day has arrived. Today is the day of the biggest linguistic conference ever organized for the topic of language change. Many important scholars and professors are invited. The conference will be conducted by the four most important professors from linguistic fields which deal with language change: historical linguistics, descriptive linguistics, evolutionary linguistics and sociolinguistics. However, something went wrong with the organization, because their names and their branches are put in the wrong order.

Professor Lam studies how languages are used by analyzing them objectively. She has a structural approach. She analyzes how people communicate in different environments, and never says how a language should be, but she accepts it as it is to describe it. She deals with the phonology, the morphology, the syntax and lexical derivation of a language.

Professor Ayin deals with the following issues: he observes and describes changes in certain languages; he reconstructs the pre-history of languages in order to understand their relationships; he groups languages in language families and he studies the history of words.

Professor Kaf’s works focuses on how language varieties differ from each other in given groups. He studies the social motivations of language change, code-switching and language shift in speech communities, high and low prestige varieties, and so on. He often collects data by conducting interviews.

Professor Alif has a very interesting branch. She studies the origin of language and the development of linguistic universals. However, she has to face a big challenge in her field: the lack of fossil records. She has an adaptationist approach to language origins. She is interested in big questions like whether human language origins must be looked as a continuum of animal communication or it is unique to human.

What linguistics branches do the professors belong to?

Leave me a comment.

The most difficult language in the world

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:38:00 +0000

The Language Realm has been organizing a Language Talent Show with the title of ‘The most difficult language in the world’. About 6000 languages have applied as candidates for the title, but only 5 languages reached the finals. The jury of the Realm has to decide which one to give the title to according to the performance of the languages. They established the factors they will consider: writing system, grammar structure and vocabulary from an English-speaker point of view.

The first language starts with the performance:

’My name is Language Tau. I am an East-Asian language. I am especially difficult because of my three independent writing systems —hiragana, katakana, and kanji — which each have a different alphabet. My other difficulty lies in my very complicated grammar because I am an agglutinative language. I have many levels of politeness that use distinct vocabulary and grammar. I am the most difficult language in the world and I enjoy support by 130 million people in my country.’

Here comes the second language’s performance:

’I am Language Eta. My country lies in North-Europe. I am also an agglutinative and synthetic language and in addition I have 15 grammatical cases, so the smallest change in the end of the word can significantly change its meaning. Both nouns and verbs have a large number of inflectional types. I have only 5 million supporters but I feel strong enough to win the competition.’

The third language comes up with the performance:

’ I am Language Lambda. I am immediately recognizable from my beautiful flowing script. My writing system is especially difficult because I don’t use vowels in my writings, only consonants that’s why it’s hard to understand which word is written for a learner. I am the official language of 26 states, but I have many dialects, so if a learner learns only one of them, he will not able to converse with the speakers of another dialect. I have a complex and unusual morphology. I construct words from a basic root.’

The fourth language presents this way:

‘My name is Language Sigma. I am a small language with only 10 million supporters, but I am very strong and resistant. I am circled by Slavic and Germanic languages but I am still alive and not influenced by them. I have the most difficult grammar rules in the world. I am an agglutinative language. I have about 26 cases. I have definite and indefinite conjugations which are unique among languages. My vocabulary is also particular because I don’t like using international words, I prefer to create a new word for them.’

And at the end, the fifth language comes:

‘I am Language Pi. I am a huge language. I am supported by about a fifth of the total world population. I have the most difficult writing system. The characters are like complex drawings and there are so many of them, that it takes almost infinite time to learn them. Each of them, represents a monosyllabic word or morpheme. My other speciality is that I use four main tones for characters. I have many homophones.’

The jury will make its decision based on the audience’s votes! What language would you vote for? Or do you have other candidates? Which languages are Tau, Eta, Lambda, Sigma and Pi in reality?

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The easiest language to learn in the world

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 12:36:00 +0000

Tarzan immediately needed a language. A human language. When he was found by humans, they failed to communicate with him because Tarzan lacked a human language. The humans started discussing which language to teach him. The language had to be very very easy to teach and to learn from an English speaker point of view as they were Englishmen. They invited about 6000 languages who had to present themselves, but at the end, only five languages remained. However, the Englishmen couldn’t make their decision yet.

Here is the first language’s introduction:

‘I am Language Kappa. I am a huge language being world's second-most spoken native language. I am an official language of three continents. I am a member of a very famous language family in Europe. I am a fusional language. My noun and adjective systems have two genders and two numbers. I use prepositions, my pronunciation is very easy. The ‘v’ consonant is pronounced as ‘b’.’

The second language:

‘My name is Language Mu. I am influenced by other languages like Arabic, English, French, German and Portuguese, so I can be a good choice for learning. I am spoken by 140 million people in East Africa. I can say that I am the lingua franca of the continent. I have only 5 vowels and 36 consonants. I don’t use verb conjugations, I use word roots and affixes to express verb tense and subjects.’

The third language:

‘I am Language Gamma. I am also a big language with about 125 million speakers worldwide. I belong to the same language family as Kappa, but I am easier because I have fewer verb forms than him. I am the most romantic language in the word and because of my Latin-based vocabulary, I share cognates with many languages.’

The fourth language comes to introduce herself:

‘My name is Language Iota. I am smaller than the former languages as I am spoken only by 22 million people, but my language is very easy for English-speakers as my sounds are very similar to English sounds. In addition, I belong to the same language family with English. I have many loan words from Romance languages.’

And the last one, the fifth language comes:

‘I am Language Omicron. I have two very close relatives with whom I can converse without any problems, but I am the easiest language between us. So, if you learn me, you will have gained three languages. I live in North-Europe. I also belong to the same language family as English. I have three genders, my nouns are inflected or declined in definiteness (indefinite/definite) and number (singular/plural).’

If you could decide, which language would you choose as the easiest among these five? Or do you have another candidate? Which languages are Kappa, Mu, Gamma, Iota and Omicron in reality?

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