We all have different registers - depending on who we're speaking to:
What Is Register in Linguistics?
Register (sociolinguistics) - Wikipedia
And 'metaphor' is all about being able to think in an abstract way:
Images as metaphors. How to convey abstract concepts with images. - isEazy blog
There's also biology and anthropology: respecting different people living in the natural world:
Culture and Society | Boundless Sociology
In German, 'Wissenschaft' is not just 'science' but also takes on the arts and humanities:
One, Two, or Three Cultures? Humanities Versus the Natural and Social Sciences in Modern Germany
But English is now 'controlling' science - and so imposes its own mental framework:
'Argument is war' is a metaphor according to Lakoff and Johnson:
- but 'argument' is about presenting a logical sequence - not about getting aggressive
Metaphors We Live By, Lakoff and Johnson | The Literary Link
Dancing over dueling: How English metaphors make arguments a matter of war - ALTA Language Services
Metaphors We Live By - Wikipedia
The Creative Multilingual Manifesto:
Creative Multilingualism: A Manifesto | Creative Multilingualism
Creative Multilingualism: A Manifesto - YouTube
- it needs curiosity about one's own language:
50+ Fascinating Language Facts You Didn't Know [Infographic]
Language Learning: The Importance of Curiosity | Street Smart Brazil
Curious Kids: why do people in different countries speak different languages?
- and other languages - including animal languages:
When Will We Learn To Speak Animal Languages? | Live Science
The problem for the British is that they see themselves as linguistic failures:
Why native English speakers fail to be understood in English – and lose out in global business
Politics and the English Language | plainlanguage.gov
George Orwell: Politics and the English Language
How language shapes our perception of reality
Native English speakers are the world’s worst communicators - BBC Worklife
Then we have the Thousand and One Nights - Arabic or Persian or Indian?
Microsoft Word - Khouri_ One Thousand and One Nights.doc
Which has been translated into pretty much every language:
Translations of One Thousand and One Nights - Wikipedia
From Lane (with nothing about sex!)
The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Wikipedia
And from Burton:
The Arabian Nights translated by Richard Francis Burton
And there are so many layers of place as well as language:
The Thousand and One Nights - Map & Timeline - Annenberg Learner
On bus route 29 in London, the languages are very different, depending on who joins the group and on what part of the city they go through:
Microsoft Word - Final Diversity and Inclusion Vision for Publication Print.docx
What happens to a story when it travels? This is 'linguistic migration' - but the listener will retell the story in a different way to how they heard it:
Multiethnolects: How Immigrants Invent New Ways of Speaking a Language - The Atlantic
Language and migration - Language on the Move
Language migration - Wikipedia
Another commute, by train, takes us through the suburbs of Birmingham and very different Indian languages:
Chapter 1: Variation and Change in English
Birmingham pupils speak 108 languages
Languages of Birmingham, Popular Local Spoken Languages of Birmingham, India - Yatra.com
Hearing languages in everyday life - as rooted in time and place, but also dynamic and living:
Bilingualism in the Early Years: What the Science Says
National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life
We are looking at 'slanguages': within languages, there's a hierarchy of accents and dialects, or patois and creoles:
Slanguages | Creative Multilingualism
SLANGUAGE A fun, visual way to learn a new language
BBC News - Mind your slanguage
1.1 Language and identity: 1.1.3 Regional contexts
How do artists draw on their languages for creativity?
Focus in creative learning: Drawing on art for language development | ArtsEdSearch
And today, the UK is very mulitlingual:
Languages of the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
The rebirth of Britain’s ‘lost’ languages - BBC Culture
Boris Johnson: Too Many Areas In The UK Where English Is Not The First Language | HuffPost UK
We can excel in all the languages we learn - and creatively which it strengthens:
The Benefits Of Learning a New Language and Being Bilingual | Teacher.org
Why Bilingual Students Have a Cognitive Advantage for Learning to Read | Waterford.org
Here's a programme from BBC Radio 3 which looks at all of this:
The impact of being multilingual
How German argument differs from English, the links between Arabic and Chinese and different versions of The 1001 Nights to the use of slang and multiple languages in the work of young performers and writers in the West Midlands: John Gallagher looks at a series of research projects at different UK universities which are exploring the impact and benefits of multilingualism.
Katrin Kohl is Professor of German Literature and a Fellow of Jesus College. She runs the Creative Multilingualism project. https://www.creativeml.ox.ac.uk/about/people/katrin-kohl and https://www.creativeml.ox.ac.uk/creative-multilingualism-manifesto
Wen-chin Ouyang is a professor of Arabic literature and comparative literature at SOAS, University of London. Her books include editing an edition for Everyman's Library called The Arabian Nights: An Anthology and Politics of Nostalgia in the Arabic Novel: Nation-State, Modernity and Tradition.
You can hear more from Wen-chin in this Free Thinking discussion of The One Thousand and One Nights https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b052gz7g
Rajinder Dudrah is Professor of Cultural Studies & Creative Industries at Birmingham City University. His books include the co-edited South Asian Creative and Cultural Industries (Dudrah, R. & Malik, K. 2020) and Graphic Novels and Visual Cultures in South Asia (Dudrah, R. & Dawson Varughese, E. 2020).
Saturday, 26 September is the European Day of Languages 2020 and Wednesday, 30 September is International Translation Day 2020 which English PEN is marking with a programme of online events https://www.englishpen.org/posts/events/international-translation-day-2020/
You might also be interested in this Free Thinking conversation about language and belonging featuring Preti Taneja with Guy Gunaratne, Dina Nayeri, Michael Rosen, Momtaza Mehri and Deena Mohamed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07fvbhn
Here is a Free Thinking episode that looks at the language journey of the 29 London bus https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00014qk
Steven Pinker and Will Self explore Language in this episode of Free Thinking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04hysms
Arundhati Roy talks about translation and Professor Nicola McLelland and Vicky Gough of the British Council look at language learning in schools https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b5hk01
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