Stuck on The Euphemism Treadmill
Publishing note: This article is an adaptation of the instructional Haitian Creole video on Zoom meetings (available with English subtitles) found above. Hope you find it helpful!
Publishing note: This article is an adaptation of the instructional Haitian Creole video on Zoom meetings (available with English subtitles) found above. Hope you find it helpful!
Given the international background of many of the players, one of the most constant reminders of the leagues linguistic diversity is the variety of exotic names that have become household names. But among the Frank Ntilikinas, Zydrunas Ilgauskases and Nemanja Bjelicas, one name stands apart. One name strikes fear in the heart of announcers. The Alphabet Man himself: Giannis Antetokoumpo.
Creole is often characterized by its simplicity. And its certainly true, from the lack of verb conjugations to the lack of grammatical gender (kinda), in many ways it is less complex than languages English-speakers are familiar with. But there are some ways that Creole has gotten more complex, more complicated, and weirder.
As the competing forces of clarity and brevity, introduction and reduction, transparency and redundancy continue to act on spoken language the changes that result are unpredictable and yet somewhat familiar. And by learning more about other languages and other cultures, sometimes we get a better view of ourselves.
It’s no secret that Florida is home to many immigrants. They have come from a variety of backgrounds and many different countries. Interestingly, however many fail to realize that the second largest community of immigrants in Florida come from the island nation of Haiti.
Welcome to the first official post to the Languageland blog. I’m sure you’re curious as to the nature of this blog. As Access Interpreting is an agency specializing in language services, it is our hope that this blog will provide the important service of dispelling myths about and fostering interest in language and linguistics.