Notice that Anguilla is
listed, that Caribbean country
singled out by V. S. Naipaul in the 1960s as the smallest country on earth.
English is spoken in 88 countries, as "official" language if not
national language. USA has no
national language. The rubric for English was far and away the largest among
all the languages. I felt proud to be a speaker. I like to be in majorities, so
used to the inverse distinction.
I estimate having edited around 430 different lists; we
went through several rounds in the course of evolving a suitable cross between
scientific notation and comprehensibility by the casual reader. To get an idea
of how many languages I encountered, you could guess that each averaged around
at least 10 languages, though many were shorter than that and many also longer,
some up to 150 KB and 15 single-spaced pages. We alphabetized the languages on
each list, but many also contained genetic charts showing interrelationships.
Languages on a list range from completely unintelligible to nearly identical.
Think about it: as speakers of a Germanic language, English, we can understand
Cockney and creole versions but not Norwegian or
Dutch. Tiny chunks of Danish (e.g. 'they are') may jump out at us as completely
clear amid gibberish, because between 750 and 1000 CE Danes settled in the
center and southeast of England and inevitable assimilation resulted. Edward Finegan's article on English for the second edition
specifies, in the following order, the languages that have most influenced or
"invaded" English: French, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek,
German, Yiddish, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic. Our basic vocabulary has evolved
to number some 170,000 lemmas. The higher your social class, the more formal
your idiolect tends to be; the more relaxed one is, the more one's speech is
said to slide down the "social scale." Linguists cannot explain this
correlation between degree of formality and amount of "pedigree." To
cut off the –g of the progressive suffix –ing
is a feature of lower-class dialects
in both this country and England and it
also characterizes less formal English at every level of society.
In eastern Sudan, speakers
of Tennet use the language Toposa
for ox names and songs. Speakers of Inari Sami (400 in Finland) use
their language exclusively for their work as reindeer herdsmen. Otherwise they
speak Standard Finnish. Among the Mon Khmer languages, one variety of Bru, spoken in India and SE Asia, holds the world's record
for contrastive vocalic nuclei, 68 (that
is, possible vowels in major syllables). Some 83 languages from all over the
world are listed as "unclassified," many of them from Latin
America, including Haitian
Vodoun Culture Language, "also called Langay,
Langaj. Spoken in Haiti. Used
for religion, song, dance." Another unclassified language, Amerax, is
spoken in USA
"exclusively by Neo-Muslims in prisons. There are no mother tongue
speakers." The Tangut-Qiang language Ersu, spoken by 4,000 in southern China (branch of
Tibeto-Burman), "has a pictographic script, Ersu
Shaba Picture Writing, in which the color used is reported to play a role in
expressing meaning, used in religious ceremonies."
I would lift my eyes from the extremely technical editing
to try to project to the reality. Even as I sat at my desk, 21 people as of
1990 were speaking Guugu-Yimidhirr in Queensland, Australia, a
branch of the Pama-Nyungan [controversial
classification] family of Australian languages.
Say something in Guugu-Yimidhirr. The only
surviving related language, Barrow Point, was
spoken by one speaker the last time anyone checked. It was "formerly
spoken on Cape York Peninsula, Barrow
Point, on Princess Charlotte Bay and
inland," the list specifies. Nothing I can do will bring back Barrow
Point. I fancy myself traveling there to find the language and
keep it alive. Surely the people there know some English and would at best
smile and shrug their shoulders. "No more. Used to talk lots. Old people
all dead now." Can you envision the Kiplingesque
scenario? Me in Khakis with yellow pad and pencil surrounded by scantily clad
natives all wanting to trade information for technological gismos or worse? I
try to picture people pronouncing language names like Guugu-Yimidhirr,
Gunwingguan, Djamindjungan,
Galgadungic. Then there are languages like Fur and Gur (Gur being one of the longest
lists I worked on).
I came across the terms creole
and pidgin and wondered what the difference was –both occur
frequently as part of official language names— and how both differed from patois,
the latter of which descended etymologically from the more primitive mode of
rubbing paws to communicate. A Creole is defined as a person of European descent
who migrated to the West Indies, and by
extension the descendants of these people. Generically the term evolved to mean
the resultant language after two disparate groups (speakers of two
unintelligible languages) coexist for generations, with one of the two
languages becoming "typically dominant." Webster's New World
College Dictionary, 4th ed., defines pidgin as "a
mixed language or jargon incorporating the vocabulary of one or more languages
with a very simplified form of the grammatical system of one of them and not
used as the main language of any of its speakers." A patois is
defined as a "form of language differing generally from the accepted
standard, as a provincial or local dialect."
The very first language I tackled was at the start of the
alphabet, Admiralty Islands. Here
follows a portion of that list:
<ET>Admiralty Islands Languages <TXT>are spoken in Papua
New Guinea, on the Admiralty
Islands (to the north of the island of New
Guinea); they constitute a top-level
component of <sc>Oceanic </sc>.
<LNG>Language
List
<A>Andra-Hus: also called Ahus, Ha'us. 810 speakers in Papua
New Guinea. Manus Province, Andra and Hus Islands.
<A>Elu: 215 speakers in Papua
New Guinea. Manus Province, north
coast of Manus Island. Most
speakers are bilingual in Kurti.
<A>Ere: also called Nane, E. 1,030
speakers in Papua New Guinea. Manus Province, south
coast, Drabitou, Lohe, Londru, Metawari, Pau, Piterait, Taui-Undrau, Hatwara, and Loi villages.
Speakers are highly bilingual in Kele.
<A>Kele: also
called Gele. 600 speakers in Papua
New Guinea. Manus Province, south
coast inland, Buyang, Droia,
Kawaliap, Koruniat, Tingau. Bilingualism in Kurti,
Ere.
<A>Koro: 400
speakers in Papua New Guinea. Manus Province. Close
to, and possibly intelligible with, Papitalai. All
ages. All or most domains. All, or nearly all the ethnic group speak Koro.
<A>Kurti: also
called Kuruti, Kuruti-Pare,
Ndrugul. 2,600 speakers in Papua
New Guinea. Manus Province, north
central coast. None are monolingual. 95% use Tok Pisin, 30% use English as second languages, 30% can use Kele or Mondropolon. All ages.
All domains. Oral use in first 3 grades of school, singing and preaching in
church, personal letters. Vigorous. Parents pass it on to children. Speakers
have a positive attitude toward Kurti.
Etc.
Eastern Admiralty Islands
Manus
East Manus
Andra-Hus,
Elu, Ere, Kele, Koro, Kurti, Leipon,
Lele, Nali, Papitalai, Ponam, Titan
Mokoreng-Loniu
Loniu, Mokerang
Pak-Tong
West Manus
Bipi,
Bohuai, Hermit, Khehek, Likum, Mondropolon, Nyindrou, Sori-Harengan
Southeast Islands
Baluan-Pam, Lenkau,
Lou, Nauna, Penchal
Western Admiralty Islands
Kaniet, Seimat,
Wuvulu-Aua
It seemed to me that most of the lists I edited were of languages that came
from
Papua New Guinea and
that if anywhere in the world could be called a Babel, that
would be it. The encyclopedia confirms that "this [the island of New
Guinea, which also includes West Papua, Indonesia] is
linguistically the most complex region in the world, with approximately 1,200
languages — 25 percent of the world's total."
But consider how many languages are spoken in the USA these
days and how fewer and fewer of the recent immigrants are bothering to learn
English because they settle in ethnic enclaves. If Americans used to be
condemned for their monolingualism, these days more
and more polyglots abound here, though not necessarily the tourist population
that tends to put off the characteristically polyglot Europeans.
Then someone bombed all those tourists nightclubbing in
Bali, not far from Papua New Guinea and even closer to Papua, Indonesia (the
latter calls for a comma, the former not, for reasons I don't know). If any
place in the world is safe since 9/ll, I don't know where it is. What
distinguishes languages in paradise from those spoken in hell? Warm-weather
languages from those spoken in places like Greenland and the
Aleutian Islands? Does
one find practices like cutting off the final –g from –ing suffixes more often in paradise than a cluttered
industrial district in Siberia, if
such a thing exists? Or does economic status dominate more? The Eskimos have so
many words for snow as people in Papua
New Guinea have for ocean,
perhaps? Certain varieties of fish or sand or trade winds?
I traveled all over the world at my desk working on
language lists without need of the Internet. Noam Chomsky has pointed out that
we are at the dawn of discovering universal tendencies that transcend regionality; but he adds that we are light years away from
understanding the languages of insects. The lower phyla have mastered all sorts
of higher science, like the aeronautics of the butterfly, that still elude us.
We have these gigantic, imperfect, noisy and klutzy concoctions that badly
parody the perfected mobility of avians, more compact
ones that attempt to reduplicate the human brain, but nothing to replace
mother's milk or even come close to the love and kindness of the human heart at
its best (though Spielberg's film A.I. suggested a robot analog). Amoebas reproduce
without pain. The ones who threaten constantly to destroy it all, or most of
it, are at the top of the species chain, or so they think, and one of the main
elevating factors is the faculty of language, or so we think. God created
foreign languages as punishment – remember? The story is in Genesis. Before the
Babel episode
we all spoke one language. So elevation in a way was a punishment for attempted
elevation. Are the languages of hell as a result far more advanced than those
spoken in paradises? Language distinctions resulted from human ambition, our
drive to approach God.
Without
language, where would we be? What do we take more for granted? We could not
question life without language. We communicate, therefore we are.
Severina
Linguistica
Copyright
© Marta Steele 2002-2003. Completed in February 2003. All Rights reserved.
****************************************************************************************************
APOLOGIUM: WHY TRADE BOOKS ARE
BETTER, PERIOD
Why has it taken me this long to figure out something blatantly
obvious to anyone who has set foot in academe for the last several hundred
years at least? I knew that I have returned myself to the academy for a reason:
to grease the wheels of thought and generate fresh literary pursuits. Those
wheels are grinding to a start with cantankerous reluctance, but grinding they
are. I sat at my kitchen table today, gagging on breakfast, in that I can
hardly eat a morsel until well after noon, thinking
about directing research projects of my bewildered freshmen. Why do I not
direct them toward monographs rather than trade paperbacks? How can I allow
them to read books without footnotes to incorporate into their argumentative
logic backed by secondary sources?
Those who write those trade paperbacks,
or whoever actually writes them, also succeed in selling them, while academic
monographs grow dusty on warehouse shelves. It has something to do not so much
with level of difficulty at all as level of enthusiasm and demand. Trade
authors don't have to publish;
academic authors do. Trade authors, or their ghostwriters anyway, have
something to say and usually a receptive audience waiting to hear it. Trade authors
write for us while academic authors write to maintain their tenure tracks. For
this reason, the former category have a lot to say and don't need to couch it
in obscure, inaccessible verbosity, viz.:
but some such trichotomy
would help to free him … from the dichotomous coils of
"irreconcilable alternatives" of image and word
in which he situates his own deferred and
frustrated intervention….
[H]e is like the critical theorist or
"dogmatic idealogue" [sic]
who whole-heartedly embraces the imaginative fiction of interpretation by spurning
the vain epistemological impasse of the objectivist
universality of truth versus the subjectivist relativity of culture.
Some of the most reprehensible prose ever
written, but who ever reads it? Why did I spend so much of my professional life
attempting to make sense of it when that was not the point? Just convince some
needy publisher to transpose the gibberish into a book format, be sure it is
too obscure to be comprehensible, because if translated into everyday English
it would make absolutely no sense, and voilà, another
tenured professor emerges, someone who may, if we're lucky, be a skillful
instructor if not writer; if so, all those trees may not have died completely
in vain.
Not to laud every trade published product,
but to say, given the choice, that I will always choose trade over academic if
I want to learn something and academic over trade to edit and earn a few spare
nickels, because I never stop trying to translate the incomprehensible and
never stop trying to improve what needs to be improved.
The next time you come across a monograph
worth reading that is not a reprint, let me know. Accidents always happen, and
I have received a superb education as a result.
Marin X. Sickamore
****************************************************************************************************
REACTION:
EDITING
ONCE AGAIN DENIGRATED: THIS TIME FROM WITHIN
AS AN AUTHOR,would you want someone editing your book who
up front adm>itted he knew positively nothing about the subject matter? Suppose
you were a specialist, a physician for instance, and had been told your editor
had worked within the specific field for years. Then you hear from your amused
editor that he knows utterly zilch about the content. He admits this, as a
matter of fact, in front of a TV audience nationwide on one of the most popular
game shows around, Jeopardy (12/7/00).
As an editor myself, I habitually refuse
books written on subjects I know nothing about. I have enough trouble editing
books within my special field. There are times when details are such an
overwhelming preoccupation that I never get beyond them to content, but in such
instances the books have theoretically already been reviewed and corrected at
other levels. I focus on the grids, the charts, the intricacies of ancient
Greek and Latin down to each minute diacritic, checking for the accuracy of words
and dialect…. so that there are enough obstacles between me and understanding
at every level of even books in my special field.
That editor who appeared on Jeopardy and, incidentally, lost his championship
that same night, might have shifted his emphasis to say that he specialized in
language and expression and articulation rather than specific scientific
subjects. That might have shad a more dignified perspective on the way he
spends 40 hours a week of his life. But to have laughed and admitted he
pretends he knows what his authors are talking about when he doesn't and to
speak as if he represented his entire profession was a huge blow to others of
us who have profited immeasurably from the diverse reading opportunities we
have been given as generalists as well as specialists. Whatever temporary
madness seized this contestant, or honesty, he must have felt the consequences
from his employers who were undoubtedly tuned in. I hope he lost his job, because
to have represented his profession in such an irresponsible and offhand fashion
is inexcusable. If he doesn't take it seriously, someone else will, and
undoubtedly do a far better job at it.
Severina Grammatica
All
3 essays above, copyright © Marta Steele 2010. All rights reserved. The test
below was borrowed from a company advertising for a freelancing position for which I applied but was not hired. Perhaps
I flunked. Judge for yourself, as Kierkegaard entitled one of his volumes a long time ago.
****************************************************************************************************
Correction Exercise
Correct the following
sentences for errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, or word
use. To make sentences stronger or more concise, you may also move phrases,
eliminate words, or change words. Use the Track Changes function.
1. A group of
diocesan communication directors plan to previeware
planning on pre-viewing the video A
Different Path.
2. We need a new
criteria for selectingdeciding
which articles for to incude in
the newsletter.
3. The bishop reviewed the first draft of
the text, and volunteered to write the foreward.
4. Often compassion
forwe see a lack of solidarty
toward those who
areour society’s least fortunateweakest
members—impoverished or otherwise disabled senior
citizens, those who are seriously ailing,the old, the sick,
recent
immigrants, and disadvantaged children-,-is absent,among us and a indifference toward the world’s peoples even
when basic issuesvalues,
such as survival, freedom, and
peace, areis
involved.
5. I will teach
yougive you step by step instructions about
how to prepare the disk for desktop
publishing on a Mac systemin Macintosh platform.
6. It is best
tobetter proofread the revision twicea second
tim to to einsure that
no new errors were introduced.
7. The chapter
you asked about, is “The
Principalle’s Role
in Personnel Management,” is in
the book The Principal as Mmanagerial
Leader.
8. The participating
archdioceses that participated were
include :
(a) Baltimore, ;
(b) Arlington; and
c) Washington, D.C. and
(C)
New Yorrok.
9. He missed the
most obvilous
error; ; a word in the
chapter title was misspelleda mispelling on the
chapter title.
10. The
word stadium
is derivedative
from the ancient Greekword stadion,
which
wasthat is a unit of measure equal to about
18590 meterres.[according to Wikipedia]
Copyediting Exercise
Using the Track Changes
function, perform a light copyedit
on the following three-page essay, consistent with the Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.).
You may insert queries right
in the text, using brackets, boldface, and turquoise highlighting. Do not use
the Commenting function. Example: [query]
Please keep the following
style preferences in mind while copyediting. (Note that freelancers will
receive a copy of our Style Guide
upon being hired for the first project.)
• Use
the serial comma.
• Avoid
(and correct) double spaces after periods, colons, etc.
• Do
not capitalize pronouns for God or the Church.
• Capitalize
“Church” and “Gospel” as nouns. Lowercase them as adjectives.
• Capitalize
the names of sacraments as nouns. Do not capitalize adjectives derived from
names of sacraments. The word “sacrament” is lowercased as
a common noun and capitalized when paired with the name of a sacrament: e.g.,
“Sacrament of Baptism.”
Pastoral
Reflection
The Link between the Baptismal Catechumenate and Catechesis
The General Directory for Catechesis (# 90) calls for the baptismal catechumenate
to be the inspiration for all catechesis. Perhaps a better way of understanding
this would be to consider the catechumenate as the
life-giving principle for catechesis. Don’t be mislead—, this
comment
is
does not a suggestion
to
createing a catechetical
methodology to imitate the catechumnate structure or
process. Rather, we are asked to re-imagine catecheshis in
light of what takes place in the catechumenate—
-
both in the rites and classes, and in the heart of those being
called to Christ and the Church. Let’s examine a few of the
aspects of the baptismal catechumenate and see what
insights theyit offers
about catechesis.
The baptismal catechumenate exists
to assist children, youth, and adults to become
fully initiated into the faith of the Church and into the local church
community. The process, therefore, is oriented toward full initiation, with
Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist marking ourthe
person’s progress into full communion in the life of the Church.
One significant change in our thinking will occur if we
take this concept of initiation seriously. Frequently today, our focus with
already- baptized
children is on the reception of the Sacraments of Penance and Eucharist. Because
the focus is on receiving the sacraments, It is therefore
not surprising that both parents and children —–not
to mention a few catechists— - think
that the journey has entered a quiet stage when they can rest for a while.
If
we reconcentrate
insteadBy changing our thinking to that
of on initiating
children appropriately into the Christian community, then the sacraments when
received, will mark the beginning of this new stage of life, not
the conclusion. Parents and children will see the need for ongoing participation
in the life of the faith community and for ongoing preparation for their roles
as disciples of Christ. What a way to call people to lifelong catechesis!
Another necessary focus ofchange we
need to make in our thinking is to recognize the
important role the individual family and the parish community must play in the
initiation process. While classroom instruction isplays
an essential torole in
faith formation, it is not the only ingredientdoesn’t
play the only role! The parish must see itsself
as a community of faith, trying each day to live out the Lord’s commandments.
If young people are initiated into this living body of faith, then they will
learn what it means to live as Christian disciples from working with the adults
of the parish as they live out their baptismal call to mission. The family also
needs assistance if it is to become a place for spiritual formation,
for discipleship, and for each one’s God-given
vocation, whether to priesthood, consecrated religious life, marriage [priesthood and marriage are sacrament,s not
lifestyles—I don’t think all these concepts cohere—priests are single.]
or the single life. Part of the planning necessary for the
catechetical leader must do is to develop ways to support
the parish and the family in their formational tasks and responsibilities.
Remember: nothing, can be
done in the classroom that will replace the lived reality of Christian witness
and ministry.
The process of Christian initiation begins with
evangelization: introducing people to the Gospel of Jesus
Christ and helping them to form a relationship with Christ and the Church. This
is not a causal invitation: The Church wants a relationship that
will grow, engendering “the genuine will to follow Christ and seek Baptism”
(RCIA 37). In the spirit of the General Directory for Catechesis,
catechetical leaders carry out the fundamental tasks of catechesis by helping
others “…to know, to celebrate, and to
contemplate the mystery of Christ”
(RCICIA 85).
Just as the baptismal catechumenate
follows the lectionary and the rhythm of the liturgical year, all of our
catechetical efforts should be strengthened and supported by worship and the
sacraments and rely heavily on the Scriptures themselves. All catechesis should
introduce the learner to salvation history, life in the early Church and the
life of Christ himself, but it should be done
grounded in word and sacrament. This is truly catechesis for the journey, for
if we prepare people for a life of faithful worship and help them make the
Bible their own guidebook, then we have given them food for a
lifetime.
There are many other many links
between the baptismal catechumenate and catechesis,
but consideration of these will get youpeople
started in ministry with catechists, parents, and parishioners,
The following questions may be used to
focus the conversation:.
1. How does this activity or/
learning experience helping you to grow in your relationship
with Jesus Christ?
2. How is this catechetical experience or activity
connected to the rhythm of the liturgical year and/or
rooted in worship and/or prayer?
3. How does this activity or exercise spring from yourmy
baptismal call to mission and help youme
to live it out?
4. How does this catechetical activity prepare you to build
and take responsibility for the Christian community?
