Mesut Deniz

Week #2, 2a
1. Author John McWhorter argues that language is a fundamentally mutative phenomenon. How does
language change? Use the five faces of language change to support your answer. (Ch. 1, reference p. 1835 for criteria discussion)
According to McWorther, language change is a process which occurs very slowly. It gradually morphs,
year by year, generation after generation into its new form. This process can be broken down into five
principles such as sound change, extension, the expressive cycle, rebracketing and semantic
change. This gradual process starts pronouncing the sounds less distinctly in casual serve no particular
purpose.
The second process that changes languages into new ones world - wide is a tendency for sometime
patterns in a grammar to generalize into no exception, across-the-board rules. In the expressive usage of
words or phrases that gradually wear down in force, like old jokes. That is the kind of expressive force
that tends to diminish in a language through time, just as the meaning of "Gay" used to mean merry or
happy, i.e. "don we now our gay apparel." Today, it is usually associated with being homosexual as in
"gay marriage. "Awful" used to mean something that inspired awe. Today, it means something is bad or
that someone looks terrible. It also means exceedingly great as in "an awful lot of money. (source:
huffingtonpost)
Rebracketing (also known as juncture loss, junctural metanalysis, false splitting, false separation, faulty
separation, misdivision, or refactorization) is a process inhistorical linguistics where a word originally
derived from one source is broken down or bracketed into a different set of factors. It is a form of folk
etymology, where the new factors may appear meaningful (e.g., hamburger taken to mean
a burger with ham), or may seem to be the result of valid morphological processes.
Rebracketing often focuses on highly probable word boundaries: "a noodle" might become "an oodle",
since "an oodle" sounds just as grammatically correct as "a noodle", and likewise "an eagle" might
become "a neagle", but "the bowl" would not become "th ebowl" and "a kite" would not become "ak
ite". (wikipedia)
This process often combines with sound change to create one word out of what began as two or more.
Lastly, sometimes a words meaning simply drifts aimlessly, with each step following from the last, but
the difference between the earliest reconstructable meaning and the most recent one having become
so vast as to completely obscure any historical relationship.
Semantic drift has an especially visible effect on combinations of roots and prefixes or suffixes, and this
effect, too, creates important differences between a language and the one it turns into. McWorther calls
this type of change is Semantic Change.

2. The theme Todays Dialect is Tomorrows Language runs through the text (p. 92). McWhorter
argues this as a kind of mantra for the linguistic discussion: Dialects is all there is. Using McWhorters
analysis of the eight languages of the Chinese versus eight Chinese dialects, support your understanding
of this theme in Chapter 2.
Languages start as dialects and then evolve to a new one. For example, todays Standard Turkish began
as just the dialect spoken in the area where Istanbul is today. Languages that are spoken in many
European countries are once dialects of root languages. The reasons for changes in dialects and evolves
into another languages differs from cultural, politics or geographical. Some people can understand a
dialect of the language he speaks, however for some countries, different dialects are like different
languages. A person from China who speaks Mandarin cannot understand a Chinese who speaks
Cantonese. As a result, dialects shape the language and can create a new one.
I can speak two dialects of Turkish languages. Anatolian Turkish (which is traditional Turkish) and
Azerbaijani . Theyre both originated from same root but now theyre two different languages.
3. The author describes how language proceeds in myriad directions. Dialects form by migration,
communication, and education. How would you relate the examples of the family tree or making stew in
discussing how language change and mixing is inherent according to the author (p. 93-94). Chapter 3.
All languages came from a root language of first people of the earth hundreds of thousands of years ago
and evolved into new ones. Author examples these evolution with a family tree which dialects and
languages are the leaves and flowers of the tree. Every dialect or language is constantly shaping itself by
giving or taking new words or sounds from their neighbor languages just like flowers cross-pollinating
one another. For instance Kurdish language. The root is Indi-European language, trunk and leaves are
Arabic-Persian-Urdu.
4. What would be the benefit for having the Latin language as a foundation for learning English? (p. 98).
McWhorter posits that Latin teaches vocabulary and base words, grammar, and how to have an
economy of words in speaking. Do you agree with this point of view? Does learning any second language
facilitate learning English? Support your opinion with Ch. 3 concepts.
Latin helps you gain a better understanding of many modern languages in the world. Spanish, French,
Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian all are direct descendants of Latin.
English is the current Lingua Franca of the world. Many English words are derived from Latin. Learning
Latin will help increase your English vocabulary and can help you get a grasp on the more seemingly
inane rules that English still has.

I think that learning a second language can help you learning English if that second language shares the
same structure and root with English.
If you know your own language very well you can learn another language no matter if its close
language. Because you have to build foreign language on your own fundament.
5. Give examples of usage of English vocabulary words in other languages. Discuss the relationship of
English words that are being incorporated into other languages.
I can give examples from my daughter. Her native language is Turkish, shes fluent in Turkish and we
always speak Turkish in the house. However everything else is in English and I started feeling that
English is becoming easier for them to use. In our conversations with my daughter she tends to use
English words a lot. Because, when brain couldnt find the right word to represent meaning, it
automatically replaces with one from English. I observe when shes growing up shell start using a
mixture language.
My mother tongue is Kurdish and I confronted with the same dilemma. Sometimes Kurdish sometimes
Turkish.
6. Discuss the development of a new dialect of Spanish in America--Spanglish (p.119-120) as it relates to
Question 5. You may prefer to give another symbiotic language example like Konglish or Denglisch (p.
117) to support your answer in discussing hybrid linguistic development, where English language has
bled into other languages. Answers may vary here (Ch. 3)
It is easier to replace words from English to Spanish or to French or To German than incorporating words
from English to Arabic or Russian. Since all the Latin languages have the same roots and origins it feels
more comfortable to use them between two different languages for a Spanish or Russian who lives in
The US.
When my daughter is talking to me in Turkish, she uses a lot of English words in her conversation. I think
it feels comfortable for her brain to use a replacement word from English. This, of course, cause having a
new dialect gradually. It wont be a surprise for me to legally have a new language which is evolved from
these dialects.