Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Lowe- Blog 1

Mary Elizabeth Lowe
English 1101
Hughes
Blog 1


Throughout our lives there are a variety of influences which bombard us on a daily basis from many different avenues such as the media and billboards, to friends and family. This is no less true regarding the linguistic influences which mold and shape our minds and voices into the people we are today.
As a young child during my formative years I was closely connected to my parents and their unique speech patterns and lexicons were undoubtedly the number one factor in my own linguistic development. My mother is a native Georgian and my father is Bahamian, which in itself created a unique mix of accents and words; however, they then moved to Ohio and resided there for a number of years prior to their move to Alabama and the dawn of my existence. I believe that these differing accents joining together have served as a direct influence upon me and certainly merit mention in my history of language.
Another aspect which has impacted my language is the fact that I was homeschooled until the tenth grade which made my linguistic experience quite different from the majority of the population. While I was involved in sports, clubs, academic organizations and various other exposures to language, the majority of my time was spent with my family and their language standards.
An additional part of my linguistic history concerns my study of foreign languages. During school I learned a sample of both Latin, which I studied during middle school, and Spanish, which I was taught during high school. Though I cannot speak Spanish fluently the base knowledge of these two languages has broadened the scope of my root word understanding.
One common occurrence in my life which I have found rather odd is the repeated misbelief that I am from somewhere other than Alabama and Georgia. Many times while making small talk with nurses, bankers, or other stranger they ask me where I am from and they act rather shocked to learn I live in the same county in which they reside. They then explain their reaction by stating I have an accent resembling those from "the north". To me this is a peculiar thing to say because to me I sound just like everyone else around me here in the south, so it will be interesting to see how my accent adapts following my time here at Young Harris as I continue building my linguistic history one day at a time.
ENG 1101: “Language Controversies”
Week 1, Day 3
Blog Prompt 1

Your first blog assignment is a personal essay. It should be between 300-600 words, but feel free to write more if you get inspired! You may write using the first person (I) and describe one or several aspects of your linguistic history. Some topics you might wish to cover include:
  • The languages you have been exposed to over the course of your life, and how important they are to who you are. Is English your native language? Are you bilingual or multilingual? Did you learn other languages as a child and then forget them? Have you taken courses in other languages?
  • The relationship between family and language. Do any members of your family speak other languages and dialects than you do? Does that make you feel connected to another culture, or make you feel estranged?
  • How has school has affected your language? Have teachers made you try to speak differently (or write differently) than you would otherwise? Do you admire academic standards of language, resent them, or do you care?
  • Any stories about yourself and your language that you think are funny, interesting, or say a lot about who you are. Have you ever gone abroad and come back speaking with a different accent just for fun? Have people from other regions or countries commented a lot upon your accent?