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Language Acquisition: Crash Course Linguistics #12

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Accent and Dialects (Raflisha and Aliya)

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Accent and Dialects (Raflisha and Aliya)

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1. What are dialect and accent?

Accent: An accent is a person’s distinctive pronunciation.

Dialect: A variety of English which is associated with a particular region and/or social class.

2. What are the similarities and differences between dialect and accent?

Similarities: dialect and accent both are the smaller part of the language

Differences:

Use the same word but pronounce it differently.

Accent has to be distinguished from dialects, while dialects deal with vocabulary,      pronunciation, and grammar.

3. Examples of dialects in Malaysia.

Bahasa Malaysia, Kedahan, Kelantanese, Terengganuan, Pahang Malay, Negeri Sembilan Malay, Johor-Riau, Perak Malay

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Sociolinguistics: Crash Course Linguistics #7

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1. What is language change?
2. How does language change occur?
3. In which areas of language can we see language change?
4. What is Pidgin?
5. What is Creole?

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Language Change and Historical Linguistics: Crash Course Linguistics #13

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1. Which is greater in number? Number of languages in the world or number of speech sounds?
2. Why do languages sound so different from one another?
3. How does phonology affect communication?

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Comic artist Ernest Ng of Bro, don't like that la, bro has been playing an uplifting role in our current pandemic situation.

His webcomics, Covidball Z, features familiar faces from the news like Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah battling out Malaysia's fight against Covid-19.

2 years ago we wrote about Ernest's comics that mainly focused on his adventures with his four "bros".

They featured titles like Here Comes The Bros and Bro Don't Like That La Bro, Origins: Back To School, in 2014.

"After many years of drawing just about my life, I decided to explore current issues because I wanted to try something new, tell stories about different topics and move out from my comfort zone," he told Vulcan Post.

On top of publishing weekly comics for Covidball Z on his social media, he also runs the production house, MacamYes Studios with Dan Khoo.

A Drawing Addiction

Some pages featured in Covidball Z / Image Credit: Ernest Ng

"Doing new chapters every week does take a lot out of me," said Ernest.

When he first started uploading his comics in 2010, the thought of giving up used to cross his mind.

3 months in, he took a few steps back and decided to shift his mindset.

"Since then this thought never really crossed my mind anymore. Mainly because I decided to just focus on enjoying the drawing process and don't think about anything else. I decided to get addicted to drawing," he said.

Topics featured in his webcomics are chosen based on news pieces collected over the week, and connected into a single storyline chapter.

"To be honest I just choose the ones I like and those that can fit within the storyline easily. If a topic goes too far off the plot I will usually choose not to cover it. Usually, I go for the big or viral topics of the week," said Ernest.

An animation of Ernest's comic

In order to ensure that he won't mistakenly cover fake news, the illustrator will verify reports with some journalist friends to confirm or debunk news that goes through.

"I'll make sure at least I am not covering fake news", he said.

He shared that the writing and planning process is one of the more mentally taxing parts.

Sometimes, he would already be halfway through when something big happens in the news, so the storyline has to be tweaked to fit the news into its plot.

Featuring Familiar Faces

Characters illustrated in the webcomics are based on definitive features from recognisable political leaders.

Orange skin for Donald Trump's character, the tired eyes of our Health Director General, and lips and moustache for our current Prime Minister.

The COVID-19 character is an ill-looking green alien with a buff body dressed in spandex. Ernest pretty much winged it for this character's design.

"Usually I don't put too much thought into it and just go with the first design that comes to mind."

"I try not to spend too much time designing as the main aim is to focus on the story," he said.

Characters in the comics look familiar / Image Credit: Ernest Ng

He credits his inspiration to some of his favourite manga from childhood.

"I am a big fan of Japanese manga and anime so most of the character designs are based on those especially the popular ones such as Dragonball Z, Naruto, Bleach, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure," he added.

The characters in the animated webcomics are voiced by professional voice actors. Some names include Azman Zulkiply, Steven Bones, and Puteri Hana.

Like Us, He Doubts His Work

Because his work parodies current issues, we were curious as to how Ernest manages to come up with the right jokes while hitting the right spots with his audience.

"I doubt my own jokes and story all the time, but I overcome that by just publishing the chapter online and just hope for the best," he said.

Giving credit to the intelligence of his readers, it makes his day when they manage to catch the subtle jokes he included in the stories.

Ernest published his book, Covidball Z on September 24, which features deleted scenes and extra chapters that did not make it online.

I thought they didn't really serve the main plot too well. But mainly because I thought they were too stupid and didn't make sense.
Ernest Ng, comic artist of Covidball Z

As of the end of 2019, Ernest had about 180,000 followers on Facebook and 20,000 on Instagram.

Covidball Z has now pushed those numbers up to over 271,000 followers on Facebook and 46,200 on Instagram.

1,000 copies of the book were sold on the first day, and it's currently available for purchase on Shopee.

You can find out more about Ernest Ng's work here.

You can read about other Malaysian startups here.

Featured Image Credit: Ernest Ng, comic artist of Covidball Z

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He Documented Malaysia's COVID-19 Situation Thru Comics & Sold 1k Copies Upon Launching

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Comic artist Ernest Ng of Bro, don't like that la, bro has been playing an uplifting role in our current pandemic situation. His webcomics, Covidball Z, features familiar faces from the news like Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah battling out Malaysia's fight against Covid-19.

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The 5 Components of Language Morphology: Rules that govern the internal organization of words Morphology Morpheme: the smallest unit of meaning There are two different forms of morphemes - free and bound There are two types of bound morphemes Free: can stand alone Bound: must be

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Early primitive words may have been imitations of natural sounds that the first humans heard and repeated to imitate the sounds of the world around them.

1. Bow-Wow Theory

The first humans imitate animal sounds in order to refer to a certain animal.

When the earliest humans heard a bird make a tweeting sound, they may have replicated it to inform a friend, "Hey, a bird just flew by."

More technically referred to as onomatopoeia or echoism. Relatively words that are onomatopoeic vary from one language to another. (Example; a dog’s bark in Philippines can be heard as “AW AW” and “WANG WANG” in China.

Seems to assume that a language is only based on a set of words naming objects, does not adequately explain creation of words for soundless objects or explain in terms of grammar and syntax development.

Unfortunately, this idea only works to a limited amount since imitating the sound of a rock, a tree, or a cave is quite difficult.

2. Natural Cries of Emotion

The idea that speech comes from the automatic vocal responses to pain, fear, surprise, or other emotions: a laugh, a shriek, a gasp. But plenty of animals make these kinds of sounds too, and they didn't end up with language.

Such sounds as “wa wa wa” or “ha ha ha,” commonly used to denoted crying or pain and happiness or laughter, respectively, would then develop into a more unique and case-specific series of sounds in association with other emotions and interactions.

3.Yo-He-Ho Theory

Language evolved from rhythmic chants and vocalisms spoken by individuals engaged in community labor. Suggested that language developed to synchronize muscular effort by alternating sounds such as ‘heave’ with sounds such as ‘ho.’

The early humans may have established a set of different grunts or cries that were spoken in a certain rhythmic order to offer instructions to a group.

Those "work songs" would have to match the pace of the task to be done; for example, "yo-heave-ho" may have been used when a group of individuals attempted to lift something up.

Marching chants and working songs are examples of human cooperative efforts that gave rise to language.

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- Depends on human physical appearances especially those that are distinct from other creatures.
-  It developed as a means of communication for human.
- Oral gestures involving mouth, tongue and lips that are similar to physical gestures and different from other creatures but similar to physical gestures.
-  Unlike human beings, no other species can use language because other animals have a for speaking.
- Human mouth is small, which makes it easier to open and close for fast speech production. Human teeth are in upright position and are regular in size, which allows us to produce sounds such as, f and v.
- Human mouth has a complicated muscle system, which allows us to produce various vowels. Our tongue can move backwards, forwards, up and down.
- This allows us to produce various speech sounds. In fact without these speech organs, human beings could not have spoken.
- Human brain has gone through a number of changes, it became much bigger and specialized for language.

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In most religions, it is believed that language is a God-given gift to human species. So, God punished them by separating their languages. People tried to discover the original divine language which was spoken by our most ancient ancestors. In Christianity, God gave Adam the kingdom of all animals in the Garden of Eden and the first thing Adam did was to name these animals. That is how language started according to religious sources. Today people speak many different languages rather than only one language because ancient humans became too proud and they tried to build the Tower of Babel in order to reach God. So, God punished them by separating their languages. People tried to discover the original divine language which was spoken by our most ancient ancestors. They assumed that if a child was brought up without hearing any language, the first word the child would utter would be in this divine language. The basic of this theory is, “If infants were allowed to grow up without hearing any language, then they would spontaneously begin using the original God-given language“.

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TOPIC 2 : THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 

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TOPIC 2 : THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE. 

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(Aliya and Raflisha)

a) Malaysia

1. Do not wear shoes at home

2. Eat with bare hands

3. Speak Manglish and own ethnic mother tongue

4. Have the habit of mind people businesses, even their own neighbours and others on social media.

5. Love to bargain, ask for discount or lower price when buying things

6. Pointing with your right thumb and another four fingers is folded underneath

7. Slightly bow and bend their body when walking past an elder

8. Don’t ever dare to be rude to parents

b) Asia

1. Do not wear shoes at home

2. Eat with both bare hands and other utensils

3. Speak using their own language or mix language

4. Mind your head and feet (never touch anyone head, never point your feet at anyone)

5. Love to bargain too

6. Possibly not even dare to be rude to the parents

c) World

1. Most probably wear shoes at home

2. Eat using utensils only or rarely to use bare hands

3. Speak with own language for example Americans speak English

4. Leaving a cash tip

5. Will buy things with the original price and rarely bargain for small things

6. Public display of affection

7. Don’t mind about talk to the parents in the same way they talk to their parents

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Cultural Practices in Malaysia, Asia and the world

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Cultural Practices in Malaysia, Asia and the world

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1) Malaysia
-Any meetings will start later than scheduled
-Greets with Arabic phrase "Assalamualaikum" when visiting outside of the house
-Bows slightly when walking past an elder

2)Asia
-Eating with hands
-Greetings upon meeting
-Taking off shoes in the house
-Sharing food (huge round table with a lot of dishes)
-Holding hands is common

3)World (differences between Western and Eastern culture)

West: Kids are taught to be independent, moving out from parents at 19 (average) or after graduating high school

East: Always refer to parents when making decisions (moreover on jobs, parents pressure kids to be doctor or lawyer) and arranged marriage

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Culture Differences in Malaysia, Asia and the world: 

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Culture Differences in Malaysia, Asia and the world: 

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a) In Malaysia: Traditional arts and crafts (Wau kite is influenced by the Malay culture, Paper Lantern is influenced by the Chinese culture, and Flower Garland is influenced by the Indian culture)

b) In Asia: Religion and beliefs (Taoism is being practiced majorly in China, while Shintoism is being practised majorly in Japan)

c) In the world: Civilities and Mannerism (in England, most British people would use forks and spoons as cutleries to eat their meals. However, in India, most Indians would use their hands to eat their meals)

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1. What is language?
- Find the definition.
- How do we learn language?

2. What is culture?
1. Is it nature or nurture?
2. Can a person have only one culture?