All languages are odd

Eric Baković — Linguistics

In what region of the world are
the most languages spoken?
• “Languages are very un-
evenly distributed among
the countries of the world.
The map tries to capture this
fact by rendering each coun-
try in a size corresponding to
the number of languages
spoken in it. (Because of the
inherent problems in accom-
plishing this, sizes are rather
approximate). The ten sha-
ded countries are those in
which more than 200 lan-
guages are in use.”

— Limits of Language, by
Mikael Parkvall
 Language exoticism
• ‘Run-of-the-mill’ (Western) languages
• English, Spanish, French, German,
Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, …
• ‘Exotic’ languages
• Most languages of Africa, Native
America, aboriginal Australia, lesser-
known East Asian nations, …
• Somewhere in between
• Slavic languages, Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, Arabic, Turkish, …
 The exoticism continuum

English Russian Turkish Quechua Walpiri

less exotic more exotic

 Linguistic basis?
• There is absolutely no linguistic basis
for the exoticism continuum!
• Our judgments about the relative
exoticism of languages is most closely
correlated with our judgments about
the relative exoticism of the languages’
speakers (≈ people from those places).
• Also: the more familiar a language (or
its people), the less exotic we think it is.
 Language families?
• “But aren’t language families wildly
different from each other?” — you ask.
• After all, western/European languages
tend to be closely related (Romance
languages, Germanic languages, etc.)
• Perhaps these language families happen
to be boring in ways that others aren’t.
 One goal of this talk
• I have a handful of examples of what
appear to be exotic features of more exotic
languages to show you.
• (You may be familiar with some of them.)

• In each case, I’ll show you how less exotic

languages (English and others) have a
corresponding exoticizable feature.
• (Though you probably didn’t think of these
features in this way before.)
Another, similar goal
• ‘Dialects’ are often thought to be failed
attempts by the uneducated to speak
the standard language of the educated.
• But derided dialect features are in many
cases distinguished features of other
standard languages.
• The basis for both the derision and the
distinction is similarly non-linguistic:
the attitudes are really about people.
Example 1: words & thoughts
• Does thought
determine language,
or does language
determine thought?
• (And what does that
even mean?)

Steven Pinker
Example 1: words & thoughts
• Benjamin Lee Whorf
• “We dissect nature along lines laid
down by our native languages. [T]he
world is presented in a kaleidoscopic
flux of impressions which has to be
organized by our minds—and this
means largely by the linguistic
systems in our minds.”
Eskimo words for snow

• “Eskimos have x words for snow.”

• x = 9, 48, 200, 400, … ?
• ‘Eskimos’ = exotic. (Right?)
• ‘Eskimo languages’: Yupik, Inuit
• Synonymous words meaning snow, or
words for different types of snow?
English words for snow

• English has plenty of words to describe

different types of snow.
• snow, sleet, slush, blizzard, avalanche,
hail, hardpack, powder, flurry, dusting
• … “snizzling”
Example 1: words & thoughts
• Geoffrey K. Pullum
• “The alleged lexical extravagance of the
Eskimos comports so well with the many
other facets of their polysynthetic perversity:
rubbing noses; lending their wives to
strangers; eating raw seal blubber; throwing
Grandma out to be eaten by polar bears.”
• Pinker: “[T]he supposedly mind-broadening
anecdotes owe their appeal to a patronizing
willingness to treat other cultures’ psychologies
as weird and exotic compared to our own.”
Example 1: words & thoughts
• “Among the many depressing things
about this credulous transmission and
elaboration of a false claim is that even
if there were a large number of roots for
different snow types in some Arctic
language, this would not, objectively, be
intellectually interesting; it would be a
most mundane and unremarkable fact.”
Example 1: words & thoughts
• “Horsebreeders have various names for
breeds, sizes, and ages of horses; botanists
have names for leaf shapes; interior
decorators have names for shades of
mauve; printers have many different
names for fonts […]. Would anyone think
of writing about printers the same kind of
slop we find written about Eskimos in
bad linguistics textbooks?”
Example 1: words & thoughts

• “[From a textbook:] ‘It is quite obvious

that in the culture of the Eskimos … snow
is of great enough importance to split up
the conceptual sphere that corresponds to
one word and one thought in English into
several distinct classes …’”
Example 1: words & thoughts

• “Imagine reading: ‘It is quite obvious

that in the culture of printers … fonts
are of great enough importance to split
up the conceptual sphere that
corresponds to one word and one
thought among non-printers into
several distinct classes …’”
Example 1: words & thoughts

• “Utterly boring, even if true. Only the

link to those legendary, promiscuous,
blubber-knawing hunters of the ice-
packs could permit something this trite
to be presented to us for
contemplation.”
Example 2: word classes
• Some languages group nouns into classes.
• Most typical (= least exotic!): gender
• masculine, feminine; maybe neuter
• Romance languages, German
• Some more exotic languages use more
exotic noun classification systems.
• (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noun_class)
 Dyirbal noun classes
• Dyirbal is an Australian aboriginal language
with four noun classes:
I. animate objects, men
II. women, water, fire, violence
III. edible fruit and vegetables
IV. miscellaneous (includes things not
classifiable in the first three)
• Class II inspired the title of George Lakoff’s
1987 book Women, Fire and Dangerous Things.
Other Australian languages
• Ngangikurrunggurr has noun classes
reserved for canines, and hunting
weapons, and Anindilyakwa has a
noun class for things that reflect light.
Diyari distinguishes only between
female and other objects. Perhaps the
most noun classes in any Australian
language are found in Yanyuwa, which
has 16 noun classes.
Other Australian languages
• Yanyula has 15 noun classes, including
nouns associated with food, trees and
abstractions, in addition to separate
classes for men and masculine things,
women and feminine things. In the
men’s dialect, the classes for men and
for masculine things have simplified to
a single class, marked the same way as
the women’s dialect marker reserved
exclusively for men.
 Bantu noun classes
• Bantu languages have a total of 22 noun
classes called nominal classes. While no
single language is known to express all
of them, most of them have at least 10
noun classes. For example, Shona has
20 classes, Swahili has 15, Sesotho has
18 and Luganda has 17.
• Noun Classification in Swahili, by Ellen Contini-
Morava; http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/swahili/
English verb classes
• What if I told you that
the everyday English
verbs hit, cut, break,
and touch belong to
different verb classes?
• (And what does that
even mean?)
Construction Class Examples

Conative motion, contact hit, cut

Possessor-raising contact hit, cut, touch

motion, contact,
Contact locative hit
no effect

Middle voice effect cut, break

effect, no contact,
Anticausative break
no motion

Pinker 2007, p. 106

Construction Class Examples

Conative motion, contact hit, cut

Mabel cut at the rope. *Nancy touched at the cat.

Vince hit at the dog. *Rhonda broke at the rope.

Sal chipped at the rock. *Jeremy kissed at the child.

Claudia kicked at the wall. *Joseph split at the wood.

Pinker 2007, p. 103

Construction Class Examples

Possessor-raising contact hit, cut, touch

Sam cut Brian’s arm. Sam broke Brian’s arm.

Sam cut Brian on the arm. *Sam broke Brian on the arm.
Sy hit the dog’s leg. Sy broke the dog’s leg.
Sy hit the dog on the leg. *Sy broke the dog on the leg.
Tony touched Max’s lip. Tony split Max’s lip.
Tony touched Max on the lip. *Tony split Max on the lip.
Kim kissed Pat’s cheek. Kim split Pat’s cheek.
Kim kissed Pat on the cheek. *Kim split Pat on the cheek.

Pinker 2007, p. 103-104

Construction Class Examples

motion, contact,
Contact locative hit
no effect
I hit the wall with the bat.
I hit the bat against the wall.
She bumped the table with the glass.
She bumped the glass against the table.
I cut the rope with the knife.
*I cut the knife against the rope.
They broke the glass with the hammer.
*They broke the hammer against the glass.
She touched the cat with her hand.
*She touched her hand against the cat.
Pinker 2007, p. 104-105
Construction Class Examples

Middle voice effect cut, break

This glass breaks easily. *That dog hits easily.

This rope cuts like a dream. *This wire touches easily.

Dry lips split easily. *Babies kiss easily.

Brittle bones shatter easily. *Soccer balls kick easily.

Pinker 2007, p. 105

Construction Class Examples

effect, no contact,
Anticausative break
no motion
I shattered the glass earlier today.
At noon, the glass shattered.
He broke his arm yesterday.
Earlier today, his arm broke.
I cut the rope earlier today.
*Earlier today, the rope cut.
Frida touched/hit Mae yesterday.
*Yesterday, Mae touched/hit.
Mary chopped the wood last week.
*Last week, the wood chopped.
Pinker 2007, p. 105
 Summary

hit motion, contact

cut motion, contact, effect

break effect

touch contact

Pinker 2007, p. 106

 Example 3: sounds

• Some languages on the more exotic end

of the continuum have sounds known
as clicks (like tsk, tsk or tut, tut).
• Clicks are common in Bantu languages
like Zulu, but also in other languages of
South Africa, such as !Xóõ and Nama.
How to make a click
 X-ray of a click

http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/vowels/chapter13/movie.html
 Voiceless aspirated stops

labial coronal dorsal

• Closure: the articulators are brought together in such a way that a
complete constriction is formed. The air from the lungs cannot escape.
• Release: the articulators are pulled apart abruptly, and the pressurized
air escapes in a sudden puff, referred to as the noise burst.
• Voice onset time: a non-negligible amount of time passes between the
noise burst and the onset of vowel voicing (= vocal fold vibration).
Voice onset time …
… in English!

voiced

voiceless
unaspirated

voiceless
aspirated
Example 4: sound patterns
• A language’s sounds are not distributed
randomly in words — there are restrictions
on what sounds can co-occur.
• (This is what I study most: phonology.)
• For example, in English:
• brick shows that br can begin a word.
• *bnick shows that bn cannot begin a word.
• Because blue exists, blick is a possible word!
 Turkish vowels
spread
i ı
high
ü u
e a
low
ö o round
front back
Some Turkish nouns
(nominative singular)

ip rope el hand

kız girl çan bell

yüz face köy village

pul stamp son end

 Turkish genitive suffix
ip-in rope’s el-in hand’s

kız-ın girl’s çan-ın bell’s

yüz-ün face’s köy-ün village’s

pul-un stamp’s son-un end’s

• The genitive suffix is a high vowel.
• It copies the front/back and round/
spread quality from the previous vowel.
 Turkish plural suffix
ip-ler ropes el-ler hands

kız-lar girls çan-lar bells

yüz-ler faces köy-ler villages

pul-lar stamps son-lar ends

• The plural suffix is a low spread vowel.

• It copies only the front/back quality
from the previous vowel.
 Turkish genitive plural
ip-ler-in ropes’ el-ler-in hands’

kız-lar-ın girls’ çan-lar-ın bells’

yüz-ler-in faces’ köy-ler-in villages’

pul-lar-ın stamps’ son-lar-ın ends’

• The genitive suffix seems to be a high spread vowel.

• It’s because the previous vowel is the plural suffix,
which is never round.
Some English consonants

stop fricative

voiceless t s
voiced d z
 Past tenses of verbs
voiced voiceless
rubbed [bd] bumped [pt]
bugged [gd] ducked [kt]
grooved [vd] goofed [ft]
• The past tense suffix is a stop consonant.
• It copies voicing from the previous consonant.
 Plurals of nouns
voiced voiceless
stubs [bz] bumps [ps]
bugs [gz] ducks [ks]
grooves [vz] roofs [fs]
• The past tense suffix is a fricative consonant.
• It copies voicing from the previous consonant.
More English consonants
voiceless voiced
nasal
stop stop

labial p b m
coronal t d n
 Negatives of adjectives
labial coronal
impatient [mp] intolerant [nt]
imbalanced [mb] indecent [nd]
impossible [mp] indestructible [nd]
• The negative prefix ends in a nasal consonant.
• It copies place of articulation from the following consonant.
Example 5: dialect forms
• Everyone speaks a dialect of a language.
• The ‘standard language’ is just another
dialect, like any other.
• The ‘standard’ vs. ‘non-standard’
distinction has no linguistic basis.
• “A language is a dialect with an army
and a navy.” — Max Weinreich
 Double negatives
• “Two negatives make a positive.”
• A good rule of thumb for math and
logic, but not really for language.
• I don’t like nobody.
• Standard English: “I like somebody.”
• Nonstandard: “I don’t like anybody.”
 Double negatives

• Ain’t nobody done nothin’.

• If the math/logic analysis was right,
this would come out negative!
• But it’s still supposed to be “wrong”
for the same reasons as the last
example: too many negatives.
 Double negatives
• Multiple negatives are standard in other
languages — take Romance, for example.
• Spanish:
• No hice nada. = “I didn’t do anything.”
• French:
• Je ne sais rien. = “I don’t know anything.”
 Double negatives
• While learning Turkish, I was getting in
trouble with some friends. A mother asked:
• Ne oldu? = “What happened?”
• Trying to cover my own butt, I replied:
• Hiç bir șey oldu. = “not one thing happened”
• But I should have said:
• Hiç bir șey olmadı. = “Nothing happened.”
 Tag questions
• Most dialects of English (including the
standard) form tag questions thusly:
• That’s a nice car, isn’t it?
• You would like to go, wouldn’t you?
• I’m at work, aren’t I?
• She can take the subway, can’t she?
 Tag questions
• Some non-standard British dialects of
English form tag questions with innit.
• That’s a nice car, innit?
• You would like to go, innit?
• I’m at work, innit?
• She can take the tube, innit?
 Tag questions
• Standard French is not too different.
• C’est une jolie voiture, n’est-ce pas?
• “It’s a nice car, is it not?”
• Tu voudrais aller, n’est-ce pas?
• “You would like to go, is it not?”
• Je suis au travail, n’est-ce pas?
• “I’m at work, is it not?”
• Elle peut prendre le metro, n’est-ce pas?
• “She can take the metro, is it not?”
 Tag questions
• Spanish is similar.
• Es un lindo auto, no/no ve/verdad?
• “It’s a nice car, no/don’t you see/truth?”
• Quisieras ir, no/no ve/verdad?
• “You’d like to go, no/don’t you see/truth?”
• Estoy en el trabajo, no/no ve/verdad?
• “I’m at work, no/don’t you see/truth?”
• Puede tomar el tren, no/no ve/verdad?
• “She can take the train, no/don’t you see/truth?”
 No language is odd
• Reconciling this with the talk’s title:
• No language is really any more or less
odd (or exotic) than any other.
• Close scrutiny of a language — any
language — reveals extraordinary
complexity (and systematicity).
 Thank you.
Contact me:
bakovic@ling.ucsd.edu
http://ling.ucsd.edu/~bakovic