by Kit McCallum
I look back on these years
To see how far I've come and grown,
I take a trip down memory lane,
And what I see has shown ...
That every step I've taken,
You have been there by my side ...
From infancy to adulthood,
We've stood the test of time.
You cradled me and nurtured me,
Through all these many years;
You held me and did comfort me,
Through happiness and tears.
You'd pick me up when I would fall,
You'd dust me off and then,
Encourage me to get back on
That horse and ride again.
Your constant care and loving,
And your warm inviting heart,
Has always been a treasure that
I knew would n'er depart.
If I could be "just half" the person
You have been to me ...
Then you have taught me well dear mom,
For in my heart I see ...
A woman whose most gentle soul,
Embraces me each day ...
A woman whom I dearly love,
Much more than words can say.
Jumat, 24 Desember 2010
Kamis, 23 Desember 2010
Raising Bilingual Children: The Snags
by Christina Bosemark, founder of the Multilingual Children's Association
I speak Swedish and my husband's native language is English. When we had our two children, we had no doubt that we wanted to raise them with equal access to both languages. Now, years later, when I've made promoting multilingual child-raising not just my avocation, but my vocation as well, people ask me for the straight story, warts and all. "What is the difference, raising bilingual children?" "What do you wish you knew before you got started?"
It's clear to most of us that speaking multiple languages is a good thing, and learning multiple languages in the early years is a nearly effortless means to fluency. Your multilingual child will have a head start in schools during a time when more and more of them are requiring a foreign language. And once your kid knows two languages, the move to three, or four is much easier. Counterintuitively, the effects of growing up bilingually include superior reading and writing skills in both languages, as well as better analytical, social, and academic skills. Parents who are themselves involved in high level careers are already well aware that professional prospects abound for those with fluency in multiple languages. Helen Riley-Collins, president of Aunt Ann's In-House Staffing in San Francisco, who caters to many clients in high tech, investment banking and finance, says that more than half her clients request nannies who speak another language. "They want to give their children a head start in business in 20 years." So, that all sounds well and good, but what are the real drawbacks?
1. Delay. Multilingual children tend to speak a little later than their peers. Although there is no solid scientific evidence to suggest a delay in speech, anecdotally there is a real sense among parents that multilinguals start talking three to six month later than monolingual children. If you think about it, it makes sense that a child learning two or more language systems might take more time, since they are actually learning twice as many words. But rest assured, even if your child did not walk at nine months, eventually he ended up walking just as well as those precocious ones. The same thing holds true for language, even when you are talking about more than one. Guaranteed!
2. Mixing. Children learning two languages often slip back and forth between them, mixing up their words. This can disturb the parents, but can be even more alarming to the uninitiated. No worries. This tendency will pass once the child has built a large enough vocabulary -- around the age of four or five. Remember that the monolingual three year old often struggles to find the right word, and, for that matter, adults don't always find it easy to express themselves. In some ways, the multilingual kid has an advantage -- if he can't think of the correct word in Vietnamese, for example, then he can say it in English. While the rest of us are speechless.
3. Effort. Perhaps the most easily overlooked drawback to taking the multilingual path is that it requires more effort on the part of the parents. Raising a multilingual child is a commitment. Much like piano lessons, you can't expect your little one to be a virtuoso overnight. Language learning is a long-term investment in your child and will require that you are able to provide enough language exposure. At times, you'll probably need to boost the second language and offer some extra encouragement. You'll need the persistence required to keep your family language rules as consistent as possible. But, if you can keep faith for the first four or five years while a solid language foundation is put in place, things get easier. Incidentally, the multilingual second child is a breeze, if your first child was raised that way. Your first will end up doing a lot of the work for you by simply being a natural chatterbox.
There's no doubt that multilingual children have more advantages, but it can feel a bit overwhelming to someone already struggling with diapers and feeding schedules; however, I have yet to meet a single parent who regretted the decision. But, the appreciation from your child, as usual, is probably another 20 years out.
Okay, if fore-warned is fore-armed, then what is the best day-to-day method for raising multilingual children? Here's a hint -- since the first five years of your child's language development is so crucial, the key to success is closely tied to his primary environment, the family. That is the topic for next article in this series: Raising Bilingual Children: The Different Methods to Success
About the author:
Christina Bosemark is the founder of the Multilingual Children's Association, your web-guide to raising bilingual children with expert advice, parent discussions, resource directory and articles. She is also mother of two trilingual daughters and co-founder of the Scandinavian immersion school in San Francisco.
Other articles in this series
* Raising Bilingual Children: The First Five Steps to Success
* Raising Bilingual Children: Fact or Fiction?
* Raising Bilingual Children: The Snags
* Raising Bilingual Children: The Different Methods to Success
* Raising Bilingual Children: 10 Tips for Boosting The Minority Language
* Raising Bilingual Children: Is It Too Late?
Links to website with information and advice about raising bilingual/multilingual children
I speak Swedish and my husband's native language is English. When we had our two children, we had no doubt that we wanted to raise them with equal access to both languages. Now, years later, when I've made promoting multilingual child-raising not just my avocation, but my vocation as well, people ask me for the straight story, warts and all. "What is the difference, raising bilingual children?" "What do you wish you knew before you got started?"
It's clear to most of us that speaking multiple languages is a good thing, and learning multiple languages in the early years is a nearly effortless means to fluency. Your multilingual child will have a head start in schools during a time when more and more of them are requiring a foreign language. And once your kid knows two languages, the move to three, or four is much easier. Counterintuitively, the effects of growing up bilingually include superior reading and writing skills in both languages, as well as better analytical, social, and academic skills. Parents who are themselves involved in high level careers are already well aware that professional prospects abound for those with fluency in multiple languages. Helen Riley-Collins, president of Aunt Ann's In-House Staffing in San Francisco, who caters to many clients in high tech, investment banking and finance, says that more than half her clients request nannies who speak another language. "They want to give their children a head start in business in 20 years." So, that all sounds well and good, but what are the real drawbacks?
1. Delay. Multilingual children tend to speak a little later than their peers. Although there is no solid scientific evidence to suggest a delay in speech, anecdotally there is a real sense among parents that multilinguals start talking three to six month later than monolingual children. If you think about it, it makes sense that a child learning two or more language systems might take more time, since they are actually learning twice as many words. But rest assured, even if your child did not walk at nine months, eventually he ended up walking just as well as those precocious ones. The same thing holds true for language, even when you are talking about more than one. Guaranteed!
2. Mixing. Children learning two languages often slip back and forth between them, mixing up their words. This can disturb the parents, but can be even more alarming to the uninitiated. No worries. This tendency will pass once the child has built a large enough vocabulary -- around the age of four or five. Remember that the monolingual three year old often struggles to find the right word, and, for that matter, adults don't always find it easy to express themselves. In some ways, the multilingual kid has an advantage -- if he can't think of the correct word in Vietnamese, for example, then he can say it in English. While the rest of us are speechless.
3. Effort. Perhaps the most easily overlooked drawback to taking the multilingual path is that it requires more effort on the part of the parents. Raising a multilingual child is a commitment. Much like piano lessons, you can't expect your little one to be a virtuoso overnight. Language learning is a long-term investment in your child and will require that you are able to provide enough language exposure. At times, you'll probably need to boost the second language and offer some extra encouragement. You'll need the persistence required to keep your family language rules as consistent as possible. But, if you can keep faith for the first four or five years while a solid language foundation is put in place, things get easier. Incidentally, the multilingual second child is a breeze, if your first child was raised that way. Your first will end up doing a lot of the work for you by simply being a natural chatterbox.
There's no doubt that multilingual children have more advantages, but it can feel a bit overwhelming to someone already struggling with diapers and feeding schedules; however, I have yet to meet a single parent who regretted the decision. But, the appreciation from your child, as usual, is probably another 20 years out.
Okay, if fore-warned is fore-armed, then what is the best day-to-day method for raising multilingual children? Here's a hint -- since the first five years of your child's language development is so crucial, the key to success is closely tied to his primary environment, the family. That is the topic for next article in this series: Raising Bilingual Children: The Different Methods to Success
About the author:
Christina Bosemark is the founder of the Multilingual Children's Association, your web-guide to raising bilingual children with expert advice, parent discussions, resource directory and articles. She is also mother of two trilingual daughters and co-founder of the Scandinavian immersion school in San Francisco.
Other articles in this series
* Raising Bilingual Children: The First Five Steps to Success
* Raising Bilingual Children: Fact or Fiction?
* Raising Bilingual Children: The Snags
* Raising Bilingual Children: The Different Methods to Success
* Raising Bilingual Children: 10 Tips for Boosting The Minority Language
* Raising Bilingual Children: Is It Too Late?
Links to website with information and advice about raising bilingual/multilingual children
Konkani, A dialect? NO!
by Derick Pinto
The other day, a Maharashtrain friend of mine remarked, "Konkani is a dialect of Marathi. That is why Konkani does not have its own script." This set me thinking. I am a linguist and I am interested in language and linguistics. So I found me asking myself as to whether Konkani is a dialect of Marathi or an independent language by itself.
After giving much though to the issue, I arrived at the following conclusion: If tongues were to be graded on a scale of 1 to 10, with a full fledged language like Hindi, Marathi, etc. placed at 10 and any dialect at 5, Konkani would find its place at 7.5; Not 5, hence not a dialect and not 10 hence not a fully developed language. Why so? Why could Konkani not become a fully developed language? The reasons are obvious. People used Konkani only for oral communication but when it came to writing, the people in pre-Portuguese Goa wrote in Marathi. During the Portuguese regime, the Christian converts used Portuguese for written communication, while the Goan hindus continued to use Marathi. As a result of this, the development of Konkani suffered a set back. Hence, 7.5 instead of 10. But definitely not 5 (a dialect).
Having or not having a script is not the criterion in deciding whether a tongue is a dialect or an independent language. Even English (bestowed with the honour of being an international language) had to borrow the Roman script from Latin. Russian and other Slav languages has no script till St Cyril formulated for them the Cyrillic Alphabet (being a mixture of Greek and Roman scripts) And for those who are ignorant, Konkani has not one but 6 scripts – Roman, Devnagari, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali and A rabic! Because Konkani is spoken all along the Konkan coast which lies in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala besides Goa. It is difficult to adopt any one of these scripts for Konkani because in each state, Konkani imbibes the accent and the vocabulary peculiar to that state/region which can be denoted only in that script e.g.
The e sound cannot be denoted in Devanagari which is possible in Roman (e) or Kannada scripts ( ).
Coming to the vocabulary, as Konkani is one of the several daughters of the mother language Sanskrit, there are bound to be similarities as there are in Hindi / Marathi / Gujarati / Punjabi, etc. or Bengali / Oriya / Assamese etc. So this cannot be considered to be a ground for labeling Konkani as a dialect of Marathi. Even the syntax among most Indian languages is more or less similar. Hence, it is safe to conclude that while Konkani may not be as advanced as Marathi, it is not as underdeveloped to be considered a mere dialect.
Talking about choosing a script for Konkani, it is pertinent to recall that Kemal Pasha of Turkey changed the script of Turkish from Arabic to Roman. According to him, both Turkey and Turkish would develop if Roman script was adopted. The outcome is history. Personally, I feel the same holds for Konkani in Goa too. And I am not saying this because I am a Goan or Catholic but because circumstances so warrant. 450 years of Portuguese rule, using the Roman script for writing Konkani, the language's pronunciation and accent modified over the centuries makes it difficult for us now, to be writing in the Devnagari script. And believe me, if Konkani is to develop, it will do so only if the Roman script is adopted. While on this, special mention must be made of the valuable contribution made by the Vauraddeancho lxtt in the development of the Konkani language.
To write Konkani in the Roman script was taught to us by the Portuguese. Hence, they followed the Portuguese (Latin) rules of orthography (spelling) eg. Using 'c' or 'qu' instead of 'k', 'x' for 'sh', the grave, cedilla, circumflex and tilde accents and avoiding 'w' and 'y'. Some newspapers like the 'Goa Times' circulating in Bombay used this style of spelling. Eg. 'Conn' instead of 'Konn', 'quitem' for 'kitem' so on. The Vauraddencho lxtt adopted certain rules for spelling Konkani words and this, consistently over the years or decades. This consistency has given a certain stability to Konkani orthography. It is widely accepted, recognized and used eg. in liturgical works by the Church, etc. and for this standardization, the Vauraddeancho lxtt deserves a big award from the Konkani speaking people for its valuable contribution to the development of konkani by giving a definite shape, a regularised spelling for Konkani's vocabulary. A contribution over the years, consistently and unstinted. Editors may come and go, but the crystallization has set in and this makes the paper stand out with authentic spelling.
But there is a flip side too. Over the years, the vocabulary has undergone a drastic change. Try comparing an issue of the newspaper of the 1970's with one of today. While the spelling (orthography) has standardised, the language has become more and more marathisized. Authentic Konkani words have come to be replaced by marathi derivated eg. 'fikir' instead of 'usko' 'Khali' for 'rito', etc. and this pains a true lover of the Konkani language. Agreed, we need to develop Konkani, but in this way? Do we have to konkanise marathi words and use them? And then when an onlooker reads this, he is bound to get the impression (like my Maharashtrian friend) that Konkani is a dialect of Marathi and that it does not have its own full-fledged vocabulary to express ideas.
I would like to end this piece by telling those who do not know that the eminent linguist, Dalgado, who is accredited with compiling the first Konkani dictionary, had, after much research, come to the conclusion that "Concanim nao e o dialecto de Marathi". He knew be
The other day, a Maharashtrain friend of mine remarked, "Konkani is a dialect of Marathi. That is why Konkani does not have its own script." This set me thinking. I am a linguist and I am interested in language and linguistics. So I found me asking myself as to whether Konkani is a dialect of Marathi or an independent language by itself.
After giving much though to the issue, I arrived at the following conclusion: If tongues were to be graded on a scale of 1 to 10, with a full fledged language like Hindi, Marathi, etc. placed at 10 and any dialect at 5, Konkani would find its place at 7.5; Not 5, hence not a dialect and not 10 hence not a fully developed language. Why so? Why could Konkani not become a fully developed language? The reasons are obvious. People used Konkani only for oral communication but when it came to writing, the people in pre-Portuguese Goa wrote in Marathi. During the Portuguese regime, the Christian converts used Portuguese for written communication, while the Goan hindus continued to use Marathi. As a result of this, the development of Konkani suffered a set back. Hence, 7.5 instead of 10. But definitely not 5 (a dialect).
Having or not having a script is not the criterion in deciding whether a tongue is a dialect or an independent language. Even English (bestowed with the honour of being an international language) had to borrow the Roman script from Latin. Russian and other Slav languages has no script till St Cyril formulated for them the Cyrillic Alphabet (being a mixture of Greek and Roman scripts) And for those who are ignorant, Konkani has not one but 6 scripts – Roman, Devnagari, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali and A rabic! Because Konkani is spoken all along the Konkan coast which lies in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala besides Goa. It is difficult to adopt any one of these scripts for Konkani because in each state, Konkani imbibes the accent and the vocabulary peculiar to that state/region which can be denoted only in that script e.g.
The e sound cannot be denoted in Devanagari which is possible in Roman (e) or Kannada scripts ( ).
Coming to the vocabulary, as Konkani is one of the several daughters of the mother language Sanskrit, there are bound to be similarities as there are in Hindi / Marathi / Gujarati / Punjabi, etc. or Bengali / Oriya / Assamese etc. So this cannot be considered to be a ground for labeling Konkani as a dialect of Marathi. Even the syntax among most Indian languages is more or less similar. Hence, it is safe to conclude that while Konkani may not be as advanced as Marathi, it is not as underdeveloped to be considered a mere dialect.
Talking about choosing a script for Konkani, it is pertinent to recall that Kemal Pasha of Turkey changed the script of Turkish from Arabic to Roman. According to him, both Turkey and Turkish would develop if Roman script was adopted. The outcome is history. Personally, I feel the same holds for Konkani in Goa too. And I am not saying this because I am a Goan or Catholic but because circumstances so warrant. 450 years of Portuguese rule, using the Roman script for writing Konkani, the language's pronunciation and accent modified over the centuries makes it difficult for us now, to be writing in the Devnagari script. And believe me, if Konkani is to develop, it will do so only if the Roman script is adopted. While on this, special mention must be made of the valuable contribution made by the Vauraddeancho lxtt in the development of the Konkani language.
To write Konkani in the Roman script was taught to us by the Portuguese. Hence, they followed the Portuguese (Latin) rules of orthography (spelling) eg. Using 'c' or 'qu' instead of 'k', 'x' for 'sh', the grave, cedilla, circumflex and tilde accents and avoiding 'w' and 'y'. Some newspapers like the 'Goa Times' circulating in Bombay used this style of spelling. Eg. 'Conn' instead of 'Konn', 'quitem' for 'kitem' so on. The Vauraddencho lxtt adopted certain rules for spelling Konkani words and this, consistently over the years or decades. This consistency has given a certain stability to Konkani orthography. It is widely accepted, recognized and used eg. in liturgical works by the Church, etc. and for this standardization, the Vauraddeancho lxtt deserves a big award from the Konkani speaking people for its valuable contribution to the development of konkani by giving a definite shape, a regularised spelling for Konkani's vocabulary. A contribution over the years, consistently and unstinted. Editors may come and go, but the crystallization has set in and this makes the paper stand out with authentic spelling.
But there is a flip side too. Over the years, the vocabulary has undergone a drastic change. Try comparing an issue of the newspaper of the 1970's with one of today. While the spelling (orthography) has standardised, the language has become more and more marathisized. Authentic Konkani words have come to be replaced by marathi derivated eg. 'fikir' instead of 'usko' 'Khali' for 'rito', etc. and this pains a true lover of the Konkani language. Agreed, we need to develop Konkani, but in this way? Do we have to konkanise marathi words and use them? And then when an onlooker reads this, he is bound to get the impression (like my Maharashtrian friend) that Konkani is a dialect of Marathi and that it does not have its own full-fledged vocabulary to express ideas.
I would like to end this piece by telling those who do not know that the eminent linguist, Dalgado, who is accredited with compiling the first Konkani dictionary, had, after much research, come to the conclusion that "Concanim nao e o dialecto de Marathi". He knew be
How to Speak Indonesian
How easy is it to speak Indonesian? Very easy! Indonesian language which is written in Romanized script is pronounced similar to the Germanic alphabets. Before you learn Indonesian grammar or vocabularies, it is essential that you learn how to pronounce the Indonesian words first. The question is now: How to read words in Indonesian language? Simply read them into their syllables.
Each language has its own system of sounds which is unlike that of any other language. When you begin to learn a new language, you must learn to make distinctions which are not made in your own language, and you must learn to articulate in a way different from that to which you are accustomed. Correct pronunciation and the ability to distinguish new sounds do not come automatically, but are achieved through a process of comparison and imitation, as we lead you to do in the exercises in this and the following lessons. The ability to articulate like an Indonesian will come from constant imitation of the sentences and sounds spoken on the tapes and spoken by your tutor.
In this section, we will give you a notion of what the sounds used in Indonesian are, how they are made, and how they differ from those used in English. And hopefully this could give you a slight idea of how to speak Indonesian.
Vowels
a: In open syllables is pronounced more or less like the a in "far".
For example: kata = word
In closed syllables it sounds like the English u in "but".
For example: surat = letter
e: When unstressed is pronounced as the mute e in "open".
For example: kelas = class
When stressed it sounds somewhere between the e in "bed" and the a in "bad".
For example: meja = table
i: In open syllables is pronounced as the ee in "feet".
For example: kita = we
In closed syllables the sound is shorter, like i in "tip".
For example: minta = to ask for
o: is pronounced like the a in "tall".
For example: botol = bottle
u: is pronounced like the oo in "tool", however with lips rounded.
For example: susu = milk
Diphtongs
ai: The diphthong ai in open syllables sounds like the i in "fine".
For example: sampai = to arrive
However the diphthong ai can also pronounced as two separate sounds a-i :
For example: lain = other
au: Has the same sound as ow in "how".
For example: kalau = if
However in closed syllables it is two-syllabic.
For example: haus = thirsty.
Below is the video which could help you learn how to speak Indonesian based on the examples above:
To be able to speak Indonesian well is the primary goal for every one who is learning Indonesian language. It's no use learning the language if you can't use it to communicate with the locals. Therefore it is highly recommended that you get yourself a professional Indonesian language teacher should you want to improve your Indonesian speaking skills within a short period of time.
Sumitted by Jasaritin from Online Indonesian Language Course and Lesson
Each language has its own system of sounds which is unlike that of any other language. When you begin to learn a new language, you must learn to make distinctions which are not made in your own language, and you must learn to articulate in a way different from that to which you are accustomed. Correct pronunciation and the ability to distinguish new sounds do not come automatically, but are achieved through a process of comparison and imitation, as we lead you to do in the exercises in this and the following lessons. The ability to articulate like an Indonesian will come from constant imitation of the sentences and sounds spoken on the tapes and spoken by your tutor.
In this section, we will give you a notion of what the sounds used in Indonesian are, how they are made, and how they differ from those used in English. And hopefully this could give you a slight idea of how to speak Indonesian.
Vowels
a: In open syllables is pronounced more or less like the a in "far".
For example: kata = word
In closed syllables it sounds like the English u in "but".
For example: surat = letter
e: When unstressed is pronounced as the mute e in "open".
For example: kelas = class
When stressed it sounds somewhere between the e in "bed" and the a in "bad".
For example: meja = table
i: In open syllables is pronounced as the ee in "feet".
For example: kita = we
In closed syllables the sound is shorter, like i in "tip".
For example: minta = to ask for
o: is pronounced like the a in "tall".
For example: botol = bottle
u: is pronounced like the oo in "tool", however with lips rounded.
For example: susu = milk
Diphtongs
ai: The diphthong ai in open syllables sounds like the i in "fine".
For example: sampai = to arrive
However the diphthong ai can also pronounced as two separate sounds a-i :
For example: lain = other
au: Has the same sound as ow in "how".
For example: kalau = if
However in closed syllables it is two-syllabic.
For example: haus = thirsty.
Below is the video which could help you learn how to speak Indonesian based on the examples above:
To be able to speak Indonesian well is the primary goal for every one who is learning Indonesian language. It's no use learning the language if you can't use it to communicate with the locals. Therefore it is highly recommended that you get yourself a professional Indonesian language teacher should you want to improve your Indonesian speaking skills within a short period of time.
Sumitted by Jasaritin from Online Indonesian Language Course and Lesson
Simpel-Fonetik Spelling
by Allan Kiisk
What is Simpel-Fonetik?
It is a new, simple and easy-to-learn method of writing, spelling words, in English. It is described in the book Simple Phonetic English Spelling - Introduction to Simpel-Fonetik, the Single-Sound-per-Letter Writing Method, by Allan Kiisk. Tate Publishing, 2008.
Simpel-fonetik website
http://www.simpelfonetik.com
What motivated you, Allan, to develop the Simpel-Fonetik.
When I was learning English as my third language, I was very frustrated by the terrible English spelling. Because English is becoming a global language, millions of people are learning English. They are experiencing the same frustrations. I have great empathy for them. I want to make it easier for them to learn English. I support global use of English.
What are the basic rules for Simple-Fonetik?
1. 1. Each letter represents only one spoken sound.
2. 2. For longer vowels and stronger consonants use double letters - add another letter with the same sound.
What does the Simpel-Fonetik alphabet look like?
Simpel-Fonetik alphabet
New letters: Ä,ä, Ö,ö. Letters not used: C, Q, X, Y. Total: 24 letters.
* IPA is the abbreviation for International Phonetic Alphabet.
Why were the letters Ä and Ö picked as new letters?
The letter A in present English is used to represent more than eleven different sounds. Examples: far, ant, all, ago, make, head, read, foam, fear, pair, earn. For all, except the ant and ago sounds, which correspond to the IPA's æ and ə sounds, existing letters could be used, e.g. all - ool, make - meik, head - hed, read - riid. New letters were needed for the ant and ago sounds, because a was chosen for the art sound. Nearly all other languages use the a for art and far sound. The letters Ä and Ö were the best choices because they are already in use in many other languages.
What about C, Q, X and Y?
They are not suitable for Simpel-Fonetik writing because they represent more than a single sound. Each of them can be substituted by other, more common letters. But they will be needed on keyboards and alphabets because we still need to write Chicago, Quebec, X-ray and York.
What are the replacements for the letters C, Q, X and Y?
In place of C use either S (cinder - sinder) or K (cold - kold).
In place of CH use TSH (chip - tship), or K (scheme - skiim), or SH (machine - mashiin).
In place of Q use KW (quick - kwik) or K (liquor - likör).
In place of X use KS (six - siks).
In place of Y use AI (type - taip), or I (typical - tipikal), or J (you - ju).
What are some of the other more significant changes?
In place of J and G as in jungle and gin use DSH (jungle - dshangel, gin - dshin).
Please refer to the book for the derivation and justification for this spelling change.
In place of PH use F (photo - foto).
And in forming diphthongs, two letters placed side-by-side can no longer be used for a third sound, such as au used in pause for the long o sound. In Simpel-Fonetik each letter will have only one, the same sound wherever it appears. Au will always be pronounced as a and u, as in house - haus or cow - kau. The only way to represent the au sound is to use the letters a and u.
Don't you need more letters for vowels?
No. For converting English speech to writing just seven vowels are needed. Additional letters such a Ü and Õ would be needed for dealing with other languages or writing dialect expressions, but they are not needed for the basic English writing. And keep in mind that longer vowels - and stronger consonants - are written by simply using two of the same letter. Another vowel was considered for the IPA sound ɒ, as in odd, which is in-between the a and o sounds, but it was concluded that using just a or o will greatly simplify the spelling.
Give a sample of Simpel-Fonetik writing.
Here is one:
This is interesting: No federal government order or effort so far for ending the helter-skelter spelling. Don't beg or long for it. It's hard for the big gorilla tu start implementing spelling dogma. It wil linger, limp, loiter, swing from pillar tu post . . .
As you may have noticed, this sample has only two changes: tu in place of to and wil in place of will. It illustrates that Simpel-Fonetik will not change the words that are presently spelled phonetically, based on single sound per letter.
Here is a another sample, shown first in present writing:
When you read Simpel-Fonetik words, you must pay attention to each letter. Remember: Each letter has always the same sound, the sound given in the Simpel-Fonetik alphabet, regardless what letter is next to it.
And here it is re-written in Simpel-Fonetik:
Wen ju riid Simpel-Fonetik wörds, ju mast pei ätenshön tu iitsh leter. Rimember: Iitsh leter häs oolweis the seim saund, the saund given in the Simpel-Fonetik alfabet, rigardles wat leter is nekst tu it.
The selection of the letters for the Simpel-Fonetik writing depends on pronunciation. In present English, the writing often does not tell you how to pronounce the word. That has resulted in different pronunciations in different regions or countries. Each pronunciation results in a different spelling in Simpel-Fonetik. Which one should be used? Some standardization procedure will be required. Simpel-Fonetik will fix the multiple pronunciations problem.
Why is Simpel-Fonetik better than other proposed spelling improvements?
1. Other proposals are more complicated, difficult to learn, especially for foreigners. Nearly all other proposals that I have seen, don't consider the global use of English and the blending in with other languages. For example: The letter a is often used for the ä (IPA's æ) sound, or the ei sound, whereas other languages use it for the a as in art sound.
2. The letters and sounds used in Simpel-Fonetik conform with the International (NATO) Alphabet. They also conform with the International Phonetic Alphabet, except that ä, ö and u are used in place of æ, ə and ʊ.
3. The Simpel-Fonetik is based on the keep it simple principle. It has only one letter for the sound of R, and it uses TH for both of the slightly different pronunciations of that sound, as in then and three, because most people, especially the foreigners, have difficulties pronouncing the English R and TH as it is. One must take into account that there are now at least three times more foreign than native speakers of English.
4. Simple phonetic writing has been in use in Estonia since 1850s, and in Finland even before that. That method of writing has proven to be ideal. Estonians and Finns don't spend time in learning spelling or pronunciation. They don't spend time asking how you spell this or that. They don't need to look up in the dictionary how to spell or pronounce a word. They do it only for foreign words, and mostly for words originating from the English language.
What are the prospects for Simpel-Fonetik?
Because English spelling is so bad, foreign learners of English have to learn to use the IPA to decipher the pronunciation of English words. But IPA has too many strange letters. Simpel-Fonetik does away with having to learn the IPA. It is simple, easy to learn. It uses letters the same way as in many other languages. Foreigners, especially those who are familiar with the single-sound-per-letter writing method, will favor and support the use of Simpel-Fonetik. That method of writing is expected to develop in coexistence with the present version of English spelling, and it could be referred to as the international version of English spelling.
In the modern, technical, scientific, computer-oriented, competitive world the English spelling places a heavy burden on its users. I am sure that even the native speakers will recognize, sooner or later, that by fixing the spelling problem they will greatly help their children's learning process and their ability to compete with children of other countries. I visualize that Simpel-Fonetik will be used initially for pronunciation guidance in schools and dictionaries. Once the native English speakers become familiar with the great advantages of single-sound-per-letter spelling, they also will support a spelling reform.
The book Simple Phonetic English Spelling concludes with the chapter that discusses the details of implementating the spelling reform.
Where can I buy the book?
The book is available in bookstores in most English-speaking countries. It can be ordered from the publisher: Tate Publishing & Enterprises, 127 E. Trade Center Terrace, Mustang, OK, 73064, USA. Tel. 888-361-9473, www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore. Many internet sites, such as Amazon.com, sell the book. The price shown on the cover is $11.99 (US). The book is of small size, 151 pages. It was intended for learning, teaching and promoting the Simpel-Fonetik method of writing. It is very easy to read because it was written for use also in non-English-speaking countries. It is also available as a 4-CD audio book and a downloadable e-book.
About the author (in Simpel-Fonetik)
Allan Kiisk spent his tshaildhud in Estonia änd tiineidsh jiers in Germany bifor kaming tu the United States. Hi obteind his elektrikal endshineering edukeishon ät Oregon State änd Stanford Universitys. Hi wörkd äs än endshineer änd mänidsher for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, äs ö professor of endshineering ät the University of Redlands, California, änd äs the prinsipal endshineer in his oun konsalting föörm, Alkitek Associates. Hi änd his waif, Karin, häv träveld änd livd in meni kantris. Thei häv setld daun nier Sacramento, California, klous tu their tshildren änd gräntshildren.
What is Simpel-Fonetik?
It is a new, simple and easy-to-learn method of writing, spelling words, in English. It is described in the book Simple Phonetic English Spelling - Introduction to Simpel-Fonetik, the Single-Sound-per-Letter Writing Method, by Allan Kiisk. Tate Publishing, 2008.
Simpel-fonetik website
http://www.simpelfonetik.com
What motivated you, Allan, to develop the Simpel-Fonetik.
When I was learning English as my third language, I was very frustrated by the terrible English spelling. Because English is becoming a global language, millions of people are learning English. They are experiencing the same frustrations. I have great empathy for them. I want to make it easier for them to learn English. I support global use of English.
What are the basic rules for Simple-Fonetik?
1. 1. Each letter represents only one spoken sound.
2. 2. For longer vowels and stronger consonants use double letters - add another letter with the same sound.
What does the Simpel-Fonetik alphabet look like?
Simpel-Fonetik alphabet
New letters: Ä,ä, Ö,ö. Letters not used: C, Q, X, Y. Total: 24 letters.
* IPA is the abbreviation for International Phonetic Alphabet.
Why were the letters Ä and Ö picked as new letters?
The letter A in present English is used to represent more than eleven different sounds. Examples: far, ant, all, ago, make, head, read, foam, fear, pair, earn. For all, except the ant and ago sounds, which correspond to the IPA's æ and ə sounds, existing letters could be used, e.g. all - ool, make - meik, head - hed, read - riid. New letters were needed for the ant and ago sounds, because a was chosen for the art sound. Nearly all other languages use the a for art and far sound. The letters Ä and Ö were the best choices because they are already in use in many other languages.
What about C, Q, X and Y?
They are not suitable for Simpel-Fonetik writing because they represent more than a single sound. Each of them can be substituted by other, more common letters. But they will be needed on keyboards and alphabets because we still need to write Chicago, Quebec, X-ray and York.
What are the replacements for the letters C, Q, X and Y?
In place of C use either S (cinder - sinder) or K (cold - kold).
In place of CH use TSH (chip - tship), or K (scheme - skiim), or SH (machine - mashiin).
In place of Q use KW (quick - kwik) or K (liquor - likör).
In place of X use KS (six - siks).
In place of Y use AI (type - taip), or I (typical - tipikal), or J (you - ju).
What are some of the other more significant changes?
In place of J and G as in jungle and gin use DSH (jungle - dshangel, gin - dshin).
Please refer to the book for the derivation and justification for this spelling change.
In place of PH use F (photo - foto).
And in forming diphthongs, two letters placed side-by-side can no longer be used for a third sound, such as au used in pause for the long o sound. In Simpel-Fonetik each letter will have only one, the same sound wherever it appears. Au will always be pronounced as a and u, as in house - haus or cow - kau. The only way to represent the au sound is to use the letters a and u.
Don't you need more letters for vowels?
No. For converting English speech to writing just seven vowels are needed. Additional letters such a Ü and Õ would be needed for dealing with other languages or writing dialect expressions, but they are not needed for the basic English writing. And keep in mind that longer vowels - and stronger consonants - are written by simply using two of the same letter. Another vowel was considered for the IPA sound ɒ, as in odd, which is in-between the a and o sounds, but it was concluded that using just a or o will greatly simplify the spelling.
Give a sample of Simpel-Fonetik writing.
Here is one:
This is interesting: No federal government order or effort so far for ending the helter-skelter spelling. Don't beg or long for it. It's hard for the big gorilla tu start implementing spelling dogma. It wil linger, limp, loiter, swing from pillar tu post . . .
As you may have noticed, this sample has only two changes: tu in place of to and wil in place of will. It illustrates that Simpel-Fonetik will not change the words that are presently spelled phonetically, based on single sound per letter.
Here is a another sample, shown first in present writing:
When you read Simpel-Fonetik words, you must pay attention to each letter. Remember: Each letter has always the same sound, the sound given in the Simpel-Fonetik alphabet, regardless what letter is next to it.
And here it is re-written in Simpel-Fonetik:
Wen ju riid Simpel-Fonetik wörds, ju mast pei ätenshön tu iitsh leter. Rimember: Iitsh leter häs oolweis the seim saund, the saund given in the Simpel-Fonetik alfabet, rigardles wat leter is nekst tu it.
The selection of the letters for the Simpel-Fonetik writing depends on pronunciation. In present English, the writing often does not tell you how to pronounce the word. That has resulted in different pronunciations in different regions or countries. Each pronunciation results in a different spelling in Simpel-Fonetik. Which one should be used? Some standardization procedure will be required. Simpel-Fonetik will fix the multiple pronunciations problem.
Why is Simpel-Fonetik better than other proposed spelling improvements?
1. Other proposals are more complicated, difficult to learn, especially for foreigners. Nearly all other proposals that I have seen, don't consider the global use of English and the blending in with other languages. For example: The letter a is often used for the ä (IPA's æ) sound, or the ei sound, whereas other languages use it for the a as in art sound.
2. The letters and sounds used in Simpel-Fonetik conform with the International (NATO) Alphabet. They also conform with the International Phonetic Alphabet, except that ä, ö and u are used in place of æ, ə and ʊ.
3. The Simpel-Fonetik is based on the keep it simple principle. It has only one letter for the sound of R, and it uses TH for both of the slightly different pronunciations of that sound, as in then and three, because most people, especially the foreigners, have difficulties pronouncing the English R and TH as it is. One must take into account that there are now at least three times more foreign than native speakers of English.
4. Simple phonetic writing has been in use in Estonia since 1850s, and in Finland even before that. That method of writing has proven to be ideal. Estonians and Finns don't spend time in learning spelling or pronunciation. They don't spend time asking how you spell this or that. They don't need to look up in the dictionary how to spell or pronounce a word. They do it only for foreign words, and mostly for words originating from the English language.
What are the prospects for Simpel-Fonetik?
Because English spelling is so bad, foreign learners of English have to learn to use the IPA to decipher the pronunciation of English words. But IPA has too many strange letters. Simpel-Fonetik does away with having to learn the IPA. It is simple, easy to learn. It uses letters the same way as in many other languages. Foreigners, especially those who are familiar with the single-sound-per-letter writing method, will favor and support the use of Simpel-Fonetik. That method of writing is expected to develop in coexistence with the present version of English spelling, and it could be referred to as the international version of English spelling.
In the modern, technical, scientific, computer-oriented, competitive world the English spelling places a heavy burden on its users. I am sure that even the native speakers will recognize, sooner or later, that by fixing the spelling problem they will greatly help their children's learning process and their ability to compete with children of other countries. I visualize that Simpel-Fonetik will be used initially for pronunciation guidance in schools and dictionaries. Once the native English speakers become familiar with the great advantages of single-sound-per-letter spelling, they also will support a spelling reform.
The book Simple Phonetic English Spelling concludes with the chapter that discusses the details of implementating the spelling reform.
Where can I buy the book?
The book is available in bookstores in most English-speaking countries. It can be ordered from the publisher: Tate Publishing & Enterprises, 127 E. Trade Center Terrace, Mustang, OK, 73064, USA. Tel. 888-361-9473, www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore. Many internet sites, such as Amazon.com, sell the book. The price shown on the cover is $11.99 (US). The book is of small size, 151 pages. It was intended for learning, teaching and promoting the Simpel-Fonetik method of writing. It is very easy to read because it was written for use also in non-English-speaking countries. It is also available as a 4-CD audio book and a downloadable e-book.
About the author (in Simpel-Fonetik)
Allan Kiisk spent his tshaildhud in Estonia änd tiineidsh jiers in Germany bifor kaming tu the United States. Hi obteind his elektrikal endshineering edukeishon ät Oregon State änd Stanford Universitys. Hi wörkd äs än endshineer änd mänidsher for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, äs ö professor of endshineering ät the University of Redlands, California, änd äs the prinsipal endshineer in his oun konsalting föörm, Alkitek Associates. Hi änd his waif, Karin, häv träveld änd livd in meni kantris. Thei häv setld daun nier Sacramento, California, klous tu their tshildren änd gräntshildren.
Brief Etymological Review of the English Word-Stock
by Linda Correli
Etymologically the vocabulary of the English language is far from being homogenous. It consists of two layers - the native stock of words and the borrowed stock of words. Numerically the borrowed stock of words is considerably larger than the native stock of words.
In fact native words comprise only 30% of the total number of words in the English vocabulary but the native words form the bulk of the most frequent words actually used in speech and writing. Besides, the native words have a wider range of lexical and grammatical valency, they are highly polysemantic and productive in forming word clusters and set expressions.
Borrowed words or loanwords are words taken from another language and modified according to the patterns of the receiving language.
In many cases a borrowed word especially one borrowed long ago is practically indistinguishable from a native word without a thorough etymological analysis. The number of the borrowings in the vocabulary of the language and the role played by them is determined by the historical development of the nation speaking the language.
The most effective way of borrowing is direct borrowing from another language as the result of the contacts with other nations. Though, a word may be also borrowed indirectly not from the source language but through another language.
When analyzing borrowed words one should distinguish between two terms - source of borrowing and origin of borrowing. The first term is applied to the language from which the word was immediately borrowed and the second - to the language to which the word may be ultimately traced. The closer the two interacting languages are in structure the easier it is for words of one language to penetrate into the other.
There are different approaches to classifying the borrowed stock of words
The borrowed stock of words may be classified according to the nature of the borrowing itself as borrowing proper, loans translation and semantic loans.
Loan translation or calque is a phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word translation.
Semantic loan is the borrowing of the meaning for a word already existing in the English language.
Latin loans are classified into the subgroups.
1. Early Latin loans. Those are the words which came into English language through the languages of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. The tribes had been in contact with Roman civilization and had adopted many Latin words denoting objects belonging to that civilization long before the invasion of the Angles, Saxons and Judes into Britain (e.g., cup, kitchen, mill, wine, port).
2. Later Latin borrowings. To this group belong the words which penetrated into English language in the sixth and seventh centuries, when the English people were converted to Christianity (e.g., priest, bishop, nun, and candle).
3. The third period of the Latin borrowings includes words which came into English due to two historical events: the Norman Conquest and the Renaissance. Some came to English language through French but some were borrowed directly from Latin (e.g., major, minor, intelligent, permanent).
4. The latest layer of Latin words. The words of this period are mainly abstract and scientific words (e.g., nylon, molecular, vaccine, phenomenon, and vacuum).
The tendency of the English language to borrow extensively can be traced during the centuries. Thus, one can confidently claim that borrowing is one of the most productive sources of enrichment of the English vocabulary.
About the author:
Linda Correli is a staff writer of www.CustomResearchPapers.us and an author of the popular online tutorial for students "What Teachers Want: Master the Art of Essay Writing in 10 Days", available at www.Go2Essay.com
Etymologically the vocabulary of the English language is far from being homogenous. It consists of two layers - the native stock of words and the borrowed stock of words. Numerically the borrowed stock of words is considerably larger than the native stock of words.
In fact native words comprise only 30% of the total number of words in the English vocabulary but the native words form the bulk of the most frequent words actually used in speech and writing. Besides, the native words have a wider range of lexical and grammatical valency, they are highly polysemantic and productive in forming word clusters and set expressions.
Borrowed words or loanwords are words taken from another language and modified according to the patterns of the receiving language.
In many cases a borrowed word especially one borrowed long ago is practically indistinguishable from a native word without a thorough etymological analysis. The number of the borrowings in the vocabulary of the language and the role played by them is determined by the historical development of the nation speaking the language.
The most effective way of borrowing is direct borrowing from another language as the result of the contacts with other nations. Though, a word may be also borrowed indirectly not from the source language but through another language.
When analyzing borrowed words one should distinguish between two terms - source of borrowing and origin of borrowing. The first term is applied to the language from which the word was immediately borrowed and the second - to the language to which the word may be ultimately traced. The closer the two interacting languages are in structure the easier it is for words of one language to penetrate into the other.
There are different approaches to classifying the borrowed stock of words
The borrowed stock of words may be classified according to the nature of the borrowing itself as borrowing proper, loans translation and semantic loans.
Loan translation or calque is a phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word translation.
Semantic loan is the borrowing of the meaning for a word already existing in the English language.
Latin loans are classified into the subgroups.
1. Early Latin loans. Those are the words which came into English language through the languages of the Anglo-Saxon tribes. The tribes had been in contact with Roman civilization and had adopted many Latin words denoting objects belonging to that civilization long before the invasion of the Angles, Saxons and Judes into Britain (e.g., cup, kitchen, mill, wine, port).
2. Later Latin borrowings. To this group belong the words which penetrated into English language in the sixth and seventh centuries, when the English people were converted to Christianity (e.g., priest, bishop, nun, and candle).
3. The third period of the Latin borrowings includes words which came into English due to two historical events: the Norman Conquest and the Renaissance. Some came to English language through French but some were borrowed directly from Latin (e.g., major, minor, intelligent, permanent).
4. The latest layer of Latin words. The words of this period are mainly abstract and scientific words (e.g., nylon, molecular, vaccine, phenomenon, and vacuum).
The tendency of the English language to borrow extensively can be traced during the centuries. Thus, one can confidently claim that borrowing is one of the most productive sources of enrichment of the English vocabulary.
About the author:
Linda Correli is a staff writer of www.CustomResearchPapers.us and an author of the popular online tutorial for students "What Teachers Want: Master the Art of Essay Writing in 10 Days", available at www.Go2Essay.com
Idioms: Piece of Cake or Hard Nut to Crack?
by Linda Correli
A language is a living substance, which evolves under the influence of different factors. Being very flexible English language constantly enriches its vocabulary with the words invented by the language speakers, making it more colorful with new idiomatic expressions, and at times refills its stocks with the borrowings and neologisms. English just amazes by its extraordinary linguistic diversity.
It is a language rich in exceptions and spelling traps, where almost every rule is valid 90% of the time. English is a language with a vast idiomatic basis, which makes its learning very exciting and intriguing. There are about 4,000 idioms used in the American English. Wikipedia suggests that "to even explain what they mean needs about 2000 words of the vocabulary".
Idioms derived from the culture of the nation and from day-to-day life. In real context idioms explain themselves: 9 times out of 10 times, idioms carry their own explanation. The main function of idioms is to paraphrase what is going on, and what is being said.
Idiomatic expressions pervade English with a peculiar flavor and give it astounding variety, bright character and color. They help language learners understand English culture, penetrate into customs and lifestyle of English people, and make a deeper insight into English history.
Idiom is defined as an expression that does not mean what it literally says. Hence, its meaning is often quite different from the word-for-word translation.
The meaning idioms convey is non-compositional. It implies that you cannot understand the meaning of the whole phrase putting the meanings of each word together. If you look at the individual words, it may not even make sense grammatically. Idiom has the meaning only as a unit.
Professor Koonin defined idiom "as a stable combination of words with a fully or partially figurative meaning." This definition emphasizes two inherent and very important features of the idiomatic expressions.
Idioms have lexical and grammatical stability. It implies that they are fixed in their form, hence any substitutions and rearranging in their structure can lead to complete loss of their primary meaning.
Idiomatic expressions are integral units. It literally means that idioms possess indivisible completeness, so all the components are bound within one idiom.
Idioms are used in both spoken and written English, and often appear in newspaper articles. They are frequently utilized by native speakers, who feel the language at inborn genetic level.
One of the approaches to defining this linguistic phenomena stresses that an idiom is a manner of speaking that is natural to native speakers of the language. It proves that only people who are very good at speaking English can adequately and to the point use idiomatic expressions in their speech.
Though, learning idioms present a host of difficulties to English learners, primarily because they don’t know the culture and history behind English idioms. That’s why they often use idioms incongruous with the situation. Indeed, English learners utilize idiomatic expressions very carefully, being afraid of using them incorrectly and being misunderstood. They find idioms very problematic to both understand and memorize.
Whilst, the majority of native language speakers can not always know the origin of idioms they use, though as long as they utilize them in every day communication, they know its meaning and feel where it is appropriate to use this or that idiom.
Undoubtedly, the correct usage of English idioms is finesse, which makes the language of the speaker more vivid and exciting.
About the author:
Linda Correli is a staff writer of www.CustomResearchPapers.us and an author of the popular online tutorial for students "What Teachers Want: Master the Art of Essay Writing in 10 Days", available at www.Go2Essay.com
A language is a living substance, which evolves under the influence of different factors. Being very flexible English language constantly enriches its vocabulary with the words invented by the language speakers, making it more colorful with new idiomatic expressions, and at times refills its stocks with the borrowings and neologisms. English just amazes by its extraordinary linguistic diversity.
It is a language rich in exceptions and spelling traps, where almost every rule is valid 90% of the time. English is a language with a vast idiomatic basis, which makes its learning very exciting and intriguing. There are about 4,000 idioms used in the American English. Wikipedia suggests that "to even explain what they mean needs about 2000 words of the vocabulary".
Idioms derived from the culture of the nation and from day-to-day life. In real context idioms explain themselves: 9 times out of 10 times, idioms carry their own explanation. The main function of idioms is to paraphrase what is going on, and what is being said.
Idiomatic expressions pervade English with a peculiar flavor and give it astounding variety, bright character and color. They help language learners understand English culture, penetrate into customs and lifestyle of English people, and make a deeper insight into English history.
Idiom is defined as an expression that does not mean what it literally says. Hence, its meaning is often quite different from the word-for-word translation.
The meaning idioms convey is non-compositional. It implies that you cannot understand the meaning of the whole phrase putting the meanings of each word together. If you look at the individual words, it may not even make sense grammatically. Idiom has the meaning only as a unit.
Professor Koonin defined idiom "as a stable combination of words with a fully or partially figurative meaning." This definition emphasizes two inherent and very important features of the idiomatic expressions.
Idioms have lexical and grammatical stability. It implies that they are fixed in their form, hence any substitutions and rearranging in their structure can lead to complete loss of their primary meaning.
Idiomatic expressions are integral units. It literally means that idioms possess indivisible completeness, so all the components are bound within one idiom.
Idioms are used in both spoken and written English, and often appear in newspaper articles. They are frequently utilized by native speakers, who feel the language at inborn genetic level.
One of the approaches to defining this linguistic phenomena stresses that an idiom is a manner of speaking that is natural to native speakers of the language. It proves that only people who are very good at speaking English can adequately and to the point use idiomatic expressions in their speech.
Though, learning idioms present a host of difficulties to English learners, primarily because they don’t know the culture and history behind English idioms. That’s why they often use idioms incongruous with the situation. Indeed, English learners utilize idiomatic expressions very carefully, being afraid of using them incorrectly and being misunderstood. They find idioms very problematic to both understand and memorize.
Whilst, the majority of native language speakers can not always know the origin of idioms they use, though as long as they utilize them in every day communication, they know its meaning and feel where it is appropriate to use this or that idiom.
Undoubtedly, the correct usage of English idioms is finesse, which makes the language of the speaker more vivid and exciting.
About the author:
Linda Correli is a staff writer of www.CustomResearchPapers.us and an author of the popular online tutorial for students "What Teachers Want: Master the Art of Essay Writing in 10 Days", available at www.Go2Essay.com
Top 5 Techniques for Improving Your American Accent
The invention of the Internet and rapid technological advances have brought our entire world into a global village which has had significant impacts on business to business relations throughout various parts of the world. Numerous call centers and the virtual assistants have been established to connect merchants from diverse parts of the world allowing them to interact daily.
The main obstacle has proven to be communication. Most of these jobs require a level of proficiency in English to prove successful. United States employers have a high demand for workers who they can easily communicate with so their businesses can remain running smoothly without any loss of time or money due to miscommunication. There is little doubt that those language students who work on their American Accent training will to have more job opportunities and higher salaries.
If you are an English speaker seeking to improve your American accent quickly, here are five proven techniques to help you achieve your language goal.
1) Pay close attention to how American English speakers form their words when you interact communicate with them. Watch the motions of their mouth and lips and practice the idiomatic expressions they use when they speak.
2) Each language has a distinct rhythm and English is no exception. Find a language CD and listen to it over and over while you are driving in your car or have free time. This will get used to the rhythm of American English speakers.
3) When you are speaking, be sure to take your time and breathe slowly. Many other languages are spoken at a much faster tempo than English and you want to be sure you are speaking in a calm and coherent manner so you are understood. Once you gain the confidence you can always speed up your tempo from that point.
4) Practice is a very important. Try to read English out loud every day for at least 30 minutes if you have the time. This will help get you used to pronouncing common expressions and phrases. If you have a recording device, try recording yourself and listen back to focus on the improvements you can make.
5) Perhaps the most important technique to improving your accent is to surround yourself around native English speakers and continuously receive feedback from them on how your accent training is improving. They should be able to help you focus on areas where you are having trouble and help you improve. There should be clubs and social organizations in your local area where you can meet people.
There are many different resources available to help you with your American Accent training. We recommend starting your search online to gain a more focused understanding of exactly what you would like to achieve, and then turn your focus on your local resources to reach your goals.
This article is brought to you by San Diego Lasik. Providing experience and proven results for laser vision correction by Lasik San Diego eye surgery doctors.
The main obstacle has proven to be communication. Most of these jobs require a level of proficiency in English to prove successful. United States employers have a high demand for workers who they can easily communicate with so their businesses can remain running smoothly without any loss of time or money due to miscommunication. There is little doubt that those language students who work on their American Accent training will to have more job opportunities and higher salaries.
If you are an English speaker seeking to improve your American accent quickly, here are five proven techniques to help you achieve your language goal.
1) Pay close attention to how American English speakers form their words when you interact communicate with them. Watch the motions of their mouth and lips and practice the idiomatic expressions they use when they speak.
2) Each language has a distinct rhythm and English is no exception. Find a language CD and listen to it over and over while you are driving in your car or have free time. This will get used to the rhythm of American English speakers.
3) When you are speaking, be sure to take your time and breathe slowly. Many other languages are spoken at a much faster tempo than English and you want to be sure you are speaking in a calm and coherent manner so you are understood. Once you gain the confidence you can always speed up your tempo from that point.
4) Practice is a very important. Try to read English out loud every day for at least 30 minutes if you have the time. This will help get you used to pronouncing common expressions and phrases. If you have a recording device, try recording yourself and listen back to focus on the improvements you can make.
5) Perhaps the most important technique to improving your accent is to surround yourself around native English speakers and continuously receive feedback from them on how your accent training is improving. They should be able to help you focus on areas where you are having trouble and help you improve. There should be clubs and social organizations in your local area where you can meet people.
There are many different resources available to help you with your American Accent training. We recommend starting your search online to gain a more focused understanding of exactly what you would like to achieve, and then turn your focus on your local resources to reach your goals.
This article is brought to you by San Diego Lasik. Providing experience and proven results for laser vision correction by Lasik San Diego eye surgery doctors.
Medvedev: hard to pronounce for some
!
Carl Masthay
Medvedev - the new Russian president’s name (Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев) is pronounced /myih-DVYEH-dyif/. This needs some explanation. Some Russian consonants intrinsically include or produce palatalization, the sound of “y” before high vowels, like /yeh/, which is written simply as “e” as opposed to the nonpalatal “e” /eh/ (Cyrillic backward “e” - э). Here the m, v, and d are palatals. Next Russian stress rules require that the primary stressed syllable produces a clear, full, strong, original sound (here /‑dvyeh‑/), whereas the vowel of the syllable or syllables preceding it is weak and the syllable vowel after it is also weak (somewhat the way English polysyllabic words work). That /yeh/ goes to /yih/ in both cases here. Most Slavic languages also devoice final originally voiced consonants, thus “v” usually goes to /f/ unless there is a following voiced consonant in a following syllable or word.
So what does “Medvedev” mean? The suffix ‑ev/‑ov means ‘(son) of’ (a nominalized reduction from genitive “-ogo” usually pronounced with weak vowels /ova/, which should not be confused with feminine nominative surnames in ‑ova) and Russian medved´ (with a prime sign for the mark of palatalization) ‘bear’, probably descriptive of a clumsy, bulky person. Among animals the bear was of special consequence. Its original Proto-Indo-European name *rktho-, later *rkso-, resulting in Sanskrit rkshos, Greek arktos, Latin ursus, Armenian arj, Celtic *artos, was taboo in Gaelic (math-ghamhain /mahowin/, Mahon ‘good-calf’!) and in all Slavic languages, and it was alluded to instead as the ‘honey-eater’ (med-v-éd´), partly through fear perhaps and partly as a rival in the search for honey (Russian mëd /myot/) in the woods, from which was made hydromel, or ‘mead’ (Russian mëd, Greek methy [source of our chemical prefix “methy(l)”]). The v arose from the noun theme u in hypothetical *medu-yed´ ‘honey-eating’, like Sanskrit madh(u) v‑ád- ‘sweet-eat’. The Polish reflex of ‘bear’ is a further taboo word with negative aspersion: niedźwiedź, with miód /myoot/ ‘honey’ debased into niedź- under the influence of nie ‘no, not’.
[Written by Carl Masthay, 18 March 2008, paraphrasing Entwistle and Morison 1949, Unbegaun 1972, Preobrazhensky 1951, and other sources]
Carl Masthay
Medvedev - the new Russian president’s name (Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (Дмитрий Анатольевич Медведев) is pronounced /myih-DVYEH-dyif/. This needs some explanation. Some Russian consonants intrinsically include or produce palatalization, the sound of “y” before high vowels, like /yeh/, which is written simply as “e” as opposed to the nonpalatal “e” /eh/ (Cyrillic backward “e” - э). Here the m, v, and d are palatals. Next Russian stress rules require that the primary stressed syllable produces a clear, full, strong, original sound (here /‑dvyeh‑/), whereas the vowel of the syllable or syllables preceding it is weak and the syllable vowel after it is also weak (somewhat the way English polysyllabic words work). That /yeh/ goes to /yih/ in both cases here. Most Slavic languages also devoice final originally voiced consonants, thus “v” usually goes to /f/ unless there is a following voiced consonant in a following syllable or word.
So what does “Medvedev” mean? The suffix ‑ev/‑ov means ‘(son) of’ (a nominalized reduction from genitive “-ogo” usually pronounced with weak vowels /ova/, which should not be confused with feminine nominative surnames in ‑ova) and Russian medved´ (with a prime sign for the mark of palatalization) ‘bear’, probably descriptive of a clumsy, bulky person. Among animals the bear was of special consequence. Its original Proto-Indo-European name *rktho-, later *rkso-, resulting in Sanskrit rkshos, Greek arktos, Latin ursus, Armenian arj, Celtic *artos, was taboo in Gaelic (math-ghamhain /mahowin/, Mahon ‘good-calf’!) and in all Slavic languages, and it was alluded to instead as the ‘honey-eater’ (med-v-éd´), partly through fear perhaps and partly as a rival in the search for honey (Russian mëd /myot/) in the woods, from which was made hydromel, or ‘mead’ (Russian mëd, Greek methy [source of our chemical prefix “methy(l)”]). The v arose from the noun theme u in hypothetical *medu-yed´ ‘honey-eating’, like Sanskrit madh(u) v‑ád- ‘sweet-eat’. The Polish reflex of ‘bear’ is a further taboo word with negative aspersion: niedźwiedź, with miód /myoot/ ‘honey’ debased into niedź- under the influence of nie ‘no, not’.
[Written by Carl Masthay, 18 March 2008, paraphrasing Entwistle and Morison 1949, Unbegaun 1972, Preobrazhensky 1951, and other sources]
That Squiggly Dash above an 'n'
(and its linguistic significance)
by aLfie vera mella
Photo of a tilde piñata
I have met a number of fellow Filipinos here in Canada who have changed their names by removing that squiggly dash over a letter 'n' in their surnames, because they felt that having a surname with a "weird" mark like that was a nuisance or even embarrassing. They said that they also got tired of having to explain to legitimate English speakers how to pronounce their surnames correctly. So, to solve the problem, they simply got rid of that "thingy."
I'm talking about surnames like Roño, Peñafrancia, Sobreviñas, Arañas, and Dela Peña-surnames that have a tilded 'n', or an n that has over it a diacritical mark called tilde (~). Now, what the heck is embarrassing about having a surname like those? Just because words with diacritical marks like the tilde are not originally English, that you would already feel embarrassed about having them in your surname. Pardon me, but I think removing the tilde (or any other diacritical mark for that matter) off a surname is not simply altering the linguistically correct pronunciation of the name; more than that, it's tantamount to disrespecting one's name and ancestry. Worse, it may also be seen as a display of ignorance about the significance of diacritical marks.
It's there for an important reason
The tilde (~) is a fundamental unit in written language that has several uses. One of these is being a diacritic (or diacritical mark) placed over a letter to indicate a change in pronunciation, such as nasalization. The tilded 'n' ('ñ', 'Ñ'), in particular, developed from the digraph 'nn' in Spanish. In this language, ñ is considered a separate letter called eñe, rather than a letter-diacritic combination. Borrowed from Spanish, the ñ (eñe) of the current 28-letter modern Filipino alphabet has the same function-it stands alone as a separate letter, representing a palatal-nasal type of consonant, used for some loanwords adopted from Spanish. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the symbol that represents the sound of the eñe is ?. For English speakers, the best reference to how they should pronounce the ñ in some Filipino surnames and in some English loanwords are the words canyon, lasagna, onion, and union. Furthermore, even though the English language does not consider ñ a separate unit in its 26-letter alphabet, it still recognizes as entries in its dictionary a number of loanwords that contain the so-called tilded 'n', such as El Niño ("a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon"), jalapeño ("a variety of chili pepper"), mañana habit ("procrastination"), piña colada ("a sweet, rum-based cocktail made with hard rum, coconut cream, and pineapple juice"), piñata ("a brightly-colored papier-mâché, cardboard, or clay container filled with any combination of candy, small fruit, food items, and toys"), señor ("Sir or Mr."), señora ("Mrs."), and señorita ("miss or Ms.").
Now, who said ñ, or eñe, also known as the tilded 'n', is not recognized by or does not exist in the English language? It's time to review or update your English.
The Last Leaf
So, before you remove that squiggly dash off your precious surname (in case you have it)-a name which your ancestry has preserved all this time-just because you thought that the tilde has no place in English, better think twice! You're not only disrespecting your heritage; you're also betraying your ignorance about the English language. If there's one person who should be proud of your name, it's no one else but you! And if there's someone who should feel embarrassed, it's those people whose first language is English who don't know how to pronounce your surname properly. Why? Because they do not know that English-their very own language-has long adopted as dictionary entries foreign words that have letters with diacritics like the tilde (~), acute accent (´) and grave accent (`), cedilla (¸), circumflex (ˆ), and umlaut (¨)-loanwords that include animé, exposé, résumé, café, cliché, discothèque, doppelgänger, façade, karaōke, mêlée, naïve, papier-mâché, smörgåsbord, and über.
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilde
SLANG - Are you In or Out?
by Amy Newsome
Traditional interest in the variety of language called 'slang' and the usage of this variety has been highly prescriptive, something that budding linguists are always told not to be. Hence, a different approach is needed, namely a more descriptive one that relates to ideas and concepts relating to the field of study called Pragmatics.
A concise definition of the term 'slang' is: a dynamic variety of language that is used to show solidarity and claim in-group membership, and as suggested by Gibbs (1994). Slang is also one of the most important 'mechanisms' or devices for showing social awareness. This variety of language often occurs around 'taboo' subjects such as sex, drugs, alcohol, homosexuality, etc.
According to Lodge (1997), the colloquial or vernacular use of language is extremely important, not only to sociolinguists, but in the study of semantics and meaning in context. In his study, Lodge identifies three features of language variation that he believes are essentially true:
1. Variability is natural in language and essential to its social role in our everyday lives. A broad and increasing lexicon is essential in order to express the 'nuances' of human emotions and personal identity and experiences.
2. There are no 'breaks' in language varieties, meaning that there are no pure homogeneous styles and dialects that exist. Rather, there are scales or gradations of linguistic style and language, and these scales are fluid and are subject to change.
3. Language variation is not a free or unrestricted process. Even slang is subject to factors that are outside language, such as age, gender, and cultural background.
In-groups and out-groups
An element that is vital to the usage of slang is notion of in-groups and out-groups. One of the reasons that slang develops is the need for group solidarity (Cutting, 2001). This means that a certain group of people, for example a bunch of moody teenagers, feel the need to alienate their parents and use language that the older generation will not understand. In this case, the in-group would be the teenagers, and the out-group is the parents. The in-group has 'shared knowledge' (Cutting, 2001), and amongst the members they all possess the in-group vocabulary.
In addition, and on a slightly more technical note, there is interesting concept of the Standard Pragmatic Model. This model proposes that people would experience difficulty in understanding and interpreting slang, when compared to the literal meanings of the same expressions. The pragmatic model suggests that meaning should not be hidden or obscure, as all language should follow rules like Grice's Maxims. However, the reason why slang does not follow this model is since in attempting to understand slang on a literal level, it would cause many problems for someone trying to interpret such an utterance. In trying to interpret the factual or accurate denotation, the meaning would be completely irrelevant and nonsensical. This is why the listener is aware that there is a hidden meaning, or connotation behind an utterance.
Knowing when to use Slang
This relates to a concept defined by Gibbs (1994), who suggests that knowing what kind of slang is appropriate in a particular situation is incredibly important. For example, knowing when to use ''inebriated, drunk, wasted or plastered'' when referring to consuming lots of alcohol is what identifies in-and out-groups. Or it's just whether you're cool or not.
Slang's Relation to Grice's Maxims
Now for an example to illustrate how slang can violate the Grice's Maxims of Relevance, Manner, Quantity and Quality.
1 ''I hope our cricketers will crush those touring pansies.''
In this example, there is evidence that some in-group shared knowledge is needed. In this case, it would be understood by a student who knows about the upcoming cricket match (the game, not the insects), but perhaps would not be understood to an older generation or an outsider to this kind of language variety. Here, the Maxim of Quality is violated, as the 'touring pansies' are in fact the opposing cricket team, and not a literal bed of flowers, so the utterance is not entirely true. The Relevance of this example could also be questioned, as it is a fairly obscure sentence that would not be understood by an out-group. The Maxim of Manner is also flouted, as the utterance is ambiguous, and the meaning is not clear. In addition, there is an excess number of words used, violating the Maxim of Quantity.
Conclusion
Therefore, slang is definitely a language variety that can be studied and observed with regard to Pragmatics and related topics. As a final thought, here are two quotes relating to two completely different opinions about the use of this particular variety:
"Slang is the poetry of everyday life and it vividly expresses people's feelings about life, and about the things they encounter" (Hayakawa, 1941)
Or
"The use of slang is at once a sign and a cause of mental atrophy" (Partridge, 1935)
Traditional interest in the variety of language called 'slang' and the usage of this variety has been highly prescriptive, something that budding linguists are always told not to be. Hence, a different approach is needed, namely a more descriptive one that relates to ideas and concepts relating to the field of study called Pragmatics.
A concise definition of the term 'slang' is: a dynamic variety of language that is used to show solidarity and claim in-group membership, and as suggested by Gibbs (1994). Slang is also one of the most important 'mechanisms' or devices for showing social awareness. This variety of language often occurs around 'taboo' subjects such as sex, drugs, alcohol, homosexuality, etc.
According to Lodge (1997), the colloquial or vernacular use of language is extremely important, not only to sociolinguists, but in the study of semantics and meaning in context. In his study, Lodge identifies three features of language variation that he believes are essentially true:
1. Variability is natural in language and essential to its social role in our everyday lives. A broad and increasing lexicon is essential in order to express the 'nuances' of human emotions and personal identity and experiences.
2. There are no 'breaks' in language varieties, meaning that there are no pure homogeneous styles and dialects that exist. Rather, there are scales or gradations of linguistic style and language, and these scales are fluid and are subject to change.
3. Language variation is not a free or unrestricted process. Even slang is subject to factors that are outside language, such as age, gender, and cultural background.
In-groups and out-groups
An element that is vital to the usage of slang is notion of in-groups and out-groups. One of the reasons that slang develops is the need for group solidarity (Cutting, 2001). This means that a certain group of people, for example a bunch of moody teenagers, feel the need to alienate their parents and use language that the older generation will not understand. In this case, the in-group would be the teenagers, and the out-group is the parents. The in-group has 'shared knowledge' (Cutting, 2001), and amongst the members they all possess the in-group vocabulary.
In addition, and on a slightly more technical note, there is interesting concept of the Standard Pragmatic Model. This model proposes that people would experience difficulty in understanding and interpreting slang, when compared to the literal meanings of the same expressions. The pragmatic model suggests that meaning should not be hidden or obscure, as all language should follow rules like Grice's Maxims. However, the reason why slang does not follow this model is since in attempting to understand slang on a literal level, it would cause many problems for someone trying to interpret such an utterance. In trying to interpret the factual or accurate denotation, the meaning would be completely irrelevant and nonsensical. This is why the listener is aware that there is a hidden meaning, or connotation behind an utterance.
Knowing when to use Slang
This relates to a concept defined by Gibbs (1994), who suggests that knowing what kind of slang is appropriate in a particular situation is incredibly important. For example, knowing when to use ''inebriated, drunk, wasted or plastered'' when referring to consuming lots of alcohol is what identifies in-and out-groups. Or it's just whether you're cool or not.
Slang's Relation to Grice's Maxims
Now for an example to illustrate how slang can violate the Grice's Maxims of Relevance, Manner, Quantity and Quality.
1 ''I hope our cricketers will crush those touring pansies.''
In this example, there is evidence that some in-group shared knowledge is needed. In this case, it would be understood by a student who knows about the upcoming cricket match (the game, not the insects), but perhaps would not be understood to an older generation or an outsider to this kind of language variety. Here, the Maxim of Quality is violated, as the 'touring pansies' are in fact the opposing cricket team, and not a literal bed of flowers, so the utterance is not entirely true. The Relevance of this example could also be questioned, as it is a fairly obscure sentence that would not be understood by an out-group. The Maxim of Manner is also flouted, as the utterance is ambiguous, and the meaning is not clear. In addition, there is an excess number of words used, violating the Maxim of Quantity.
Conclusion
Therefore, slang is definitely a language variety that can be studied and observed with regard to Pragmatics and related topics. As a final thought, here are two quotes relating to two completely different opinions about the use of this particular variety:
"Slang is the poetry of everyday life and it vividly expresses people's feelings about life, and about the things they encounter" (Hayakawa, 1941)
Or
"The use of slang is at once a sign and a cause of mental atrophy" (Partridge, 1935)
WordSteps - personal online vocabulary tutor
by Владимир Саранчин (Vladimir Saranchin)
How often do you visit websites that help learn foreign languages? Or let me ask it another way: do you even know of such sites? Everyone who wants to improve his/her language level should consider these questions very seriously. According to Sloan Survey of Online Learning, every fifth graduate student in western countries was enrolled in at least one online language learning course in 2007. Enrollment rose by 9.7% from a year earlier.
Today I'd like to tell you about a new website for people who want to constantly update and broaden amount of foreign words they know, but do not want to dedicate too much of their free time to this (I doubt anyone would ever want to do the opposite!).
Description of the site
Let me introduce you to WordSteps - personal vocabulary manager with a pretty simple idea: invest 15 minutes a day visiting this website and in return get about 20 new foreign words remembered. So easy! Let's dig into more details.
What results can be achieved with WordSteps anyways? It appears that, according to linguistic researches and studies, the most efficient way to learn foreign words is by memorizing not more than 20 words a day (as Vladimir Lenin once said "Less is more"). Multiply this number by 365 days and get more than 7000 words in one year. Taking in account that normally no one wants to study every day and the best scenario is once in two days, we get a little more than 3000 words. Not enough? Don't rush with conclusions. According to statistics that amount of words is enough to understand 80% of all foreign books, newspapers and movies, and this is more than enough to hold day to day conversations with foreigners.
So here is the target - to learn about 3000 words a year. And it's WordSteps service that can help achieve this goal.
WordSteps is a collection of thematic dictionaries, each offered in nine different languages: English, Russian, French, Spanish, Chinese, German, Japanese, Italian and Portuguese. It's interesting that every user can create his/her own collection of dictionaries. And the best dictionaries voted for by majority of users are posted on the website main page. In order to start learning new words user must choose a dictionary and then do some exercises, such as reading, choosing of correct translation, writing a word etc.
You can use a lot of features without registration. But if you register, you get access to statistics of learned words and learning history, and can create your own profile. Using profile features you can exchange messages with other users, and add them to friends list. In other words, WordSteps is a very user friendly and convenient online service that provides great opportunity to learn new words easy while saving personal time.
Below are the main features of this service:
* nine different languages;
* learning history and self progress tracking;
* user friendly interface in Russian and English languages;
* user can create his/her own sets of dictionaries;
* audio and visual materials will be added soon to make learning process even more fascinating;
* flashcard printing;
* free mobile version will be available soon
How often do you visit websites that help learn foreign languages? Or let me ask it another way: do you even know of such sites? Everyone who wants to improve his/her language level should consider these questions very seriously. According to Sloan Survey of Online Learning, every fifth graduate student in western countries was enrolled in at least one online language learning course in 2007. Enrollment rose by 9.7% from a year earlier.
Today I'd like to tell you about a new website for people who want to constantly update and broaden amount of foreign words they know, but do not want to dedicate too much of their free time to this (I doubt anyone would ever want to do the opposite!).
Description of the site
Let me introduce you to WordSteps - personal vocabulary manager with a pretty simple idea: invest 15 minutes a day visiting this website and in return get about 20 new foreign words remembered. So easy! Let's dig into more details.
What results can be achieved with WordSteps anyways? It appears that, according to linguistic researches and studies, the most efficient way to learn foreign words is by memorizing not more than 20 words a day (as Vladimir Lenin once said "Less is more"). Multiply this number by 365 days and get more than 7000 words in one year. Taking in account that normally no one wants to study every day and the best scenario is once in two days, we get a little more than 3000 words. Not enough? Don't rush with conclusions. According to statistics that amount of words is enough to understand 80% of all foreign books, newspapers and movies, and this is more than enough to hold day to day conversations with foreigners.
So here is the target - to learn about 3000 words a year. And it's WordSteps service that can help achieve this goal.
WordSteps is a collection of thematic dictionaries, each offered in nine different languages: English, Russian, French, Spanish, Chinese, German, Japanese, Italian and Portuguese. It's interesting that every user can create his/her own collection of dictionaries. And the best dictionaries voted for by majority of users are posted on the website main page. In order to start learning new words user must choose a dictionary and then do some exercises, such as reading, choosing of correct translation, writing a word etc.
You can use a lot of features without registration. But if you register, you get access to statistics of learned words and learning history, and can create your own profile. Using profile features you can exchange messages with other users, and add them to friends list. In other words, WordSteps is a very user friendly and convenient online service that provides great opportunity to learn new words easy while saving personal time.
Below are the main features of this service:
* nine different languages;
* learning history and self progress tracking;
* user friendly interface in Russian and English languages;
* user can create his/her own sets of dictionaries;
* audio and visual materials will be added soon to make learning process even more fascinating;
* flashcard printing;
* free mobile version will be available soon
Short words, basic ideas
by Carlos Carrion Torres - Vitoria ES - Brazil
When one considers Indo-European languages, especially those which are properly European, one can perceive that there are many similarities among them. These similarities surely are due to their roots in the very distant past of civilized mankind, going back to the early Sanskrit language.
With the exception of a few cases, modern words for things, feelings, beings and thoughts that are very primitive, basic, ancient, well known and easily perceived by mankind are very simple and quite short.
Those words are nowadays short and simple and they were probably also that short since their ancient origin.
Even considering that most of the words in European languages with either simple or sophisticated meanings, are monosyllabic or bisyllabic, there is some pattern that confirms that nouns for well known things are generally shorter.
That perception is easy, even without any further deeper research.
Here are some examples from English:
* mother, mom, father, dad, brother, sister, son, daughter, boy, girl, man, woman, baby, friend;
* hand, foot, eye, ear, heart, leg, arm, face, nose, mouth, body, head, knee, ankle, thigh, neck, hair, beard, tooth, finger, nail;
* cat, dog, horse, bull, ox, cow, lamb, donkey, duck, elk, lion, bear, wolf, pig, hen, goat, frog, toad, bird, fish
* love, hate, god, good, mad, evil, well, death, here, there, under, over, back, front;
* sky, sea, lake, river, sun, moon, rock, cave, tree, sand, stone, water, cloud, rain, snow, night, day, dawn, year, fruit, apple, lemon, grape, lunch, food;
* Yes, No, tall, short, long, hot, cold, warm, poor, rich;
Also, frequently-used verbs with simple, ancient meanings, which express feelings, behaviors and actions are usually short.
Almost all of these verbs are also very irregular, for example auxiliary and modal verbs;
Irregularity is quite obvious, because those verbs can be considered as "natural" ones. Rules to standardize languages came only later, when talking was systematized by people.
Some examples from English
* meet, come, go, eat, drink, sleep, wake, talk, walk, run, dive, swim, die, do, make, feel, work, give;
* want, must, shall, will, can;
* be, have, do;
Why are such word short? This seems quite obvious: first things comes first. Primary languages first used most of possibilities of monosyllabic or bisyllabic sounds. When most sophisticated and complicated subjects required new words, there were few possibilities left for monosyllabic or bisyllabic words. So longer words were necessary.
Another easily realized language pattern, that has also obvious roots, is that there are more differences among words with the same meaning in different languages for ancient and traditional stuff, than for very recent, modern, technological, medical, nouns.
When one considers Indo-European languages, especially those which are properly European, one can perceive that there are many similarities among them. These similarities surely are due to their roots in the very distant past of civilized mankind, going back to the early Sanskrit language.
With the exception of a few cases, modern words for things, feelings, beings and thoughts that are very primitive, basic, ancient, well known and easily perceived by mankind are very simple and quite short.
Those words are nowadays short and simple and they were probably also that short since their ancient origin.
Even considering that most of the words in European languages with either simple or sophisticated meanings, are monosyllabic or bisyllabic, there is some pattern that confirms that nouns for well known things are generally shorter.
That perception is easy, even without any further deeper research.
Here are some examples from English:
* mother, mom, father, dad, brother, sister, son, daughter, boy, girl, man, woman, baby, friend;
* hand, foot, eye, ear, heart, leg, arm, face, nose, mouth, body, head, knee, ankle, thigh, neck, hair, beard, tooth, finger, nail;
* cat, dog, horse, bull, ox, cow, lamb, donkey, duck, elk, lion, bear, wolf, pig, hen, goat, frog, toad, bird, fish
* love, hate, god, good, mad, evil, well, death, here, there, under, over, back, front;
* sky, sea, lake, river, sun, moon, rock, cave, tree, sand, stone, water, cloud, rain, snow, night, day, dawn, year, fruit, apple, lemon, grape, lunch, food;
* Yes, No, tall, short, long, hot, cold, warm, poor, rich;
Also, frequently-used verbs with simple, ancient meanings, which express feelings, behaviors and actions are usually short.
Almost all of these verbs are also very irregular, for example auxiliary and modal verbs;
Irregularity is quite obvious, because those verbs can be considered as "natural" ones. Rules to standardize languages came only later, when talking was systematized by people.
Some examples from English
* meet, come, go, eat, drink, sleep, wake, talk, walk, run, dive, swim, die, do, make, feel, work, give;
* want, must, shall, will, can;
* be, have, do;
Why are such word short? This seems quite obvious: first things comes first. Primary languages first used most of possibilities of monosyllabic or bisyllabic sounds. When most sophisticated and complicated subjects required new words, there were few possibilities left for monosyllabic or bisyllabic words. So longer words were necessary.
Another easily realized language pattern, that has also obvious roots, is that there are more differences among words with the same meaning in different languages for ancient and traditional stuff, than for very recent, modern, technological, medical, nouns.
Rhotics Ready: Getting a Handle on the Consonant "r"
by Jime Palacios
Cross section of the human head showing the parts involved with pronunciation
Rhotics - sounds that are produced when the character "r" is written - are some of the most difficult sounds to learn when studying a second language. These sounds are the trills, the central approximants, the taps, the flaps, and the fricatives of phonetics. If this list of phrases seems a bit daunting, take comfort: language acquisition may be a slow process but it is something that can be incredibly fruitful. After all, language is powerful. It is the sword of Shakespeare, a way for Einstein to tell us that E=mc2, and the means through which we express love.
What makes rhotics so difficult to learn is its variation across languages. The sound "r" can be produced in Spanish as a rapid tapping of the tip of tongue on the roof of the mouth, while in English an "r" is produced by a prolonged, smooth current of air that glides over the centre of the tongue. And, in most Asian languages, such as Japanese or Korean, the use of "r" is not distinguished from its lateral approximant brother, "l".
It is important to become aware of these subtle nuances when beginning the study of a second language because pronunciation is a key part of learning a language. Fortunately, for those learning English, there is only one rhotic sound. Those of you seeking to study Toda, however, will have to learn three different rhotic trills.
There are several ways to practice and learn pronunciation, ranging from immersion, through television, radio programs and travel, to taking a formal course in your second language. Taking a course is relatively simple in England as English language schools are located across the country, allowing you to take an English course in London or elsewhere.
The most tried and true advice for language learning focuses on practice. Find yourself a language partner who will encourage you to use the language skills you have already acquired and assist you in correcting the ones you have yet to master. English language schools (more info) tend to have formal and informal opportunities to do this exact thing.
However you go about reconciling your "r" with the new one in your second or third language, don't forget how incredible it is to be able to communicate with an entirely new group of people. Right now there is a whole repository of reading and recitation material just waiting for you to round this language corner. And if English is the second language you are learning, mastering the "r" means you'll be able to say that last sentence with the fluency of a native speaker!
References
Ball, Martin J. and Joan Rahilly. Phonetics: The Science of Speech. Arnold: London, 1999.
Catford, J.C. A Practical Introduction to Phonetics. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2001.
Ladefoged, Peter. Vowels and Consonants. Blackwell Publishing Inc: Oxford, 2006.
Ladefoged, Peter and Ian Maddieson. The Sounds of the World's Languages. Blackwell Publishers Inc.: Oxford, 1996
Cross section of the human head showing the parts involved with pronunciation
Rhotics - sounds that are produced when the character "r" is written - are some of the most difficult sounds to learn when studying a second language. These sounds are the trills, the central approximants, the taps, the flaps, and the fricatives of phonetics. If this list of phrases seems a bit daunting, take comfort: language acquisition may be a slow process but it is something that can be incredibly fruitful. After all, language is powerful. It is the sword of Shakespeare, a way for Einstein to tell us that E=mc2, and the means through which we express love.
What makes rhotics so difficult to learn is its variation across languages. The sound "r" can be produced in Spanish as a rapid tapping of the tip of tongue on the roof of the mouth, while in English an "r" is produced by a prolonged, smooth current of air that glides over the centre of the tongue. And, in most Asian languages, such as Japanese or Korean, the use of "r" is not distinguished from its lateral approximant brother, "l".
It is important to become aware of these subtle nuances when beginning the study of a second language because pronunciation is a key part of learning a language. Fortunately, for those learning English, there is only one rhotic sound. Those of you seeking to study Toda, however, will have to learn three different rhotic trills.
There are several ways to practice and learn pronunciation, ranging from immersion, through television, radio programs and travel, to taking a formal course in your second language. Taking a course is relatively simple in England as English language schools are located across the country, allowing you to take an English course in London or elsewhere.
The most tried and true advice for language learning focuses on practice. Find yourself a language partner who will encourage you to use the language skills you have already acquired and assist you in correcting the ones you have yet to master. English language schools (more info) tend to have formal and informal opportunities to do this exact thing.
However you go about reconciling your "r" with the new one in your second or third language, don't forget how incredible it is to be able to communicate with an entirely new group of people. Right now there is a whole repository of reading and recitation material just waiting for you to round this language corner. And if English is the second language you are learning, mastering the "r" means you'll be able to say that last sentence with the fluency of a native speaker!
References
Ball, Martin J. and Joan Rahilly. Phonetics: The Science of Speech. Arnold: London, 1999.
Catford, J.C. A Practical Introduction to Phonetics. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2001.
Ladefoged, Peter. Vowels and Consonants. Blackwell Publishing Inc: Oxford, 2006.
Ladefoged, Peter and Ian Maddieson. The Sounds of the World's Languages. Blackwell Publishers Inc.: Oxford, 1996
Rabu, 22 Desember 2010
Postcolonialism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Goals of Post-Colonialism
The ultimate goal of post-colonialism is combating the residual effects of colonialism on cultures. It is not simply concerned with salvaging past worlds, but learning how the world can move beyond this period together, towards a place of mutual respect. This section surveys the thoughts of a number of post-colonialism's most prominent thinkers as to how to go about this.
Post-colonialist thinkers recognize that many of the assumptions which underlie the "logic" of colonialism are still active forces today. Exposing and deconstructing the racist, imperialist nature of these assumptions will remove their power of persuasion and coercion. Recognizing that they are not simply airy substances but have widespread material consequences for the nature and scale of global inequality makes this project all the more urgent.
A key goal of post-colonial theorists is clearing space for multiple voices. This is especially true of those voices that have been previously silenced by dominant ideologies - subalterns. It is widely recognized within the discourse that this space must first be cleared within academia. Edward Said, in his book Orientalism, provides a clear picture of the ways social scientists, specifically Orientalists, can disregard the views of those they actually study - preferring instead to rely on the intellectual superiority of themselves and their peers.
To the extent that Western scholars were aware of contemporary Orientals or Oriental movements of thought and culture, these were perceived either as silent shadows to be animated by the Orientalist, brought into reality by them, or as a kind of cultural and international proletariat useful for the Orientalist's grander interpretive activity. (Said, 1978: 208)
Much debate has since taken place regarding how to effectively and fairly incorporate the subaltern voice into social studies. With such a huge mass of criticism against the idea of studying "others", many social scientists felt paralyzed, fatalistically accepting it as an impossibility. Spivak, an Indian post-colonialist thinker, rejects this outright. "To refuse to represent a cultural Other is salving your conscience, and allowing you not to do any homework."[1]
Spivak recognizes the project is problematic, as recovery and presentation of a subaltern voice would likely essentialize its message, negating the subaltern masses' heterogeneity. Spivak suggests "strategic essentialism" - speaking on behalf of a group while using a clear image of identity to fight opposition - is the only solution to this problem. Applying this approach, bell hooks addresses the white academic reader on behalf of subalterns in the conclusion to her paper "Marginality as a site of resistance".
This is an intervention. A message from that space in the margin that is a site of creativity and power, that inclusive space where we recover ourselves, where we meet in solidarity to erase the category colonized/colonizer. Marginality is the space [site] of resistance. Enter that space. Let us meet there. Enter that space. We greet you as liberators. (hooks, 1990: 152)
Some post-colonial theorists make the argument that studying both dominant knowledge sets and marginalized ones as binary opposites perpetuates their existence as homogenous entities. Homi K. Bhabha feels the post-colonial world should valorize spaces of mixing; spaces where truth and authenticity move aside for ambiguity. This space of hybridity, he argues, offers the most profound challenge to colonialism. (Bhabha, 1994: 113) Critiques that Bhabha ignores Spivak's stated usefulness of essentialism have been put forward. Reference is made to essentialisms' potential usefulness. An organized voice provides a more powerful challenge to dominant knowledge - whether in academia or active protests.
Fanon offers a less bright and more violent prescription for moving beyond the colonial mindset. He argues that previously colonized peoples would remain hybrids with a miserably schizophrenic identity unless they revolt violently against their oppressors. This collective action would apparently stimulate collective pride, freeing them of their inferiority complexes.[2]
Ultimately, however, Post-colonialism is a hopeful discourse. The very "post" defines the discipline as one that looks forward to a world that has truly moved beyond all that colonialism entails, together. Mbembe finds it gives him "hope in the advent of a universal brotherly [and I would add sisterly] community"[3]. Asking what it means to be human together, post-colonialism aims at decolonizing the future.
[edit] Subject matters
"The final hour of colonialism has struck, and millions of inhabitants of Africa, Asia and Latin America rise to meet a new life and demand their unrestricted right to self-determination."
— Che Guevara, speech to the United Nations, December 11, 1964 [4]
The critical nature of postcolonial theory entails destabilizing Western way of thinking, therefore creating space for the subaltern, or marginalized groups, to speak and produce alternatives to dominant discourse. Often, the term postcolonialism is taken literally, to mean the period of time after colonialism. This however is problematic because the ‘once-colonized world’ is full of “contradictions, of half-finished processes, of confusions, of hybridity, and liminalities”[5]. In other words, it is important to accept the plural nature of the word postcolonialism, as it does not simply refer to the period after the colonial era. By some definitions, postcolonialism can also be seen as a continuation of colonialism, albeit through different or new relationships concerning power and the control/production of knowledge[6][7]. Due to these similarities, it is debated whether to hyphenate postcolonialism as to symbolize that we have fully moved beyond colonialism.[8]
Postcolonialism as a literary theory (with a critical approach), deals with literature produced in countries that once were colonies of other countries, especially of the European colonial powers Britain, France, and Spain; in some contexts, it includes countries still in colonial arrangements. It also deals with literature written by citizens of colonial countries that portrays colonized people as its subject matter. In Dutch literature a specific colonial and post colonial segment is named Indies (after Dutch East Indies) literature. A sub-segment specifically focuses on post colonial identity formation and culture of the diasporic Indo-Europeans, a (Eurasian) community originally from Indonesia. Its main author was Tjalie Robinson.[9] Colonized people, especially of the British Empire, attended British universities and with their access to education, created this new criticism. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union during the late 20th century, its former republics became the subject of this study as well.[10]
Often, previously colonized places are homogenized in western discourse under an umbrella label such as the ‘Third World’. Postcolonialism demonstrates the heterogeneity of colonized places by analyzing the uneven impact of Western colonialism on different places, peoples, and cultures[11]. This is done by engaging with the variety of ways in which “relations, practices and representations” of the past is “reproduced or transformed”, and studying the connections between the “heart and margins” of the empire[12]. Moreover, postcolonialism recognizes that there was, and still is, resistance to the West. This resistance is practiced by many, including the subaltern, a group of marginalized, and least powerful.
Postcolonial theory provides a framework that destabilizes dominant discourses in the West, challenges “inherent assumptions”, and critiques the “material and discursive legacies of colonialism”[13]. In order to challenge these assumptions and legacies of colonialism, postcolonial studies needs to be grounded, which entails working with tangible identities, connections, and processes. Postcolonial theorist Edward Said's 1978 book Orientalism has been described as a seminal work in the field.[14]
Furthermore, Postcolonialism deals with cultural identity in colonized societies: the dilemmas of developing a national identity after colonial rule; the ways in which writers articulate and celebrate that identity (often reclaiming it from and maintaining strong connections with the colonizer); the ways in which the knowledge of the colonized (subordinated) people has been generated and used to serve the colonizer's interests; and the ways in which the colonizer's literature has justified colonialism via images of the colonised as a perpetually inferior people, society and culture. These inward struggles of identity, history, and future possibilities often occur in the metropolis and, ironically, with the aid of postcolonial structures of power, such as universities. Not surprisingly, many contemporary postcolonial writers reside in London, Paris, New York and Madrid.
The creation of binary opposition structures changed the way we view others. In the case of colonialism, the Oriental and the Westerner were distinguished as different from each other (i.e. the emotional, static, Orient vs. the principled, progressive Occident). This opposition justified the "white man's burden," the coloniser's self-perceived "destiny to rule" subordinate peoples. In contrast, post-colonialism seeks out areas of hybridity and transculturalization. This aspect is particularly relevant during processes of globalization.
In Post-Colonial Drama: theory, practice, politics, Helen Gilbert and Joanne Tompkins write: "the term postcolonialism – according to a too-rigid etymology – is frequently misunderstood as a temporal concept, meaning the time after colonialism has ceased, or the time following the politically determined Independence Day on which a country breaks away from its governance by another state, Not a naïve teleological sequence which supersedes colonialism, postcolonialism is, rather, an engagement with and contestation of colonialism's discourses, power structures, and social hierarchies ... A theory of postcolonialism must, then, respond to more than the merely chronological construction of post-independence, and to more than just the discursive experience of imperialism."[15]
Colonized peoples reply to the colonial legacy by writing back to the center, when the indigenous peoples write their own histories and legacies using the coloniser's language (e.g. English, French, Dutch) for their own purposes.[16] "Indigenous decolonization" is the intellectual impact of postcolonialist theory upon communities of indigenous peoples, thereby, their generating postcolonial literature.
A single, definitive definition of postcolonial theory is controversial; writers have strongly criticised it as a concept embedded in identity politics. Ann Laura Stoler, in Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power, argues that the simplistic oppositional binary concept of Coloniser and Colonised is more complicated than it seems, since these categories are fluid and shifting; postcolonial works emphasise the re-analysis of categories assumed to be natural and immutable.
Postcolonial Theory - as epistemology, ethics, and politics - addresses matters of identity, gender, race, racism and ethnicity with the challenges of developing a post-colonial national identity, of how a colonised people's knowledge was used against them in service of the coloniser's interests, and of how knowledge about the world is generated under specific relations between the powerful and the powerless, circulated repetitively and finally legitimated in service to certain imperial interests. At the same time, postcolonial theory encourages thought about the colonised's creative resistance to the coloniser and how that resistance complicates and gives texture to European imperial colonial projects, which utilised a range of strategies, including anti-conquest narratives, to legitimise their dominance.
Postcolonial writers object to the colonised's depiction as hollow "mimics" of Europeans or as passive recipients of power. Consequent to Foucauldian argument, postcolonial scholars, i.e. the Subaltern Studies collective, argue that anti-colonial resistance accompanies every deployment of power.
[edit] Notable theorists
[edit] Edward Said
Said took the term Orientalism, which was used in the West neutrally to describe the study and artistic depiction of the Orient, and subverted it to mean a constructed binary division of the world into the Orient and the Occident[17]. This binary, also referred to as the East/West binary, is key in postcolonial theory. Said argued that the Occident could not exist without the Orient, and vice versa. In other words, they are mutually constitutive. Notably, the concept of the ‘East’ i.e. the Orient, was created by the ‘West’, suppressing the ability of the ‘Orient’ to express themselves. Western depictions of the ‘Orient’ construct an inferior world, a place of backwardness, irrationality, and wildness. This allowed the ‘West’ to identify themselves as the opposite of these characteristics; as a superior world that was progressive, rational, and civil.
Furthermore, Said, following Foucalt's belief, states that power and knowledge are inseparable. The ‘West’s’ claim to knowledge of the East gave the ‘West’ the power to name, and the power to control[18]. This concept is essential to understanding of colonialism, and therefore recognizing postcolonialism.
Some postcolonial writers have critiqued Said's homogeneous binary of Occident and Orient insisting that multiple variations of Orientalism have been created within the western world and are at work. Said believes that Europe used Orientalism as a homogeneous "other" to form a more cohesive European identity.[19]
[edit] Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Spivak's main contribution to Postcolonial theory came with her specific definition of the term subaltern. Spivak also introduced terms such as 'essentialism', 'strategic essentialism'.[20] The former term refers to the dangers of reviving subaltern voices in ways that might simplify heterogeneous groups, creating stereotyped impressions of their diverse group. Spivak however believes that essentialism can sometimes be used strategically by these groups to make it easier for the subaltern to be heard and understood when a clear identity can be created and accepted by the majority. It is important to distinguish that 'strategic essentialism' does not sacrifice its diversity and voices but that they are being downplayed temporarily to support the essential element of the group.
Spivak also created the term 'epistemic violence' which refers to the destruction of non-western ways of knowing and thereby the domination of western ways of understanding. This concept relates to Spivak's "Subaltern must always be caught in translation, never truly expressing herself" because of the destruction and marginalization of her way of understanding.[21]
Furthermore, Spivak criticizes those who ignore the "cultural others" (the subaltern) and has offered constructive theories for allowing the West to go beyond its current position through self-criticism of western methods and ideals of understanding and exploring the alternatives offered by post-colonialism.[22][23]
[edit] Frantz Fanon
Fanon is one of the earliest writers associated with postcolonialism. In his book The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon analyzed the nature of colonialism and those subjugated by it. He describes colonialism as a source of violence rather than reacting violently against resistors which had been the common view.[24] His portrayal of the systematic relationship between colonialism and its attempts to deny "all attributes of humanity" to those it suppressed laid the groundwork for related critiques of colonial and postcolonial systems.[25]
[edit] International relations
Main article: Postcolonialism and International relations theory
[edit] The Middle East and national identity
In the last decade, Middle Eastern studies and research produced works focusing upon the colonial past's effects on the internal and external political, social, cultural, and economic circumstances of contemporary Middle Eastern countries; cf. Raphael Israeli's "Is Jordan Palestine?"[26] A particular focus of study is the matter of Western discourses about the Middle East, and the existence or the lack of national identity formation:[27]
“... [M]ost countries of the Middle East, suffered from the fundamental problems over their national identity. More than three-quarters of a century after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, from which most of them emerged, these states have been unable to define, project, and maintain a national identity that is both inclusive and representative”.[28]
Independence and the end of colonialism have not ended social fragmentation and war in the Middle East.[29][citation needed] Larbi Sadiki wrote in The Search for Arab Democracy: Discourses and Counter-Discourses (2004), because European colonial powers drew borders discounting peoples, ancient tribal boundaries and local history, the Middle East’s contemporary national identity problem can be traced back to imperialism and colonialism.
Kumaraswamy writes that "in places like Iraq and Jordan, leaders of the new state were brought in from the outside, [and] tailored to suit colonial interests and commitments. Likewise, most states in the Persian Gulf were handed over to those who could protect and safeguard imperial interests in the post-withdrawal phase",[30]
According to Sadiki, "with notable exceptions like Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, most [countries] ... had to [re-]invent, their historical roots" after colonialism. Therefore, "like its colonial predecessor, postcolonial identity owes its existence to force".[31]
[edit] Africa
The interior of Africa was not colonised until almost the end of the 19th century, yet the impact of colonialism was even more significant to the indigenous cultures, especially because of the Scramble for Africa. The increasingly efficient railway helped European powers to gain control over all regions of Africa, with the British particularly emphasizing goals of conquest. The British Empire sought to build a single railway through the continent and succeeded in building tracks from Egypt to Cape Town.
Many African empires existed in the pre-colonial era, such as the Ashanti, Ghana Empire, Kongo Kingdom, and Edo Empire. Nigeria was home to the Haussa, Yoruba and Igbo cultures and Chinua Achebe was among the first to take up this history in the construction of a postcolonial identity, as in Things Fall Apart.
Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o was educated at the British University of Leeds and wrote the first postcolonial East African novel, Weep Not, Child, in 1964. The later The River Between addresses postcolonial religious issues. His essay Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature is considered one of the most important pieces of African literary criticism.
[edit] Criticism of focusing on national identity
Scholars criticise and question the recent post-colonial focus on national identity. The Moroccan scholar Bin 'Abd al-'Ali argues that what is seen in contemporary Middle Eastern studies is 'a pathological obsession with ... identity'.[32] Nevertheless, Kumaraswamy and Sadiki argue that the problem of the lack of Middle Eastern identity formation is widespread, and that identity is an important aspect of understanding the politics of the contemporary Middle East. Whether the countries are Islamic regimes, republican regimes, quasi-liberal monarchies, democracies, or evolving democracies, ‘the Middle Eastern region suffers from the inability to recognize, integrate, and reflect its ethno-cultural diversity.’[33]
Ayubi (2001) questions if what Bin 'Abd al-'Ali described as an obsession with national identity may be explained by 'the absence of a championing social class?'[34]
[edit] Founding works on postcolonialism
* Aimé Césaire: Discourse on Colonialism (1950)
* Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Masks (1952)
* Frantz Fanon: The Wretched of the Earth (1961)
* Albert Memmi: The Colonizer and the Colonized (1965)
* Kwame Nkrumah: Consciencism (1970)
* Edward Said: Orientalism (1978)
[edit] Other important works
* Vladimir Lenin. "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism", (1916)
* O. Mannoni and Pamela Powesland . "Prospero and Caliban, The Psychology of Colonization"
* Bill Ashcroft. "The Empire Writes Back" , (1989)
* Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffths and Helen Tiffn. Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies, Routledge: 1998.
* Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, [1983] (1991) rev. ed., London: Verso. ISBN 0-86091-329-5..
* Guy Ankerl. Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations, Geneva INU PRESS; 2000 ISBN2-88155-004-5
* Ashis Nandy. The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self Under Colonialism. (1983)
* Ashis Nandy. Traditions, Tyranny, and Utopias: Essays in the Politics of Awareness (1987).
* Balagangadhara. "The Heathen in his Blindness..." Asia, the West, and the Dynamic of Religion. (1994, 2nd ed. 2005) ISBN 90-04-09943-3.
* Benita Parry: Delusions and Discoveries (1983)
* Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988)
* Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: "The Postcolonial Critic" (1990)
* Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: "Selected Subaltern Studies" (1988)
* Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: "A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Towards a History of the Vanishing Present" (1999)
* Hamid Dabashi, "Iran: A People Interrupted" (2007)
* Homi Bhabha: The Location of Culture (1994)
* Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (1993)
* Abdul JanMohamed, Manichean Aesthetics: The Politics of Literature in Colonial Africa (1988)
* Valentin Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa (1988)
* Paulin J. Hountondji, African Philosophy: Myth & Reality (1983)
* Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, (1986) "Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature"
* Bill Ashcroft The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literature (1990)
* Roberto Fernández Retamar: "Calibán: Apuntes sobre la cultura de Nuestra América" (1971), reissued in "Calibán and Other Essays" (1989)
* Robert J.C. Young, White Mythologies: Writing History and the West (1990)
* Robert J.C. Young, Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race (1995)
* Robert J.C. Young Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction (2001)
* Trinh T. Minh-ha, "Infinite Layers/Third World?" (1989)
* Anibal Quijano, Coloniality and Modernity/Rationality (1991), reissued in Globalizations And Modernities (1999)
* Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes" (1986)
* Uma Narayan, Dislocating Cultures (1997), and Contesting Cultures"(1997)
* Leela Gandhi Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. Columbia University Press:1998 ISBN 0-231-11273-4.
* Anne McClintock, "The angel of progress: pitfalls of the term 'postcolonialism'" Colonial Discourse/Postcolonial Theory, edited by M. Baker, P. Hulme and M. Iverson (1994)
* John McLeod, Beginning Postcolonialism, second edition (Manchester University Press, 2010).
* Bartholomew Dean and Jerome Levi eds., At the Risk of Being Heard: Indigenous Rights, Identity, and Postcolonial States (2003) University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-06736-2 [2][3]
* Achille Mbembe, "On the Postcolony", edited by The Regents of the University of California (2000)
* Declan Kiberd, "Inventing Ireland" (1995)
* Ernesto "Che" Guevara: Colonialism is Doomed
* Prem Poddar and David Johnson, A Historical Companion of Postcolonial Thought (2005)
* Partha Chatterjee (1993)Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Post-colonial Histories, Princeton University Press.
* Walter Mignolo: "The Idea of Latin América" (2005)
* Walter Mignolo: "Local histories/global designs: Coloniality" (1999)
* Dhawan, Nikita: "Postkolonial Theorie. Eine kritische Einführung" (2005)
* Iain Chambers and Lidia Curti (ed.): The Post-Colonial Question, Routledge: 1996
Goals of Post-Colonialism
The ultimate goal of post-colonialism is combating the residual effects of colonialism on cultures. It is not simply concerned with salvaging past worlds, but learning how the world can move beyond this period together, towards a place of mutual respect. This section surveys the thoughts of a number of post-colonialism's most prominent thinkers as to how to go about this.
Post-colonialist thinkers recognize that many of the assumptions which underlie the "logic" of colonialism are still active forces today. Exposing and deconstructing the racist, imperialist nature of these assumptions will remove their power of persuasion and coercion. Recognizing that they are not simply airy substances but have widespread material consequences for the nature and scale of global inequality makes this project all the more urgent.
A key goal of post-colonial theorists is clearing space for multiple voices. This is especially true of those voices that have been previously silenced by dominant ideologies - subalterns. It is widely recognized within the discourse that this space must first be cleared within academia. Edward Said, in his book Orientalism, provides a clear picture of the ways social scientists, specifically Orientalists, can disregard the views of those they actually study - preferring instead to rely on the intellectual superiority of themselves and their peers.
To the extent that Western scholars were aware of contemporary Orientals or Oriental movements of thought and culture, these were perceived either as silent shadows to be animated by the Orientalist, brought into reality by them, or as a kind of cultural and international proletariat useful for the Orientalist's grander interpretive activity. (Said, 1978: 208)
Much debate has since taken place regarding how to effectively and fairly incorporate the subaltern voice into social studies. With such a huge mass of criticism against the idea of studying "others", many social scientists felt paralyzed, fatalistically accepting it as an impossibility. Spivak, an Indian post-colonialist thinker, rejects this outright. "To refuse to represent a cultural Other is salving your conscience, and allowing you not to do any homework."[1]
Spivak recognizes the project is problematic, as recovery and presentation of a subaltern voice would likely essentialize its message, negating the subaltern masses' heterogeneity. Spivak suggests "strategic essentialism" - speaking on behalf of a group while using a clear image of identity to fight opposition - is the only solution to this problem. Applying this approach, bell hooks addresses the white academic reader on behalf of subalterns in the conclusion to her paper "Marginality as a site of resistance".
This is an intervention. A message from that space in the margin that is a site of creativity and power, that inclusive space where we recover ourselves, where we meet in solidarity to erase the category colonized/colonizer. Marginality is the space [site] of resistance. Enter that space. Let us meet there. Enter that space. We greet you as liberators. (hooks, 1990: 152)
Some post-colonial theorists make the argument that studying both dominant knowledge sets and marginalized ones as binary opposites perpetuates their existence as homogenous entities. Homi K. Bhabha feels the post-colonial world should valorize spaces of mixing; spaces where truth and authenticity move aside for ambiguity. This space of hybridity, he argues, offers the most profound challenge to colonialism. (Bhabha, 1994: 113) Critiques that Bhabha ignores Spivak's stated usefulness of essentialism have been put forward. Reference is made to essentialisms' potential usefulness. An organized voice provides a more powerful challenge to dominant knowledge - whether in academia or active protests.
Fanon offers a less bright and more violent prescription for moving beyond the colonial mindset. He argues that previously colonized peoples would remain hybrids with a miserably schizophrenic identity unless they revolt violently against their oppressors. This collective action would apparently stimulate collective pride, freeing them of their inferiority complexes.[2]
Ultimately, however, Post-colonialism is a hopeful discourse. The very "post" defines the discipline as one that looks forward to a world that has truly moved beyond all that colonialism entails, together. Mbembe finds it gives him "hope in the advent of a universal brotherly [and I would add sisterly] community"[3]. Asking what it means to be human together, post-colonialism aims at decolonizing the future.
[edit] Subject matters
"The final hour of colonialism has struck, and millions of inhabitants of Africa, Asia and Latin America rise to meet a new life and demand their unrestricted right to self-determination."
— Che Guevara, speech to the United Nations, December 11, 1964 [4]
The critical nature of postcolonial theory entails destabilizing Western way of thinking, therefore creating space for the subaltern, or marginalized groups, to speak and produce alternatives to dominant discourse. Often, the term postcolonialism is taken literally, to mean the period of time after colonialism. This however is problematic because the ‘once-colonized world’ is full of “contradictions, of half-finished processes, of confusions, of hybridity, and liminalities”[5]. In other words, it is important to accept the plural nature of the word postcolonialism, as it does not simply refer to the period after the colonial era. By some definitions, postcolonialism can also be seen as a continuation of colonialism, albeit through different or new relationships concerning power and the control/production of knowledge[6][7]. Due to these similarities, it is debated whether to hyphenate postcolonialism as to symbolize that we have fully moved beyond colonialism.[8]
Postcolonialism as a literary theory (with a critical approach), deals with literature produced in countries that once were colonies of other countries, especially of the European colonial powers Britain, France, and Spain; in some contexts, it includes countries still in colonial arrangements. It also deals with literature written by citizens of colonial countries that portrays colonized people as its subject matter. In Dutch literature a specific colonial and post colonial segment is named Indies (after Dutch East Indies) literature. A sub-segment specifically focuses on post colonial identity formation and culture of the diasporic Indo-Europeans, a (Eurasian) community originally from Indonesia. Its main author was Tjalie Robinson.[9] Colonized people, especially of the British Empire, attended British universities and with their access to education, created this new criticism. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union during the late 20th century, its former republics became the subject of this study as well.[10]
Often, previously colonized places are homogenized in western discourse under an umbrella label such as the ‘Third World’. Postcolonialism demonstrates the heterogeneity of colonized places by analyzing the uneven impact of Western colonialism on different places, peoples, and cultures[11]. This is done by engaging with the variety of ways in which “relations, practices and representations” of the past is “reproduced or transformed”, and studying the connections between the “heart and margins” of the empire[12]. Moreover, postcolonialism recognizes that there was, and still is, resistance to the West. This resistance is practiced by many, including the subaltern, a group of marginalized, and least powerful.
Postcolonial theory provides a framework that destabilizes dominant discourses in the West, challenges “inherent assumptions”, and critiques the “material and discursive legacies of colonialism”[13]. In order to challenge these assumptions and legacies of colonialism, postcolonial studies needs to be grounded, which entails working with tangible identities, connections, and processes. Postcolonial theorist Edward Said's 1978 book Orientalism has been described as a seminal work in the field.[14]
Furthermore, Postcolonialism deals with cultural identity in colonized societies: the dilemmas of developing a national identity after colonial rule; the ways in which writers articulate and celebrate that identity (often reclaiming it from and maintaining strong connections with the colonizer); the ways in which the knowledge of the colonized (subordinated) people has been generated and used to serve the colonizer's interests; and the ways in which the colonizer's literature has justified colonialism via images of the colonised as a perpetually inferior people, society and culture. These inward struggles of identity, history, and future possibilities often occur in the metropolis and, ironically, with the aid of postcolonial structures of power, such as universities. Not surprisingly, many contemporary postcolonial writers reside in London, Paris, New York and Madrid.
The creation of binary opposition structures changed the way we view others. In the case of colonialism, the Oriental and the Westerner were distinguished as different from each other (i.e. the emotional, static, Orient vs. the principled, progressive Occident). This opposition justified the "white man's burden," the coloniser's self-perceived "destiny to rule" subordinate peoples. In contrast, post-colonialism seeks out areas of hybridity and transculturalization. This aspect is particularly relevant during processes of globalization.
In Post-Colonial Drama: theory, practice, politics, Helen Gilbert and Joanne Tompkins write: "the term postcolonialism – according to a too-rigid etymology – is frequently misunderstood as a temporal concept, meaning the time after colonialism has ceased, or the time following the politically determined Independence Day on which a country breaks away from its governance by another state, Not a naïve teleological sequence which supersedes colonialism, postcolonialism is, rather, an engagement with and contestation of colonialism's discourses, power structures, and social hierarchies ... A theory of postcolonialism must, then, respond to more than the merely chronological construction of post-independence, and to more than just the discursive experience of imperialism."[15]
Colonized peoples reply to the colonial legacy by writing back to the center, when the indigenous peoples write their own histories and legacies using the coloniser's language (e.g. English, French, Dutch) for their own purposes.[16] "Indigenous decolonization" is the intellectual impact of postcolonialist theory upon communities of indigenous peoples, thereby, their generating postcolonial literature.
A single, definitive definition of postcolonial theory is controversial; writers have strongly criticised it as a concept embedded in identity politics. Ann Laura Stoler, in Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power, argues that the simplistic oppositional binary concept of Coloniser and Colonised is more complicated than it seems, since these categories are fluid and shifting; postcolonial works emphasise the re-analysis of categories assumed to be natural and immutable.
Postcolonial Theory - as epistemology, ethics, and politics - addresses matters of identity, gender, race, racism and ethnicity with the challenges of developing a post-colonial national identity, of how a colonised people's knowledge was used against them in service of the coloniser's interests, and of how knowledge about the world is generated under specific relations between the powerful and the powerless, circulated repetitively and finally legitimated in service to certain imperial interests. At the same time, postcolonial theory encourages thought about the colonised's creative resistance to the coloniser and how that resistance complicates and gives texture to European imperial colonial projects, which utilised a range of strategies, including anti-conquest narratives, to legitimise their dominance.
Postcolonial writers object to the colonised's depiction as hollow "mimics" of Europeans or as passive recipients of power. Consequent to Foucauldian argument, postcolonial scholars, i.e. the Subaltern Studies collective, argue that anti-colonial resistance accompanies every deployment of power.
[edit] Notable theorists
[edit] Edward Said
Said took the term Orientalism, which was used in the West neutrally to describe the study and artistic depiction of the Orient, and subverted it to mean a constructed binary division of the world into the Orient and the Occident[17]. This binary, also referred to as the East/West binary, is key in postcolonial theory. Said argued that the Occident could not exist without the Orient, and vice versa. In other words, they are mutually constitutive. Notably, the concept of the ‘East’ i.e. the Orient, was created by the ‘West’, suppressing the ability of the ‘Orient’ to express themselves. Western depictions of the ‘Orient’ construct an inferior world, a place of backwardness, irrationality, and wildness. This allowed the ‘West’ to identify themselves as the opposite of these characteristics; as a superior world that was progressive, rational, and civil.
Furthermore, Said, following Foucalt's belief, states that power and knowledge are inseparable. The ‘West’s’ claim to knowledge of the East gave the ‘West’ the power to name, and the power to control[18]. This concept is essential to understanding of colonialism, and therefore recognizing postcolonialism.
Some postcolonial writers have critiqued Said's homogeneous binary of Occident and Orient insisting that multiple variations of Orientalism have been created within the western world and are at work. Said believes that Europe used Orientalism as a homogeneous "other" to form a more cohesive European identity.[19]
[edit] Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Spivak's main contribution to Postcolonial theory came with her specific definition of the term subaltern. Spivak also introduced terms such as 'essentialism', 'strategic essentialism'.[20] The former term refers to the dangers of reviving subaltern voices in ways that might simplify heterogeneous groups, creating stereotyped impressions of their diverse group. Spivak however believes that essentialism can sometimes be used strategically by these groups to make it easier for the subaltern to be heard and understood when a clear identity can be created and accepted by the majority. It is important to distinguish that 'strategic essentialism' does not sacrifice its diversity and voices but that they are being downplayed temporarily to support the essential element of the group.
Spivak also created the term 'epistemic violence' which refers to the destruction of non-western ways of knowing and thereby the domination of western ways of understanding. This concept relates to Spivak's "Subaltern must always be caught in translation, never truly expressing herself" because of the destruction and marginalization of her way of understanding.[21]
Furthermore, Spivak criticizes those who ignore the "cultural others" (the subaltern) and has offered constructive theories for allowing the West to go beyond its current position through self-criticism of western methods and ideals of understanding and exploring the alternatives offered by post-colonialism.[22][23]
[edit] Frantz Fanon
Fanon is one of the earliest writers associated with postcolonialism. In his book The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon analyzed the nature of colonialism and those subjugated by it. He describes colonialism as a source of violence rather than reacting violently against resistors which had been the common view.[24] His portrayal of the systematic relationship between colonialism and its attempts to deny "all attributes of humanity" to those it suppressed laid the groundwork for related critiques of colonial and postcolonial systems.[25]
[edit] International relations
Main article: Postcolonialism and International relations theory
[edit] The Middle East and national identity
In the last decade, Middle Eastern studies and research produced works focusing upon the colonial past's effects on the internal and external political, social, cultural, and economic circumstances of contemporary Middle Eastern countries; cf. Raphael Israeli's "Is Jordan Palestine?"[26] A particular focus of study is the matter of Western discourses about the Middle East, and the existence or the lack of national identity formation:[27]
“... [M]ost countries of the Middle East, suffered from the fundamental problems over their national identity. More than three-quarters of a century after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, from which most of them emerged, these states have been unable to define, project, and maintain a national identity that is both inclusive and representative”.[28]
Independence and the end of colonialism have not ended social fragmentation and war in the Middle East.[29][citation needed] Larbi Sadiki wrote in The Search for Arab Democracy: Discourses and Counter-Discourses (2004), because European colonial powers drew borders discounting peoples, ancient tribal boundaries and local history, the Middle East’s contemporary national identity problem can be traced back to imperialism and colonialism.
Kumaraswamy writes that "in places like Iraq and Jordan, leaders of the new state were brought in from the outside, [and] tailored to suit colonial interests and commitments. Likewise, most states in the Persian Gulf were handed over to those who could protect and safeguard imperial interests in the post-withdrawal phase",[30]
According to Sadiki, "with notable exceptions like Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, most [countries] ... had to [re-]invent, their historical roots" after colonialism. Therefore, "like its colonial predecessor, postcolonial identity owes its existence to force".[31]
[edit] Africa
The interior of Africa was not colonised until almost the end of the 19th century, yet the impact of colonialism was even more significant to the indigenous cultures, especially because of the Scramble for Africa. The increasingly efficient railway helped European powers to gain control over all regions of Africa, with the British particularly emphasizing goals of conquest. The British Empire sought to build a single railway through the continent and succeeded in building tracks from Egypt to Cape Town.
Many African empires existed in the pre-colonial era, such as the Ashanti, Ghana Empire, Kongo Kingdom, and Edo Empire. Nigeria was home to the Haussa, Yoruba and Igbo cultures and Chinua Achebe was among the first to take up this history in the construction of a postcolonial identity, as in Things Fall Apart.
Kenyan Ngugi wa Thiong'o was educated at the British University of Leeds and wrote the first postcolonial East African novel, Weep Not, Child, in 1964. The later The River Between addresses postcolonial religious issues. His essay Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature is considered one of the most important pieces of African literary criticism.
[edit] Criticism of focusing on national identity
Scholars criticise and question the recent post-colonial focus on national identity. The Moroccan scholar Bin 'Abd al-'Ali argues that what is seen in contemporary Middle Eastern studies is 'a pathological obsession with ... identity'.[32] Nevertheless, Kumaraswamy and Sadiki argue that the problem of the lack of Middle Eastern identity formation is widespread, and that identity is an important aspect of understanding the politics of the contemporary Middle East. Whether the countries are Islamic regimes, republican regimes, quasi-liberal monarchies, democracies, or evolving democracies, ‘the Middle Eastern region suffers from the inability to recognize, integrate, and reflect its ethno-cultural diversity.’[33]
Ayubi (2001) questions if what Bin 'Abd al-'Ali described as an obsession with national identity may be explained by 'the absence of a championing social class?'[34]
[edit] Founding works on postcolonialism
* Aimé Césaire: Discourse on Colonialism (1950)
* Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Masks (1952)
* Frantz Fanon: The Wretched of the Earth (1961)
* Albert Memmi: The Colonizer and the Colonized (1965)
* Kwame Nkrumah: Consciencism (1970)
* Edward Said: Orientalism (1978)
[edit] Other important works
* Vladimir Lenin. "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism", (1916)
* O. Mannoni and Pamela Powesland . "Prospero and Caliban, The Psychology of Colonization"
* Bill Ashcroft. "The Empire Writes Back" , (1989)
* Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffths and Helen Tiffn. Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies, Routledge: 1998.
* Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, [1983] (1991) rev. ed., London: Verso. ISBN 0-86091-329-5..
* Guy Ankerl. Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations, Geneva INU PRESS; 2000 ISBN2-88155-004-5
* Ashis Nandy. The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self Under Colonialism. (1983)
* Ashis Nandy. Traditions, Tyranny, and Utopias: Essays in the Politics of Awareness (1987).
* Balagangadhara. "The Heathen in his Blindness..." Asia, the West, and the Dynamic of Religion. (1994, 2nd ed. 2005) ISBN 90-04-09943-3.
* Benita Parry: Delusions and Discoveries (1983)
* Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988)
* Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: "The Postcolonial Critic" (1990)
* Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: "Selected Subaltern Studies" (1988)
* Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: "A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Towards a History of the Vanishing Present" (1999)
* Hamid Dabashi, "Iran: A People Interrupted" (2007)
* Homi Bhabha: The Location of Culture (1994)
* Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (1993)
* Abdul JanMohamed, Manichean Aesthetics: The Politics of Literature in Colonial Africa (1988)
* Valentin Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa (1988)
* Paulin J. Hountondji, African Philosophy: Myth & Reality (1983)
* Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, (1986) "Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature"
* Bill Ashcroft The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literature (1990)
* Roberto Fernández Retamar: "Calibán: Apuntes sobre la cultura de Nuestra América" (1971), reissued in "Calibán and Other Essays" (1989)
* Robert J.C. Young, White Mythologies: Writing History and the West (1990)
* Robert J.C. Young, Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race (1995)
* Robert J.C. Young Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction (2001)
* Trinh T. Minh-ha, "Infinite Layers/Third World?" (1989)
* Anibal Quijano, Coloniality and Modernity/Rationality (1991), reissued in Globalizations And Modernities (1999)
* Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes" (1986)
* Uma Narayan, Dislocating Cultures (1997), and Contesting Cultures"(1997)
* Leela Gandhi Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. Columbia University Press:1998 ISBN 0-231-11273-4.
* Anne McClintock, "The angel of progress: pitfalls of the term 'postcolonialism'" Colonial Discourse/Postcolonial Theory, edited by M. Baker, P. Hulme and M. Iverson (1994)
* John McLeod, Beginning Postcolonialism, second edition (Manchester University Press, 2010).
* Bartholomew Dean and Jerome Levi eds., At the Risk of Being Heard: Indigenous Rights, Identity, and Postcolonial States (2003) University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-06736-2 [2][3]
* Achille Mbembe, "On the Postcolony", edited by The Regents of the University of California (2000)
* Declan Kiberd, "Inventing Ireland" (1995)
* Ernesto "Che" Guevara: Colonialism is Doomed
* Prem Poddar and David Johnson, A Historical Companion of Postcolonial Thought (2005)
* Partha Chatterjee (1993)Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Post-colonial Histories, Princeton University Press.
* Walter Mignolo: "The Idea of Latin América" (2005)
* Walter Mignolo: "Local histories/global designs: Coloniality" (1999)
* Dhawan, Nikita: "Postkolonial Theorie. Eine kritische Einführung" (2005)
* Iain Chambers and Lidia Curti (ed.): The Post-Colonial Question, Routledge: 1996
Feminism
To speak of "Feminism" as a theory is already a reduction. However, in terms of its theory (rather than as its reality as a historical movement in effect for some centuries) feminism might be categorized into three general groups:
1. theories having an essentialist focus (including psychoanalytic and French feminism);
2. theories aimed at defining or establishing a feminist literary canon or theories seeking to re-interpret and re-vision literature (and culture and history and so forth) from a less patriarchal slant (including gynocriticism, liberal feminism); and
3. theories focusing on sexual difference and sexual politics (including gender studies, lesbian studies, cultural feminism, radical feminism, and socialist/materialist feminism).
Further, women (and men) needed to consider what it meant to be a woman, to consider how much of what society has often deemed inherently female traits, are culturally and socially constructed. Simone de Beauvoir's study, The Second Sex, though perhaps flawed by Beauvoir's own body politics, nevertheless served as a groundbreaking book of feminism, that questioned the "othering" of women by western philosophy. Early projects in feminist theory included resurrecting women's literature that in many cases had never been considered seriously or had been erased over time (e.g., Charlotte Perkins Gilman was quite prominent in the early 20th century but was virtually unknown until her work was "re-discovered" later in the century). Since the 1960s the writings of many women have been rediscovered, reconsidered, and collected in large anthologies such as The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women.
However, merely unearthing women's literature did not ensure its prominence; in order to assess women's writings the number of preconceptions inherent in a literary canon dominated by male beliefs and male writers needed to be re-evaluated. Betty Friedan's The Feminist Mystique (1963), Kate Millet's Sexual Politics (1970), Teresa de Lauretis's Alice Doesn't: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema (1984), Annette Kolodny's The Lay of the Land (1975), Judith Fetterly's The Resisting Reader (1978), Elaine Showalter's A Literature of Their Own (1977), or Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) are just a handful of the many critiques that questioned cultural, sexual, intellectual, and/or psychological stereotypes about women.
Approaches to Feminism
First published Sun Oct 31, 2004
Feminist philosophy emerged in the US in the 1970s following only a decade behind the rise of the US women's movement in the 1960s.Although Simone de Beauvoir published her now highly influential The Second Sex in 1953, it would take at least a decade for women in the US to begin to organize around the injustices Beauvoir identified, and even longer for feminist philosophers in the US to turn to her work for inspiration.
Although I will focus in this introductory essay on the emergence of contemporary US feminist philosophies, it is important to stress that this is only one chapter in a larger history of feminist philosophy. Feminist philosophies have histories that date back historically at least to the early modern period, and have different genealogies in different geographical regions. Both the history of and particular character of feminist philosophy in other countries and in other time periods varies in important and interesting ways. It is crucial, therefore, to understand this essay only as an introduction to contemporary feminist philosophies in the U.S.
Understanding the emergence of feminist philosophy in the U.S. requires an overview of at least two contexts — the political context of what came to be called the “second wave of the woman's movement” and the nature of philosophy in U.S. academies.
* 1. The Political Context: The Rise of the U.S. Feminist Movement
* 2. The Rise of Feminist Philosophical Scholarship in the U.S.
* 3. The Inheritance from Philosophy
* 4. Approaches to Feminist Philosophy: Overview of the Encyclopedia Sub-Entries
* Bibliography
* Other Internet Resources
* Related Entries
1. The Political Context: The Rise of the U.S. Feminist Movement
The 1950s are a complex decade in the U.S. The country is at the height of the McCarthy era, yet it is the same decade that witnesses the rise of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1953 Barrows Dunham, chair of the philosophy department at Temple University is subpoenaed by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Although he is tried and acquitted for refusing to provide more than his name, address, and age, Temple University fires him.A number of philosophers are called upon to testify before the HUAC and others are fired from positions because of their membership in the Communist Party. In 1955 Rosa Parks is arrested for keeping her seat in the front of a bus in Montgomery Alabama just one year after the Supreme Court in Brown vs. the Board of Education bans segregation in public schools. In 1957 Martin Luther King is named president of the newly formed Southern Christian Leadership Conference and begins his campaign to end race discrimination.
It is important to remember that 1950 is only five years into a campaign to encourage women to return to home and hearth, leaving the jobs they had taken on as part of the war effort.[1] As one telling example, consider Adlai Stevenson's 1955 address to the Smith College graduating class urging these educated women not to define themselves by a profession but to participate in politics through the role of wife and mother. While McCarthyism rooted out political subversion, science and the media worked to instill proper gender roles. A 1956 Life magazine published interviews with five male psychiatrists who argued that female ambition was the root of mental illness in wives, emotional upsets in husbands, and homosexuality in boys.
But the increasing involvement of women in freedom marches and, somewhat later, the protests of the Vietnam War give rise to a budding awareness of gender injustices. Looking back in the 1975 edition to her landmark study of the U.S. Women's Movement in 1959, Eleanor Flexner explains:
First in the South and eventually everywhere in this country, women were involved in these struggles. Some white women learned the degree to which black women were worse off than they were, or than black men. White and black women learned what the minority of women active in the organized labor movement had learned much earlier: that women were typically excluded from policy-making leadership roles of even the most radical movement, a lesson that would have to be relearned again and again in the political and peace campaigns of the late sixties (1975, xxix).
The National Organization for Women forms in 1966, petitioning to stop sex segregation of want ads and one year later to request federally funded childcare centers. By 1968 NOW begins to focus on legalizing abortion. In 1967 Eugene McCarthy introduces the Equal Rights Amendment in the Senate. In 1968 feminists in New York protest the Miss America pageant and crown a live sheep as Miss America and set up a ‘freedom trashcan’ in which to dispose of oppressive symbols, including bras, girdles, wigs, and false eyelashes. (Although there was no fire, it was this symbolic protest that the media transformed into the infamous ‘bra burning’ incident.) The Stonewall riot in 1969 marks the beginning of the gay and lesbian rights movement. In 1970 the San Francisco Women's Liberation Front invades a CBS stockholders meeting to demand changes in how the network portrays women, and a model affirmative action plan is published by NOW and submitted to the Labor Department. In this same year three key texts of the U.S. feminist movement are published: Shulamith Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex; Kate Millett's Sexual Politics; and Robin Morgan's Sisterhood is Powerful. In 1970 a press conference headed by women's movement leaders Gloria Steinem, Ti-Grace Atkinson, Flo Kennedy, Sally Kempton, Susan Brownmiller, Ivy Bottini, and Dolores Alexander expressed solidarity with the struggles of gays and lesbians to attain liberation in a sexist society. However, in 1971, at a Women's National Abortion conference, while adopting demands for repeal of all abortion laws, for no restrictions on contraceptives, and taking a stance against forced sterilization, the group votes down a demand for freedom of sexual expression, causing many in the audience to walk out in protest and seeding the development of a separatist movement within the feminist movement (See What is Feminism?).
It is out of this powerful social and political cauldron that feminist philosophy emerges in the U.S. While few would now dispute the claim that the development of ideas and theories in the sciences, as well as the social science and humanities, reflect and are influenced by their social, historical, and intellectual contexts, philosophers in the U.S. have, until recently, paid scant attention to the social contexts of twentieth century U.S. philosophy, particularly with how cultural and political factors have influenced the movements of philosophy within the academy (McCumber 2001). The emergence of feminist philosophy in the U.S. presents an excellent illustration of the close intersection between the development of philosophical positions and methods, and their social contexts.
2. The Rise of Feminist Philosophical Scholarship in the U.S.
Many of the early writings of U.S. feminist philosophers arose from attempts to grapple with issues that emerged from the women's movement: the identification of the nature of sexism and the underlying causes of the oppression of women, questions of how to best obtain emancipation for women — e.g., equal rights within the current political and social structure vs. revolutionary changes of that structure, the issue of ‘woman's nature,’ philosophical analyses of the morality of abortion, and so on. In this first decade of writing, feminist philosophers in the U.S. also turned their attention to the past to investigate how canonical philosophers dealt with the question of women, both to determine if their views might provide resources for addressing contemporary issues or whether the sexism of their theories continued to pervade contemporary philosophical and, perhaps, even social and political practices.
A snapshot, albeit a limited image, of the emergence of feminist philosophical scholarship in the U.S. and beyond can be obtained by looking at numbers of journal articles catalogued in The Philosophers Index.[2] The Philosopher's Index lists only three articles under the keyword ‘feminism’ until 1973 when the number leaps to eleven thanks in large part to a special issue of The Philosophical Forum edited by Carol Gould and Marx Wartofsky that became the basis for an important first anthology on feminist philosophy, Women and Philosophy: Toward a Theory of Liberation. From 1974 to 1980 these numbers increased to 109 entries for this seven year period, with the decade between 1981 to 1990 witnessing an explosion of work in the area of feminist philosophy with 718 entries listed in the Philosopher's Index.In the following 12 years 2,058 more articles are added to the Index under this heading.
Clearly there are a number of reasons for the startling expansion of feminist philosophical work in the U.S. Although I cannot trace all of them, I would like to identify a few that are particularly significant. First is the fact that many philosophers in the U.S. were involved in the social justice movements of the 60s. Most of the philosophers who contributed to the emergence of feminist philosophy in the 70s in the U.S. were active in or influenced by the women's movement. As a result of this participation, these philosophers were attentive to and concerned about the injustices caused by unfair practices emerging from the complex phenomena of sexism. Since their professional skills included the realm of philosophical scholarship and teaching, it comes as no surprise that they would turn the tools they knew best to feminist ends. Second, by the 1970s many women in traditionally male professions often experienced what Dorothy Smith called a ‘fault-line’ in which the expectations of the conventionally ‘proper role of women’ and their own professional experiences were in tension. As women moved through the profession of philosophy in the U.S. in increasing numbers, they often found themselves personally confronted by the sexism of the profession. Sexual harassment and other sexist practices contributed to creating a chilly climate for women in philosophy. But thanks to the consciousness raising of their involvement in the women's movement, these women were less likely to internalize the message that women were, by nature, less capable of philosophical work or to give in to the sometimes unconscious efforts to exclude them from the profession.
In response to the sexism of the profession, U.S. feminist philosophers organized the Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP) in 1972.[3] The emergence of SWIP is a third component in the swift rise in contemporary feminist philosophical scholarship in the U.S. SWIP was founded to promote and support women in philosophy. This goal took two forms: 1) working to overcome sexist practices in the profession and 2) supporting feminist philosophical scholarship. While the efforts of SWIP to overcome sexism in the profession certainly contributed to the inclusion and retention of more women in philosophy, it was in the latter goal that SWIP made a significant impact on scholarship. SWIP divisions were formed in a fashion parallel to the American Philosophical Association, with three divisions — Pacific SWIP, Midwest SWIP, and Eastern SWIP (plus a Canadian SWIP) — each of which held yearly or bi-yearly meetings that focused on feminist philosophical scholarship. In addition, the International Association of Feminist Philosophers (IAPh) was founded in 1974 in order to support international exchange of feminist philosophies.
After a decade of meetings, U.S. SWIP members decided to launch an academic journal, Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. Hypatia was set up “to provide a forum for dialogue on the philosophical issues raised by the women's liberation movement” and published feminist philosophical work committed “to understanding and ending the sexist oppression of women, and a sense of the relevance of philosophy to the task.”[4] While Hypatia was certainly not the only forum in which feminist philosophy was published, it contributed to the creation of a sustained dialogue amongst feminist philosophers in the U.S. and beyond, and a forum for developing feminist philosophical methods and approaches.
3. The Inheritance from Philosophy
Those who drafted the first wave of contemporary feminist philosophical scholarship in the U.S. were influenced by another very important context, their philosophical training. Until very recently one could not go to graduate school to study ‘feminist philosophy.’ While students and scholars could turn to the writings of Simone de Beauvoir or look back historically to the writings of ‘first wave’ feminists like Mary Wollstonecraft, most of the philosophers writing in the first decades of the emergence of feminist philosophical scholarship both in the U.S. and in other countries brought their particular training and expertise to bear on the development of this area of scholarship.
Although many of the writings of the first decade of feminist philosophical scholarship in the U.S. were devoted to analyzing issues raised by the women's liberation movement, such as abortion, affirmative action, equal opportunity, the institutions of marriage, sexuality, and love, feminist philosophical scholarship increasingly focused on the very same types of issues philosophers had been and were dealing with. And since these feminist philosophers employed the philosophical tools they both knew best and found the most promising, U.S. feminist philosophy began to emerge from all the traditions of philosophy prevalent within the U.S. at the end of the twentieth century including analytic, Continental, and classical American philosophy. It should come as no surprise, then that the thematic focus of their work was often influenced by the topics and questions highlighted by these traditions.
Feminist philosophical scholarship in the U.S. begins with attention to women, to their roles and locations. What are women doing? What social/political locations are they part of or excluded from? How do their activities compare to those of men? Are the activities or exclusions of some groups of women different from those of other groups and why? What do the various roles and locations of women allow or preclude? How have their roles been valued or devalued? How do the complexities of a woman's situatedness, including her class, race, ability, and sexuality impact her locations? To this we add attention to the experiences and concerns of women. Have any of women's experiences or problems been ignored or undervalued? How might attention to these transform our current methods or values?And from here we move to the realm of the symbolic. How is the feminine instantiated and constructed within the texts of philosophy? What role does the feminine play in forming, either through its absence or its presence, the central concepts of philosophy? And so on.
The ‘difference’ of feminist philosophical scholarship as it has developed in the U.S. proceeds not from a unique method but from the premise that gender is an important lens for analysis. Feminist philosophers in the U.S. and beyond have shown that taking gender seriously provides new insights in all the areas of philosophical scholarship: history of philosophy, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of science, aesthetics, social and political philosophy, metaphysics, etc.
4. Approaches to Feminist Philosophy: Overview of the Encyclopedia Sub-Entries
Feminist philosophical scholarship is not homogeneous either in methods or in conclusions. Indeed, there has been significant debate within feminist philosophical circles concerning the effectiveness of particular methods within philosophy for feminist goals. Some, for example, have found the methods of analytic philosophy to provide clarity of both form and argumentation not found in some schools of Continental philosophy, while others have argued that such alleged clarity comes at the expense of rhetorical styles and methodological approaches that provide insights into affective, psychic, or embodied components of human experience. Other feminists find approaches within American pragmatism to provide the clarity of form and argumentation sometimes missing in Continental approaches and the connection to real world concerns sometimes missing in analytic approaches.
While feminists have clearly embraced approaches from various traditions within philosophy, they have also argued for the reconfiguration of accepted structures and problematics of philosophy. For example, feminists have not only rejected the privileging of epistemological concerns over ethical concerns common to much of U.S. philosophy, they have argued that these two areas of concern are inextricably intertwined. This has often led to feminists using methods and approaches from more than one philosophical tradition.
The essays in this section provide overviews of the dominant approaches to feminist philosophy in the U.S. It is important to note that U.S. feminist philosophy has been influenced by feminist philosophical work in other countries. For example, analytic feminism in the U.S. has benefited from the work of feminist philosophers in the United Kingdom and Canada; U.S. Continental feminist scholarship has been richly influenced by the work of feminist philosophers in Europe and Australia. But it is also important to note that, with only a few exceptions, the work of feminist philosophers in Asia, South America, Africa, and Russia have not been the focus of attention of most U.S. feminist philosophers.
The following are links to essays in this section:
* Analytic Feminism
* Continental Feminism
* Pragmatist Feminism
* Feminist Approaches to the Intersection of Pragmatism and Continental Philosophy
* Feminist Approaches to the Intersection of Analytic and Continental Philosophy
Bibliography
* Atherton, Margaret, ed. 1994. Women Philosophers of the Early Modern Period. Indianapolis: Hackett.
* Bell, Linda. 2003. Beyond the Margins: Reflections of a Feminist Philosopher. New York: SUNY Press.
* Bordo, Susan ed. 1999. Feminist Interpretations of René Descartes. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Code, Lorraine ed. 2002. Feminist Interpretations of Hans Gadamer. University Park: Penn State Press.
* -----. 1991.What Can She Know? Feminist Theory and the Construction of Knowledge. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
* Deutscher, Penelope. 1997.Yielding Gender: Feminism, Deconstruction, and the History of Philosophy. London: Routledge.
* Dykeman, Therese Boos, ed. 1999. The Neglected Canon: Nine Women Philosophers First to the Twentieth Century. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
* Falco, Maria J. ed. 1996. Feminist Interpretations of Mary Wollstonecraft. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Firestone, Shulamith. 1970 The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. New York: Bantam Books.
* Flexner, Eleanor. 1975. A Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
* Freeland, Cynthia ed. 1998. Feminist Interpretations of Aristotle. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Fricker, Miranda and Jennifer Hornsby. 2000. Feminism in Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Frye, Marilyn. 1983. The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory. Trumansburg, N.Y.: Crossing Press.
* Frye, Marilyn & Sarah Lucia Hoagland, eds. 2000. Feminist Interpretations of Mary Daly. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Fraser, Nancy. 1989. Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse, and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
* Gardner, Catherine Villanueva. 2000. Rediscovering Women Philosophers: Philosophical Genre and the Boundaries of Philosophy. Boulder: Westview Press.
* Gould, Carol and Marx Wartofsky. 1976. Women and Philosophy: Toward a Theory of Liberation University Park: Penn State Press.
* Holland, Nancy ed. 1997. Feminist Interpretations of Jacques Derrida. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Holland, Nancy & Pat Huntington, eds. 2001 Feminist Interpretations of Martin Heidegger. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Honig, Bonnie, ed. 1995. Feminist Interpretations of Hannah Arendt. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Irigaray, Luce. 1985. Speculum of the Other Woman. Trans. Gillian C. Gill. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
* Jacobson, Anne Jaap, ed. 2000. Feminist Interpretations of David Hume. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Jaggar, Alison. 1983. Feminist Politics and Human Nature. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Allanheld.
* Jantzen, Gail. 1998. Becoming Divine: Towards a Feminist Philosophy of Religion. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
* Kittay, Eva. 1999. Love's Labor: Essays on Women, Equality, and Dependency. New York: Routledge.
* Kofman, Sarah. 1985. The Enigma of Woman: Women in Freud's Writings. Trans. Catherine Porter. Ithaca: Cornell University Press
* -----. 1998. Socrates: Fictions of a Philosopher. Trans. Catherine Porter. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
* Lange, Lynda ed. 2002. Feminist Interpretations of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Le Dœuff, Michèle. 1989. The Philosophical Imaginary. Trans. C. Gordon. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
* Léon Céline & Sylvia Walsh, eds. 1997. Feminist Interpretations of Soren Kierkegaard. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Lloyd, Genevieve. 2001.Feminism and the History of Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press
* -----. 1984. The Man of Reason: ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ in Western Philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
* Longino, Helen. 1990. Science as Social Knowledge. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
* Lugones, María. 2003. Pilgrimages = Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition Against MultipleOoppressions. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
* Millett, Kate. 1970. Sexual Politics. Garden City: Doubleday.
* Mills, Patricia Jagentowicz ed., 1996. Feminist Interpretations of G.W.F. Hegel. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Morgan, Robin. 1970. Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Woman's Liberation Movement. New York: Vintage Books.
* Murphy, Julien ed. 1999. Feminist Interpretations of Jean-Paul Sartre. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Narayan, Uma and Sandra Harding. 2000. De-centering the Center: Philosophy for a Multicultural, Postcolonial, and Feminist World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
* Nelson, Lynn Hankinson & Jack Nelson, eds. 2003. Feminist Interpretations of W. Quine. University Park: Penn State Press
* Nussbaum, Martha C. 1999. Sex and Social Justice. New York: Oxford University Press.
* Oliver, Kelly & Marilyn Pearsall, eds. 1998. Feminist Interpretations of Friedrich Nietzsche. University Park: Penn State Press.
* O'Neill, Eileen. 1998. Women Philosophers of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: A Collection of Primary Sources. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Pearsall, Marilyn, ed. 1999. Woman and Values: Readings in Recent Feminist Philosophy. Belmont: Wadsworth.
* Ruddick, Sara. 1989. Maternal Thinking: Towards a Politics of Peace. Boston: Beacon Press.
* Scheman, Naomi. 1993. Engenderings: Constructions of Knowledge, Authority, and Privilege New York : Routledge.
* Scheman, Naomi and Peg O'Connor, ed. 2002. Feminist Interpretations of Ludwig Wittgenstein. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Schott, Robin May. 2003. Discovering Feminist Philosophy. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield.
* Schott, Robin ed. 1997. Feminist Interpretations of Immanuel Kant. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Sciabarra, Chris & Mimi Gladstein, eds. 1999. Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand. University Park: Penn State Press
* Seigfried, Charlene Haddock ed. 2001. Feminist Interpretations of John Dewey. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Simons, Margaret. 1986. Editorial. Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy 1,1: 1-2.
* Simons, Margaret A., ed. 1995. Feminist Interpretations of Simone de Beauvoir. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Spelman, Elizabeth. 1988. Inessential Woman: Problems of Exclusion in Feminist Thought. Boston: Beacon Press.
* Tougas, Cecile T. and Sara Ebenrick, eds. 2000. Presenting Women Philosophers Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
* Tuana, Nancy, ed. 1994. Feminist Interpretations of Plato.University Park: Penn State Press.
* -----. 1992. Woman and the History of Philosophy. New York: Paragon Press.
* Waithe, Mary Ellen, ed. 1989. Medieval, Renaissance, and Enlightenment Women Philosophers, A.D. 500-1600. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
* Ward, Julia. 1996. Feminism and Ancient Philosophy. New York: Routledge.
Other Internet Resources
1. theories having an essentialist focus (including psychoanalytic and French feminism);
2. theories aimed at defining or establishing a feminist literary canon or theories seeking to re-interpret and re-vision literature (and culture and history and so forth) from a less patriarchal slant (including gynocriticism, liberal feminism); and
3. theories focusing on sexual difference and sexual politics (including gender studies, lesbian studies, cultural feminism, radical feminism, and socialist/materialist feminism).
Further, women (and men) needed to consider what it meant to be a woman, to consider how much of what society has often deemed inherently female traits, are culturally and socially constructed. Simone de Beauvoir's study, The Second Sex, though perhaps flawed by Beauvoir's own body politics, nevertheless served as a groundbreaking book of feminism, that questioned the "othering" of women by western philosophy. Early projects in feminist theory included resurrecting women's literature that in many cases had never been considered seriously or had been erased over time (e.g., Charlotte Perkins Gilman was quite prominent in the early 20th century but was virtually unknown until her work was "re-discovered" later in the century). Since the 1960s the writings of many women have been rediscovered, reconsidered, and collected in large anthologies such as The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women.
However, merely unearthing women's literature did not ensure its prominence; in order to assess women's writings the number of preconceptions inherent in a literary canon dominated by male beliefs and male writers needed to be re-evaluated. Betty Friedan's The Feminist Mystique (1963), Kate Millet's Sexual Politics (1970), Teresa de Lauretis's Alice Doesn't: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema (1984), Annette Kolodny's The Lay of the Land (1975), Judith Fetterly's The Resisting Reader (1978), Elaine Showalter's A Literature of Their Own (1977), or Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) are just a handful of the many critiques that questioned cultural, sexual, intellectual, and/or psychological stereotypes about women.
Approaches to Feminism
First published Sun Oct 31, 2004
Feminist philosophy emerged in the US in the 1970s following only a decade behind the rise of the US women's movement in the 1960s.Although Simone de Beauvoir published her now highly influential The Second Sex in 1953, it would take at least a decade for women in the US to begin to organize around the injustices Beauvoir identified, and even longer for feminist philosophers in the US to turn to her work for inspiration.
Although I will focus in this introductory essay on the emergence of contemporary US feminist philosophies, it is important to stress that this is only one chapter in a larger history of feminist philosophy. Feminist philosophies have histories that date back historically at least to the early modern period, and have different genealogies in different geographical regions. Both the history of and particular character of feminist philosophy in other countries and in other time periods varies in important and interesting ways. It is crucial, therefore, to understand this essay only as an introduction to contemporary feminist philosophies in the U.S.
Understanding the emergence of feminist philosophy in the U.S. requires an overview of at least two contexts — the political context of what came to be called the “second wave of the woman's movement” and the nature of philosophy in U.S. academies.
* 1. The Political Context: The Rise of the U.S. Feminist Movement
* 2. The Rise of Feminist Philosophical Scholarship in the U.S.
* 3. The Inheritance from Philosophy
* 4. Approaches to Feminist Philosophy: Overview of the Encyclopedia Sub-Entries
* Bibliography
* Other Internet Resources
* Related Entries
1. The Political Context: The Rise of the U.S. Feminist Movement
The 1950s are a complex decade in the U.S. The country is at the height of the McCarthy era, yet it is the same decade that witnesses the rise of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1953 Barrows Dunham, chair of the philosophy department at Temple University is subpoenaed by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Although he is tried and acquitted for refusing to provide more than his name, address, and age, Temple University fires him.A number of philosophers are called upon to testify before the HUAC and others are fired from positions because of their membership in the Communist Party. In 1955 Rosa Parks is arrested for keeping her seat in the front of a bus in Montgomery Alabama just one year after the Supreme Court in Brown vs. the Board of Education bans segregation in public schools. In 1957 Martin Luther King is named president of the newly formed Southern Christian Leadership Conference and begins his campaign to end race discrimination.
It is important to remember that 1950 is only five years into a campaign to encourage women to return to home and hearth, leaving the jobs they had taken on as part of the war effort.[1] As one telling example, consider Adlai Stevenson's 1955 address to the Smith College graduating class urging these educated women not to define themselves by a profession but to participate in politics through the role of wife and mother. While McCarthyism rooted out political subversion, science and the media worked to instill proper gender roles. A 1956 Life magazine published interviews with five male psychiatrists who argued that female ambition was the root of mental illness in wives, emotional upsets in husbands, and homosexuality in boys.
But the increasing involvement of women in freedom marches and, somewhat later, the protests of the Vietnam War give rise to a budding awareness of gender injustices. Looking back in the 1975 edition to her landmark study of the U.S. Women's Movement in 1959, Eleanor Flexner explains:
First in the South and eventually everywhere in this country, women were involved in these struggles. Some white women learned the degree to which black women were worse off than they were, or than black men. White and black women learned what the minority of women active in the organized labor movement had learned much earlier: that women were typically excluded from policy-making leadership roles of even the most radical movement, a lesson that would have to be relearned again and again in the political and peace campaigns of the late sixties (1975, xxix).
The National Organization for Women forms in 1966, petitioning to stop sex segregation of want ads and one year later to request federally funded childcare centers. By 1968 NOW begins to focus on legalizing abortion. In 1967 Eugene McCarthy introduces the Equal Rights Amendment in the Senate. In 1968 feminists in New York protest the Miss America pageant and crown a live sheep as Miss America and set up a ‘freedom trashcan’ in which to dispose of oppressive symbols, including bras, girdles, wigs, and false eyelashes. (Although there was no fire, it was this symbolic protest that the media transformed into the infamous ‘bra burning’ incident.) The Stonewall riot in 1969 marks the beginning of the gay and lesbian rights movement. In 1970 the San Francisco Women's Liberation Front invades a CBS stockholders meeting to demand changes in how the network portrays women, and a model affirmative action plan is published by NOW and submitted to the Labor Department. In this same year three key texts of the U.S. feminist movement are published: Shulamith Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex; Kate Millett's Sexual Politics; and Robin Morgan's Sisterhood is Powerful. In 1970 a press conference headed by women's movement leaders Gloria Steinem, Ti-Grace Atkinson, Flo Kennedy, Sally Kempton, Susan Brownmiller, Ivy Bottini, and Dolores Alexander expressed solidarity with the struggles of gays and lesbians to attain liberation in a sexist society. However, in 1971, at a Women's National Abortion conference, while adopting demands for repeal of all abortion laws, for no restrictions on contraceptives, and taking a stance against forced sterilization, the group votes down a demand for freedom of sexual expression, causing many in the audience to walk out in protest and seeding the development of a separatist movement within the feminist movement (See What is Feminism?).
It is out of this powerful social and political cauldron that feminist philosophy emerges in the U.S. While few would now dispute the claim that the development of ideas and theories in the sciences, as well as the social science and humanities, reflect and are influenced by their social, historical, and intellectual contexts, philosophers in the U.S. have, until recently, paid scant attention to the social contexts of twentieth century U.S. philosophy, particularly with how cultural and political factors have influenced the movements of philosophy within the academy (McCumber 2001). The emergence of feminist philosophy in the U.S. presents an excellent illustration of the close intersection between the development of philosophical positions and methods, and their social contexts.
2. The Rise of Feminist Philosophical Scholarship in the U.S.
Many of the early writings of U.S. feminist philosophers arose from attempts to grapple with issues that emerged from the women's movement: the identification of the nature of sexism and the underlying causes of the oppression of women, questions of how to best obtain emancipation for women — e.g., equal rights within the current political and social structure vs. revolutionary changes of that structure, the issue of ‘woman's nature,’ philosophical analyses of the morality of abortion, and so on. In this first decade of writing, feminist philosophers in the U.S. also turned their attention to the past to investigate how canonical philosophers dealt with the question of women, both to determine if their views might provide resources for addressing contemporary issues or whether the sexism of their theories continued to pervade contemporary philosophical and, perhaps, even social and political practices.
A snapshot, albeit a limited image, of the emergence of feminist philosophical scholarship in the U.S. and beyond can be obtained by looking at numbers of journal articles catalogued in The Philosophers Index.[2] The Philosopher's Index lists only three articles under the keyword ‘feminism’ until 1973 when the number leaps to eleven thanks in large part to a special issue of The Philosophical Forum edited by Carol Gould and Marx Wartofsky that became the basis for an important first anthology on feminist philosophy, Women and Philosophy: Toward a Theory of Liberation. From 1974 to 1980 these numbers increased to 109 entries for this seven year period, with the decade between 1981 to 1990 witnessing an explosion of work in the area of feminist philosophy with 718 entries listed in the Philosopher's Index.In the following 12 years 2,058 more articles are added to the Index under this heading.
Clearly there are a number of reasons for the startling expansion of feminist philosophical work in the U.S. Although I cannot trace all of them, I would like to identify a few that are particularly significant. First is the fact that many philosophers in the U.S. were involved in the social justice movements of the 60s. Most of the philosophers who contributed to the emergence of feminist philosophy in the 70s in the U.S. were active in or influenced by the women's movement. As a result of this participation, these philosophers were attentive to and concerned about the injustices caused by unfair practices emerging from the complex phenomena of sexism. Since their professional skills included the realm of philosophical scholarship and teaching, it comes as no surprise that they would turn the tools they knew best to feminist ends. Second, by the 1970s many women in traditionally male professions often experienced what Dorothy Smith called a ‘fault-line’ in which the expectations of the conventionally ‘proper role of women’ and their own professional experiences were in tension. As women moved through the profession of philosophy in the U.S. in increasing numbers, they often found themselves personally confronted by the sexism of the profession. Sexual harassment and other sexist practices contributed to creating a chilly climate for women in philosophy. But thanks to the consciousness raising of their involvement in the women's movement, these women were less likely to internalize the message that women were, by nature, less capable of philosophical work or to give in to the sometimes unconscious efforts to exclude them from the profession.
In response to the sexism of the profession, U.S. feminist philosophers organized the Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP) in 1972.[3] The emergence of SWIP is a third component in the swift rise in contemporary feminist philosophical scholarship in the U.S. SWIP was founded to promote and support women in philosophy. This goal took two forms: 1) working to overcome sexist practices in the profession and 2) supporting feminist philosophical scholarship. While the efforts of SWIP to overcome sexism in the profession certainly contributed to the inclusion and retention of more women in philosophy, it was in the latter goal that SWIP made a significant impact on scholarship. SWIP divisions were formed in a fashion parallel to the American Philosophical Association, with three divisions — Pacific SWIP, Midwest SWIP, and Eastern SWIP (plus a Canadian SWIP) — each of which held yearly or bi-yearly meetings that focused on feminist philosophical scholarship. In addition, the International Association of Feminist Philosophers (IAPh) was founded in 1974 in order to support international exchange of feminist philosophies.
After a decade of meetings, U.S. SWIP members decided to launch an academic journal, Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. Hypatia was set up “to provide a forum for dialogue on the philosophical issues raised by the women's liberation movement” and published feminist philosophical work committed “to understanding and ending the sexist oppression of women, and a sense of the relevance of philosophy to the task.”[4] While Hypatia was certainly not the only forum in which feminist philosophy was published, it contributed to the creation of a sustained dialogue amongst feminist philosophers in the U.S. and beyond, and a forum for developing feminist philosophical methods and approaches.
3. The Inheritance from Philosophy
Those who drafted the first wave of contemporary feminist philosophical scholarship in the U.S. were influenced by another very important context, their philosophical training. Until very recently one could not go to graduate school to study ‘feminist philosophy.’ While students and scholars could turn to the writings of Simone de Beauvoir or look back historically to the writings of ‘first wave’ feminists like Mary Wollstonecraft, most of the philosophers writing in the first decades of the emergence of feminist philosophical scholarship both in the U.S. and in other countries brought their particular training and expertise to bear on the development of this area of scholarship.
Although many of the writings of the first decade of feminist philosophical scholarship in the U.S. were devoted to analyzing issues raised by the women's liberation movement, such as abortion, affirmative action, equal opportunity, the institutions of marriage, sexuality, and love, feminist philosophical scholarship increasingly focused on the very same types of issues philosophers had been and were dealing with. And since these feminist philosophers employed the philosophical tools they both knew best and found the most promising, U.S. feminist philosophy began to emerge from all the traditions of philosophy prevalent within the U.S. at the end of the twentieth century including analytic, Continental, and classical American philosophy. It should come as no surprise, then that the thematic focus of their work was often influenced by the topics and questions highlighted by these traditions.
Feminist philosophical scholarship in the U.S. begins with attention to women, to their roles and locations. What are women doing? What social/political locations are they part of or excluded from? How do their activities compare to those of men? Are the activities or exclusions of some groups of women different from those of other groups and why? What do the various roles and locations of women allow or preclude? How have their roles been valued or devalued? How do the complexities of a woman's situatedness, including her class, race, ability, and sexuality impact her locations? To this we add attention to the experiences and concerns of women. Have any of women's experiences or problems been ignored or undervalued? How might attention to these transform our current methods or values?And from here we move to the realm of the symbolic. How is the feminine instantiated and constructed within the texts of philosophy? What role does the feminine play in forming, either through its absence or its presence, the central concepts of philosophy? And so on.
The ‘difference’ of feminist philosophical scholarship as it has developed in the U.S. proceeds not from a unique method but from the premise that gender is an important lens for analysis. Feminist philosophers in the U.S. and beyond have shown that taking gender seriously provides new insights in all the areas of philosophical scholarship: history of philosophy, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of science, aesthetics, social and political philosophy, metaphysics, etc.
4. Approaches to Feminist Philosophy: Overview of the Encyclopedia Sub-Entries
Feminist philosophical scholarship is not homogeneous either in methods or in conclusions. Indeed, there has been significant debate within feminist philosophical circles concerning the effectiveness of particular methods within philosophy for feminist goals. Some, for example, have found the methods of analytic philosophy to provide clarity of both form and argumentation not found in some schools of Continental philosophy, while others have argued that such alleged clarity comes at the expense of rhetorical styles and methodological approaches that provide insights into affective, psychic, or embodied components of human experience. Other feminists find approaches within American pragmatism to provide the clarity of form and argumentation sometimes missing in Continental approaches and the connection to real world concerns sometimes missing in analytic approaches.
While feminists have clearly embraced approaches from various traditions within philosophy, they have also argued for the reconfiguration of accepted structures and problematics of philosophy. For example, feminists have not only rejected the privileging of epistemological concerns over ethical concerns common to much of U.S. philosophy, they have argued that these two areas of concern are inextricably intertwined. This has often led to feminists using methods and approaches from more than one philosophical tradition.
The essays in this section provide overviews of the dominant approaches to feminist philosophy in the U.S. It is important to note that U.S. feminist philosophy has been influenced by feminist philosophical work in other countries. For example, analytic feminism in the U.S. has benefited from the work of feminist philosophers in the United Kingdom and Canada; U.S. Continental feminist scholarship has been richly influenced by the work of feminist philosophers in Europe and Australia. But it is also important to note that, with only a few exceptions, the work of feminist philosophers in Asia, South America, Africa, and Russia have not been the focus of attention of most U.S. feminist philosophers.
The following are links to essays in this section:
* Analytic Feminism
* Continental Feminism
* Pragmatist Feminism
* Feminist Approaches to the Intersection of Pragmatism and Continental Philosophy
* Feminist Approaches to the Intersection of Analytic and Continental Philosophy
Bibliography
* Atherton, Margaret, ed. 1994. Women Philosophers of the Early Modern Period. Indianapolis: Hackett.
* Bell, Linda. 2003. Beyond the Margins: Reflections of a Feminist Philosopher. New York: SUNY Press.
* Bordo, Susan ed. 1999. Feminist Interpretations of René Descartes. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Code, Lorraine ed. 2002. Feminist Interpretations of Hans Gadamer. University Park: Penn State Press.
* -----. 1991.What Can She Know? Feminist Theory and the Construction of Knowledge. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
* Deutscher, Penelope. 1997.Yielding Gender: Feminism, Deconstruction, and the History of Philosophy. London: Routledge.
* Dykeman, Therese Boos, ed. 1999. The Neglected Canon: Nine Women Philosophers First to the Twentieth Century. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
* Falco, Maria J. ed. 1996. Feminist Interpretations of Mary Wollstonecraft. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Firestone, Shulamith. 1970 The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution. New York: Bantam Books.
* Flexner, Eleanor. 1975. A Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
* Freeland, Cynthia ed. 1998. Feminist Interpretations of Aristotle. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Fricker, Miranda and Jennifer Hornsby. 2000. Feminism in Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Frye, Marilyn. 1983. The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory. Trumansburg, N.Y.: Crossing Press.
* Frye, Marilyn & Sarah Lucia Hoagland, eds. 2000. Feminist Interpretations of Mary Daly. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Fraser, Nancy. 1989. Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse, and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
* Gardner, Catherine Villanueva. 2000. Rediscovering Women Philosophers: Philosophical Genre and the Boundaries of Philosophy. Boulder: Westview Press.
* Gould, Carol and Marx Wartofsky. 1976. Women and Philosophy: Toward a Theory of Liberation University Park: Penn State Press.
* Holland, Nancy ed. 1997. Feminist Interpretations of Jacques Derrida. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Holland, Nancy & Pat Huntington, eds. 2001 Feminist Interpretations of Martin Heidegger. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Honig, Bonnie, ed. 1995. Feminist Interpretations of Hannah Arendt. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Irigaray, Luce. 1985. Speculum of the Other Woman. Trans. Gillian C. Gill. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
* Jacobson, Anne Jaap, ed. 2000. Feminist Interpretations of David Hume. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Jaggar, Alison. 1983. Feminist Politics and Human Nature. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Allanheld.
* Jantzen, Gail. 1998. Becoming Divine: Towards a Feminist Philosophy of Religion. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
* Kittay, Eva. 1999. Love's Labor: Essays on Women, Equality, and Dependency. New York: Routledge.
* Kofman, Sarah. 1985. The Enigma of Woman: Women in Freud's Writings. Trans. Catherine Porter. Ithaca: Cornell University Press
* -----. 1998. Socrates: Fictions of a Philosopher. Trans. Catherine Porter. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
* Lange, Lynda ed. 2002. Feminist Interpretations of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Le Dœuff, Michèle. 1989. The Philosophical Imaginary. Trans. C. Gordon. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
* Léon Céline & Sylvia Walsh, eds. 1997. Feminist Interpretations of Soren Kierkegaard. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Lloyd, Genevieve. 2001.Feminism and the History of Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press
* -----. 1984. The Man of Reason: ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ in Western Philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
* Longino, Helen. 1990. Science as Social Knowledge. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
* Lugones, María. 2003. Pilgrimages = Peregrinajes: Theorizing Coalition Against MultipleOoppressions. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
* Millett, Kate. 1970. Sexual Politics. Garden City: Doubleday.
* Mills, Patricia Jagentowicz ed., 1996. Feminist Interpretations of G.W.F. Hegel. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Morgan, Robin. 1970. Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Woman's Liberation Movement. New York: Vintage Books.
* Murphy, Julien ed. 1999. Feminist Interpretations of Jean-Paul Sartre. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Narayan, Uma and Sandra Harding. 2000. De-centering the Center: Philosophy for a Multicultural, Postcolonial, and Feminist World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
* Nelson, Lynn Hankinson & Jack Nelson, eds. 2003. Feminist Interpretations of W. Quine. University Park: Penn State Press
* Nussbaum, Martha C. 1999. Sex and Social Justice. New York: Oxford University Press.
* Oliver, Kelly & Marilyn Pearsall, eds. 1998. Feminist Interpretations of Friedrich Nietzsche. University Park: Penn State Press.
* O'Neill, Eileen. 1998. Women Philosophers of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: A Collection of Primary Sources. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Pearsall, Marilyn, ed. 1999. Woman and Values: Readings in Recent Feminist Philosophy. Belmont: Wadsworth.
* Ruddick, Sara. 1989. Maternal Thinking: Towards a Politics of Peace. Boston: Beacon Press.
* Scheman, Naomi. 1993. Engenderings: Constructions of Knowledge, Authority, and Privilege New York : Routledge.
* Scheman, Naomi and Peg O'Connor, ed. 2002. Feminist Interpretations of Ludwig Wittgenstein. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Schott, Robin May. 2003. Discovering Feminist Philosophy. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield.
* Schott, Robin ed. 1997. Feminist Interpretations of Immanuel Kant. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Sciabarra, Chris & Mimi Gladstein, eds. 1999. Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand. University Park: Penn State Press
* Seigfried, Charlene Haddock ed. 2001. Feminist Interpretations of John Dewey. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Simons, Margaret. 1986. Editorial. Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy 1,1: 1-2.
* Simons, Margaret A., ed. 1995. Feminist Interpretations of Simone de Beauvoir. University Park: Penn State Press.
* Spelman, Elizabeth. 1988. Inessential Woman: Problems of Exclusion in Feminist Thought. Boston: Beacon Press.
* Tougas, Cecile T. and Sara Ebenrick, eds. 2000. Presenting Women Philosophers Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
* Tuana, Nancy, ed. 1994. Feminist Interpretations of Plato.University Park: Penn State Press.
* -----. 1992. Woman and the History of Philosophy. New York: Paragon Press.
* Waithe, Mary Ellen, ed. 1989. Medieval, Renaissance, and Enlightenment Women Philosophers, A.D. 500-1600. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
* Ward, Julia. 1996. Feminism and Ancient Philosophy. New York: Routledge.
Other Internet Resources
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