MLC 105 Learning Journal #2: Reflections on the Readings & Research on the Writing Systems of Hindi
With regard to the Hindi writing systems, Hindi has a really interesting writing system, as it is written in the Devanagari alphabet which is considered an "abugida," meaning that each consonant has an inherent "a" sound attached to it, but the sound can be changed depending on which other vowels are added to the consonant. If consonants are joined together, the inherent vowel is suppressed. Devanagari is written from left to right, and the alphabet consists of 33 consonants along with 14 vowel sounds. The sounds of Hindi also distinguish between "aspirated" and "unaspirated" consonants. Hindi is usually written in print, so I've never seen any of the manuscript writing. There are related writing systems -- since Hindi uses the Devanagari alphabet, Hindi is also similar somewhat to Nepali and Sanskrit. Additionally, certain letters in the Devanagari alphabet remind me of Punjabi letters (Gurmukhi), so it is somewhat tricky to remember the differences between the two.
Here are my thoughts on this week's readings:
1. "How to investigate language structure" -- I thought this reading was quite interesting, especially in the beginning, where the author starts out by discussing all the things that are happening as we speak a short sentence -- such as focusing on meaning ("station" vs "beach"), the order in which the words appear, the tone of voice, and more. It's interesting to think about how much is going on when we use language. I also found the idea of "levels" useful in helping us focus on understanding the different structures involved in utilizing language, particularly for people who have suffered brain damage and lose linguistic ability at one level, but not another.
2. "How the brain handles language" -- Since I am majoring in biology, I really liked this reading about the brain's roles in language. I thought it was quite important how the author emphasizes that we should avoid oversimplifying the contrast between the left hemisphere and right hemisphere (with regard to left-handed people or right-handed people). I also found it interesting to read about the difference between damage to Broca's area vs. damage to Wernicke's area, because in a psychology class, I actually saw a documentary about the different types of damage and found it very interesting. I also thought the section about slips of the tongue was also quite interesting, because I never realized that they were not random. It was neat to see how tongue slips can also explain a lot about underlying neurolinguistic processes.
3. "How we mean" - I found it quite interesting to consider how different languages have diverse ways of talking about the world. For instance, as the author wrote, English doesn't differentiate in the words for "mother's brother" or "father's brother." In many Indic languages, however, there are different lexical treatments given to these biological relationships, just as the author writes about the Australian language Pitjanjatjara. In addition, it was also interesting to think about how we explain the "sense of the word" with other words (like how we would explain the word 'furniture' vs. the word 'wooden' if we were pointing to a wooden chair).
These readings will help shape my language learning process because I now understand the larger context in which I am learning a different language. I now see how the different levels of language could also be used in understanding how I want to approach language learning, whether it's through first understanding grammar or sentence structure or focusing on the meaning of words. In addition, I have also learned not to limit myself in thinking about the world primarily through the way English describes it -- such as thinking of the word "aunt" as a one-word concept. In other languages, there are many different words for "aunt" (mom's older sister, mom's younger sister, etc). So I would try not to limit myself when I am learning a different language.
