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My language is actually changing? (Extra Credit)
So I took the Harvard Dialect Survey without any expectations thinking that It wouldn’t be able to pinpoint my location (since I speak with a “Filipino accent”) but lo and behold, it was actually correct (well, mostly)
(I took the quiz twice, this was my second result. My first result said that my dialect is most similar to that of Los Angeles. I was actually really surprised that both results were consistent and accurate).
Speaking of my accent, I learned English in the Philippines from pre-school up to 4th grade (approximately 12 years) so when I moved to California I simply spoke the way English was taught to me. (example: I put a strong emphasis on the letter ‘v’ making it sound like a ‘b’. I used to say “I lab you” instead of “I love you”) Anyways, I took the survey with that mindset and chose words the way I would normally pronounce them. The survey results, however, was able to tell that I live somewhere near Southern California. It might be because I am just oblivious to how I am speaking but maybe my language is actually changing the longer I live in California.
Among everything else, what this survey told me is that region has a really large impact on how you speak a language!
Extra Credit!!!!
During my test, I had to really think about how I say certain things. My results were saying that I am from Oxnard and Fresno. To be quite honest, I was a little scared because I thought I spoke like a I came from LA. But that is okay. (: The thing that distinguish me into Oxnard was the word firefly. What a surprise!(: I thought it would be tennis shoes, I was wrong. These are my quiz results.
Dialect Quiz EC
One response that intrigued me was that the only area in which it is common to call a mountain lion a cougar is Washington State, which is where I’m from. I thought that this would be more common. Another question that I found interesting asked what I called a drive-through liquor store… I didn’t even know they existed. I also call cray fish ‘craw fish’ because my dad is from New Orleans and I used to visit my cousins there a ton, but most of my terminology is consistent with the west coast. – Seth Rubero
Diverse Linguists
Aaron Hayag
- DOB: 02/13/1995
- Place of Birth: Philippines
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Languages:
- Filipino, English
- Took 3 years of Spanish
- Currently taking Korean.
- Random Facts: Was heavily exposed to Chinese and Japanese culture through media and other outlets (music, television, relatives, etc.)
- Loves going to concerts (favorite bands: 소녀 시대 (SNSD) and Infinite
I am a freshman attending San Diego State University. I am currently undeclared but I have a strong interest in World History and Anthropology. I would love to travel all around the world to see the famous landmarks of history, experience other cultures first hand, and most importantly communicate with people from different places through language. That being said, my curiosity and interest in foreign languages, has prompted me to take Linguistics 101 to get a closer glimpse at the structure of language. I have familiarized myself with the basic morphological types of languages. Synthetic Languages: Tagalog and Korean (Agglutinating); Spanish (Fusional) and Isolating Languages: Mandarin Chinese! As well as English, which does not really fit into any specific category.
Angela Almeida
- DOB: 02/04/1996
- Place of Birth: San Diego
-
Languages:
- English & Spanish
- Spoken both equally throughout my life
- Took 3 years of Spanish in high school
- Passed the AP test
- English & Spanish
- Hobbies: Reading, writing, going to concerts, mindlessly scrolling through social sites. Whoops!
I have always been a writer. Making up stories and reading books prompted my love for English. Although I have always considered classroom english to be relatively easy, linguistics is more of a struggle. It’s always something new to learn everytime I’m in the room. Thus far, I am pretty good at phrase structure trees as well as phonetic sounds in the standard English language. By already being bilingual this helps plenty because I already knew things that didn’t have a name for them up until now. Hopefully by the end of this course, I will have gotten a better grip at linguistics and what it is about.
Alonzo Garcia
- DOB: 07/20/1995
- Place of Birth: Chula Vista, CA
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Languages:
- English, Spanish, Italian
- Took and passed AP Eng. Lang. and Eng. Lit., AP Spanish Lang. and Spanish Lit., and AP Italian
- Planning to learn French, Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese within the next five years.
- English, Spanish, Italian
- Hobbies: Languages, Wrestling, Playing/Listening to Music, Reading
Languages have always been a passion of mine because I feel they are a bridge between cultures and unify the world. Currently I speak three languages which include English, Spanish, and Italian. A strength in linguistics I’ve obtained through speaking Spanish and Italian is the understanding of lexical and structural ambiguity. In the languages of Spanish and Italian there are a large quantity of terms and sentences with multiple meanings and for that reason ambiguity is a strength of mine.
Aleena Nawabi
- DOB: 05/20/1983
- Place of Birth: Afghanistan
- Languages: Farsi, Dari, Arabic, Urdue, English, Pushto
- Hobbies/Fun facts: I love running, Cooking, Singing, teaching, learning, and SYNTAX!
Because I was adopted, my first language is Spanish but because I did not practice it, I have forgotten most of the language. My second language was English and the rest of the Languages I acquired was in my mid-teens. Next semester I will be learning Turkish because I am planning to teach abroad in Turkey.
Tian’ao Wang
- DOB: 08/11/1995
- Place of Birth: China
-
Languages:
- Mandarin Chinese, English, some Cantonsese
- Hobbies/Fun facts: Swimming, watching movies, singing,playing computer games.
I was born in China and was exposed in Mandarin Chinese all the time, so my first language is that. My second language is English, I have studied English since I was in primary school. As for the Cantonese , that’s my favorite language, I have practiced it for three years.
Cheyanne Tarango
- DOB: 05/19/1996
- Place of Birth: Fillmore, CA
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Languages:
- spoke English growing up
- was exposed to Spanish during childhood
- Took two years of Spanish in high school
- currently taking another Spanish class.
- Hobbies/Fun facts: I love Netflix, food, music, and sleep. I enjoy spending time with my family and also going to concerts.
I am a freshman at San Diego State University. I’m currently undeclared but I have a developing interest in Construction Engineering. After I finish school, I wish to travel to countries on the other side of the world to experience the different cultures and see the way they live. It would be a lot harder to do so without learning a few things about language first, things that are taught in Linguistics. Linguistics 101 has helped me understand some of the basic rules of syntax and semantics in other languages, like some of the rules for Spanish language. I’d say that my strengths in Linguistics are determining what part of grammar words in a sentence are and how they are paired in a syntax tree. Another strength I have is working with morphemes.
Dingming Liu
- DOB: 04/29/1995
- Place of Birth: China
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Languages:
- spoke Chinese growing up
- Hobbies/Fun facts: sports ,music, movies, travelling, cars
Took fours years of English from high school till now and I am currently studying Introduction to Spanish class.
Despite their differences, 7 linguists from around the world have come together to share their knowledge with each other! NO LANGUAGE BARRIERS CAN STOP US!
The Traveling Linguists
Name: Katrina Renea Chavez
Age: 18
Birthday: December 20, 1995
Favorite color: Blue
Favorite food:Chicken Alfredo Pasta
Pets: 9 cats ( 8 with my dad, 1 with my mom)
Language: English, knows a little bit of Spanish, and learning Japanese.
Race: American, Spanish, Italian, Irish, and Native American
Strength/Weakness: Great at math but weak in writing.
Katrina wants to travel all over the world and experience different cultures. She wishes to go to places like Japan, Greece, Italy, and most of Europe. She also wishes to be fluent in more than 2 languages. She loves helping people, even if they are strangers.
Name: Paige Bowden
Age: 20
Birthday: April 26, 1994
Favorite Color: Black
Favorite Food: The entire Cheesecake Factory menu
Pets: 2 adorable doggies.
Languages: English (Fluent), Spanish (Working on it)
Ethnicity: Welsh, English, Mexican
Weakness/Strength: I suck at math, but I can write!
When Paige isn’t sitting in class, earning her way to that English degree, she is serving food and living off tips. When she does finally have a day off, you can either find her in bed past noon or online
shopping. She hopes to travel to all of Latin America. Especially Spain!
Name: Michelle Kuerz
Age: 23
Birthday: October 9, 1990
Favorite Color: Green
Favorite Food: Pasta
Pets: No pets at the moment, but I grew up with dogs, cats, rabbits and goats!
Languages: English (Fluent), American Sign Language (in progress)
Ethnicity: German, Irish, Scottish, English
Michelle wants to explore the world and see new places. Upon graduating in December, she hopes to move to Australia to pursue a Master’s Degree in Speech Pathology. If she could live on the beach in the sand, she would.
Name: Carl Spence
Age: 20
Birthday: January 05,1994
Favorite Color: Gray
Favorite Food:
Pets: 2 Dogs, a Pekinese and Mixed Chiwawa
Languages: English, learning Japanese
Ethnicity: Chinese, Philipino, White
By day Carl is a SDSU and Grossmont student trying to earn a double major in Japanese and Linguistics, while taking care of two reckless puppies. By night, he is an ESS Attendant, At the Casa De Oro elementary school, maintaining and educating kids of all ages, while managing ends meet of housing, gas and school. He wishes to travel to Japan.
The Mighty Morphemes
The Mighty Morphemes (TMM) is an international group working on issues regarding the conservation, research and linguistic, formerly named the Mighty Morphemes. TMM was founded in 2014.
Our symbol is simple and unique we are several individuals who are from different color. Ethnically we have variation in our language especially in English but our members are mostly native English speakers. Our venture in linguistic 101 is opening up our minds to semantics, phonology, phonology and more and we have learned a lot throughout the couple of months that have passed. As a group we enjoy making weird noises while holding our throats to classify sounds linguistically with our leisure time, which has made us as a group much stronger.
Mohammad Sabir Abbassi
Mohammad’s native language is farsi, second language is English and his third is Arabic. He did however speak Spanish, french and italian but over time he lost this ability since there was no one to speak to.
Raul Millan.
Age: 20
Height: 5’7
Weight: 140 lbs
Raul loves to read, play video games, and has a passion for soccer. Although he thinks it should be called futbol. His favorite movies include Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Taken. In terms of linguistics, Raul’s strengths are semantics and syntax. He enjoys creating syntax trees out of random sentences to see how they interact with each other and create an infinite amount of sentences. He thinks that semantics are amazing because of the different meanings words can take. Being fluent in both English and Spanish is something he takes great pride in because he is 2 languages closer to learning the 7,105.
Seth Rubero
age: 18
Height: 5’9’’
Weight:160lbs
Seth enjoys long walks on the beach and getting caught in the rain… oh and linguistics too
Seth’s biggest weakness is semantics. Analyzing sentence structures has never been easy for him, but he’s working on it. Seth’s biggest strength is definitely morphology, affixes come naturally to him. His first language is English, but he has been studying Spanish since he was 15 years old and is now almost fluent. Being (almost) bilingual gives Seth a unique perspective on linguistics, and allows him to appreciate language more.
Kat Tharp
Age: 18
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 125 lbs
After spending 18 years braving the cold New Hampshire winters, Kat decided to try the most drastic change of scenery possible and move to San Diego, CA. Kat is a native English speaker, but has been studying Spanish since middle school and has become practically fluent over the years. But don’t she doesn’t plan to stop there; Kat has many languages she hopes to learn over the years. She plans to one day travel the world teaching the English language and learning about other languages and cultures all around the world. While morphology is her strong suit, Kat tends to get stuck on trees. Especially those of the syntax variety. But that won’t stop her from doing what she can to become a strong linguist.
Stellan Christensen is the name, Linguistics is the game.
Age: 18 ½
Height: 5’ 7”
Weight: 155 lb
Stellan was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. Born from an American Dad and a Swedish Mother. He lived in Sweden when he was in 6th grade and acquired the language and knowledge of the heritage. He has played hockey and soccer for 10 years and he loves the sport. Stellan’s Idols include: Nathan Mackinnon, Mark Cuban, Johnny Manziel and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He is currently a graphic design major at SDSU and he loves to have fun with family and friends.
Name: Sydnie Gilinsky
Age: 19
Height: 5’4”
Weight: 120 Lbs
Sydnie hails from the suburbs of Oregon, finding refuge now under the towering palms and sweet breezes of San Diego. She is a starving English major with a knack for poetry but some disdain for structure. That being acknowledged, Syntax harbors the most crucial struggle for her. Speaking Spanish for 5 years should lend her a helping hand in certain areas, however she has not yet figured out exactly how she can apply these skills. Nonetheless, linguistics fosters a few areas crucial to her skillset, such as exploring phonetics and phonology, as well as the basic design features and theories of language. Sydnie finds that the idea of language at its core being universal is both a fascinating and horrifying idea, but trudges on in the battle to better understand the cogs of linguistics.
D5 Creation