Sigh

Oregon has a ballot initiative for this fall that wants people to vote on limiting ESL classes for high school students to only 2 years. The man behind it claims its because illegal immigrants expect free services from US taxpayers. WTF??!?!?!??!?! First, since when are all ESL students illegal immigrants? Second, who on earth thinks its a good idea for laypeople with no training in education to decide how many years of English classes students need?

Really, with attitudes like this, let's keep the illegal immigrants and deport the guys like the ones who made this initiative.

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!

Last week at school, a couple of my students asked me why we say "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Christmas" and not "merry" any other holiday.

I didn't know and I was about to say that it must be some obscure British-ism, when I realized that in England now they say "Happy Christmas". (This thanks to Harry Potter, who has increased my knowledge of British-isms tenfold. Anyone want to go snog under some mistletoe?)

After much searching on the internet, I found the most coherent answer on Wikipedia.

"Merry," derived from the Old English myrige, originally meant merely "pleasant" rather than joyous or jolly (as in the phrase "merry month of May").
Though Christmas has been celebrated since the 4th century AD, the first known usage of any Christmastime greeting, "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" (thus incorporating two greetings) was in an informal letter written by an English admiral in 1699. The same phrase appeared in the first Christmas card, produced in England in 1843.
The then relatively new term "Merry Christmas" figured prominently in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in 1843. The cynical Ebenezer Scrooge rudely deflects the friendly greeting and broods on the foolishness of those who utter it. "If I could work my will," says Scrooge, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding." After the Spirits of Christmas effect his transformation, he is able to heartily exchange the wish with all he meets. The continued popularity of A Christmas Carol and the Victorian era Christmas traditions it typifies have led some to credit Dickens with popularizing, or even originating, the phrase "Merry Christmas"^[3].
The alternative "Happy Christmas" gained wide usage in the late 19th century, and is still common in the United Kingdom and Ireland. One reason may be the alternative meaning, still current there, of "merry" as "tipsy" or "drunk." Queen Elizabeth II is said to prefer "Happy Christmas" for this reason^[4]. In American poet Clement Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (1823), the final line, originally written as "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night," has been changed in many editions to "Merry Christmas to all", perhaps indicating the relative popularity of the phrases in the United States."

So, should we say "Happy Christmas" too? I guess we North Americans are just drunken fools.....

Look! It's another language post!

So here are some interesting thoughts about using Spanish at work, specifically in how I'm learning to use the many forms of the pronoun "you".

In English, as my husband often likes to complain, we only have one second person subject pronoun: you. In Spanish, there are up to four different ones (depending on your location). There is tú - informal you singular, used for friends and often family members or people younger than you. Then there's usted: formal you singular, used for people older than you, people you don't know, or just generally anyone your supposed to show respect to. Thirdly there's ustedes: that's you plural, for a group of people. In Mexico and much of Latin America, that's it (though some countries, such as Costa Rica have different variations of what they use). If you go to Spain, you also have vosotros: informal you plural, used for groups of people consisting of people you'd call tú.

So in school I had to study all the forms (though not so much the vosotros form). It wasn't until I started teaching the Spanish GED class that I realized how deficient I was in speaking in you plural. I'd never really had to think about whether I was addressing one person or a group: in English I don't have to, and I had never really talked to groups of people in Spanish before. Suddenly I had to constantly remind myself to use uds. instead of the tú form. It took some doing, but I think I've finally got a decent handle on it, including at least most of the irregular commands, which I kept forgetting to use at first. I still get confused going back and forth between group and individual. Then there's nebulous questions that I guess a native speaker would intuitively understand or not care about, like, what subject do I use when one student asks a question, but I'm answering it for/in front of the whole class?

Another thing is that I'm not used to being called "usted" (or, as I functionally shift it in my head, usted-ed). My students at school all call me usted if they address me in Spanish, which is as it should be, culturally. Still, it's weird to me, because I'm not used to it. Sometimes it gives me a vague sense of power, but it also makes me a little uncomfortable because I'm not used to dividing society into two levels of people. I guess in English we do it some by using or not using titles such as Mr. or Mrs. It just feels a little different, I guess, because in English, that differentiation doesn't run all the way down to pronouns....though, if I remember correctly, it used to. (You vs. thou)

My Informal, Linguistic Analysis of "Just"

So, I mentioned this long ago, and I'll finally get to making my analysis of the common use of the word "just" in current speech. It's my attempt at linguistic analysis, but I'm not particularly thoroughly trained in this, so take it for what it is. I just think language is interesting.

I noticed the word "just" first being used commonly in evangelical circles during prayer. E.g. "Father, I just wanna thank you...." However, since noticing it there, I've also heard it in other informal speech. E.g. "I just want to mention that...." Here are my takes on the way it's used:

1. "Just" is used informally. It's not used in the same manner in formal writing or speech and thus emphasizes a closeness or familiarity. (In the prayer example above, it implies a closeness with God.)

2. In all the cases I've been observing (as opposed to other uses and definitions of the word just, such as in "just war"), it is used as an adverb, whose primary meaning is to downplay a statement or request. It's a way of humbling oneself or what one has to say. In an example I cited earlier, a group of teachers were bidding farewell to a retiring teacher, and most started out with "I just want to say that...." That seemed to me to be two-fold: emphasizing that what they would say would only be a small gesture and would only represent one small part of that teacher's contribution, and also was a deference to the rest of us, saying they wanted to acknowledge this teacher but weren't going to take all day. This becomes an interesting paradox when looked at in the prayer example above. At the same time, the one word implies closeness but also gives a degree of aloofness and submission. (God is really important and has lots of things to do, so I'll only say/ask this one thing.) I haven't quite unravelled how those two exist simultaneously but I think they're both valid interpretations of the meaning.

3. Related to #2, just is a de-emphasizing word, but can also be used as a justifier (no pun intended). What I'm trying to say is that "just" generally downplays the askers request, but can also be used to metaphorically club one over the head. E.g. "Well, I just wanted to see what was on the other channel." Translation: I only wanted to do a small thing and there's nothing wrong with that, so why are you so stubborn? *Pbbbbbt!!!* (That last bit depends on the tone of voice....) In this case, de-emphasizing is emphasizing the righteousness of the speaker - I just wanted this one thing so what's wrong with that? I remember deciding years ago that I was not allowed to use the word "just" in arguments with Jeff, because once I pulled that little word out, it was all downhill.

4. Finally, I think this word in certain circles becomes engrained in a language pattern, somewhat similarly to how some of us have gotten used to using "like" as a filler word. The difference between the two is that "like" is generally used before a noun and just before a verb. There are other differences, but I'm sure anyone trying to read this is already nodding off, so I won't go into those right now.

Well, if anyone made it to the end, let me know if you notice any other interesting language trends!

Quick Update...

...while I'm at a computer, before I run off because I'm hungry!

I have more students now, so I'll actually be busier this week. Other activities: stripping paint off the bathroom walls, keeping up the garden, lying in my hammock (ahh!), spilling fish food on the cat (don't ask).

Linguistic note: I believe that the word "just" is becoming what I call a "filler word", like the words "like" and "you know" and "umm". It's not quite as broad yet, but it's on my linguistic/sociological radar now. Maybe I'll go into a broader explanation sometime, as I've been meaning to, but I don't have time now. Here are some examples of the ways I've heard it:

First I noticed it prominently in prayer in some circles, a la, "Father, I just want to thank you for just making me how you wanted...."

But it's broader than that now, e.g. "I just want to thank you for coming down here today."
"It's, just, so hard to find good fresh fruit."

Anyone else hear any others? Leave a comment. I'd love to factor them into my linguistic analysis.