The Evolution of Scientific Names

By Amanda Jenkins, Student in Museum Studies, CLM Intern

Many plants, animals, and insects have scientific names, but while some people may be able to
know a specific animal’s scientific name off the top of their head, the majority of people only know the common name. So, what’s the point of having scientific name for plants and animals when most people just use the common name anyway, and how did they come about in the first place?

Why Scientific Names?

A single species can have multiple different names. For example, a mountain lion can also be called a puma, a cougar, or a panther and that’s just in English! Many different languages will have their own translation for what this cat is called. Having so many names for a single species can lead to confusion, especially for those who are studying them and sharing what they learn with others. This is one of the reasons that scientific names came into being. The mountain lion’s scientific name is Puma concolor and this remains the same regardless of the country or language the animal is being discussed in.

The scientific name of any living thing is based on its taxonomy, which is the system which is used to organize and classify living things. It acts as a hierarchy with each grouping containing fewer and fewer species. From the largest to smallest, the order of groupings is: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. Scientific names for any living thing come from the last two groupings: Genus and Species. Going back to the mountain lion as an example, its Genus is Puma and its species is concolor; putting the two together gives its scientific name which is unique to the mountain lion and cannot be applied to any other living thing. As a result, scientific names also helps to ensure that there is no confusion as to exactly which animal is being discussed. For example, the name mountain lion could easily cause people to believe that the animal is a variety of lion which it isn’t. The lion’s scientific name is Panthera leo, so these two cats aren’t even in the same Genus!

Fig. 1 Taxonomy of a Mountain Lion

History

The origin of scientific names as we know them today goes back almost 300 years to a Swedish doctor, Carl Linnaeus. Carl Linnaeus, in addition to being a doctor, was a naturalist, which means he was someone who was studying the natural world. While his main interest and focus was plants, he also devoted time to the studying and classifying of animals as well. Linnaeus was a professor at Uppsala University and frequently encouraged his students to go on expeditions. As such, he had students who had travelled to different areas of the world and brought back specimens of plants and animals from wherever they had been. These species would have been new to Europe and Linnaeus; and, as such, there was a lot of work to be done in classifying them all. In short, Linnaeus had a backlog of work with new species being sent to him all the time.

Linnaeus created the Systema Naturae as a way to help him classify all these new species quickly. Carl Linnaeus was not the only person in Europe with the problem of trying to classify a large number of species, and his system quickly became popular. Up until this point there had been no standard or unification in how these species were named. The names were often based on the species’ physical characteristics in Latin, which was the language that was typically used in science at the time. Some of these descriptive names ended up being quite long and, in addition, different people came up with different names. For example, a species of rose briar used to be referred to as Rosa sylvestris inodora seu canina or Rosa sylvestris alba cum rubore, folio glabro by different people. With Linnaeus’s system this rose was called Rosa canina, which is much shorter and easier to remember.

Fig. 2 Kingdom of animals in the 1st edition of Linnaeus’s System Naturae. Source

The Systema Naturae went through several editions with Linnaeus frequently adding and updating it. Parts of Linnaeus’ work were quite controversial at the time, including his classification of humans as being animals and giving us our own scientific name, Homo sapiens. He even included varieties of humans based on geography and skin colour which were quite racist. Another controversy involved his study of plants. Linnaeus decided to classify plants based primarily on their reproductive organs, stamen and pistils. His descriptions were often filled with imagery that referred to human marriage and weddings and were considered by some people to be too smutty to be appropriate. One of Linnaeus’s critics, Johann Siegesbeck, was so offended by Linnaeus’s descriptions and assertions that plants were not monogamous that he called Linnaeus’s work “lewd” and “loathsome harlotry.” As a form of petty revenge, Linnaeus decided to name a weed, Sigesbeckia orientalis after him, which is more commonly known as St. Paul’s Wort. In doing this he created a new Genus of Sigesbeckia, which includes several species beyond that of orientalis.

Fig. 3 Sigesbeckia orientalis (aka St. Paul’s Wort). Source

Are Scientific Names Scientific?

While scientific names are commonly in Latin (though other languages do make their appearance) and are used primarily by the scientists studying the species, the meanings of these names are not necessarily very scientific. Although some scientific names are based on physical attributes, appearances, or location of a species, others are just based on whatever the person who named it wanted. When it comes to naming new species, one of the main rules is to make it unique, and with millions of species in the world it’s not surprising that a simple description of the species in question was not enough. When naming a new species, sometimes the Genus in which it falls into already exists, but in other cases scientists have to create a new Genus in order to classify these species.

Linnaeus may have named Sigesbeckia orientalis as a form of revenge, but this plant isn’t the only living thing named after a person. There are several species out there that have been named after celebrities or even fictional characters. Beyoncé has a fly, Scaptia beyonceae, named after her and Arnold Schwarzenegger has a beetle, Agra schwarzeneggeri, named after him! There’s even an insect named after Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, Gollumjapyx smeagol. A turtle fossil was given the name Ninjemys oweni which roughly translates to Owen’s Ninja Turtle and is a clear reference to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Fig. 4 Scaptia beyonceae. Source

Naming species after people and characters is not the only fun scientists have when naming new species. The Genus Gelae (pronounced like jelly) has several interesting species including Gelae Belae (jelly belly), Gelae bean (jellybean), Gelae rol (jelly roll), and Gelae donut (jelly doughnut). There is also Pieza pi (pronounced like pizza pie), Pieza rhea (like pizzeria), Agra vation (pronounced like aggravation), Agra cadabra (like abracadabra), and even a wasp called Aha Ha because of the exclamation the scientist made when he won a debate proving it was a new species.

Fig. 5 Gelae donut. Source

While scientific names can seem intimidating at first, especially being in Latin which is not so common anymore, they do serve an important purpose in preventing international confusion and miscommunication that can come from a species having different common names in different locations. Science contains several names, terms, and symbols which are meant to be universal and the same everywhere regardless of language or location. However, like languages across the world, these names and terms have changed over time and have been influenced by modern culture. Scientists continue to create new Genus and Species names as new species get identified and classified.

Sources:

Berkeley University of California. (n.d.). Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778). Ucmp.berkeley.edu.

Council of Heads of Australiasian Herberia. (2019). Carolus Linnaeus – Biography. Australian National Botanic Gardens; Australian National Botanic Gardens.

Chudley, A. E. (2008). History of genetics through philately – Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné). Clinical Genetics, 60(2), 104–106.

Dykens, M. (2019, May 23). Carl Linnaeus: The man who classified us Homo sapiens. San Diego Natural History Museum; San Diego Natural History Museum. http://www.sdnhm.org

George, S. (2014). Carl Linnaeus, Erasmus Darwin and Anna Seward: Botanical Poetry and Female Education. Science & Education, 23(3), 673–694.

Schmitt, M. (2008). Historical sketch Carl Linnaeus, the order of nature, and binominal names. 55(1), 13–17.

The Linnean Society of London. (n.d.). His Career and Legacy. The Linnean Society. http://www.linnean.org.

Ups and Downs in Canada’s Languages: Census 2021

By: Nico Mjones, MA Applied Linguistics / Diploma in Curatorial Studies / CLM Intern

Statistics Canada recently released the data on language that it collected in the 2021 census. This data is full of new and interesting developments in language diversity in Canada. The release of the language data brings new information about official languages in Canada, Indigenous languages, and other non-official languages.

(Image Source: Statistics Canada, Census of Population, 2021)

Canada’s Official Languages & Bilingualism

There have been some changes in the statistics concerning our official languages, but they mostly follow the same trends as in previous years. Proportionally French has declined across Canada due to its significantly smaller speaker population growth. Bilingualism has increased and is particularly common among native French speakers. In the 2021 census, 6,581,680 Canadians spoke both English and French (Table 1). By comparing the data in Table 1 and Table 2, we can see that a much higher proportion of francophones are bilingual than anglophones. If there are almost 8 million people whose first official language is French (Table 2) but only about 4 million who speak French only (Table 1), this suggests that almost half of Canada’s francophones know English as well.  On the other hand, there are almost 28 million Canadians whose first official language is English, and about 25 million who know English only, then under 10% of anglophones report knowing French.

Additionally, in Quebec the number of people whose first official language was English was higher than one million for the first time. The number of people reporting French as their first official language declined in Ontario, home to the largest Francophone population outside of Quebec, and also declined in New Brunswick, the only officially bilingual province. Across many of the census’ statistics the French language has declined in proportion or in number of speakers. French has declined proportionally even where the numbers of speakers grew, as in the national mother tongue data (Table 3) and official language spoken at home (Table 4). This is likely due to immigration and to the increase in speakers of non-official languages.

Table 1. Knowledge of Official Languages

Language	Knowledge of Official Languages 2021	Knowledge of Official Languages 2016	Change 2016-2021
English only	25,261,655 (69%)	23,757,525 (68.3%)	+1,504,130
French only	4,087,895 (11.2%)	4,144,685 (11.9%)	-56,790
English & French	6,581,680 (18%)	6,216,065 (17.9%)	+365,615

Table 2. First Official Language Spoken

Language	First Official Language 2021	First Official Language 2016	Change 2016-2021
English	27,643,140 (75.5%)	26,007,500 (74.8%)	+1,635,640
French	7,828,545 (21.4%)	7,705,755 (22.2%)	+122,790
English & French	476,175 (1.3%)	417,485 (1.2%)	+58,690

Table 3. Mother Tongue Official Language

Language	Mother Tongue 2021	Mother Tongue 2016	Change 2016-2021
English only	20,107,200 (54.9%)	19,460,850 (56%)	+646,350
French only	7,189,245 (19.6%)	7,166,705 (20.6%)	+22,540
English & French	291,325 (0.8%)	165,320 (0.5%)	+126,005

Table 4. Official Language Spoken Most Often at Home

Language	Language spoken most often at home 2021	Language spoken at home 2016	Change
English	23,376,200 (63.8%)	22,162,865 (63.7%)	+1,213,335
French	7,044,855 (19.2%)	6,943,800 (20%)	+101,055
English & French	230,955 (0.6%)	160,185 (0.5%)	+70,770

Canada’s Indigenous Languages and Data Collection Challenges

Not all the information in the census is fully reliable. Sociolinguists will often caution that self-reported data isn’t always accurate, because people may have different names for languages or different ideas of what knowing a language is. However, this particular census has a different data collection issue, particularly with Indigenous languages. The census reports a slight decline in Indigenous language speakers and many news outlets have made note of this, but Statistics Canada has put out a warning about their data on Indigenous languages. The 2021 census was conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic, and during the pandemic many indigenous communities were hard to reach. Many reserves locked down much more significantly than non-reserve communities, and some did not allow entry to anyone who was not a resident of the reserve. Statistics Canada also stated that there was some unwillingness to participate among Indigenous communities due to the discovery of unmarked graves at former residential schools. For these, and other reasons, Statistics Canada cautions against making direct comparisons between 2021 and previous censuses for the speaker statistics of indigenous languages. However, this doesn’t mean the data collected doesn’t have some useful information.

One indigenous language less likely to be as impacted by these data collection problems is Michif. Michif is the language of the Metis, who live in southern Canada but do not live on reserves. Because they are not in the far north and do not live on reservations, it is less likely that the Covid-19 pandemic impacted their enumeration. The data seem to support this: while most Indigenous languages recorded fewer speakers in the 2021 census, Michif had an increase. In 2016, there were 465 mother tongue speakers of Michif and 1,210 speakers in total. In the 2021 census, there were 485 mother tongue speakers and 1,905 speakers in total, an increase of 20 mother tongue speakers and almost 700 speakers in total. Given the small number of people who speak Michif, the increase of 700 speakers is huge, and an extremely positive sign for the language.

Statistics Canada created a list of which reserves refused or were unable to fully take part in enumeration. These were located across Canada, in 6 of the country’s 10 provinces. Based on the information that was collected, Statistics Canada estimated that there may still have been a small decline in the number of speakers of indigenous languages. Statistics Canada also announced that they would release additional information and analysis of Indigenous languages in September.

Canada’s Largest Non-Official Languages

Data from the census not only shows that the number of mother tongue speakers of non-official languages has hit a new record of 7,848,820, but that there have been significant changes in the languages spoken in Canada. One of the most noteworthy of these is the large growth in Punjabi speakers, an increase of 164,905. This makes Punjabi the 2nd largest mother tongue with 666,585 speakers. In the 2016 census, Punjabi was the 3rd largest non-official language by mother tongue, but it has now surpassed Cantonese. Mandarin remained the largest with an increase of 87,215 speakers to a total of 679,255. Spanish and Arabic, the 4th and 5th largest non-official languages, had similar large increases in speakers, of around 80,000 and 89,000 respectively. Out of the top five, only Cantonese had a decrease in mother tongue speakers. These large changes are mostly due to immigration. Most immigrants from China today speak Mandarin rather than Cantonese, and thus the number of Mandarin speakers has been growing as immigration from China continues. In the 2016 census, Mandarin showed an increase of 343,335 mother tongue speakers. While Statistics Canada won’t release data on immigration, nationality, and ethnicity until October of this year, it is known that in addition to immigration from China, immigration from India, Latin America, and Arabic speaking countries has been on the rise, and the linguistic data reflect this.

Table 5. Languages in Canada by Mother Tongue

Language	2021	2016	Change
Mandarin	679,255	592,040 (1)	+87,215
Punjabi	666,585	501,680 (3)	+164,905
Cantonese	553,380	565,270 (2)	-11,890
Spanish	538,870	458,850 (4)	+80,020
Arabic	508,410	419,890 (5)	+88,520
Tagalog	461,150	431,380 (6)	+29,770
Italian	319,505	375,635 (8)	-56,130
German	272,865	384,035 (7)	-111,170*
Portugese	240,680	221,540 (9)	+19,140
Urdu	235,290	210,815 (10)	+24,475
Russian	197,905	188,255 (12)	+9,650
Iranian Persian/Farsi	179,425	214,200 (11)	-34,775*
Vietnamese	173,000	156,425 (14)	+16,575
Korean	170,400	153,425 (15)	+16,975
Polish	160,170	181,710 (13)	-21,540

* Data presented for German and Iranian/Persian is misleading due to new divisions of German and Iranian/Persian. See text for analysis.

While Cantonese remains one of the largest non-official languages in Canada, it is likely that it will continue to fall lower in the ranking of languages by size. This is similar to the situation of other languages in Canada that are transitioning from large mother tongues of recent immigrants into heritage languages of subsequent generations. Italian and Polish are historically large languages in Canada that both show large declines in mother tongue speakers in this census, declines of about 56,000 and 22,000 respectively.

German is a peculiar case of this decline: at first glance the data shows that German had the largest mother tongue decrease in Canada, with 111,170 fewer speakers. However, this is misleading because the way that German and several other languages are recorded was changed between 2016 and 2021. A number of languages, such as Plautdietsch, Pennsylvania German, Swiss German, and Low Saxon were added to the census in 2021, and these all would likely have been included under German in the 2016 census. If we combine the results for German with all of these varieties that are now listed separately, the decline is more likely to be 51,385 fewer speakers. While this is still a large number, and only second among the large languages in mother tongue decline after Italian, it is less than half the reported decline.

A similar problem with the data can be seen with the Iranian languages. Iranian Persian, or Farsi also shows a decline in speakers despite increases in previous censuses. The 2016 census recorded “Persian (Fasi)” as having 214,200 mother tongue speakers. The 2021 census shows “Iranian Persian” as having 179,425 mother tongue speakers and “Persian (Farsi), none other specified” 25,975. The census now also includes Dari, which is the official name for the Persian language as spoken in Afghanistan. Farsi and Dari are mutually intelligible (speakers of either can mostly or entirely understand the other) and have similar standards for writing, but some differences in pronunciation. Dari in 2021 is listed as having 57,220 mother tongue speakers. This suggests that Persian did not actually have a decline, but that changes to the census have divided the way the Persian language is recorded.

The census is an important tool for understanding language in Canada. There are ways in which the census can struggle to capture the necessary data for this, such as it has in 2021 with Indigenous languages. When the census does capture data, it sometimes requires additional analysis to understand what it means. This is especially true of changes to the census categories, as in the case of German and Persian. In spite of these difficulties, the 2021 census is still illuminating the state of language in Canada. The census has shown how varied the trajectory of different languages in Canada has been, how well efforts to support French and Indigenous languages have fared, and how much linguistic diversity has grown in Canada.

For language data from the 2021 census, visit: www.statcan.gc.ca/en/subjects-start/languages

Esperanto Speakers Meet in Canada

By: Christer Oscar Kiselman, Uppsala, Sweden

For a full week in August of 2022, eight hundred and thirty Esperanto speakers from all
continents except Antarctica were welcomed by the City of Montréal in Québec, Canada.

An Esperanto congress can perhaps best be described as a forceful eruption of
conferences on a lot of topics, in fact on all topics of interest to human beings. Many
are presented in parallel, so that it is often hard to choose which one to attend.

Esperanto is an artificial language, intended to facilitate understanding between all
humans. The first Esperanto manual was published in July of 1887 in Warsaw, which
was then in the Russian Empire.

The booklet, which appeared in that year in Russian, Polish, French, and German,
and the following year in Hebrew, Yiddish, and English, was authored by a Jewish
scholar, L. Zamenhof, who was born in 1859 in Bialystok, then in the Russian Empire,
now in eastern Poland. Actually, Esperanto was his fourth constructed language, a fact
of some importance since each version of his conlangs was an improvement over the
previous ones. We should note that ‘artificial’ means that the language is artfully made!

During the week there were four concerts, a play, and lectures on languages including
the Indigenous Canadian language Anishinaabeg, Yiddish, and, of course, Esperanto
itself. There were seven lectures presenting in the International Congress University,
on topics including space research, chemistry, glass, and the Silk Road in Asia. Other
lectures treated bird migration, geology, and the Pythagorean Theorem. And most
importantly, there were personal meetings between old friends and new friends alike,
severely missed during two years of Zoom meetings.

The congress was initially planned to take place in 2020 but had to be postponed for
well-known reasons. This was the one hundred and seventh congress in a series
starting in 1905 and meetings every year with interruptions only during the two World
Wars. It was the second to be organized in Canada, and the fifth of the congresses held
in North America. On a personal note, it was my thirty fourth, of which two had been
virtual via Zoom. My first was in 1980.

As to participants, the record was held by the US, with Canada second, France third,
Germany fourth and the UK fifth, followed by Japan and South Korea.

Duncan Charters, Professor of Languages and Cultures at Principia College, Elsah,
Illinois, is the President of the organizing society, the Universal Esperanto Association
(UEA). He welcomed us all and also gave a talk on education.

Next year the Esperanto Congress will be held in Torino, with Fabrizio Angelo
Pennacchietti as one of the main organizers. There were hopes expressed that later a
congress could be held in Africa—if so, that would be the first time ever that Esperanto
speakers will meet in that continent.

The theme of the 2022 Congress was:
“Language, Life and Earth: the Decade of Indigenous Languages“, in reference to the
Decade of Indigenous Languages declared
by UNESCO for 2022-2032.

Speaking of Pride: The LGBT community and Linguistics

By: Nico Mjones, Student in Applied Linguistics MA and Certificate in Curatorial Studies / CLM Intern

June is Pride Month in Canada. As both a student of Applied Linguistics and a member of the LGBT community, I find it important to talk about the ways in which language matters for LGBT people. In this blog I will discuss some of the ways in which language and LGBT topics intertwine. The way LGBT topics and identities are talked about, the terms used to refer to LGBT people, and even grammatical issues such as pronouns and grammatical gender are some of the ways LGBT people and language intersect. Due to Canada’s diverse linguistic make up, these matters can vary by language as well, including in official languages, non-official languages, and indigenous languages.

Terminology

Terminology is very important to LGBT people. The words used to refer to different LGBT identities and to the community collectively have evolved significantly over the last century. The term LGBT, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender” is the most common collective term, but LGBTQ+, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Plus” is often used in an attempt to be more inclusive. LGBT terminology in Canada is similar to that in the rest of the Anglosphere and Francophonie. A term that is more common in Canada than in other countries is the term “Two-Spirit”. Two-Spirit is a collective term for the many different pre-colonial gender and sexuality concepts in Indigenous cultures in Canada. Not all of the indigenous groups in Canada have traditional identities that fall within the Two-Spirit moniker, and not all Indigenous people identify with the term in preference to other LGBT terms. Many LGBT organizations across Canada have begun to include Two-Spirit so as to be more inclusive of Indigenous LGBT people. An example of this is the longer acronym LGBTQ2S+, adding “2S” to represent Two-Spirit in the acronym.

Fig. 1 A modified version of the Progress Flag. The Progress Flag adds black and brown stripes, representing people of color in the LGBT community, as well the colors of the Trans flag to a Chevron on the left of the Pride Flag. The purple added to the chevron in this flag created by Brock University specifically represents the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabe members of the LGBT community in the Niagara Region.

In English, there is debate over the term “queer”. Once universally considered a slur against LGBT people, today many consider the word “reclaimed” and many LGBT people use it self-referentially and to refer to the LGBT community. Some prefer the term ‘queer’ as more succinct, radical, or inclusive than LGBT. Others consider the term to be too offensive and harmful to be used.

Pronouns and Grammatical Gender

Gender in language is an especially important subject for transgender and non-binary people in the LGBT community. Grammatical gender is a system for dividing nouns into different classes and varies between languages, For example, French divides all nouns into two classes of masculine and feminine, while Algonquian languages divide all nouns into two classes of animate and inanimate. Generally, a noun’s class affects other words in the same sentence, through agreement on verbs, adjectives and pronouns. The LGBT community is particularly focused on neutrality in pronouns. Most trans people have preferences for their pronouns, and these can be different from what are assumed, Non-binary people may prefer neutral pronouns.

For English in Canada, gender neutrality is relatively easy. English does not have grammatical gender outside of gendered pronouns. Many gendered terms, such as actress or waitress, have declined in use and terms like actor and waiter have become gender neutral. There has been some debate over a neutral pronoun. Most commonly used is the singular case of “they”. Some view this as grammatically incorrect, but the usage of singular they has been documented in English since at least the writings of Shakespeare. Singular they has become very commonly used amongst non-binary people in the LGBT community, andsees some acceptance by style guides and other prescriptive sources. There have also been examples of inventive neutral pronouns, such as “xe”. These are attempts to create a new pronoun that is gender neutral, and these have seen some usage but relatively little acceptance in linguistic prescriptive guides. 

Gender neutrality in French in Canada is considerably more difficult because of its system of grammatical gender. This makes it difficult for non-binary people who may wish to have gender neutral language used for them. For pronouns, “iel” is the most commonly discussed gender neutral pronoun in French. There are many people who are actively working to develop a system of gender neutrality in French. In Canada, one significant academic is Florence Ashley, a doctoral student at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law. Florence Ashley, who themself uses gender neutral pronouns, specializes in research of transgender rights and welfare in Canada, and has also written in French about developing a system of gender neutrality in the French language.

Indigenous & Immigrant Languages

Pronouns and grammatical gender in Canada’s non-official languages vary considerably. Many indigenous languages in Canada have a single gender neutral pronoun, such as the Cree 3rd person pronoun “wiya” which is not differentiated by gender. Many indigenous languages have a system that is not defined by masculine and feminine, but instead by animacy and inanimacy. This system is found in the Algonquian, Iroquian, and Siouan language families, which include the Cree, Anishnaabe, Mohawk, and Nakoda languages, among others. Because the grammatical gender in these languages is based on animacy rather than on masculine and feminine, they have no impact on the gendering of language for LGBT usage. Other language families, such as Na-Dene or Inuit, do not have grammatical gender at all.

The many iImmigrant languages in Canada also vary greatly with respect to grammatical gender. The Chinese languages, the largest in Canada after English and French, do not have grammatical gender and have a single gender neutral pronoun in speaking. The third person pronoun in Chinese is written differently for “he” or “she” but both are pronounced the same. In Mandarin this is “Tā” and in Cantonese “Keoi”. Languages like Persian and Tagalog, both within the ten largest languages spoken in Canada, have no grammatical gender and no gendering in pronouns at all. 

Other immigrant languages share some of the difficulties that French presents. Spanish, a Romance language related to French, is the third largest non-official language in Canada. Spanish is a gendered language similar to French, but gender neutrality has been more easily developed for it. Gender neutral endings for nouns are a frequent subject of discussion amongst Spanish speakers in Canada, the US, and Latin America. Where traditionally words would end in “o” for masculine or “a” for feminine, the endings of “x” or “e” are used to create gender neutrality. An example is “Latino/Latina/Latinx/Latine”. There is considerable debate about the “x” and “e” endings, but many Spanish language organizations in Canada and abroad have come to accept or promote the usage of “x” and “e” endings for gender neutrality. 

Some languages have borrowed gender neutral pronouns from other languages. In German, the eighth largest language in Canada, the English gender neutral pronoun “they” is frequently used. The Scandinavian languages Norwegian and Swedish have attracted attention for borrowing the gender neutral third person pronoun “hen” from  Finnish.

Fig. 2  This graphic created for Wikipedia illustrates the native Swedish pronouns “han” (masculine) and “hon” (feminine) alongside the borrowed neutral Finnish pronoun “hen”.

	Grammatical Gender	Gendered Pronouns	Gender Neutral Pronoun (if known)
English	No	Yes	They, Xe, Others
French	Masculine/Feminine	Yes	lel
Chinese	No	No	Tā (Mandarin), Keoi (Cantonese), others
Punjabi	Masculine/Feminine	No	Uha
Spanish	Masculine/Feminine	Yes	Elle
Tagalog	No	No	Siya
Arabic	Masculine/Feminine	Yes	Huma (From Koranic, dual form)
German	Masculine/Feminine	Yes	They (Borrowed from English), Xier, Es (equivalent to “it”), use of name
Italian	Masculine/Feminine	Yes	Loro (equivalent to they)
Hindustani	Masculine/Feminine	No	Vah
Portuguese	Masculine/Feminine	Yes	Elu
Persian	No	No	U
Cree	Animate/Inanimate	No	Wiya
Ojibwemowin	Animate/Inanimate	No	Wiin
Inuktitut	No	No	Una

Fig. 3 Grammatical traits of the 10 largest languages and the 3 largest Indigenous languages in Canada

Gender, Sexuality, and Language

The LGBT community in Canada is not only diverse in gender and sexual identities, but also linguistically. Canada is a highly multilingual society, and so too are LGBT Canadians. There are many linguistic challenges for the LGBT community, but dedicated language activists and community members continue to help define inclusive language around for LGBT topics and people. Although the linguistic challenges for LGBT people vary from language to language, the fundamental beliefs in equality and community underlie the creative approaches to word choice in all languages.

Ukrainian Language in Canada

By: Nico Mjones, Student in Applied Linguistics MA and Certificate in Curatorial Studies / CLM Intern

Canada is home to the largest Ukrainian population outside of Ukraine and Russia. According to the 2016 census, 1.3 million Canadians claim Ukrainian ancestry. In addition to this, there are over 100,000 Canadians who speak Ukrainian as a mother tongue, making it the 20th largest mother tongue language in Canada. However, there was once a time when Ukrainian was the third largest language in Canada after English and French. The Ukrainian language in Canada also played a role in the development of multiculturalism in the country and provides a snapshot of Canada’s immigration history. Today many speakers and learners seek to maintain the linguistic and cultural legacy of Ukrainian in Canada.

Canadian and Ukrainian flags.

The History and Geographic Range of Ukrainian in Canada

Ukrainian immigrants to Canada were first recorded in 1892. There have been several waves of Ukrainian immigration. The first wave was from the 1890s until World War I (1914-1918), and these Ukrainians experienced internment in Canada as “enemy aliens” during the war. The second wave was during the interwar years (1919-1938), and the third was in the years just after World War II (1939-1945). The fourth and fifth waves have been smaller and include those who left Ukraine after the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991) and refugees from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict (2014-present day). The earliest waves of immigrants to Canada were often farmers with lower levels of literacy. With each wave of immigration, the average education and professional skills of the immigrants rose.

Ukrainian immigrants mainly settled in the Prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. A significant number also came to Ontario and British Columbia. Smaller numbers have settled in Quebec, the Atlantic provinces, and the Territories. Today the largest number of Ukrainian speakers is in Ontario. However, a much larger proportion of the population speak Ukrainian in the Prairies.

Bilingual English and Ukrainian street signs in Hafford, Saskatchewan. Source.

The first Canadian census to collect mother tongue data was in 1931, and Ukrainian was the 4th most common mother tongue language, behind English, French, and German. Ukrainian remained in this position through the 1941 census. In the 1951 and 1961 censuses, Ukrainian was the largest mother tongue after English and French. In subsequent censuses, Ukrainian declined from the third largest and by the 2016 census had fallen to the 20th largest mother tongue. In the 2016 census, 102,485 people spoke Ukrainian as a mother tongue in Canada. In addition, there are almost 30,000 more people who speak Ukrainian than claim it as a mother tongue.

Location	Ukrainian Mother Language	Knowledge of Language
Canada	102,485	132,115
Ontario	40,375	54,615
Alberta	21,835	26,600
Manitoba	14,505	17,095
Saskatchewan	11,270	13,090
British Columbia	8,630	10,740
Quebec	5,210	9,015
Nova Scotia	320	425
New Brunswick	170	310
Yukon	50	40
Prince Edward Island	45	25
Newfoundland & Labrador	40	120
Northwest Territories	35	25
Nunavut	5	10

Ukrainian language across Canada in the 2016 census.

Ukrainian Canadian Contributions to Multiculturalism

Ukrainian Canadians have contributed significantly to multiculturalism in Canada. Food like pyrohy, known in English as perogies, the Ukrainian church architecture of Philip Ruh in the prairies, and attractions like “the world’s largest pysanka”, or painted egg, in Vegrevile, Alberta, are all examples of Ukrainian culture shared with all of Canada. Ukrainians also played a role in the development of official multiculturalism in Canada and are especially recognized for their contributions in the 1960s to the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. The Ukrainian submissions helped to shape the commission’s recommendations beyond English and French, and laid the way for Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau making multiculturalism an official policy of Canada.

Vegreville Pysanka, the world’s largest Ukrainian painted egg. Source.

The Uniqueness of Canadian Ukrainian and Ukish

The Ukrainian language spoken in Canada differs from that now spoken in Ukraine as the two dialects have developed differently over the past century. As well, some Ukrainian Canadians speak “Ukish”, a Ukrainian influenced dialect of English.

The Ukrainian language is written in the Cyrillic script. Cyrillic differs from the Roman alphabet in several ways. For instance, while the Ukrainian letter “И” may look like the Roman letter “N”, it is actually pronounced more similar to “y” as in the end of the English word “carry”. Some letters that are shared between Roman and Cyrillic scripts have completely different sounds, such as “Р”, which in Ukrainian is pronounced with a rolled “r” sound! Other letters like “Д”, which is pronounced like the “d” in “dog”, do not exist in the Roman alphabet. Some letters in Ukrainian Cyrillic have complex sounds, like “Щ”, which is close to “shch”. This is like the sounds “sh” in “sheets” and the “ch” in “cheat” put together. Another letter like this is “Я”, which is pronounced like “ia” or “ya”, and sounds like the end of the word “Austria”.
Canadian Ukrainian can vary from the standard Ukrainian spoken in Ukraine for several reasons.

Ukrainians in Canada mostly came from western Ukraine where particular dialects of Ukrainian are spoken. Another significant reason is due to the exposure to English. Some recorded examples of English borrowings into Canadian Ukrainian are listed below:

English	Canadian Ukrainian (transliterated)	Standard Ukrainian (transliterated)
box	baksynku	korobka
exhibition	artsybyshyn	vystavka
river	ryveru	richka
cookies	kukisy	pechyvo
July	dzhulaju	lypenʹ
Christmas	Krismusu	Rizdvo

English borrowings into Canadian Ukrainian.

Names and grammar were also affected by exposure to English. Names like Ivan and Olena were sometimes changed to John and Helen. While the influence of English on Ukrainian in Canada is great, language contact is a two-way street. Ukrainian words like “zabava” (reception) and “baba” (grandma) are used in English among Ukrainian Canadians and in the communities where they have a large presence.

Ukrainian Canadian Literature

There is a great deal of Ukrainian Canadian literature and poetry. Much modern Ukrainian Canadian literature is written in English, exploring the identity and history of Ukrainians and their place in Canada. For a significant period, generally before the 1970s, most Ukrainian Canadian literature was written in the Ukrainian language. There are hundreds of authors, both born in Ukraine and in Canada, who have written in Ukrainian in Canada. Some well-regarded Ukrainian writers in Canada include novelist Illia Kiriak (1888-1955), an immigrant who arrived in Canada in 1907, and Myroslav Irchan (1897-1937), a communist novelist who spent many years in Ukrainian communities in Canada.

A frequent feature of Ukrainian poetry and literature in Canada is the reference to agriculture, and especially, wheat. Ukraine is one of the largest wheat producing countries, and the Canadian prairies produce wheat as well. As many Ukrainians were farmers, this agricultural relation between the “old country” and their new home became poetic inspiration. The following excerpt from a Ukrainian Canadian poet from Saskatchewan opens with a reference to wheat fields as a “golden sea”:

The sound of the golden sea has entered into our hearts, bringing yearnings of supreme beauty and radiance. It incites us to sing, but it has not betrayed its secret… The Ukrainian prairies gave us our souls, but the Canadian prairies have stirred us up to sing.

Ivan Danilchuk, Day Dawns, Svitaye Den, Winnipeg, 1929. Translated from Ukrainian.

Ukrainian sky and wheat field, reflecting the colours of the Ukrainian flag. Source.

Qu’appelle Valley in Saskatchewan. Source.

Maintaining Ukrainian in Canada

While the Ukrainian language in Canada has declined from its peak as the third largest language in the country many continue to use and learn the language. More than 100,000 Canadians speak Ukrainian, particularly concentrated in the prairies and northern Ontario. Many universities, such as University of Saskatchewan and University of Manitoba, have extensive programs studying Ukrainian Canadian heritage, culture, and language. In Alberta, a Ukrainian bilingual education program enrolls more than 700 children. The numbers of speakers of Ukrainian in Canada also continue to grow from more recent immigrants fleeing the conflict with Russia.

Achieving a Professional Life Goal During COVID-19: My Internship at the Canadian Language Museum

By: Marlène Viardot, Master of Anthropology student / Museum Intern

Bonjour, je m’appelle Marlène, and I am a student at the Université de Bordeaux, France. I’m doing my Master’s degree in Anthropologie sociale et culturelle, on the topic of la revitalisation linguistique of Canada Indigenous languages. I have been attracted to working in Canada for a very long time, wishing to contribute to the language revitalization work that is done there for Indigenous cultures (combining my love for languages and my ideals of justice). And with my mind constantly switching from anglais to français, this country seemed particulièrement indicated!

After studying Language Sciences in Strasbourg, I carried on with this Anthropology Master’s degree, aiming at becoming an ethnolinguist. During the first year of this degree, I wrote a thesis about linguistic revitalization and live art: how do live shows influence language revitalization?, do younger generations want to learn how to speak the language when they hear it on stage, during a puppet show or a story festival, for example? This appeared to be really interesting, but my conclusions led to a misjudgement of the situation – it’s only once languages are revitalized, are actually spoken again, that live shows are created
using them. Not the other way around, as I initially suspected.

So this has been the trail I have been following during this second and last year of my Master’s degree. The required internship offered the opportunity to undertake an enthralling survey of the field, and I was really looking forward to it. I wanted the internship to fully match with my career goals, that it would be more than just a glimpse of the field, but on the contrary, that it would be a real springboard to work in this area of language revitalization.

BUT…

The COVID-19 pandemic struck! What was I to do if going to Canada was no longer possible? A major part of my planned research relied on a trip there, to include various interviews, participation in pow wows, meetings with revitalization leaders…
After a deep but brief moment of despair, I pulled myself together: Canada was still my goal, and remote working had become the new trend, so why not give that a try?

I had found, during my research for my thesis, a great booklet about Canadian Indigenous languages, giving linguistic information about the eight distinct language families, plus three additional unclassified languages. This was precisely the type of document I was looking for, and I thought it would be enriching to get in touch with the people who had published it – this is how I discovered the Canadian Language Museum.

Booklet “Indigenous Languages in Canada” published by the Canadian Language Museum in 2019.

At the beginning of 2021, I had also followed a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) offered by the Université Laval du Québec, about Northern Quebec, which had captivated me. Consequently, I audaciously decided to contact both of these institutions, hoping that despite the decrease of activities linked to the pandemic, activities concerning language and culture protection and promotion were still ongoing.

The answers I received surpassed my expectations: the Canadian Language Museum and the Université Laval responded positively to my application! And even better – within the framework of this internship, a partnership between the two organizations was created, with me as the contact point.

My mission at the Museum involved research for the creation of a travelling exhibit about the Anishinaabe language and culture. The project was starting from scratch, and I was tasked with gathering linguistic and social data: where is the language spoken?, how many speakers are there?, how has the language community changed over time?

Speaking fluent English and French was an advantage here – this allowed me to link with people working with the Anishinaabe communities in both anglophone and francophone regions.

Indeed, the Anishinaabek were originally settled near the St Lawrence River. When the first European immigrants arrived and started settling, at the beginning of the 17th century, they migrated westward. According to Anishinaabe oral history, they were guided by a vision of a sacred miigis, a cowry seashell, which made a prophecy: if the Anishinaabeg did not move further west, they would not be able to keep their traditional ways alive, because of the many new pale-skinned settlers who would arrive soon in the east (Benton-Banai, 1979).

The community gradually moved westward, along the St Lawrence River to the Ottawa River, to Lake Nipissing, and then to the Great Lakes.

The Anishinaabe people now cover a great range of territory, as shown on this map below:

Map by Professor Will Oxford, University of Manitoba, 2021.

This wide distribution explains the number of dialects of Anishinaabemowin.

As explained to me by Carole Lemire, director of Minwashin, an association promoting the art, culture and language of the Anishinaabe people, this dialect diversity is one of the greatest challenges the language faces today. As is the case with many Indigenous languages of Canada, Anishinaabemowin is endangered and standardization of the language would make maintenance and revitalization easier.

Vigorous and effective acts of revitalization are taking place, such as the creation of games for tablets, the broadcasting of songs and podcasts, and festivals – for example, Minwashin founded the Miaja festival. “Miaja” means “now is the time”, or “let’s do this”, and this large gathering is a celebration of Anicinabe culture in all its forms.

Yes, “Anicinabe”, and not “Anishinaabe” as written previously in this article. Did you notice the difference? Well, this points exactly to the diversity problem I mentioned above: the very name of the culture itself comprises at least 11 variants (bolded for emphasis):

• Anishinaabe
• Anishnabe
• Anishinabe
• Anichnabe
• Anichinabe
• Anicinabe
• Anicinape
• Anishinaubae
• Nishnaabe
• Nishnabe
• Neshnabé

The Museum uses “Anishinaabe”, but the Université Laval spells it “Anishinabe”. One might think the version with one ‘a’ is the spelling used in Quebec, but no! Minwashin, which is based in Rouyn-Nouranda, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, writes “Anicinabe”. And all three groups told me they had never seen these different spellings before.

Spelling standardization is an important goal for the survival of their language.

So, to put it in a nutshell: in my internship of only 4 weeks, I was in contact with real players in linguistic revitalization, within 3 different organizations. I learned many different ways to be active in language revival: festivals, exhibitions, apps, online classes, songs, etc.

I felt like I myself took an active part in this, as I have always dreamt of, when for example I worked with Dr. Gold, director of the Canadian Language Museum, on a questionnaire for the Anishinaabe communities. We really brainstormed about the formulation of the questions, about how to be respectful and how this could help them.

This brought up the complex issue of the position of a settler who works on an Indigenous matter: as a white, French person, I think it is my responsibility to think about my approach and my way of talking about Indigenous languages. My discussions with Dr. Gold deepened my reflections on that issue.

During this internship, I have been able to use as much French as English – which filled me with joy as you can guess – but most importantly, I have finally been able to touch on the job I have wanted to do since I was 18 years old.

Of course, it would have been even greater to have been out there in Canada, in the field, meeting all these fabulous people for real, feeling the energy of the places. Instead, everything was online and I spent my time in front of my computer rather than attending Pow Wows. But! Considering the global world situation, I managed to be close to what I have always wanted to work on! And during these confusing COVID-times, I do appreciate the opportunity this represents.

Reference

Benton-Banai, E. (1979) The Mishomis Book: The Voice of the Ojibway, Indian Country Press & Publication.

Learning Mandarin at 0, English at 10, French at 22

By: Jingshu Helen Yao, Master of Museum Studies student / Summer Intern at the CLM

Language acquisition is my area of interest and I am fascinated by the theories about the connections between language learning and age, language distance, and level of exposure.

Sometimes I observe people and ask questions to draw connections between what I learned and real-life scenarios, but the best subject to study is always myself. Since I decided to challenge myself and pick up French, I started to reflect on my experience learning other languages.

Linguists believe that everyone with regular cognitive ability is able to acquire their first language effortlessly under normal development. The abilities to comprehend and to speak are considered innate, similar to the ability to walk or run. Like many, I have no memory of the acquisition process of my own first language. I am a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese and the knowledge I have regarding Mandarin is mainly unconscious knowledge, or competence. I could easily distinguish grammatical sentences but would have difficulty explaining the exact grammatical rules. On the contrary, when I learned English in school, I learned systematic information about English clause types and conjugation rules, or what is commonly referred to as grammar by non-linguists. Even after more than a decade of study, I still make mistakes speaking or writing English, but if I need to lay out the rules of the English language one by one, I might do better than many native speakers who didn’t study linguistics or English grammar. This type of knowledge is conscious, like solving a math problem or citing a verse. I need to actively think about what I need to say and whether sentences are grammatical before producing them, whereas the same process is more intuitive for a native speaker. Even though the task became less demanding as I became more fluent, it was almost impossible to ever process English as a native speaker does.

“Le nouveau taxi!”, beginner’s textbook for learning French as a second language, Chinese edition. (Photo: Jingshu Helen Yao)

Learning French this summer reminded me of the initial stage of learning English. I struggle to produce every sound, pause for long times to think about what I need to say and how to say it. However, learning a foreign language as a child and an adult is rather different. On one hand, I have a big advantage of having studied linguistics and understanding terms such as “tense”, “aspect”, and “grammatical gender”. If I had been exposed to French at a much younger age, the complex verb conjugation rules and the masculine and feminine genders of nouns would have completely throw me off, since none of them were in my first language Mandarin. I would have asked questions such as “Why are the chairs feminine and why are the walls masculine?”, to which the answer could only be “That’s how the language works.” That definitely wouldn’t have satisfied the mind of a child. As an adult learner, I am more comfortable with just remembering the genders rather than trying to figure out why. On the other hand, I didn’t feel as much pressure when I tried to pronounce English words as a child. I wasn’t aware of “having an accent” and wasn’t as embarrassed about making mistakes as I am now. Even though I understand that making mistakes is a natural process during learning, I find myself less expressive and less willing to speak out loud, which is a barrier in language learning.

Aside from age difference, language distance is another factor that I think about. Mandarin is very distant from English geographically, historically, and structurally. Learning English meant learning completely different phonological rules and morphological structures. For example, a syllable in Mandarin usually contains only a consonant and a vowel, whereas an English syllable can have several consonants together in a cluster, and a syllable can end with consonants. English also has a larger vocabulary than Mandarin. On the other hand,  French and English are much closer, since they are both Indo-European languages and French heavily influenced English in its development. The two languages share many words that were either of the same origin or borrowed from one another. Even before I started learning French, I could figure out part of the French information on a snack package using the knowledge I already had in English.

Closeness of French and English shown in the Indo-European family tree.
Source, emphasis by CLM.

I was often asked how many languages I speak when people learned that I study linguistics. The question frustrates me from time to time since linguists are not human-shaped Google Translate. Rather than learning languages themselves, they study everything about languages. However, learning a new language as a linguistics student is a fun experience and my journey learning French has just begun.

NuqneH! Gi nathlam hí! Ni parolu pri lingvo!

By: Jingshu Helen Yao, Master of Museum Studies student / Summer Intern at the CLM

If you couldn’t read the title, don’t worry. It says “Hello” in Klingon, “Welcome” in Sindarin, and “Let’s talk about language” in Esperanto. These expressions may seem to be totally unrelated, but they are all from constructed languages.

Have you ever considered how effective communication could be if everyone could speak the same language? Did you ever wonder what it might take to create a language? Even though most natural languages developed without intentional efforts to shape and engineer them, languages have also been constructed over the years for various purposes.

Most natural languages evolved slowly along with human society, but new methods of communication sometimes occur more spontaneously. For example, language contact can lead to the creation of pidgins and creoles, and deaf children can create hand signs to communicate with family members. Although these are not classified as constructed languages, they are driven by our desire to communicate more effectively.

Artwork showing Esperanto as a language that unifies the world. Source.

Auxiliary languages such as Esperanto are the most common type of constructed languages. They are called ‘auxiliary’ languages because they are created to be a lingua franca, a common third language to be used by two or more different language groups. They are designed to be easy to learn, thus enabling communication across linguistics groups irrespective of the speakers’ native languages. To date, Esperanto is the most popular auxiliary language with about 2 million speakers around the world.

Esperanto language and symbols appear on a variety of product packaging. Exhibit at the Esperanto Museum and Collection of Planned Languages in Vienna, Austria.
(Photo: Jocelyn Kent)

Languages are also created for research purposes, and these are referred to as engineered languages. They can be used by linguists to test hypotheses about different language features. For example, Kēlen is a language proposed by linguist Sylvia Sotomayor to test the possibility of a language with no verbs, which would contradict the theory that verbs are a universal feature of natural human languages. In addition, philosophers have tried to create languages that can better serve the purposes of certain philosophical and logical discussions. Toki Pona is an engineered language created by Canadian linguist and translator Sonja Lang. Toki Pona was designed based on the philosophical principle of minimalism and was meant to encourage positive thinking. While Toki Pona may not be used by a large number of speakers, the therapeutic value is what makes this constructed language unique in its own way. Languages can also be created for spiritual or religious purposes.

Toki Pona hieroglyphs that say “ma Kanata li suli.” which translates to “Canada is large.” Source.

I find artistic and fictional languages the most interesting of all, and they are probably the most well-known constructed language to the general public. J. R. R. Tolkien is known for the Elvish languages he created in ‘Lord of the Rings’, although creating languages for his fictional world was not his only accomplishment with constructed languages. Tolkien had a passion for glossopoeia, the creation of constructed languages for artistic purposes, from a very young age. He published the essay ‘A Secret Vice’ about his experience with constructed languages, where he pointed out that mythology is an important part of artistic languages. Therefore, the languages Tolkien created were closely based on the stories of his fantasy world.

Tolkien’s constructed Elvish language appears on the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings. Source.

Very few fictional languages were as systematic as Tolkien’s creations. Many fictional languages started with very basic concepts and were added onto through the years, sometimes by the creators, sometimes by fans. Languages such as Klingon and Valyrian have various online databases and tutorials built by enthusiasts. They are even available on language learning apps such as Duolinguo.

Klingon-English dictionary for the Klingon language used in the Star Trek films and television series. Source.

Regardless of the various purposes of creation, constructed languages shared a common creation process. They often take inspiration from existing human languages. The creators of auxiliary languages tend to focus on features such as the most commonly used sounds among languages in order to make the constructed languages more accessible to a large population. Tolkien based many of his created languages on Welsh, Finnish, Latin, and Ancient Greek.

With the advance of technology, constructed languages continue to evolve and play their parts in shaping our linguistics landscape. Conlangers, people who are involved in constructing languages, are now commissioned to create fictional and artistic languages for popular media such as video games and TV shows. Many Canadians are active in creating or speaking constructed languages. This article about a conlanger in Halifax explores the use of coded language in the history of LGBTQ communities. In 2022, the World Esperanto Congress will take place in Montreal, with the topic “Language, Life and Land”. Esperanto speakers around the world will gather together and discuss indigenous languages of Canada using Esperanto.

From fictional world to philosophical discussions, from linguistics theories to international auxiliary languages, whichever form they take, whatever their functions are, constructed languages will never cease to amaze us.

References:

http://www.arwen-undomiel.com/elvish/phrases.html

https://omniglot.com/language/phrases/klingon.php

A Language Museum Beyond Western View: Museum of World Languages at Shanghai International Studies University

By: Jingshu Helen Yao, Master of Museum Studies student / Summer Intern at the CLM

I felt lucky to be able to visit the Museum of World Languages at Shanghai International Studies University.

The exhibition covered a wide range of topics related to linguistics, including linguistic theories, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, orthography, and translation. The topics are organized under three main themes, 说 “speak”, 记 “write”, and 译 “translate”. The characters for each of these words share the same thematic particle “言”, which is used in the construction of all Chinese characters that relate to language. Not only does the museum have exhibits on spoken and written languages, topics such as sign languages, braille, and constructed languages are also included. I was amazed by artifacts such as an English language textbook written in braille and Esperanto typewriters.

Translation exhibit: “How Do We Communicate Across Language Barriers?” (Photo: Jingshu Helen Yao).

Some of the memorable moments during my visit were the interactive elements at the exhibition. The interactions were facilitated by clickable screens, audio and video recordings, and even AI. There are booths where visitors can listen to various recordings in different languages and have the opportunity to repeat language samples and have their pronunciations assessed by the system.

Interactive audio booths. (Photo: Jingshu Helen Yao)

I found the projection of an animated map that tracks the trade of tea across land and ocean very interesting. This is an interesting example of language change, since the means of transportation determined the variation in the name “cha” and “te”. Most places where tea was introduced through sea adapted the variant “te”, whereas the places that received it through land transportation used “cha”. I was approached by a droid moving on wheels in one of the rooms. It sported a clickable screen where visitors could select to learn more about the museum and its exhibits as well as some fun facts about languages around the world. Although I had a wonderful guide showing me around, I could imagine how helpful this piece of technology would be if the museum had a lot of visitors and the guides and volunteers were very busy.

Words Worlds sign outside museum. (Photo: Jingshu Helen Yao)

The museum’s theme “Words Worlds” focuses on language diversity and international communication. Being the first museum in China that focuses on the topic of language around the world, the museum is actively seeking opportunities for research, education and collaboration.

The museum opened in 2019, but shortly after that the pandemic hit and the campus was closed to visitors. I was able to get in touch with the museum staff members and apply for a visit. I was very impressed by the wide range of contents and the original designs. You can access the museum’s official video here:

This visit made me realize the limitation of online research. Before visiting the museum, I had not imagined its scope and design through the information available online. I am also aware that if I wasn’t able to read Chinese characters, or was not currently living in China, I wouldn’t have been able to visit the Museum of World Languages in person. Though the internet is supposed to make international communication and collaboration much more convenient, I know that there are many missed opportunities due to language barriers. For a language museum, this challenge is also a mission. Even though the individual languages are different, the goals of language museums are held in common. I hope more connections with language museums can be made once we are free to travel again.

Why do I have an Accent and Should I be Ashamed of It?

By: Jingshu Helen Yao, Master of Museum Studies student / Summer Intern at the CLM

I have an accent and I’ve never liked it. I sometimes say “sank” instead of “thank” and “worm” instead of “warm”. If you say “had” and “head” without any context I won’t be able to tell the difference. Pronunciations are the coordination of our brain and muscles. Sometimes even if my brain knows what to do, my tongue and my facial muscles are just not used to moving that way. It is valid to feel pressure when speaking with an accent, since it is the first thing others notice when you start to talk; accents can be connected with negative impressions like “broken English”, or even “uneducated”. My language insecurity is one of the reasons that led me to linguistics in the hope that I could “fix” my English, but the study of language science took me on a very different journey.

Pitch, Spectrograms and Formants

Before diving into the details of speech sounds and their features, let’s get the terminologies out of the way. As the physicists suggest, sounds are waves. The way in which our mouths create such waves is similar to how musical instruments do. Our teeth, the roof of our mouth, and our tongues, are like keys or strings that determine the speech sound we produce. Their position and placement will change the sound produced by our vocal fold vibration, which becomes the dynamic speech we eventually hear.

Researchers in different academic fields have tried to visualize sounds in order to better study them. Sounds can be characterized by features such as pitch (frequency) and loudness (intensity/amplitude). A sound with a constant pitch (simple periodic sound) can be represented by a simple waveform as follows.

Simple waveform (Image from ResearchGate)

However, human speech is very complex. It consists of waves at different frequency levels that add on to each other and can be difficult to visualize. Spectrograms are employed by acoustic phoneticians to analyze human speech.  A spectrum is a display that shows the intensity of each level of frequency and allows us to study the features more closely. Formants are dark lines that are formed in the areas with a high intensity, which can be seen most clearly in vowel sounds. Formants are represented with a red line in the following image.

Insert formants. (Image from EdHUK)

For the purpose of this article, we will only be looking at the first and second formants of vowels. They indicate the height and frontness of our tongue position when we produce the sound.

Phonetic Differences Between Languages

Every language has a phonetic inventory, which consists of all sounds (phonemes) that are possible in the language. For example, the “th” sound in English is rather rare in other languages and makes it difficult for a second language speaker to master. Not being able to produce the exact phonemes is the top reason for having an accent.

While I am fully aware that I sound different from a standard Canadian English speaker, I was curious to find out what my vowels look like. Thus, I did a small test using Paart, a program developed by phonetic scientists from the University of Amsterdam, Paul Boersma and David Weenink, to create spectrograms from audio recordings.

I was relatively young when I learned English and lived in an English-speaking environment for several years. Therefore, I can sometimes distinguish and produce the sounds that are not in my first language: a notable pair is “a” as in “bad” and “e” as in “bed”. When I pay a lot of attention to my speech and consciously remind myself to differentiate the phonemes, I can distinguish the pronunciation of “a” and “e” in careful speech. However, in a natural conversation setting where I am simply trying to get my meaning across, my pronunciation of the two sounds tends to be very similar.

With Paart, I recorded three audios: in two of them, I carefully pronounced “bed” and “bad” respectively, and in the third audio, I put both words in one sentence “My bed is bad so it hurts my back.” Then I analyzed all the audios and noted down the values of the first and second formant of each vowel.

            Helen’s careful speech:

                        Bed: F1: 530 F2: 2041

                        Bad: F1: 751 F2: 1890

            Helen’s natural conversation:

                        Bed: F1: 589 F2: 1833

                        Bad: F1: 586 F2: 1756

            Standard Canadian English:

                        Bed: F1: 600 F2: 2930

                        Bad: F1: 860 F2: 1550

In addition, I noted the standard Canadian English value (according to research data from the University of Manitoba) as a reference. A higher number in F1 corresponds with a lower tongue position, while a higher number in F2 corresponds with the tongue further forward. The data show that when Canadian English speakers produce the ‘e’ sound in ‘bed’, the tongue is high in the mouth and forward; for the ‘a’ in bad, the tongue is pulled back and lower.

It is easy to tell from the data that both of my productions, in careful speech and in natural conversation, deviate from the standard Canadian pronunciations.  This suggests that I will always sound a little different no matter how hard I try. However, in careful speech, there is indeed a distinct difference between my ‘e’ and ‘a’ sounds, whereas in my natural speech, ‘e’ and ‘a’ are almost identical, especially with respect to the value of the first formant.

Accents are not avoidable when it comes to producing sounds that are not originally in our first language. Language learning is closely related to one’s age because the ability to produce new sounds decreases as one grows older. Having an accent doesn’t imply deficiency or unskillfulness but simply the fact that one’s muscles are not used to moving in a certain way. Speakers can be trained to change their pronunciation in careful speech, but accents are unlikely to be removed completely.

I started learning linguistics because I wanted to improve my English. However, instead of “fixing” my accent, I learned to consider it from a different point of view. In my studies I learned about the wide variety of sounds that are used in the languages around the world. Each individual language normally has an inventory of between 20-37 different sounds (UCLA database). Instead of struggling over the sounds that I am not capable of producing, I have learned to appreciate how diverse human languages are and how unique each language can be.

Click this link to the International Phonetic Alphabet to see and hear the different sounds in languages around the world.

International Phonetic Alphabet