Lynn Edler - Intro to Language Studies

I wrote my nine posts. I was actually sitting at my desk working on my summary for the blog when I googled how to pronounce Sunn m'Cheaux to make sure I was going to pronounce the name correctly in my final video. From there, that led me to this video about American accents. I decided I had to share this video as a blog post. I'm not in love with all nine of my current posts. And since I took the time to watch all 20 minutes, I figured I can comment on what I learned and, hopefully, achieve all I was supposed to with this Discovery Journal. I found this video about American accents incredibly interesting.  Accent is identity. This is so true. I love accents - even when I have a hard time understanding them. I had never really thought about how accents, in America, came to be. Singer explained so much of the history of the accents and why they have the features they do. Another very important point he made is that accents don't follow political boundaries. Instead they foll

For my last blog post, I wandered around YouTube looking for something that would catch my eye. I almost started a 1+ hour long video about how U.S. military linguists learn languages so quickly. I decided that might be a bit more than I wanted to take on. Then, this video popped up. My favorite part about this class, Introduction to Language Studies, has been learning more about how language ties into the different parts of society. Eleven minutes seemed like an easier video to digest, as well. The video, from Crash Course Linguistics , explains how linguistic differences between and within languages are based on factors such as our location, education level, race, gender, and more. There are so many different variables that play into how we speak with each other. Taylor, the narrator, started out the video stating that everyone has an accent. It is influenced by who we grew up with and where we live. As someone that grew up in Iowa, a place considered almost "accent free",

Coming up with ideas for this blog has, honestly, been a challenge for me. I don't particularly care for podcasts or YouTube. And when I start going to websites to read material instead, I get caught up devouring all the new information I'm learning and I struggle to isolate something to write about. I don't feel qualified as I read what all the experts have to say.  At any rate, I Googled "linguistics," again, to see where the rabbit hole would take me. I ended up on the Canada Institute of Linguistics . The headline "Why Study Linguistics?" caught my eye right away! Why Study Linguistics? First, the writer reiterates what linguistics is. "...linguistics is the study of language, how it works, how it is acquired, and how people use it to communicate." I've already researched about how linguistics is used for Artificial Intelligence . This school goes on to explain that because linguistics helps us understand our world - it also helps us e

This series of tweets was made into memes that circulate on Facebook. Every time these hit my feed, I get a chuckle. For the last 25+ years, I've been a graphic designer. Many of these interesting tidbits are things I already knew as part of the trade. However, now that I'm in this language arts class, the linguistics behind all of these memes struck me as interesting, yet again. I figured I'd share and add some of my own commentary.  Yes, letters used to be manually placed on the press for printing. The large letters, used less frequently, were stored above the press in the "upper case". The smaller letters, used more frequently, were stored in the lower case for easier access.  ( I did go through and double check some of the claims made in these memes for accuracy .)  No need to cite anything for this fact. We already learned, in class, that many words, in English, have French roots.  The fact I like on this meme is the part about "leading". Yes, types

Prior to taking Introduction to Language Arts, I was guilty of not understanding the field of linguistics. I had no idea what professional options there really were and I had many of the misconceptions presented in this video: MISCONCEPTION ONE: Linguists love formal grammar. I always knew I wanted to teach English. Even though I ended up in a different career for 30 years, I've still loved all there is about English...except grammar. In fact, I tossed away the lessons I learned on diagraming sentences as soon as I walked the platform at my high school graduation. Interestingly enough, I didn't need to know any of that formal stuff when I hit college the first time. Nor have I had to diagram a sentence...yet...at UTRGV. Still, I felt guilty for not liking grammar. Somehow I figured everyone that likes English must like grammar. Right? Wrong. Whew! Now that I know formal grammar is "prescriptivism," I'm much more comfortable understanding that I prefer "descri

This meme came across my Facebook feed. It's the kind of social justice thinking that sparks my interest and fuels many of my passions. However, the last sentence really struck me.  Words matter. I've always known and understood that words matter. However, now that I'm in Introduction to Language Studies, I find myself thinking about words even more than I did before. This meme led me to do a search within the field of linguistics to learn more about the connections between language and social behavior. The first Google search I did took me to the Linguistic Society of America  (LSA). I continue to be intrigued about linguistics as a profession. I've already explored the use of linguistics in the field of artificial intelligence. Click here to go to that blog post. On the LSA web page, I was able to learn more about the field of sociolinguistics . Walt Wolfram wrote a very interesting article. He says: Language is one of the most powerful emblems of social behavior. In