Language Autobiography

 

REFLECTION:

 

            For the longest time I wasn’t sure what to write about. I don’t come from a family straight out of a foreign country. And I’m not  “Off the Boat” Italian as some others are. I’m just me, Anthony. So I thought about it quite a bit before I finally thought to myself that I do have some dialectic things in my life. My grandparents say things, my friends say things and even I say things. So I just decided to write those occurrences into this paper that you see here.

            Overall I slightly enjoyed writing this paper. With everything there would of course be other topics that would be more fun to write about. But this wasn’t a bad topic whatsoever. I enjoyed getting to look at past things in my family that reminded me of the funny and unique ways which they speak!

LANGUAGE, By: Anthony Buchanico

            I will never fully understand the way people go against one another for speaking differently, even when it’s in the same language. To be speaking different languages is one thing, I mean you can’t understand the person, but there’s no reason to bother others for sounding differently.

             Here in Philadelphia, we have several different ways of saying things. These can include the way we pronounce bagel (Beg-gull), water (wooder) and some other words as well. We’ve even made up a cluster of words such as jawn, jawnski and yous to name a few. Basically jawn is a way to say thing when at a loss for words while yous is a hybrid/contraction for saying you guys and you girls. Somebody use these constantly and love using it while others don’t bother using them whatsoever. Personally, I find myself using yous a lot but refraining from using jawn as some consider it to be improper.

            I don’t exactly see how words can be improper. I mean I understand how some people associate poor grammar with poor working. Some people can be told entirely from their speech. The person who seemingly can’t structure a sentence is more than likely differently clothed than somebody using complex words in a casual conversation. This doesn’t necessarily meant that the person is incapable of doing the actions of the proper speaker granted it isn’t a public speaker in most cases.

             I had a friend in grade school, his name was John. We were always good friends even though we were different in several aspects we managed to be great friends and get along in most cases. Out of everything we’ve done the most memorable would probably be our routine after vocal assignments. Time and time again we would get up there in front of our uninterested class of 24, scuttling up to talk about how the weather is changing or the history of pancakes. Each time, we would say almost a synonymous speech with only replacing a few words. I’ve always been a proper speaker save for how fast I talk in some cases while he tended to abbreviate his words and use words that we swear were made up. And each time I would laugh at the response on his face when his grades were 5 points lower than mine for no reason. Half of the time he’d be given the better-worded speech too! 

             Although even with this proof I guess the wrong idea is being presented. People shouldn’t be afraid or ashamed to use their own way of speaking, or “dialects” if you may. Some are just treated differently than others. More than likely you have others around you that speak as you do. I mean people need to learn form somewhere or else we wouldn’t know anything. If I were to say something common to me in school, it’s almost assured that nobody in the room would understand what I’m saying. A perfect example of this would be my grandparents. We say our own plethora of words being together as a family. The most predominant however would have to be Marone, which is basically considered to be a burden or a quarrelsome statement. The next one is called a gavone. A gavone is considered to be a pig and a glut in several instances. Here’s an example of just that 

  Trips to my grandparent’s house are always fun. My grandmother, or Mommom as we call her, is always so fun and the most amazing cook. And my grandfather, or Poppy, is one of the coolest people to me. Going to their house is always another venture in itself! We always go together as a family, so their house always has my family, my aunts and my uncles, my cousins, and until recently, my great grandmothers. As with so many Italians getting together, we always get into some minor bickering and fun quarrels.

“Well what do you mean we can’t go to the Christmas party this year?” “I already told you why! I don’t work with them anymore!” “So? What’s the problem?” “Marone, what’s the matter with you?” These are most of the arguments between my Aunt Monica and my Poppy. We manage to get into arguments over everything and it’s hilarious every time. I remember last Christmas Eve when we went to my grandparent’s house for our annual holiday tradition. We always eat so much more than we’re supposed to and wind up making somebody starve to death because we’re such “gavones” as my family says. And we are. “Here you go, the last pizza guys!” My Mommom said twice with a grin on her face. I never got how she could be so happy in making countless pizzas on Christmas Eve. “Hey guys we’re finally here!” My Aunt Joanna said while her and my newest Uncle Mick walk in from the blistering cold. “Oh good just in time for the last of the pizzas,” replied my Mommom still happy. “What pizza…?” replied my Uncle, clueless as ever. My Mommom quickly looked down at the table to see nothing left. “You guys are such gavones!” she sparked at us after devouring all the pizza. It was worth it though.

            There are several examples in the world where dialects are found. Everywhere in the world actually. Your dialect shows just that. It tells you everything from where you’re from to whom you hang out with throughout your life. Don’t be ashamed of what you have, but be happy about your own life and where you’ve come from to this point.

Language Auto Biography

​Reflection and Introduction

Through this paper it expressed my family and me. Basically the more I read this paper I see what really happens in my life. I never really noticed it but I think I do now. When I go home I see more and more of family and the way I talk. I no longer correct them because that's just them. I wouldn't want anyone correcting me on something I said correctly. Well in my opinion it's only wrong if it's spelled wrong. You can't say it wrong you can only spell it wrong. This means that if you see a word and you say it, you didn't say it wrong you spelled it wrong. In your head it looks differently. My strong points were the dialog it really brought out my moms voice. I though I did bad on research and information.



Language Auto Biography


- Home language

“snip snip” the sounds of the lips going back and forth, Spacing between each curve in a way that cannot be defi ned. Imaginary it must be, not being able to understand the new language she has brought in this house. “You don’t want ta listen to me you know.” Foreign, it must be; this isn’t English. What is this? Training as the time goes on, the peers get used to it and try to learn it. They understand what I am saying . “I am tinkin about movin.” The strange talker says. As the speaker continues, we learn to understand the dialect. Morning rises, only the kin are around the change in the dialect changes. Code switch it ay be called but how. How can you change what you sound like in an instant like a whole new person. I wonder how that happens to a person. Now I feel different wondering about this situation. Lingering the words slur as they are still correct. One chance to change ones dialect and it happened. Tick tock fortifying with greatness. You now know the difference between languages. Ding dong “hello”. Conversing back in forth they are. Once again the dialect changes I don’t understand the fast speaking the horrid.

No holding back the foul language coming out my mouth, talking as if I don’t know English. Friend laughing and joking around waiting for a joke with that French word of justice. When around my family the French word is obsolete. As if the word never existed the loud talking the distant hearing of the parents. Walking outside getting my code switch started. A friend comes up and now it’s on the code switch is in. Finally I’m free. Don’t under stand why It’s like this but it is. Can I change it I don’t know. Depending on how I feel during the moment, sometimes.

Throughout all the times a friend speaks to you do you ever wonder if they always speak that way. Maybe they just speak to you that way.

In school i always try to make up lines that would make people laugh. My most recent line was “chew the gat” although many people don't know what it means that's a good thing. If they did I wouldn’t be here. Sometimes people laugh sometimes they don’t. When I’m around other people tat line doesn’t come up in my vocabulary. I try not to just randomly say it.

My friend in school says some pretty wierd stuff, he says ”what are youuuu talking about” then he like repeats it in different ways. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t say that around his parents.

I actually like code switching how you feel the rhythm in the words coming out of your mouth. You feel you coming out. You can feel your mind spinning as if you never heard anything before it feels so new. When you talk to your guardian most of the time your actually talking to them in a way that won’t get mad at you. Hopefully that gazing eye upon that word which cannot be named because it has not been thought of. That word your gazing looking upon finally opens up depending on you your around with.

The more time you spend thinking about that word it’s hard to decide weather to use it or not. It’s basically an unsolved mystery until you have to say the word.

Conversations come differently. When you converse with someone they feel as if that you, they feel that is how you speak. People tend to speak proper at placed they feel are proper. Like Balls, business offices etc. I actually like code switch because it show me how many of “MY” languages I actually know. People don;t know my language only because they don’t code switch the way I do.

Sometimes my mom doesn’t even realise she says “tinkin”. When I do bad on my report card and I’m always on my laptop. She says that I’m not “tinkin” that I’m not tryin. To her family it’s a lot different  when they tinkin and then at the end of the sentence it “you know”. That’s their way of speaking and I can;t change that I also like the way they speak because in a way that shows my mom has a language that is English.

Dialect brings an important factor into this. Not all the time a person speaks with an accent. Even though they know the accent and It’s heavy, they also try to “lightin” it in front of other people just for them to hear.