Cultural Artifact 2

 For my second cultural artifact, I have chosen to do mezuzahs. I have put a picture below, they are pretty recognizable, even for non-Jewish people. A part of the mezuzah has a handwritten scroll, called a klaf. It normally has the following torah verse (Deuteronomy 6:4–9). This passage is known as the Shema, which is one of the most important prayers in Judaism. The first line, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one,” declares the belief in one God. It also says to write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, which is where the tradition of the mezuzah comes from.The Hebrew language on the klaf is very important. The text is written in biblical Hebrew, using a special script called “ktav Ashuri”. An especially trained scribe, called a sofer, writes the words by hand with black ink on parchment. Each letter must be formed perfectly according to Jewish law. If even one letter is messed up, the mezuzah is not considered kosher. I can imagine this takes so…

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Cultural Post 2

Oracle bones are commonly recognized today as incredibly important artifacts that have provided key insights into the development of the Chinese language, as well as Chinese history. It is difficult to identify when they were first discovered, but a late-19th century scholar named Wang Yirong is generally credited with recognizing the markings he observed as ancient writing. Previously, the bones had been used in medicine, and the inscriptions had not really been recognized as written messages. Around the same time, several other scholars began to publish writings on their translations of the inscriptions and investigate where the oracle bones were coming from; many were found by farmers around Henan. Usually, the oracle bones were made with turtle’s shells or ox bones. Clients (who were often, though not always, wealthy and could more easily afford consultations) would visit a diviner or priest and ask a question about an action or decision to pursue. Characters relating to their…

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Discussion Post #4

There is no phonetic inventory of ASL because it is an entirely signed and not spoken language. However while there are no sounds or tonal structures that exist only in ASL and not in English, there are certain signs or words that exist only in English and not ASL which make it difficult to translate ASL into exact English. English has over a 100,000+ different unique words, comparatively ASL only has about 10,000+ so people who communicate in ASL must find new and innovative ways to convey the same idea in more signs or words. This is increasingly difficult as langauge begins to quickly change from generation to generation.It is still possible to observe pitch and stress in ASL through non-manal indicators though, like raising your eyebrows indicates a "yes" or "no" qestion mimicking the raised pitch of a native English speaker when asking a question. Similarly, the last sign is held for an extended amount of time when asking a question in ASL, mimicking the stress an English speaker…

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Discussion Post 5

I vividly remember sitting in the living room with my cousins, laughing over Hebrew. “Just try it, say it,” they all laughed. I felt a rumbling in the back of my throat, trying to create that “chah” sound. My cousins all around started to make the noise; it sounded like an awful chorus, but I just could’t do it, at least not naturally. A lot of the Hebrew language uses that “chah” sound, which comes from the back of your throat, but the upper palate. This is one sound I specifically remember because my cousins noticed that with my native language, I couldn’t completely make that noise, but there are many more. And these sounds always tend to be rougher. Spanish and all the other Romance languages have a nice sound to them, while I have always said that Hebrew can be abrasive. Here are some of those words with sounds that are harder to pronounce for native English speakers: To brush: le’tzah tzeah (this one is a little bit of a tongue twister and has some hard sounds)Need/must:…

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