Ask the Elders

[thrasherpix]

Hey, I used to love listening to my grandmother talk about the days when she was young. There is just so much left out of history books and trivia that make a lot more sense when you can learn of it from someone who was there and still remembers it pretty well, some of it of historical importance that I wish wasn't overlooked (and others just interesting trivia that had teased my mind or really surprised me).

I miss that. Of course there's a lot she couldn't tell me about. But then there were others, though now they're very few. I've lost contact with many (and many have died).

I know many would consider me an elder since I've reached my 40s, but I was surprised to find a good number here older than me, and some of them very sharp with good memories (and some of the younger people who may have learned from THEIR elders and might have something insightful to say), and though I could ask about deeper things, I think I'll keep it "safe" and trivial for the time being. It's kind of an experiment anyway.

To start off, anyone have experience with ITA? This:

Initial Teaching Alphabet - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

What was it like to learn this, and then the regular alphabet? Why do you think it's so hard to create a phonetically correct alphabet? (Besides regional accents...)


Speaking of which, I'm also curious about learning ancient languages.

One guy told me he has PTSD flashbacks from learning Irish Gaelic from 3 different teachers, each one with a different variant and accent who didn't accept the others as legite, and what a nightmare the alphabet is (and translating them into English) so that we were thinking it might've been deliberately created as a form of cryptography during British occupation in earlier centuries, but we don't really know, and I haven't dove into that nightmare pool of linguistics (which if it WAS a code language then politics would warp the facts anyway, even if politically irrelevant today, it would still be based on deliberate lies and unintentional misunderstandings of previous generations).

I miss a Mexican friend who told me of different Mexican dialects by regions, and how they differed, and the difference between Mexicans and Mexican Americans (not that she made them sound like they all came off the factory line).

It occurs to me that even teens today might be able to weigh in on that one from personal experience...and learning it from family is as interesting to me as learning it academically. 🙂

 

[nightshade]

I think languages are interesting, especially words that are used everyday in English but aren't actual English words.
Not things that reference products, but other things. I use cwtch a lot, which is Welsh, but it's just part of my everyday language.

 

[November]

Just came across this article and video and thought of this thread. Some days I realise how bloody lucky I am to be able to read. Even if I dont always understand it

More than 80pc of Aboriginal people speak Kriol or Aboriginal English — why is it still widely misunderstood?

Kriol interpreter services are used across Australia and often form a bridge between Indigenous communities and the wider population. Yet many people don't see the need.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Stake fodder]

I only saw that ITA later in dictionaries and then online. We were taught using phonics, though there was a different class that taught something called the "Distar" method. However, I learned to read before starting school, sitting on my mother's lap, watching as she followed along with her finger at the place she was reading in a book to me. I remember sitting in first grade, having a reading lesson, and marveling that anyone would learn to read that way. But my peers seem to be literate now, so it must have worked! 😉

My great-grandmother spoke Scottish Gaelic, but my grandfather (who immigrated to the US from Scotland in 1928) could only speak a few words of it.