Talking hands

In chapter 1 Margalit Fox gives us a brief discription of the bedouins in a village named Al- Sayyid, located in a part of Isreal and was tucked into an obscure corner miles from the nearest town for nearly two hundred years. Margalit goes on to describe the bedouins as middle class people. She says " families live in houses, some with indoor plumbing and vast sofas upholstered in plush. They own automobiles computers and VCR's, but there is something even more remarkable about the Al - Sayyid bedouins and that is what brought the team of scholars here; a highly unusual language, spoken only in this village and never documented until now". Of the 3,500 residents in the village 150 are deaf.

We are approching the end of the semester, and I am grateful for the experience of getting know more about my langauge inside out. I am also grateful for the experience in which I was able to meet new friends from different countries that obviously speak different languages. I learned so much this semester not only on the basis of the language we speak but truely what it means to speak a language, to know where it arrived from, and to get familiar with this significant way of communicating. It serves a great importance to our everyday life, something I would have never thought of before. I learned deeply what this language really means to the society it represents. In the article talking hands I believe their society to be truly blesssed although they amy not speak yet it makes me appreciate my ability much more.

In conclusion, I am concerned about the rest of the chapters that proceded, what happened with the reasearch? Was it succesful? How about the experience of the middle eastern people did they reject the idea again?

extra credit assignment.

Social gender slide 78, refering to gender and language a word used to classify individuals according to their social gender roles.

Men take longer time to talk than women slide 84- differential way in which men and women talk.

Marked gramtically slide 61- in this situtaion a word for a male would be different than the same word for a female.

lexicalized slide 63- in english we use slush sleet snowflake, but in several other languages for example Inuit they have differnt words for the same word.

Platypus slide 71- its an example of exceptional animals categorized by the Australian aboriginal language.

How does language dertermine how we see the world? slide 59-langauge dertermines how we think , language limits our thinking.

Whistle their langauge slide 56- manner of communication among the Piraha people in brazil who dont belive in the past who literally whistles in various situations.

Where did my language go?

New york city is considered to be the most linguistically diverse city in the world, with languages that are from other parts of the world now commonly heard in NY than anywhere else. According to Daniel Kaufman Professor of linguistics at the city university of New York " It is the capital of language density in the world". Professor Kaufman has helped start a project, the Endangered Language Alliance to identify and record dying languages like Husni Husain's in Rego Park Queens, he speaks mamuju and Ormuri which is spoken by a small number of people in Pakistan and Afganistan. Professor Kaufman is concerned that a language will proberly disappear in a generation or two when the population of native speakers has become to small or died out. Like Mrs. Smilovic who speaks vlashki, she say's that she is also worried that her culture is getting lost, but with an organized meeting in Queens she was surprised by the turnout of about 100 people who speaks the vlashki language. Furthermore several languages have been found right here in NYC and it is trying to be saved by its spaekers. They are teaching their children this identity that can live on because for others they believe that it might be a waste of time trying to save a dying language that is not spoken here. English and Spanish is as far as they're concerned according to Mr. Lovell from Belize, he speaks a langauge called garifuna. Like him who try's to teach his younger daughters through songs Rev. Eli Shabo also teaches his children neo-aramaic at home with high hopes and intentions that their language, roots, culture will live on, even when they die.

In reading this article I am amazed in knowing that people with all these variants of languages reside right here in my neighborhood, I would never think that in seeing a person in the store or train that they could be one of the few speakers of a very rare language. Yes I know New York City is linguistically diverse but I must admit that before reading this article it never once crossed my imagination to think that people out here are trying to save their languages, literally by teaching their children, through groups and organizations, this is indeed a serious topic. I believe that although most of us come to this city for a better future,life, a better chance at our dreams, what we"v been taught will forever remain with us, it is our tradition and roots to remember and then in turn to pass it on to our children. In this case theses people feel a need to stay connected with their language in honor of passing it on, for they might be the last to know of it. It has become a part of who they are now and without its existence it might seem like they never existed.