Reflection #2

Danica Finlay 200402114

ELNG 200

Reflection #2

Language Awareness Activity

1)   Translate the word “water” from English to at least 15 languages available in Google Translate. Do not choose 20 languages that are familiar to you. Try to choose from a broad range of languages (and writing systems). You can also make use of the “listen” button. Write the water words below. As you complete this task, begin to reflect upon the following questions.

a. Does the word look/sound the same in some languages?

The word water in Dutch is the exact same as it is in English. The German word for water sounds similar to the English word. The word for water in Malay is “air” and I think that is really cool!

b. What are some patterns (ie forms of water) you see (or hear) repeatedly? Highlight some of the forms of “water” that appear repeatedly.

When hearing the words, I think that Ura, Ilma, Mvura, Aigua and Vetta sound very similar because they all end with an “A” and it sounds like “ah”. I also found that the Swedish and Finnish languages have very similar words for water; they both start with “Vett and vatt”

No there are no two forms of water that are the same, so there is no repeating

  1. Ujie – Albanian
  2. Uisge – Scottish Gael
  3. Aigua – Catalan
  4. Water – Dutch
  5.  Vetta – Finnish
  6.  Wasser – German
  7. Wai- Hawaiian
  8. Air – Malay
  9. Vann – Norwegian
  10. Mvura – Shona
  11. Su – Turkish
  12. Ilma – ilma 
  13.  Ura – Basque 
  14. Omi – Yoruba
  15. Vatten – Swedish

2) This question builds on what we learned about writing systems in Andrea’s video on Writing Systems. For a refresher, skim read this page: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/types.htm Answer these questions by looking at the different versions of the word “water”

a) English uses a writing system called the Roman Alphabet. What other languages use the same writing system as English?

Swedish, Yoruba, Turkish, Shona, Norwegian, Malay, Hawaiian, German, Finnish, Dutch, Catalan, Scottish Gael, Albanian and many many more such as Tagalog, French and Portuguese

b) Which languages appear to share other types of writing systems? What are these writing systems called?

The Korean language uses Hangul, Russian and Bularian languages uses cycrillic, Yiddish and Judeo-spanish  uses the Hebrew writing system. Many languages follow the exact same writing system as other languages. 

c) What are some characteristics of each writing system (refer to the Omniglot website.)

 As stated on the Omniglot website, writing systems can be divided between two main categories, one being that they represent consonants and vowels and the other being that they represent Syllables

Abjads use independent constants for letters. Vowels are made up of consonant letters. The words can be Vocalised or unvocalised depending on the context. Another characteristic of this writing is that each word typically has 3 consonants in them.

Alphabets are sets of letters that represent both, consonants and vowels. Sounds can be written in different ways. Sometimes a combination of letters represents one sound or sometimes each letter makes up a sound.

Syllabic Alphabets use the main element as a symbol. Syllables are created using consonants and each consonant has an inherent vowel. Symbols are used to change the way the vowel sounds. When a vowel is used on its own or at the beginning of a syllable, separate vowels can be used

Syllabaries used symbols to represent syllables. The symbol (syllables) typically consist of one vowel or a vowel and a consonant.

Semanto-phonetic uses symbols that often represent sound and meaning

3) Look at this world map. Where on this map are similar versions of the word “water” found? What does this tell you about cognates? Think about the movement of a water word from one part of the world to another. 

Languages and countries that are close together have very similar versions of the word water. An example is what I found in question #1. Swedish and Finnish have the similar word Vetta and Vatten the Russian language also pronounces the word similar (vah-DYH). Other languages such as Croatian and Hungarian both use words that start with the letter “v” for water.The German word for water is very similar to english as it is “wasser”. Polish says “Woda”. The versions of the word water are similar amongst countries that are close together. Countries that are far a part from one another I think have noticeably quite different words for water.

4)  In the previous questions, you’ve likely identified languages that are related to one another. Now read this page: http://aboutworldlanguages.com/language-families. Return to your lists of “water” Re-label your “water” lists using some of the names of the language families (and language family branches) listed on the website. This might be messy and that’s okay. What language families can you find in your lists and labelling?

  1. Ujie – Albanian: this does not belong to any branch or family
  2. Uisge – Scottish Gael: Indo- european
  3. Aigua – Catalan: Indo- European
  4. Water – Dutch: Germanic branch, Indo- European family
  5.  Vetta – Finnish: Indo- European
  6.  Wasser – German: Germanic branch, Indo- European family
  7. Wai- Hawaiian: Austronesian
  8. Air – Malay: Austronesian
  9. Vann – Norwegian: Indo- European
  10. Mvura – Shona: Niger- Congo
  11. Su – Turkish: Indo- European
  12. Ilma – ilma: Sino-Tibetan
  13.  Ura – Basque: Language Isolate. Does not belong to any language at all  
  14. Omi – Yoruba: Niger- Congo
  15. Vatten – Swedish: Indo- European

5)  How can the language awareness  you developed today about language families and writing systems help you as a future teacher? 

 Learning about language families and writing systems can help me as a future teacher as it allows me to understand students who are learning English for the first time. I can identify similarities between the English language and their L1 language as well as help students understand the differences between each writing system.