It probably wouldn’t surprise you if I confessed that I love languages. I can read about and talk about and think about languages forever; I’ve spent so many hours of my life transfixed to a wikipedia page describing the morphology of [insert name of language here] that it’s a little embarrassing. But that nerdy kind of love, the love that is really just a fascination with an intellectual object, sometimes gives way to full, helpless, head-over-heels love.
I feel safe to finally admit that I sometimes fall in love with a language, because recently I came across the blog of august British linguist David Crystal, and he has a post describing this very phenomenon. It’s not just me! It’s a little thrilling to read someone I admire admit to “falling in love with nasalized vowels” in a French class as a child. It takes me back to the afternoon when I was seven or eight, sitting on the floor of my grandparents’ house, and I discovered their collection of old Berlitz textbooks. Seeing those foreign words dance across the page, knowing they said something but I couldn’t yet divine just what…I was enchanted. I’ve been enchanted ever since.
Sometimes I do feel like I’m being a little fickle, picking up a new language every so often while the ones I’ve learned years ago slowly fade in my memory. But the truth is that those earlier ones don’t ever lose that affection. In my case, whenever I’m really struggling with a new language, I turn back to Russian, that oldest and best-known friend, for comfort. That’s how I think of it – just adding new, dear friends to your acquaintance. David Crystal says “it’s more like the love of a parent towards a child. Somehow, new additions to the linguistic family don’t diminish the affection already felt towards the other members.” That’s a good analogy too.
So, having said that, please forgive me, dear old language friends, but I have lost my heart to a new love. Oh Arabic, where have you been all my life? I am such a beginner, I can barely read and say hello, but I really have fallen for this language. I love this post on the blog The Polyglot Dream, where the guest blogger talks about a language resonating with you. There really is something about the sounds of Arabic that resonate with me differently than others I’ve learned. I love what the guest blogger, Susanna, says: “Guttural sounds in Arabic and Hebrew make your throat vibrate differently than when you speak in English. Your body is not the same in Arabic as it is in English.” She also talks about “giving up your throat” to Arabic. I love that. Is that the sense I’m getting? Do I feel different with Arabic?
Last week I took a much-needed day off and ended up spending a rainy afternoon at a Middle Eastern restaurant in my neighborhood. The interior is dark and cool like a courtyard in some old medina, complete with a tranquil water feature, plants, carpets and silks on the walls, and arabesques around the windows. I was transported. The waiter, a Palestinian, came to take my order, and I said “I’d like the bamia bil lahmeh“, really pronouncing that guttural h there in the middle of that word, almost without thinking, feeling the language from the room reverberating through me. The waiter wrote down my order, took my menu, and said “You have beautiful pronunciation.”
I swear I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
hablameenespanol said:
And I thought I was the only one ….:)
polyglossic said:
🙂 I thought I was too! It’s nice to find kindred spirits.
tehhen said:
Ooh, how wonderful to have your pronunciation complimented! You hit the nail on the head: language and culture are so intertwined that a language can serve as a gateway into a whole ‘nother life and identity, which was previously completely beyond your experience. Ah, now you’ve got me wanting to take another stab at Arabic. 🙂
There’s a short essay by Cora Acebrón Tolosa called “Why I Never Lost My Accent” that’s yet another great take on the numerous love affairs and cultural dalliances that come with being a voracious language learner. You might enjoy, if you can track it down.
polyglossic said:
Thanks for the recommendation! I haven’t had luck tracking it down so far but I will certainly keep looking.
It does feel like a love affair! Not just with Arabic, but everything before. Languages make my little heart flutter 🙂 And to be honest I tried Arabic several years ago but I had a very frustrating teacher so it didn’t bite me then, but this time it has and I’m a goner… which is my way of saying that yes, you should give it another shot 😉
tehhen said:
I came across it in a book of essays called “Language Crossings: Negotiating the Self in a Multicultural World” (ed. Karen Ogulnick), perhaps accessible through a campus library; I’ve never managed to find a copy online though, so good luck!
Last time around, I got thrown off by a scheduling conflict with my Arabic class (as well as their alarmingly complex, beautiful number system), but I’d love to take it up again someday. I look forward to hearing how your love affair with it grows and develops!
polyglossic said:
Success! Access to a university library is one of the great privileges in life, along with good book recommendations from kind people 🙂 All of these essays look fantastic, I’m excited to dive in!
Joshua Chandler said:
“It probably wouldn’t surprise you if I confessed that I love languages. I can read about and talk about and think about languages forever; I’ve spent so many hours of my life transfixed to a wikipedia page describing the morphology of [insert name of language here] that it’s a little embarrassing.” This is me every day.
“I feel safe to finally admit that I sometimes fall in love with a language, because recently I came across the blog of august British linguist David Crystal, and he has a post describing this very phenomenon. It’s not just me! It’s a little thrilling to read someone I admire admit to “falling in love with nasalized vowels” in a French class as a child.” This is me reading your blog.
“So, having said that, please forgive me, dear old language friends, but I have lost my heart to a new love. Oh Arabic, where have you been all my life? I am such a beginner, I can barely read and say hello, but I really have fallen for this language. I love this post on the blog The Polyglot Dream, where the guest blogger talks about a language resonating with you. There really is something about the sounds of Arabic that resonate with me differently than others I’ve learned. I love what the guest blogger, Susanna, says: “Guttural sounds in Arabic and Hebrew make your throat vibrate differently than when you speak in English.” This is me and German.
In short, you believe you are writing about yourself, but clearly you are mistaken, for you are writing about me. xD
polyglossic said:
Hahaha oh Joshua thank you! It’s very nice to find like-minded people 😀
I bet you + German is a lot like me + Russian. To an outsider all those gutturals and hacking noises sound cacophonous, but once you’ve fallen for it you want to say to people “nooo, it’s *beautiful*”. That’s how I felt anyway.
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