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B.E.D.A 2018: Day Thirteen

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Hello again all, and welcome to day 13 of BEDA 2018. Frug Friday: My initial reaction As promised last week, I am going to carry on today with my Frug Friday series, where I talk about my dog. Today’s post is about my initial reactions and how I felt about my dog at the beginning. I’ll admit that due to the problems I’d had with dogs throughout my life, I was not best pleased when I found out we were getting one. I was old enough and sensible enough to acknowledge that it wasn’t really my decision and I couldn’t tell my family what to do, no matter how much I didn’t want to have a dog in my life. I was convinced that I would only ever tolerate him, and that he would never be a close companion of mine. The idea, as far as I was concerned, was to keep my distance where possible and let the dog bond with everyone else but me. But in those first few weeks, I spent time with him and got close to him and came to realise that he was one of the sweetest, most loyal an
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B.E.D.A 2018: Day Twelve

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Hello again all, and welcome to day 12 of BEDA 2018. Our language: A Lingua Franca For the final part of my look at the English language, I wanted to talk about a question which has baffled linguists for decades – the question of a lingua franca. A lingua franca is a universal language spoken by all people as a means of aiding communication. Whilst I think it could make our lives easier if we could all communicate without language barriers, I think that having one language spoken by all is a bad idea. What we don’t realise is the use of English as a lingua franca is causing people to turn away from their native languages and speak English all of the time. This puts these languages, some of which have been around for thousands of years and are steeped in history, in danger of extinction. In my opinion, it would be a great shame to lose these ancient languages and the culture that comes with them, in favour of speaking English. Maybe, as a linguist, I am biased
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B.E.D.A 2018: Day Eleven

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Hello again all, and welcome to day 11 of BEDA 2018. Our language: Accents and Dialects For today’s look at the English language, I want to talk about one unique aspect of our language that I find fascinating – accents and dialects. In no other language is there such a wide range of dialects and accents. I find it incredible that a word can be something in one place, and then in another place not so far away where they speak the same language, there is a different word for it. The UK alone has the most diverse range of accents anywhere in the world. You can travel just a few miles away and people speak slightly differently. Although most people who aren’t from here are only seemingly aware of two of them , there are so many accents up and down this great land, some of which I’ve listed below. Received Pronunciation (otherwise known as Queen’s English or BBC English) Cockney Essex East Anglian West Country Brummie Black Country Scouse Ma
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B.E.D.A 2018: Day Ten

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Hello again everyone, and welcome to part 10 of BEDA 2018. Our language: Pronunciation As part of my continued look at the English language, I wanted to look today at pronunciation. Most regular languages have uniform rules when it comes to how to pronounce words which are usually very strict. They rarely deviate from what you expect, and this makes learning said languages much easier to learn. English is not like this at all. There are often multiple ways of pronouncing the same letters, and multiple sets of letters which can be pronounced the same way. I think this is perhaps why, despite its global desirability as a language to learn, English is seen as one of the most difficult languages to learn. How on Earth can you learn a language if there are such complicated rules surrounding pronunciation? Below, I’ve put some examples of pronunciation problems in English. PEAR rhymes with PAIR and not FEAR ONE rhymes with FUN, not CONE, and is pronounced the
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B.E.D.A 2018: Day Nine

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Hello again everyone, and welcome back to BEDA 2018. Our language: Animals Today I’m continuing my look at the English language with a look at the influence of animals on our vocabulary. After the Norman invasion of 1066, the new aristocracy spoke French whilst the lower classes continued to speak their form of Germanic Anglo-Saxon. Along with this, the French-speaking upper classes were the ones who were eating the meat being produced by the Germanic-speaking working class farmers. Thus, there became a divergence in what we call the animal itself and what we call the meat we get from it. Animal French word for the animal Meat pig porc pork sheep mouton mutton cow boeuf (now it’s vache) beef On top of this, a lot of the animals in modern German are similar to words we have in English for them. A lot of them are quite recognisable to you and me…
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B.E.D.A 2018: Day Eight

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Hello everyone, and welcome to part 8 of BEDA 2018. Yesterday, I began my week-long look at the English language by pointing out that this language of ours is multi-cultural and has been shaped by immigration throughout its history. Our Language: Food Food has had a huge effect on the language we speak today. In a world where we are increasingly connected, we have developed a taste for increasingly exotic food. With the introduction of these imported dishes and our ability to travel to faraway places like never before, we have found ourselves with all of this new vocabulary to describe our new-found eating habits. Let me list just a few of the loanwords for food we have brought in and where they come from. French – baguette, blanche, cream, courgette, cuisine, raisin, casserole, vinegar German – wurst, frankfurter, hamburger, pumpernickel Spanish – paella, burrito, chorizo, tequila Italian – pizza, pasta, pesto, espresso, mozzarella Chinese – kumqu
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B.E.D.A 2018: Day Seven

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Hello again everyone, and welcome back to BEDA 2018. Our language: English is multicultural This week, I want to use the knowledge I’ve acquired from my language studying over the last twelve years and share some information about the English language with you. Unfortunately, in recent years, the two biggest English-speaking nations in the world, the UK and the USA, have changed dramatically in political terms. Brexit, Trump, and the lurch towards the right wing have all taken place over the last few years and have led to an increasing anti-immigrant, nationalistic rhetoric. Well, I have some news for those people who use THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE to express their hatred for immigrants or descendants of immigrants. Guess what? The language you are speaking – English – is in fact a multicultural language. It is made up of bits of other languages from every single corner of the world. There are words and phrases from Africa, America, and the rest of Europe which have enter
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