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Vox Discipulorum
Autumn 2023 Edition
President: Myles Coven
Vice president: Samuel Lee
Secretary: Jessy Liu
Editor/Event Coordinator: Augie Alexander
Advisor: Mr. Qiu
Message from the Editor-in-Chief:
Hello everyone,
Firstly, thank you for choosing to read Vox Discipulorum - the official Bronx Science World Language Department Magazine. Vox has been a work in progress for a long time now and I am so excited to share our first edition with you all! Everyone involved has worked very hard on their articles, so I would like to thank everyone - writers and editors - involved in this edition. Also, I would like to give a special thanks to our advisor, Mr. Qiu, for helping organize the club! As a note, many of our writers wrote in languages that they are in the process of learning, so we would like you to keep this in mind while reading. Vox was founded more than four decades ago with the goal of sharing the voice of Bronx Science students (as the name in Latin states), so we encourage students to take risks and practice the languages that they are learning. We would love to hear your feedback, so feel free to reach out to us at voxdiscipulorum@bxscience.edu! Furthermore, if you are interested in participating in Vox, we hold our meetings every Tuesday in room 317 after SGI. Everyone is welcome to join! Once again, thank you for reading and enjoy the articles!
Sincerely,
Myles Coven
Quote of the Edition:
“If I had to choose between government without newspapers, and newspapers without government, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose the latter.”
-Thomas Jefferson
Language: Learned or Innate?
By: Zachary Abbott
Have you ever thought about what makes humans unique? Like really sat down and given it some thought? Well we’re bipedal, but lots of things only have two legs: other great apes, other mammals, even birds. We sweat, that’s pretty unique! But it’s also boring. Luckily, to counterbalance the boringness of sweating we have language. The words you’re reading right now are the result of thousands of years of evolution, allowing our brains to make, codify, and understand not only sounds but symbols. But of the 8 million species on earth, isn’t it weird that we’re the only ones that can speak?
There are two schools of thought about human linguistics: Behaviorist and Chomsky. Behaviorists believe that humans learn language by spewing gibberish until something clicks, getting praise for saying something that resembles a word. We’re monkeys at typewriters, banging away until we’ve started to write the works of Shakespeare and get rewarded. Then things come into place, we obviously want more praise so we say nonsense and gibberish until we understand the basics of speech. We’re not special, it’s just nonsense reinforced over thousands of years to give us language.
But that doesn’t really make sense, now does it? If it was that easy how come no other species can speak? We don’t see other species walking around with grammar and words, at least that we know of, so what’s going on? Noam Chomsky saw that issue too and he decided to look into it. Could purely random chance make so many words? So many specific instances of how we use them? Things like the difference between there, their, and they’re? No, it didn’t make sense so Chomsky drafted a theory. He believed that humans are innately gifted with language, it’s something we evolved to be able to understand. Take the typewriter example again, if you were a child randomly mashing letters together to make words how long would it take you to get anything?
This isn’t how it would actually work but bear with me: let’s say you randomly say a four letter long sequence, what are the odds of it being a word? That’s 456,976 possible combinations. In comparison there are a total of roughly 170,000 English words in use today. With these odds you have a 4/10 chance of saying a word. That’s not so bad until you take into the count the majority of words aren’t four letters long meaning there are billions of other possible sequences. Could it really be random?
Some people might say “Well babies have a tendency to copy what others say so it’s not that random, they’ll have a bias towards actual words” but that makes zero sense. How could a baby tell noises from voices without something innate guiding them? Could it be another behaviorist situation where babies are learning to associate praise with voices? That’s stupid! Now we have not one but two situations where babies, through random chance, need to thread a needle to learn anything.
So why are we the only ones that can speak? What makes sense, at least for now, is the idea that humans are innately gifted with some knowledge about speech, we just need to fuel that fire to create globe spanning languages. Sure it’s a bit odd that nothing else has something close to human language but it could be a rare trait, a metaphorical dice roll we were able to make because we were in the right place with the right niche at the right time. That wraps that up nice and neatly, now doesn’t it? Language is a uniquely human characteristic, an innate feature of our evolutionary lineage. But wait, you might say, aren't there other species that can sorta talk? We taught gorillas to speak with sign language! Doesn’t that support behaviorist thinking? Yes and no, but that’s a story for another day.
References:
Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. The Hague/Paris: Mouton & Co.
The Truth Behind the Green “Bird” App…
By: Antonio Lin
Although I have only used Duolingo once, it is beginning to permeate every corner of everyone’s lives; most of the time, I see promotions or videos about it on social media apps whether in the morning, afternoon, or night…especially on TikTok. I can’t resist clicking on the comment button displaying the (X) amount of commenters on 3 out of 4 videos I watch, as I expect a statement from a chronically online person to bash or praise the video, depending on what everyone else says. When I open a TikTok comment section about Duolingo, I always get surprised because everyone seems to “enjoy” and “learn” from it; my friends have even told me it has “tremendously helped them” learn the native language they forgot… While I admit it has its benefits, it, at the end of the day, is just a silly app on a device that people use in their free time—and for a reason! If Duolingo is this incredibly “amazing” app users paint it to be, how come nearly all users would opt for, or have, another language tutor/teacher? That’s because Duolingo is just an AI-powered resource for people who have time to spare when they’re home. Is it the most effective? Probably not. Is it a useful resource for curious, open-minded people? Probably so. I won’t judge them. However, the message I’m trying to get across is that online learning apps should not be gassed up this much, especially if you’re aiming to become fluent in a language by solely using it. It is better to engage in immersive learning or some form of in-person learning to truly equip your brain for something new.
Tesoros de la Lengua Española: Historia, Influencia y Prevalencia Mundial
By: Isaac Halperin
El español es un idioma muy interesante y muy conocido por todo el mundo. Me parece importante (y fascinante también) su evolución y prevalencia. Es un idioma romántico, junto con el francés, el italiano, el portugués, y el rumano. Esto significa que evolucionó del latín. Evolucionó en el norte de la Península Ibérica, que ahora es España, en el noveno siglo. No solo tiene influencia del latín pero la mayoría (75%) de su vocabulario viene del latín. También toma prestada del griego y los otros idiomas románticos. Ahora es el cuarto idioma más hablado, el segundo idioma indigena más hablado, y el idioma romántico más hablado. 486 millones de personas lo hablan nativamente y 538 millones de personas lo hablan en total. Se habla alrededor del mundo y hay países que lo hablan nativamente en cuatro continentes. En Europa, se habla en España. En África, se habla en Guinea Ecuatorial. El idioma venió a las Américas cuando España las colonizó. Se habla en México en América del Norte. En el Caribe, se habla en Cuba, la República Dominicana, y Puerto Rico (un territorio, no un país). Se habla en casi todos los países de América Latina (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica y Panamá). Se habla en cada país de América del Sur menos Brasil, Guayana, Suriname, y Guayana Francesa. Además, hay muchos países con personas que hablan español como idioma extranjero. Por esta prevalencia pienso que el español es un idioma muy importante de comprender y es muy útil para todos. Te puede beneficiar no importa donde vives.
Spanish is a very interesting and well-known language around the world. I find its evolution and prevalence important (and fascinating). It is a romance language, along with French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. This means that it evolved from Latin. It evolved in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, which is now Spain, in the ninth century. It does not only have influence from Latin but most (75%) of its vocabulary comes from Latin. It also borrows from Greek and the other romance languages. It is now the fourth most spoken language, the second most spoken native language, and the most spoken romance language. 486 million people speak it natively and 538 million people speak it in total. It is spoken around the world and there are countries that speak it natively on four continents. In Europe, it is spoken in Spain. In Africa, it is spoken in Equatorial Guinea. The language came to the Americas when Spain colonized them. It is spoken in Mexico in North America. In the Caribbean, it is spoken in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico (a territory, not a country). It is spoken in almost every Latin American country (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama). It is spoken in each country in South America except Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. Also, there are many countries with people who speak Spanish as a foreign language. Because of this prevalence I think that Spanish is a very important language to understand and is very useful for everyone. It can benefit you regardless of where you live.
My Thoughts on Autumn
By: Kenneth Quang
Khi mùa thu đến, lá sẽ bắt đầu che trên mặt đất. Trong cùng một tuần, thời tiết có thể lạnh giá, hoặc có thể ấm áp như mặt trời. Mùa này thật khó hiểu, và sẽ có nhiều thay đổi trong cuộc sống của chúng ta trước khi mùa đông đến.
Nhưng mỗi năm, sự thay đổi sẽ đến. Và năm nào, nó cũng sẽ trôi qua; không có gì có thể giữ nguyên trên thế giới này. Chẳng phải điều đó làm cho cuộc sống trở nên đặc biệt hơn sao?
Các ngôi sao sắp xếp theo hướng có lợi cho chúng ta.
Trái đất được bao phủ bởi các màu vàng, cam, đỏ thẫm. Chỉ có mẹ thiên nhiên kiểm soát thế giới của chúng ta; và không ai khác.
Đây là điều kỳ diệu xảy ra một lần, và chỉ một lần. Tất cả đều hài hòa. Và trong một khoảnh khắc - chỉ một khoảnh khắc - sự hoàn hảo đã đạt được. Bạn không khao khát gì hơn, nhưng không mong muốn gì hơn.
Khi lá chết, lửa ấm được giải phóng– một ánh sáng cuối cùng trước khi kết thúc. Quả thật, mùa thu là sự bình yên trước cơn bão; một khoảnh khắc bình yên.
Tôi khẩn nài cho sự giáng lâm của cõi vĩnh cửu; vì lúc đó tôi sẽ sống ở một thiên đường hoàn mỹ.
When autumn arrives, the leaves begin to fade. In the same week, the weather can be freezing, or as warm as the sun. This season is confusing, and it will bring many changes to our lives as winter approaches.
Yet every year, change arrives. And every year, it passes; after all, nothing can stay the same. And doesn’t that make life more special? The stars align in our favor.
The earth is showered with colors of gold, orange, crimson red. Only Mother Nature controls our world– and no one else.
These are miracles that happen once, and only once. All is in harmony. And for a moment– just a moment– perfection has been achieved. You yearn for nothing more, yet desire nothing less.
As the leaves die, warm fires are released— one final light before the end. Truly, autumn is the calm before the storm; a moment of peace.
I plead for the arrival of eternity; for then I could live in a flawless paradise.
The Birth of the Albanian Alphabet: A Consequence of Political Ambitions and Rising Albanian Nationalism in the 19th Century
By: Enes Banushi
The Albanians are an ethnic group in the Balkans of Europe. They derive their name from the Albanoi, an Illyrian tribe of antiquity which occupied the region currently known as Albania. However, Albania’s first central authority came under an expanding Roman Empire. They formed new settlements, established an organized government, and imparted the Latin language on the region. Since then, much time has passed. The Ottoman occupation and subsequent turmoil in the 20th century have all contributed drastically not only to the Albanian culture, but also to the language itself in the expansion of the Albanian vocabulary.
The Albanian language is something of an oddity in linguistics. Not only does it have a massive amount of 36 letters, but it also possesses entirely unique roots as a language. To compare languages in linguistics, we observe their sentence structure, their verb conjugation patterns, and the sound of speech, among other factors. To describe the resulting concept simply, Spanish and Italian share similar roots, having similar conjugations and general vocabularies. Swedish and Norwegian share similar roots as well, with similar alphabets and overlapping vocabulary. Of the Indo-European branch of languages, the only languages still alive are Armenian and Albanian. These languages are very distinct, and no language has been conclusively linked to the Albanian branch of this language category. Indeed, the Albanian language exists as a conglomerate of Proto-Indo-European grammar structure in the gender-naming system of nouns; a Balkanic influence in the employment of almost exclusively suffixes, not prefixes, to modify verbs; and even a Turkish and Latin influence in vocabulary.
That said, the Albanian language remained unwritten for centuries. There was no real need to communicate through writing in Albanian, as there already existed well defined Latin and Greek languages which could be used. It was only some time into the 18th century that it became necessary to create a unified national language as Albanian nationalism rose in light of new developments in government philosophy and turmoil across Europe.
As the Albanian people drew ever closer to rebellion against occupying Ottoman forces as a consequence of decaying conditions and oppression of the Albanian people, the Austro-Hungarian Empire backed its secession efforts in an attempt to undermine the efforts of its historical foe, the Ottomans. As such, it fiercely supported efforts to create a distinct national identity. However, efforts to create a national language were not simple. Catholic denominations backed by the church and the Austro-Hungarians in larger towns supported a Latin alphabet, while Muslim groups backed by the Young Turks sought to develop an Arabic alphabet. To settle the matter, an Albanian congress eventually was held in 1908, backed by Vienna. The Austro-Hungarians ultimately prevailed in the matter, promoting the Latin language in an attempt to promote catholic schools and restore the Christian faith to a staunchly Muslim Albanian population.
Ultimately, the Austro-Hungarian political ambition, coupled with rising Albanian nationalism in the face of a declining Ottoman Empire, resulted in a concerted effort to unify the Albanian language. Ironically, the language was initially fractured and disorganized as a consequence of the prior colonization of the Albanian people. They saw no need to develop a strong written language as a consequence of the well-defined Latin and Greek languages commonly in use across the region. I suppose you can thank the Austrians for Albania’s ë, making it one of the only languages in the world to use an umlaut above the letter e. In fact, the entire language is phonetic due to the simplistic nature of the alphabet.
The Thanksgiving Equivalent
By: Jessy Liu
Accompanying the turn of the season is the sweep of Thanksgiving anticipation and spirit across the United States. Hearts fill with affection and love for family and friends; thoughts turn to the immense gratitude felt towards the tangible and intangible alike; and stomachs tune into the prospect of a golden-roasted turkey, a savory mouthful of stuffing, and the pleasant burn of apple cider. As the American holiday takes department stores, supermarkets, and homes by storm, such classic elements of Thanksgiving also beg for a closer look into the global tapestry and learn to appreciate the diversity of it all.
The Mid-Autumn Festival has found its place in history books and in millions of homes in China as one of the country’s biggest holidays. Rooted in the worship of the moon, it is believed that the festival follows the Legend of Chang’e, a popular Chinese mythology. The legend follows the protagonist Chang’e as she drinks an enchanted elixir and sacrifices her mortality and devoted marriage to prevent malicious hands from weidling the potion’s powers. As she is granted immortality and ascends to the moon to live out her days as a Goddess, the townspeople recognize her bravery and sacrifice by laying out her favorite dishes, sharing stories of her selflessness and kindness, and praying to the moon. To this day, loved ones would come together on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, under the silvery glow of the moon, to release vibrant and carefully handcrafted lanterns, share laughs, and indulge in delectable mooncakes.
The Mid-Autumn Festival serves as a reminder that across the geographical vastness and the visible and invisible divides that separates us, there remains shared elements and values that connect us all. Such resonating themes of harvest, family togetherness, and a collective spirit are echoed in Thanksgiving and its rich history of the shared gratitude and harmony found amongst seemingly unlike groups. And as the holidays approach, let us rejoice in gratitude, sanctity, and charity and live by them.
Anomaliae Latinae - The Irregularities of Latin
By: Justin Huang
Translatio linguarum non semper succedit. Plerumque, translationes exactior longae et difficiles in lectione possunt. Lingua antiqua Latinae non exceptionem est. Multa fabricationes grammaticarum habent numeros plurumissimas criteriorum, cum verbatim tulerunt, facile breves in verbis paucis Anglorum facere possunt. In editiones futuris huius periodici, paucos constructiones grammaticarum et quomodo ea ferenda est circumspiciemus!
The translation of languages doesn’t always work. Most of the time, more literal translations may sound lengthy and difficult to read. The ancient language of classical Latin is not an exception. Many grammar constructions contain an extremely large number of rules that, when translated literally, can easily be shortened with just a few English words. In future editions of this periodical, we will review some of these constructions and how they should be translated!
Patach vs. Kamatz
By: Aviv Weiss Kaplan
“Open up your Hebrew notebooks. Today we are learning about the letters מ and ם.”
The second and third graders did as they were told and started on the reading exercises.
“How can you tell the difference between the ‘ah’ vowels?” asked one student.
They were referring to the patach (and kamatz that in modern day Hebrew have the same sound. Well, here is your answer!
The presence of confusion in Hebrew vowel sounds travels back into the history of the Semitic language system. When the Phonecians developed a written phonetic script, there were 22 characters. However, the Phonecians did not develop vowel sounds. The Hebrews, in developing upon the Phonecian alphabet, used the letters ה , י, and ו to represent vowel sounds (Hoffman 23).
Many years later, as the Hebrew language continued to developed, the Tiberian Masorites created the first known version of the modern Hebrew vowel system where the patach had a long ‘a’ sound while the kamatz had a shorter ‘o’ sound (61-62), although some linguists believe it may have been the inverse (52-53). However, as the Hebrew speaking world grew, various dialects emerged that treated vowel sounds differently, like the Askenazic and Sephardic dialects. As these two and many other dialects were merged into the creation of modern Israeli Hebrew, the vowel sounds once again altered resulting in the near identical kamatz and patach sounds seen today (203).
So there is your answer. I hope you enjoyed today’s lesson, and have a great day.
References:
Hoffman, Joel M. In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language. New York University Press, 2006.
Fun Language Facts
By: Oliver Lajnwand
Did you know? In almost all languages, including most of the Semitic, Germanic, Romance, and Slavic languages, the root word for the fruit we call pineapple is ananas. However, our English word differs, because an English explorer thought the fruit looked like a pine tree. Another fun fact about pineapples: when you eat them, a powerful acid in them called bromelain eats you back!
Surprising Similarities Between Yiddish and German
By: Simon Maxwell
Despite having a measly 600,000 speakers today, Yiddish boasted a whopping 11 million native speakers at its peak in the years leading up to the Holocaust. Due to Yiddish developing in the Ashkenazi Jewish community of Central Europe (“Yiddish” in fact, means “Jewish”), the language is written with the Hebrew Alphabet. That being said, Yiddish shares many linguistic similarities with German.
This is primarily due to Jewish migration to medieval German-speaking regions of Europe. This historical migration left a mark on Yiddish, infusing it with a substantial Germanic foundation. It might be surprising to discover that despite its Semitic writing system, Yiddish is in fact classified as a West Germanic language.
A striking example of this is found in the vocabulary of Yiddish, which has a significant German influence. There are multiple cognates found throughout both languages, such as the word for table. In Yiddish, it is טיש (tish) and in German it is Tisch!
Moreover, the grammatical systems of Yiddish and German share similar foundations. One aspect of this lies in sentence construction. For instance, both Yiddish and German employ a subject-verb-object (SVO) word order as a default structure, contributing to the overall coherence and predictability in their sentences. An example of this is the following:
English Sentence: "The cat is on the mat." Yiddish Sentence: "די קאַץ איז אויף דער מאַט." (di kats iz oyf der mat). German Sentence: "Die Katze ist auf der Matte." (If you pay attention to the transliteration of the Yiddish you will notice many additional cognates to German!)
This does not mean that Yiddish and German are practically the same language written in different alphabets. In fact, the two languages harbor many differences. These distinctions primarily stem from the other languages besides High German that have influenced Yiddish. In German, nouns can change form based on their grammatical role in a sentence: "der Hund" (the dog) to "den Hund" (the dog, accusative case). Yiddish, which over its history has also been influenced by Slavic languages, does not employ this case rule. For example, the Yiddish sentence "די באַנקע איז ליינציק" (di banke iz leyntsik) translates to "The bench is empty" in English, with the use of the definite article "di" remaining constant, irrespective of the bench's grammatical role.
The languages differ again in terms of vocabulary. Many words specific to Jewish culture, such as: “an informal conversation” – Schmooze (שמועס), “small bite to eat” – Nosh (נאַשן), and “boldness” – Chutzpah (חוצפה).
The history of Yiddish has been greatly shaped by its German roots and its multi-linguistic influences, from Hebrew, to German, to Slavic ones, have created a unique language full of culture and history.
The Chaozhou Dialect of Southeast China
By Franklin Tjong
你好，我是中国人，但在印度尼西亚长大，6岁时移居美国。我将谈论我方言潮州，以及它主要关于食物的文化。潮州是广东省管辖的一部分。它靠近中国东南海。我的家人在20世纪初左右搬到了印度尼西亚。印度尼西亚大约有50万潮州人。在潮州中，当有人向你问好时 一种方式，他们都会说你吃饭没有，我觉得很奇怪，因为这个代表你现在怎么样？然而，了解食物在我家庭中的价值让我意识到在这种文化中食物的价值。当我回到印度尼西亚时，我遇到了亲戚，他们会做最香又好闻的食物，我记得他们花了很长时间来做饭食物并现给每个人。每一位客人在做饭时都帮忙做饭，孩子们也在那里帮忙做饭。因此，对食物的重视是潮州文化的很大一部分.
Hello, I am Chinese but was raised in Indonesia and moved to America when I was 6. I will be talking about my dialect, Chaozhou, and its culture, mainly about food. Chaozhou is part of the jurisdiction of the Guangdong province. It is near the southeast coast of China. My family moved to Indonesia around the early 20th century. There are about 500,000 Chaozhou people in Indonesia and about 40,000 in New York City. A way to greet someone when I grew up wasn’t hello but a phrase saying “Have you eaten yet?” I always thought it was strange for a greeting phrase to be asking if you have eaten rather than how you are. However, learning about the value of food within my family made me realize how much food was valued within this culture. When I came back to Indonesia I met with relatives who would cook the most marvelous smelling foods and I remember them taking so long to cook the food and prepare it to present to everyone. Every one of the guests helped to contribute to making meals when having dinners and even the kids were there helping with the meals. The emphasis on food was a large part of Chaozhou culture.
References:
Cheng, Chu-yuan. “Chaozhou People and Chaozhou Culture.” American Journal of Chinese Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, 1997, pp. 101–20. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44289219
你叫什么？
By: Matthew Lau
你叫什么 is Chinese for “What’s your name?” And, although my ethnicity is Chinese, it’s also one of the only phrases I know in Mandarin because I’ve recently started learning via Duolingo.
At our school, lots of students know some form of Chinese through speaking at home with their parents. In my household though, everyone speaks English with each other. My parents do know how to speak a decent amount of Chinese but are more comfortable with English, so growing up I never really learned any.
So whenever I see my grandparents, who know very little English, I can’t really communicate with them and have to rely on a relative to translate whatever it is they’re trying to tell me. Whenever someone says something in Chinese and everyone else starts laughing, I just look lost trying to figure out what was said. So whenever I hear other people talk about their own grandparents, I often think about how this seemingly large language barrier prevents me from having a close relationship with my own grandparents.
Seeing other people be able to talk to and understand each other on a deeper level does make me jealous sometimes. However, I do appreciate the benefits of having my parents be fluent in English. I’ll never have to translate and my parents can understand my work if I need help, which are things that cannot be said about every family. I’m not sure how much I’m going to learn on Duolingo but in the future I want to make more of an effort to be connected with my culture and I hope this is just one step of many in achieving that goal.
A Life Lesson
By: Benjamin Schmutter
יש לך שתי אוזניים ופה אחד. להקשיב הרבה, לדבר מעט.
You have two ears and one mouth. Listen much, speak little.
Idioms and Expressions of Latin
By: Augie Alexander
Salvete Omnes! Latin multo verbos et commas habes quod non significant quam literaliter dicunt. Anglice, multae sunt huiusmodi locutiones, sed saepe earum non attendimus ut loquentes nativi. At vero, ut qui Latinam discit, omnes eorum dictiones clarius video. Exemplum unum est 'lupum auribus tenere'. Simile est 'taurum cornibus prehendere' apud Anglos. Significat in rem periculosam incumbere, quae in momento explodere potest. Lupum auribus tenere periculosum et volatilis est.
Hello All! Latin has many words and phrases which do not mean what they literally say. In English, we have many of these expressions as well, but we often don’t pay attention to them as native english speakers. However, as someone learning latin, I see all their expressions more clearly. One example is “to hold a wolf by the ears.” This is akin to “Grabbing the bull by its horns” in English. It means to engage in something dangerous, that could explode at any moment. Holding a wolf by the ears is dangerous and volatile.
Note: some words may not be translated fully literally, but translation is interpretive and some phrases must differ slightly between English and Latin.
한글 텍스팅: 정교한 문자 문화
Korean Texting: A Sophisticated Messaging Culture
By: Samuel Lee
많은 언어들은 여러 글자, 두문자어, 약어, 그리고 다른 요약된 문법 구성으로 된 문자 문화 또는 스타일을 설립해왔다. 나이, 형식, 그리고 문맥에 따라서 천차만별인 텍스팅이라는 문화에서의 한국은 매우 정교하고 계속 진화하는 것의 아주 완벽한 예시다.
한국에서 문자를 할때 가장 흔하게 쓰이는 두문자는 첫 자/모음을 띄어내서 붙인 줄임말들이다. 이것들은 보통 현재 대화의 문맥에 맞춰 뜻을 전하게 하는 한 단어를 표현한다. 예를 들면, 상대방에게 동의하는 의사를 존대하지 않고 가볍게 표현하고 싶을때 “ㄹㅇ” 을 쓸 수 있다. 이 줄임말은 “레알” 이라는 외래어에서 유래됐는데, 이 단어는 본질적으로 미국에서 쓴다면 “for real” 이나 “I know, right” 같은 뜻이 된다. “ㄹㅇ” 과 같은 또 자주 쓰이는 줄임말은 “ㅇㅇ” 이 있는데 이것은 상대적으로 더 간단한 뜻인데, “응응” 을 줄여서 이또한 비공식적으로 쓰이는 동의를 하는 표현이다. 사실, 한국 문자에선, “ㄹㅇ” 이나 “ㅇㅇ” 과 같은 간단한 자음이나 모음으로만 형성돼있는 것들은 보통 친구들이나 친근하게 대할 수 있는 상대방에게만 쓴다.
문자 소통에서만 쓰이는 거의 모든 줄임말이나 두문자는 존댓말이나 예의바르게 쓰이지는 않지만 몇몇 메시징 스타일들은 어른들 사이에서도 더욱 접근성있고 친화적으로 다가가기 위할 때 자주 쓰인다. 일본어와 같이, 한국어도 존댓말은 사람의 명칭에만 붙이는게 아닌, 모든 문장에서 문법적으로 맞춰 쓰인다. 문자를 할 때에도 존댓말은 당연히 쓰이지만 특정한 기호나 글자를 붙여 더 공손하거나 친근한 분위기를 만들 수 있다. 예로는, “ㅎㅎ” 을 문장 끝에 붙여서 사용할 수 있지만 (정말 감사함니다ㅎㅎ), 한국의 텍스팅 문화가 매우 흥미로운 측면은 언어의 쓰임이 셀 수 없다는 것이다. 특정 글자들로 정반대의 뉘앙스나 톤을 표출할 수도 있고, 글자 수, 문장에서의 위치, 글자간의 간격, 순서, 기타 등등 에 따라 전하고자 하는 의미가 아주 다양해진다. 사실, 어떨 때에는 존댓말을 쓰는 경우에서도 줄임말이나 여러 표현들의 쓰임으로 부정적이고 무례한 의미로 전달할 수도 있다.
비록 한국어는 세계적으로 매우 간략하고 쉬운 언어로 판별되고 있지만, 문자에서의 한국어는 하나의 자음이나 모음으로도 여러개의 문장들의 의미를 압축해 전달할 수 있다. 한국뿐만이 아닌 문자 문화 자체는 얕보거나 무시해도 되는 항목이 절대 아닌, 시간이 지나면 지날수록 바뀌고 진화하는 텍스팅이라는 따른 체계의 언어는 더욱 더 이해하고 접해야하는 중요한 종목이다.
Most languages have cultivated a texting style/culture where people generally use characters, acronyms, abbreviations, and other shortened grammatical structures specifically used for texting. These abbreviations can vary by age, formality, and context. Messaging in Korea is a perfect example of a unique texting culture that is a sophisticated system and has been evolving in multiple trends.
The most common way a certain meaning in texting is abbreviated in Korean is by precisely condensed acronyms. These often refer to a single word to convey the intended purpose within the context of the conversation. For instance, “ㄹㅇ” is used when one is to agree on something in an extremely informal way. This acronym directly comes from the word “레알”, which essentially is used in the same context when people say “for real” or “I know, right” here in the United States. Another commonly used acronym is “ㅇㅇ” for “응응” which is basically saying “yea yea,” which is also in informal circumstances. In fact, a general rule is that all Korean acronyms that use simple one-letter characters are informal.
While most Korean abbreviations are used among friends informally, some texting styles are still used among adults and are sometimes even preferred to show politeness/friendliness (while sustaining a formal context). Korean, like Japanese, uses honorifics not only for a person’s prefix but also in every sentence in multiple grammatical forms. While honorifics are obviously used in messages, symbols are often added to create a more affable atmosphere. One way of achieving this is by adding “ㅎㅎ” at the end of a phrase or sentence to give it a more pleasant approach (e.g., 정말 감사합니다ㅎㅎ - Thank you very much). However, a very interesting aspect of Korean texting culture is that the language can change in a truly infinite number of ways. People can create a different nuance or tone in a sentence using a unique combination of characters. For example, the number of characters, location in a phrase, spacing, and order are some of the changes that people can make while texting. As a matter of fact, even formal abbreviations can be put in different contexts or styles in such a way that it makes the sentence express strongly negative meanings while still written in honorifics.
Korean, although being a relatively simple and concise language, has an expansive texting language where small letters can encompass the message of a series of sentences. The culture of texting, not only in Korea, isn’t something to be undermined and certainly shouldn’t be ignored. As time passes, so does the culture of messaging, and it is unquestionably an interesting topic to explore.
Vox Discipulorum - Bronx High School of Science 50th Anniversary (5:14)
