In our class we talked about language and all of the different aspects about it. The spoke language is one thing, but non verbal communication is another. Something that I thought a lot about during out lecture, was the symbolism of language in a specific culture. I think that it is fascinating that a word can mean so many different things in a specific language because of the cultural context. Malcom shared an example of the Mayan language and how the word "neighbor" literally is composed of two words meaning the worth of the neighbor. This is completely cultural and it is awesome to think about the many different words that I am learning in Tamil and how they all have a Southern Indian culture implication.
In my own language, I think about the different words that will not translate into the exact same thing into English, just because of cultural difference and not the dichotomy of the word itself. One that comes to mind is the word "hopefully". In English, it comes from the word "hope". In Spanish, the word "hope", is "esperanza", but "hopefully", is "Ojala". This word, "ojala", is actually Arabic, meaning "God (Allah) be willing". A non-native speaker would not be able to guess the meaning of "oajala" because it is solely contextual (Spain was under Arab rule for a long time, and approximately 200 words in the Spanish language are Arabic). This was just one example I thought about, but as I talked to Vankat on Monday, I started to think about the different words in Tamil that will have specific meanings because of location and the people. As I am learning Tamil, I am learning words that are spoken in the street and in the home. Our teacher Vankat is from Tamil Nadu, but he is from Madurai, while we are going to Coimbatore. Already, he is telling us how things are said differently in Coimbatore, and it is the same state! I think that it will take a while to live with the people and live in the village, and gain a grasp of that concept before I attempt to truly understand the language.
I feel this way too! Vankat will give us the formal pronunciation then tell us the people will smush the word all together. It will be interesting to see how the Tamil in Coimbatore differs from Vankat's.
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