Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Neil.
And I’m Georgina.
Gōdne mergen! Mé lícap pé tó métanne!
I beg your pardon, Neil? Is something stuck in your throat?!
Are you speaking a foreign language?
Ha! Well, actually Georgina, I was saying, ‘Good morning, pleased to meet you’ in English -
but not the English you and I speak. That was Anglo-Saxon, or Old English,
the earliest form of English, spoken in the
Middle Ages – so, between the 5th and 15th century.
It doesn’t sound anything like the way people talk nowadays.
No, but it’s surprising how many of the words we use today have survived
from Old English – beer, wine, drink, fish, bread, butter, eye, ear, mouth,
head, hand, foot, life, love, laughter,
mother, daughter, sister, brother, son, father – all Anglo-Saxon words!
Wow, so many everyday words! But what about the classics - Latin and Greek?
I thought a lot of English
vocabulary came from there.
That’s also true, but the history of English is the history of invasions – you know,
when the army of one country fights to enter and control another country.
Like the Roman invasion of Britain?
Right, and later invasions too, by Norse- speaking Vikings and Germanic Saxons.
In fact, Georgina, that reminds me of my quiz question.
Go on then, but in modern English if you don’t mind…
OK. Well, the year 1066 is remembered for a famous battle when the French-speaking
Norman king, William the
Conqueror, invaded England –
but what is the name of the famous battle? Is it:
a) The Battle of Waterloo?,
b) The Battle of Hastings?, or, c) The Battle of Trafalgar?
Hmm, my history’s not great, Neil, but I think
it’s b) The Battle of Hastings.
OK, Georgina, we’ll find out ‘later’ - another Old English word there!
But it’s not just words that survive from Anglo-Saxon, it’s word endings too –
the suffix, or letters added to the end of a word to modify its meaning.
Right, like adding ‘s’ to make something plural,
as in: one bird, two birds. Or the ‘ness’
in ‘goodness’ and ‘happiness’. And ‘dom’,
as in, ‘freedom’ and kingdom’.
Poet Michael Rosen is fascinated by Old English.
Here he is talking about word suffixes to Oxford University
professor Andy Orchard for BBC Radio 4’s programme,
Word of Mouth.
Listen out for the proportion of modern English that comes from Anglo-Saxon.
‘I walked’ – that ‘walked’, the ‘et’ bit on the end.
Yeah, the ‘ed’ ending. Most modern verbs – if we were to
say, you know, ‘I texted my daughter’, I mean text is,
obviously - comes from Latin … 'I tweeted' - we still lapse
to the Anglo-Saxon.
And, generally, when I’m speaking, just let’s do it in mathematical terms,
what proportion can we say is
Old English? Can we say, like, about 80% in common
parlance, sorry to use a French word there?
In speech it would be something like that –
in the written language, less. They’re the basic building
blocks of who we are and what we think.
Professor Orchard estimates that 80 percent of spoken
English in common parlance comes from Anglo-Saxon.
'In common parlance' means the words and vocabulary that most people
use in ordinary, everyday conversation.
So Anglo-Saxon words are the building blocks of English -
the basic parts that are put together to make something.
He also thinks that the languages we speak shape the way we see the world.
Here’s Michael Rosen and Professor Andy Orchard discussing this idea
on BBC Radio 4 programme, Word of Mouth:
Can we say that English speakers today, as I’m speaking
to you now, view the world through Anglo-Saxon eyes, through
Anglo-Saxon words? Can we say that?
Well, in Old English poetry it's always raining and I suppose it’s always raining today.
There is a retrospective element, that we’re still inhabiting that worldview, those ideas;
the same words, the same simple ideas that they inhabited.
And what’s extraordinary if you think about the history of English is despite the
invasions by the Norse and by the Norman, and then despite the years of empire when we’re bringing
things back, the English that we’re speaking today is still at its
root, Old English word, at its heart, Old English word, still very much English.
Michael Rosen asks if English speakers see
the world through Anglo-Saxon eyes.
When we see something through someone’s eyes, we see it from their
perspective, their point of view.
And Professor Orchard replies by saying that despite all the history of invasion and
empire, the English we speak today is still Old English 'at heart' –
a phrase used to say what something is really like.
Wow! So much history crammed into six minutes!
And now, time for one more history fact.
Do you mean your quiz question, Neil? What’s the name of the famous battle of 1066?
What did you say, Georgina?
I said b) The Battle of Hastings.
Which was… the correct answer! The Battle of Hastings in
1066 played a big part in the Norman Conquest and mixing
French words into the language.
And I also know how the English ruler, King Harold, died –
shot through the eye with an arrow!
Ouch! OK, let’s recap the vocabulary, some of which
exists because of 'invasions' – when one country enters and controls another.
A suffix is added to the end of a word to make a new word.
The phrase 'in common parlance' means using ordinary, everyday words.
'Building blocks' are the basic parts used to make something.
'To see things through someone’s eyes' means, from their point of view.
And finally, 'at heart' is used to say what something is really like.
That’s all for this programme. Join us again soon at 6 Minute English but
for now, ‘far gesund!’ – that’s Old English for ‘goodbye’!
Far gesund!
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Neil.
And I’m Rob.
Bonjour, Rob! Kon’nichi’wa!
Excuse me?
¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás?
Oh, OK, I think Neil’s saying ‘hello’ in different languages – French, was it?
And then.. Japanese? And… Spanish? Is that right?
¡Si, muy bien!
The English are famously slow to learn other
languages. But it seems that Rob and I -
and of course you - our global audience here at 6 Minute English -
are good examples of polyglots – people who speak more than one language,
sometimes known as 'superlinguists'.
People who speak multiple languages benefit from many advantages, as we’ll
be hearing in this programme.
That word 'polyglot' sounds familiar, Neil.
Doesn't the prefix 'poly' mean ‘many’?
That’s right, like 'polygon' – a shape with many sides.
Or 'polymath' – someone who knows many things.
And speaking of knowing things, it’s time for my quiz question.
The word 'polyglot' comes from Greek and is made up of two parts:
'poly', which as Rob says, means ‘many’, and ‘glot’. But what does ‘glot’ mean?
What is the meaning of the word 'polyglot'?
Is it: a) many words, b) many sounds or c) many tongues?
Well, there’s three syllables in ‘polyglot’, Neil, so I reckon it’s b), many sounds.
OK, Rob, we’ll find out if that’s right at the end of the programme. But leaving aside
the origins of the word, what exactly does being a polyglot involve?
British-born polyglot, Richard Simcot speaks eleven languages.
Listen to his definition as he speaks to BBC World Service programme,
The Documentary:
A polyglot for me can be anyone who identifies with that term –
it’s somebody who learns languages that they don’t necessarily need
for their lives, but just out of sheer enjoyment, pleasure or fascination with
another language or culture.
For Richard, being a polyglot simply means
identifying with the idea - feeling that you are similar or closely connected to it.
He says polyglots learn languages not because they have to,
but for the sheer enjoyment, which means, ‘nothing except’ enjoyment.
Richard uses the word sheer to emphasise how strong and pure this enjoyment is.
As well as the pleasure of speaking other languages, polyglots are also better at
communicating with others. My favourite quote by South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, is:
"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.
If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."
How inspiring, Rob – I’m lost for words! Here’s another: ‘To have another language
is to possess a second soul’.
So, language learning is good for the head, heart and soul –
a person’s spirit or the part of them which is believed to continue existing
after death.
Yes – and what’s more, language learning is good for the brain too.
That’s according to Harvard neuroscientist, Eve Fedorenko.
She’s researched the effects of speaking multiple languages
on the brains of growing children.
Eve predicted that multilingual children would have hyperactive
language brains. But what she actually found surprised her, as she
explains here to BBC World Service’s The Documentary:
What we found – this is now people who already have proficiency in multiple
languages - what we found is that their language regions
appear to be smaller, and that was surprising… and as people get better
and better, more automatic at performing the task, the activations
shrink, so to speak, over time, so they become... it becomes so that you don’t have to use
as much brain tissue to do the task as well, so you become more efficient.
Eve was testing children who already have
language proficiency – the skill and ability to do something,
such as speak a language.
Her surprising discovery was that the language
regions of these children’s brains were shrinking
– not because their speaking skills were getting worse,
but the opposite; as they learned and repeated language patterns, their brain
tissue became more efficient – worked quicker and more effectively.
It’s suggested that this increased efficiency is a result of exposure
to different languages.
So, that proves it, Neil: speaking many languages
is good for the head, heart, mind and soul!
You took the words right out of my mouth!
And speaking of words, what does the ‘glot’ in polyglot actually mean?
Was my answer correct?
Ah, that’s right. In my quiz question,
I asked you for the meaning of the word ‘polyglot’.
I said b) many sounds.
But, in fact, the correct answer was c) many tongues.
You may be a polyglot, Rob, but you’re not quite a polymath yet!
OK, well, let me get my brain tissues working by
recapping the vocabulary, starting with polyglot –
someone who speaks many languages.
The language centres in a polyglot’s brain are efficient
– they work quickly and effectively in an organised way.
Proficiency means the skill and ability to do something well.
And if you identify with something, you feel you are
similar or closely connected to it.
Polyglots learn languages for the sheer enjoyment of it – a word meaning ‘nothing except‘
which is used to emphasise the strength of feeling.
So speaking many languages is good for mind and soul – a person’s non-physical spirit
which some believe to continue after death.
That’s it for this programme, but to discover more about language learning, including some useful practical tips,
check out The Superlinguists series from BBC World Service’s The Documentary!
Bye for now!
Bye!
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Neil.
And I’m Sam.
Last weekend I was driving from London to Anglesey in Wales,
when I saw a road sign written in two languages. It said,
‘Welcome to Wales’ in English, and below that, it said ‘Croeso I Cymru’ in Welsh.
Yes, Welsh is spoken by many people in north Wales.
It’s the indigenous language – the language spoken by the people who
originally lived in a place, rather than by others who
moved there from somewhere else.
Welsh is a good example of an indigenous language that has survived.
Some children speak Welsh in school and the local government has
encouraged its spread. But not all indigenous languages have been so lucky,
as we'll be finding out in this programme.
Of course, languages are more than just words – they carry people’s history,
culture, and identity. So, when an indigenous
language disappears so too does the culture.
Yes, the dominance of international languages,
including English, has endangered other less-spoken languages.
So, here’s my quiz question, Sam. Did you know that nearly 7,000 different
languages are spoken around the world? But how many of them are indigenous?
Is it: a) 3,000?
b) 4,000? or c) 5,000?
Hmmm, I’ll say b) 4,000 languages.
Ok, Sam, we’ll find out the answer at the end of the programme.
One indigenous language speaker is Mshkogaabwid Kwe. She’s from Canada,
or ‘Turtle Island’ as it’s called by her tribe. She grew
up speaking English instead of her native language, Anishinaabemowin,
which she only learned later, as an adult.
Listen to Mshkogaabwid speaking with BBC World Service programme,
The Conversation, about how she felt learning Anishinaabemowin
later in life.
When I realised that the sounds that were coming out of my mouth were the same sounds
that had come out of my ancestors’ mouths thousands
of years ago, I felt a deep sense of who I was and what it means to be
Anishinaabemowbec and it made me realise that my dream of learning this
language and passing it on to my children was now accessible,
was now reachable, attainable. And, you know, after a couple of months, I was
able to understand one full prayer that was said at a ceremony feast and
the glee in me and the feeling of joy at being able to understand something
in my own language,
it was the most profound sense of confidence.
Learning to speak the language of her ancestors
gave Mshkogaabwid glee – a feeling of happiness, pleasure, or excitement.
Although she didn’t grow up speaking Anishinaabemowin she now wants
to pass it on to her children. 'To pass something on' means
to give it to someone, usually in your family, who lives on after you die.
Mshkogaabwid’s decision to raise her children speaking
Anishinaabemowin turned out to be the right one, as she explained to BBC
World Service programme, The Conversation.
There are lots of bumps in the road but it’s going very well.
My daughter is turning four and she completely understands the language.
Being put back into day care, which she’s only been there maybe a month,
has really influenced her English… so I notice she’s speaking a lot of English
and so that was a little bit rough for the family, being an immersion home
where we only speak Anishinaabemowin when in the home,
for there to be so much English, and only recently, over the last week and a half,
have we really noticed her switch and her shift back into using the language.
Bringing up her children to speak her indigenous
language wasn’t easy and Mshkogaabwid said
there were some bumps in the road - small problems or delays that slowed
down or stopped things from developing.
To help, her family spoke only Anishinaabemowin at home,
using a technique called immersion - the process of learning a language or
skill by using only that and nothing else.
This meant that Mshkogaabwid’s children spoke both English -
at school - and Anishinaabemowin - at home. She noticed how they changed
between languages when speaking, something known as code-switching.
Mshkogaabwid believes this not only helps her
children’s development but also gives them a sense of
family history, as well as preserving her traditional culture...
…a culture she hopes they will pass on to their children in turn.
So while indigenous cultures are threatened by big global languages,
there’s still hope that many will survive into the future. Which reminds
me of your quiz question, Neil. Was my answer, right?
Ah yes, I asked Sam how many of the 7,000 languages
spoken around the world are indigenous.
And I thought it was b) 4,000 languages.
Which was the correct answer! And what’s
amazing is that although indigenous peoples make up under
6% of the global population, they speak more than 4,000
of the world's languages.
OK, Neil, let’s recap the vocabulary from this
programme on indigenous languages –
languages spoken by the people who originally lived in a place
rather than others who came later.
'Glee' is a feeling of happiness or excitement.
If you 'pass something on', you give it to someone,
usually in your family, who lives on after you.
'A bump in the road' is a small problem or delay that slows things down.
'Immersion' is the process of learning something, like a language or a skill,
by using only that and nothing else
And finally, code-switching is the ability to change between two or more
languages when speaking.
That’s all from us.
Bye for now!
Bye bye!
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Rob.
And I’m Sam.
In this programme, we’ll be unlocking the secrets of the ancient Egyptians, pyramid
builders and the inventors of hieroglyphs – a writing system which uses pictures and
symbols to represent words.
The meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphs remained a mystery
until 1799 when Napoleon’s soldiers unearthed a dark, damaged rock
in the Egyptian coastal town of Rosetta.
On the broken granite stone three scripts were faintly carved: Greek at the bottom,
Demotic in the middle and Hieroglyphs at the top.
Today, the Rosetta Stone is perhaps the most famous museum object in the world.
But what’s actually written on it is quite dull! In fact, the Rosetta Stone
contains a tax break! It describes an agreement exempting priests from paying
taxes to the King.
Ah, the famous Egyptian pharaohs!
Exactly - but which one, Sam? Let’s test your ancient Egyptian knowledge
with this quiz question: the writing on the Rosetta Stone is a tax agreement
between the priests and which Egyptian pharaoh? Is it:
a) Cleopatra, b) Ptolemy or c) Ramesses?
I’ll guess a) Cleopatra.
OK, Sam, I’ll reveal the answer to that mystery later on.
Before the discovery of the Stone, no scholar had been able to understand
the strange symbols carved on the great pyramids.
Egyptologist, Richard Parker, was in charge of the Rosetta Stone exhibition
at the British Museum for twenty years.
Here he is, telling BBC Radio 4 programme, In Our Time,
about circumstances before the discovery of the Stone:
People were exploring all sorts of means of trying to decipher,
including trying to link the script with Chinese to see if that offered a
parallel. It was known from the classical authors that the Egyptian script contained great,
mysterious pearls of wisdom from the Egyptian philosophers
and people had hugely high expectations and all attempts to
decipher, to get a grip on the script, I think, had really failed.
Before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, no-one had managed to
decipher hieroglyphs – to work out the meaning of writing
which is difficult to read.
Experts hoped that the Egyptian script contained great pearls of wisdom -
wise words, sayings or advice.
As we know, the actual meaning of the text
turned out to be quite dull. But it was the fact that the messages
were written in three scripts, including Greek - a language scholars
already knew - that provided the key to finally crack the code.
In 1801, the race was on between Egyptologists
in Britain and France to be the first to translate
the entire system of hieroglyphs.
In the end, it was a young Frenchman named Jean-François Champollion
who became the first person to understand hieroglyphs since
the ancient Egyptians themselves, nearly two thousand years earlier.
Here’s Penelope Wilson, Professor of Egyptian Archaeology at Durham
University, explaining more about this remarkable young Frenchman
to BBC Radio 4’s, In Our Time:
He was certainly a prodigy, I think as far as language is concerned, but also had a
fascination for Egypt I think, and the story is he was taught Coptic by a Coptic priest,
and at that lecture was one of the first to argue that Coptic
was related to ancient Egyptian.
So, he was also encouraged in this by his older brother,
so, I think there was soon to be no holding him back, once he got the bug
he was encouraged and he made great strides.
When Penelope Wilson calls Champollion a prodigy,
she means someone young with a great natural talent for something,
in this case, studying languages.
Added to his natural ability was a fascination with Egypt
and the encouragement of his brother, so Champollion soon got the bug –
suddenly developed a strong enthusiasm for something.
In English, we often add a noun to describe exactly what someone is
enthusiastic about – so, for example, the skiing bug, for someone
who loves to ski.
Champollion was so enthusiastic, there was no holding him back –
an idiom to say that you are doing something so eagerly, you cannot
be stopped.
The story goes that he worked so hard deciphering hieroglyphs, when he
finally finished, he ran through the streets of Paris shouting,
“I’ve done it!”, before collapsing unconscious.
Rob, earlier you asked me which pharaoh ordered the Stone to be written.
Yes. And what did you say?
I thought it was Cleopatra. Was I right?
Well, Cleopatra was from the same dynasty but a little later
than the correct answer, which was b) Ptolemy,
the pharaoh who ruled from around 300 BCE.
OK. Let’s recap the vocabulary we’ve learned,
starting with hieroglyphs - symbols used represents words in ancient Egypt.
The challenge was to decipher them – to uncover the meaning of
writing which is difficult to read or understand.
Maybe they contained 'pearls of wisdom' - wise words, sayings or advice.
The hieroglyphic code was finally cracked by Jean-François Champollion – 'a prodigy'
or young person with a great natural talent.
When Champollion got the bug, or suddenly became very enthusiastic about understanding
hieroglyphs, there was no holding him back – nothing could stop him from succeeding.
And nothing can stop us from saying goodbye, because our six minutes are up!
Goodbye!
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Sam.
And I’m Neil. How are you today, Sam?
Thanks for asking Neil, I’m fine… not!
Sorry, so are you fine? Or not…?
Oh, did I confuse you? My bad!
Sam is speaking English, just a very modern type of English, for example saying ‘my bad’,
instead of ‘my fault’ as a way of accepting that she’s wrong.
Or adding ‘not’ at the end of a sentence to show I really mean the opposite of what
I said. Both are examples of small changes in English which have happened naturally
over the last decade or two.
Changes like these happen because, unlike say, Latin, which no-one speaks
day-to-day, English is a living language – a language people speak and use in their
ordinary lives.
New bits of English are invented as people
use the language in new ways, but what happens when a language comes from
an entirely different galaxy – somewhere like Qo’noS, home planet of the Klingons?
Yes, when sci-fi TV show, Star Trek, introduced alien characters called Klingons,
the makers needed to invent a whole new language - Klingon.
Entirely made-up and unrelated to any human language, Klingon has developed
a life of its own. Today you can even study it at university. So, Neil, my quiz question
is this: in 2010, Klingon became the first invented language to do what? Is it:
a) have its own dictionary?, b) have an opera written? or
c) be recognised as an official language by the United Nations?
Hmmm, every language needs vocabulary,
so I’ll say a) Klingon was the first invented language to have its own dictionary.
OK, Neil, I’ll reveal the answer later in the
programme. Klingon isn’t the only made-up language invented for the movies. David
Peterson is the creator of Dothraki, a language used in the fantasy TV show, Game of Thrones.
From his home in Los Angeles, David spoke to
Michael Rosen, presenter of BBC Radio 4 programme, Word of Mouth. They discussed
Saint Hildegard who created the very first made-up language in the 12th century:
What she had was an entire list of nouns, a whole list of nouns – many of them godly,
many of them not, and she would drop them into songs using Latin grammar and other
Latin words, so it’s not a language proper in the way that we understand it now, because
really when we talk about a language it’s not just the vocabulary, it’s the grammar –
nevertheless we still kind of look on her as the patron saint of modern conlanging.
Saint Hildegard invented new nouns but used Latin grammar, so David doesn’t think
her invention is a proper language.
Nevertheless, Saint Hildegard is considered the patron saint of made-up languages.
'The patron saint' of something refers to a Christian saint who is believed to give
special help to a particular activity. Here, the activity is inventing a conlang, short for
constructed language – artificially invented languages, like Klingon and Dothraki.
Another famous constructed language,
Esperanto, was invented in 1887 by Polish doctor, Ludwik Zamenhof. He wanted to make
it easier for people who spoke different languages to communicate with each other.
Listen as David Peterson speaks Esperanto with Michael Rosen and tests how much he
understands for BBC Radio 4 programme, Word of Mouth:
You are an English speaker from Western Europe, and in the 19th Century ‘universal’
meant ‘able to be understood by people from Western Europe’.
And so, for example to say, ‘I speak Esperanto’, ‘mi parolas Esperanton’.
Yes, I might have got that one – the ‘parle’ bit
from its Latin root, and ‘me’, obviously. Try me again.
Kiel vi fartas?
Who is my father? No, ‘Where am I travelling’? Er, no, I got stuck on that one!
Like Spanish, Italian and other modern European languages, Esperanto is based on
Latin. Michael guessed the meaning of the Esperanto word
‘parolas’ from its Latin root – the origin or source of a language.
But the second sentence of Esperanto isn’t
so easy. Michael gets stuck on that one – he can’t answer because it’s too difficult.
I think I’d probably get stuck on that as well. But at least Esperanto was invented
for humans, not alien creatures from outer space!
And speaking of creatures from outer space, did I get the right answer
to your quiz question, Sam?
So, I asked Neil about an unusual first achieved by the made-up alien language, Klingon.
I guessed it was the first invented language to have its own dictionary.
Which was… the wrong answer, I’m afraid, Neil. Incredibly, the correct answer was b) - in 2010
a company of Dutch musicians and singers performed the first ever Klingon opera! The
story must have been hard to follow but I’m sure the singing was out of this world!
MajQa! That’s Klingon for ‘great’, apparently. OK, let’s recap the vocabulary from our discussion about
invented languages, also called constructed languages, or conlangs for short.
A 'living language', like English, is a language that people still speak and use in their
ordinary lives.
The phrase 'my bad' originated in the United States but is also used in Britain as an
informal way to say ‘my fault’ or to tell someone that you’ve made a mistake.
A 'patron saint' is someone believed to give
special help and protection to a particular activity.
The 'root' of a language means its origin or source.
And finally, if you 'get stuck on something', you’re unable to complete it because it’s
too difficult.
That’s all the time we have for this programme about invented languages.
‘Gis revido baldau’- that’s Esperanto for ‘see you again soon’.
In other words, ‘Qapla’, which is how Klingons say ‘goodbye’, I think. Qapla!
Qapla!