“Yes and No” by Amy Tan

Amy was born in the United States; and her parents were immigrants from Mainland China. She writes how it felt growing up in bilingual family. Her parents were talking to her on both Chinese and English language, she always responded on English but she knew Chinese language also. She is explaining in the chapter how she read an article in New York Time Magazine that stated “…there aren’t even words for yes and no” in the Chinese language. Then she explains why she doesn’t agree with that and explains the Sapir-Whorf thesis: “that one’s perception of the world and how one function in it depends a great deal on the language used”. A great and interesting example for this thesis is the example she gave about the Eskimos and their infinite words for snow, they actually have the ability to see differences in the snowflakes configurations, and the others who are not Eskimo have only one word. (28). Then she talks about the English speakers, who said that Chinese language is difficult, also the Chinese speakers have said the same thing to Amy about the English language that is very difficult (31). But as I learned from this course all languages are equally complex and equally capable of expressing any idea. Amy worries that the people are seeing the Chinese people from a partial perspective. Then in the last part of the chapter she agrees that there is no words for “yes” and “no”, but she gives a couple of examples of different questions and different answers, so the answer actually depends from the question. Like the example she gave in the chapter, if you ask a Chinese person if he ate, than the answer can be chrle (eaten already) or meiyou(have not).

Stories of Mishaps and Reconciliation

a)Nadica- Nadi[c]a ([N] voiced +V alveolar nasal)
Zecevic- Zɛt∫ɛvit∫ ([Z] voiced +V alveolar fricative)
b)There are a lot of different languages, and that means a lot of different sounds. One language can be distinguished from another language with the sound in the language. We produce sounds with our vocal cords and different parts of our mouth. So we are familiar with the sounds that are consisted in our own language. Sometimes when we hear a sound that we don’t know and we never used in our language than it is a little bit difficult to pronounce it. That is why when I say my name to somebody that has never heard it before, it is hard for that person to pronounce my name. I think my last name is easier to pronounce because the sounds are consisted in the English language, but my name is hard for the English speakers to pronounce it. That is because the sound [C] in my language is pronounced differently and that sound is not consisted in the English language. In the English language the sound [C] is pronounced like in the word cat.
c)I do have difficulty pronouncing some names and things. For example the word water, the English speakers pronounce it with the sound “d”. I try but I always pronounce it with the sound “t”.

Research Log

Chapter 5 in “The Study of Language” by Yule is about the sound patterns of language. First is explained the term phonology, which describes the patterns of speech sounds in a language. The phonology helps us to distinguish the meaning in sounds that we hear and say. The phonemes /f/ and /v/ in English language help us to distinguish the meaning between the words fat and vat, this meaning in a sound is described as a phoneme. In a regular speech one sound can be pronounced with many different versions. Those different versions are called phones. When there are many versions of one phoneme then those versions are called allophones. It is interesting that when we pronounce the word tar, the puff of air, called aspiration is stronger. For a difference when we pronounce star, the puff of air is weaker (pg.45). When replacing one phoneme for another in a word, then the result is a different meaning and different pronunciation, for a difference replacing one allophone for another, the result is only a different pronunciation of the same word. Then in this chapter is explained the term minimal pair, which means two words fan-van are identical in form, except for a contrast in one phoneme. A minimal set is when group of words can be differentiated by changing one phoneme such as fit, fate, foot, fought. Phonotactics are part of every speaker’s phonological knowledge; they are permitted arrangements of sounds. The basic elements of the syllable are the onset and the rhyme. The onset consists of one or more consonants, and the rhyme consists of vowel, called nucleus and consonant, called coda. When we pronounce English words in everyday speech the assimilation process takes place. The same process happens in Macedonian language. This process happens because is easier and quicker (pg.49).

Writting Assignment

When people want to share their experiences with each other they use language. The written and spoken language is very important because we use it to express our thoughts, emotions and opinions. Sharing same language means sharing the same culture. Language is inherited from one generation to the next generation. The culture and language that we know is given from our parents and we will give it to our children. Every human has own language since birth which helps him to communicate with family, friends, and strangers. I was born in Macedonia and my native language is Macedonian. But the first seven years of my life I lived in Germany with my family. I was speaking German and knew only some basic Macedonian words. When we moved back to Macedonia I had to learn writing and also speaking Macedonian. With learning my language very soon I started to forget German. Now I only know couple of German words. In Elementary school and High school everyone in my country have to learn second language, so I choose to learn English. Knowing English Language was very significant for me, when I decided to stay here in United States. After I finished high school I went to college in Bulgaria. Macedonian and Bulgarian language are very similar but still have a lot of differences. The Bulgarian alphabet consists of couple of letters that were new for me. As a result it was very difficult at the beginning because I couldn’t understand everything. But after couple of months I was able to learn those letters, which were not part of my alphabet and to understand the new sounds. My major in Bulgaria was International relationships so I had to study two languages, I choose English because I was familiar with the language and my second choice was Spanish, I learned only the basic of Spanish. Now I can understand a little bit Spanish, but because I never talk or practice I’m not able to respond. That is why I think when you want to learn a new language it is a big advantage to understand it and being able to answer. I will like to know if there is a way the adults can learn new language easier. Why sometimes learning a new language can interfere with the old language we learned. For example my father knows and speaks German, now he lives in Italy, and he is trying to learn Italian but it’s difficult for him because always when he tries to speak Italian, the words that he is pronouncing have German accent. So how can adults make a distinction between the old language that are familiar with and the new language that they need to learn.