The beginning of this week's reading was especially interesting. I liked how the book distinguished between dialects and accents because sometimes they seem to be used interchangeably. Dialects though, can encompass many different accents. Whereas a dialect includes grammatical traits or specific words that distinguish it from another dialect, accents are simply a different way of pronouncing words.
I also thought that dialect continuums were very interesting, end evident especially in my own experience in Spain. Castillian Spanish varies widely between the north and south of Spain. The closer a person lives to the south of Spain, the easier it is to understand the Andalusian accent native to the south. But, those who live farther north have a harder time understanding Andalusian speakers. Another example of this dialect continuum is an east to west continuum from Portugal to France that the book mentions. Most of this continuum occurs in Spain. If you begin with Portuguese then one of the official languages in Spain would be next on the continuum. This langage is Galician or "gallego" in Spanish. It is heavily influenced by Portuguese but is also very similar to Spanish. You could say that regular (Castillian) Spanish language comes next, followed by Catalan (spoken in Barcelona) which is a sort of mixture between Castillian and French. Finally French would be the end of the continuum.
Another example that I enjoyed (because it was talking about Spain again) was the example of the illegalization of the Basque language. For the Basque, their language is not just a language, it is a very important part of their identity, just like the book says. The other aspect of linguistic suppression in Spain is that the government also declared the other regional languages of Spain (including the abovementioned examples of Galician and Catalan) illegal during Francisco Franco's dictatorship.
This section on the book can also be applied to Farsi as a dialect of Persian. Farsi, Dari, and Tajik are all regional dialects of the Persian language. From what Maroof has said, Farsi and Dari easily facilitate intercommunication. Tajik though uses the Russian alphabet so it might be possible for a Farsi or Dari speaker to understand a Tajik speaker but impossible for them to communicate in written form because of the different alphabets.
With my language partner this week we worked on body, fruit, and color vocabulary. We have also continued practicing my pronunciation and reading ability by typing vocabulary words on the computer and reading them out loud. I have started making my own vocabulary lists as practice so that I get experience writing the words and making my own associations. I have also started listening to the Farsi podcasts again from the BBC and I hope to be able to get back into Rosetta Stone later this week. I spent a little time trying to catch up on the cultural studies for MLC110 and plan to get together with the other Farsi students to try to create a recorded artifact where we have a conversation together.
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