Edward Curtis, Photographer of the American Indian

During his long life, the photographer Edward Curtis (1868-1952) created perhaps the most authentic and certainly the largest photographic record of the American Indian. He took more than 40,000 photographs of Native Americans, determined not just to record, but also to document his subjects.

The son of a minister, Curtis grew up in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Fascinated with photography, he dropped out of school in the sixth grade and built his own camera. At 17, he apprenticed with a photographer in St. Paul. 

After some years, the pace of Curtis’s life began to pick up. In 1892, he married Clara Phillips; the first of their four children, Harold, was born the following year. When his parents moved to Seattle 1896, Curtis and his family went with them.

Fate struck. Curtis photographed his first Native American, Princess Angeline, daughter of Chief Sealth of Seattle (1895). A few years later, he was invited to join the Harriman Alaska Expedition, and after that, he photographed the Blackfoot people of Montana (1900).

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By this point, Curtis had made thousands of images of Indians, and financier J.P. Morgan offered to publish his work. The product of this collaboration, The North American Indian, was issued in twenty volume and contained more than 1,500 photographs. The final volume was published in 1930.

“The information that is to be gathered … respecting the mode of life of one of the great races of mankind, must be collected at once or the opportunity will be lost.”

–Edward Curtis, preface to The North American Indian

Curtis was an ethnographer, dedicated to recording the Indian’s way of life before it vanished; in addition to his photographs, he made wax cylinder recordings of Indian music and language, wrote down tribal folklore and history, and noted down facts of everyday life such as food, clothing, recreation, and funeral customs. Not infrequently, these materials are our only surviving information.

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Such devotion to his calling, however, came at a cost to Curtis. In 1917, his wife divorced him. He was not a good businessman and was arrested once for failure to pay alimony. In 1924, he sold an original ethnographic film, The Land of the Headhunters for $1,500; the film had cost him $20,000 to make.

Despite these troubles, Curtis continued his work. Much of the material he produced is now part of a special archive at the Library of Congress.

His work remains an astounding gift to the American people.

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Photos: Top: Edward Curtis; Middle: Princess Angeline; Bottom: Apache, Morning Bath. All photos: Edward Curtis, WikiCmns; Public Domain.

Neologisms–The Red Dragon!

One should never underestimate a dragon, and especially a Dragon of Grammar. Now RT must confess that when he listed out the original Dragons of Grammar, he made a serious oversight and failed to mention the Red Dragon, the Dragon of Neologisms. Personal Circumstances Be Damned! External Reality Be Burned to a Crisp! As the Red Dragon has been reminding me, the oversight really ought to be corrected.

& RT can see that he needs a break from the sturm und drang of his recent existence; so, without further ado…

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A neologism is a new word, a word that has been recently coined. Neologisms, like dandelion seeds, happen more often than one might think. Here are some examples:

* radar (1941); warp speed (1966); meme (1976); alien space bats (1998); political correctness (1970); prequel (1958); and–last but not least–Brangelina (2005).

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How are often are neologisms generated? Without getting too scientific, RT would venture that new words (and new phrases and grammatical structures) are created all the time in the spontaneous working of the mind to convey itself to others. It may even be that this spontaneous creation is a sign of mental health and energy.

So when is a neologism accepted as a word and included in (at at least some) dictionaries? The short answer is: it is accepted when it is frequently and widely used. Some words, for instance, warp-speed, doubtless found themselves almost immediately recognized–such is the power of the TV. Others quickly come into use in a certain community–as Brangelina doubtless did in the entertainment industry–but never gain usage in the broader community of speakers. Many people simply never run across the word. Others will be accepted for a time and then fade away–anyone remember guesstimate?

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It may be that some neologisms are better at conveying meaning than others. How do we distinguish the pick of the litter(s)? Some suggestions follow:

1) A neologism should fill a need or gap in communication. Radar is a good example–it names a new technology that previously was labeled with a string of words: Radio Detection and Ranging (acronym: RADAR).

2) A neologism should express the speaker’s emotional frame of mind: “Hey, he ripped me off!” You can feel just how angry the victim of robbery is…and it just plain sounds better than “he robbed me!”

3) A neologism should be easier to pronounce than the word(s) currently used to convey a thought: for instance, zeitgeist for spirit of the times or Xerox for photocopy.

4) A neologism should be eloquent: it should enrich the sound of the language. For instance, ansible.

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So there it is, folks: our lastest (and did i mention that neologisms sometimes originate as mistakes, in this case for latest) addition to the Dragons of Grammar. A final note: Wikipedia has more information about word formation.    RT

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Image: Dragon Rouge; WikiCmns; Public Domain.

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Animals–the Roots of Language

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Searching for the origins of human language has taken RT to some amazing places recently.

For instance, what about animal intelligence? Reading around has left me with the impression that animals are smarter than I had suspected.

Here is a list of the cognitive abilities that animals have demonstrated:

1) object recognition (the ability to pick out an object in an animal’s field of vision)

2) problem solving (the ability to use cause-and-effect reasoning to achieve goals);

3) tool-use; 

4) language (the ability to communicate discrete concepts, instructions, and observations to other members of the same species);

5) cultural adaptation (the ability to create behaviors unique to a group of animals);

6) political bargaining (the ability to create alliances between certain members of a species to gain control over other members of the species) ;

7) an ability to count;

8) self-recognition; and even

9) ethical behavior.

Golly, gosh, and gee! That’s a lot of thinking going on. And many species have demonstrated at least some of these abilities, including: mammals (especially primates), birds, ants, and bees are among the animals that have shown remarkable abilities to learn, communicate, and cooperate.

And in case any of the cognitive abilities listed above seem too basic to be taken as signs of intelligence, the struggles that computer specialists have had in creating robots that mimic even the most widespread mental functions, such as touch and object recognition, tell a different story. None of these skills emerged overnight.

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But, truth be told, not many species demonstrate mental capacities that truly resemble our own. The short list: cetaceans, the great apes (chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, and bonobo); and perhaps, the elephants.

Some of these animals have mastered vocabularies that include hundreds of words. And I make no extraordinary claims here–after all, a human language contains about a million words. The question then becomes: what are the differences between our conversations and talking with, say, a chimpanzee?

RT says: stay tuned for the next installment on this.

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Photo: Bottlenose Dolphin; NASA; WikiCmns; Public Domain.

Poetry Tips from Brian Turner

folks: great poetry advice from New Zealand….RT

 

Poetry Tips from Brian Turner.

Mexico!! (& its Native Languages)

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Yes, Mexico is home to the second-largest number of native-language speakers in the hemisphere (Peru has the largest number, at 10 mil speakers). Here are some of the Mexican stats:

• 5.4% of the population speaks a native language (6 mil spkrs total)
• Nahuatl is the most widely spoken native language (1.45 mil spkrs)
• Other widely spoken native languages: Yukatek Maya (700 k spkrs) and the Mixtec and Zapotec languages (both more than 400 k speakers)
• The National Institute of Indigenous Languages recognizes 68 linguistic groups and 364 specific varieties of the native languages
• Since its promulgation in 2003, The Law of Indigenous Language Rights has recognized these languages as national languages, enjoying the same status as Spanish in the areas where they are spoken

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Wow! And the Dragons of Grammar have volunteered to give us a bit more information about Mexico’s indigeneous languages: in northern Mexico, languages belong to one of three language families–Algonquian, Yuman-Cochimi, and Uto-Aztecan. In southernmost Mexico, the Mayan family of languages is predominant. And just to connect some of the dots in a single case–Mayan is a language family isolate, unconnected to other known language families. Mayan languages are agglutinative and polysynthetic. Verbs are marked for aspect or tense, the person of the subject, the person of the object (in the case of transitive verbs), and for plurality of person.

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Wow! All is not tea-parties in Dragon Land!   And a final note: according to AILLA, most indigenous languages in Latin America are endangered.

RT

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Map/Chart: Map of Mexican languages with More than 100,000 Speakers. WikiCmns; Public Domain.

Response to Wordle 45

folks: another fine poem from Margo Roby….    RT

 

Response to Wordle 45.

Hangul, Literacy, and Culture–What an Alphabet Can Do For You

King Sejong the Great

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I might be skipping ahead a bit folks, but I think it’s time to introduce you to what many people consider to be the world’s most effective alphabet: Hangul.

But before I launch into a description of this alphabet’s extraordinary history and many virtues, a word of warning is in order for English speakers. Hangul was designed for speakers of Korean, a tonal language situated pretty much at the opposite end of the language spectrum from English. What makes Hangul important for the English-speaking world is 1) the story of its creation; 2) its approach to representing the sounds of language; and 3) the hope that its logical design and gradual success might serve as a model in creating an alphabet that can be used to write the major world languages, in particular, English, Chinese, Spanish, French, and Russian.

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1) History. Let’s start with the story of Hangul’s creation. King Sejong (r. 1418-1450) faced a not-unfamiliar situation in East Asia: an extremely low literacy rate resulting from the use of the Hanja, the Chinese character set, which arrived with Buddhism in Korea in the 7th century A.D. Sejong decided to create an alphabet for writing Korean that anyone could learn, with the goals of making literacy universal and strengthening Korea’s cultural identity. Overcoming opposition from court officials who did not want to lose the power their literacy gave them, the king summoned his Hall of Worthies–the eminent scholars of his time–and together the king and Hall devised the twenty-eight letters of the new alphabet, publishing the definitive text on Hangul in 1446.

The alphabet was an immediate success, allowing the poorly educated and women to read and write for the first time. But, needless to say, this social revolution prompted a backlash after Sejong’s death in 1450. Confucian scholars fought fiercely to retain the privileges their monopoly on writing had given them, and in 1504, the use of Hangul was forbidden by royal decree. The Hanja were reinstated as the sole legitimate writing system.

But at this point something remarkable happened: in defiance of the official ban, the use of Hangul among the educated class flourished. Starting in the late 1500′s, two entirely new genres of poetry, gasa and sijo, developed, and the novel written in Hangul became a major literary form. Although the use of Hangul among ordinary people disappeared, the literacy rate may nonetheless have increased, since Hangul is extremely easy to learn.

Finally, in the late 19th century, Hangul was reinstated for official use, and during the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945), the use of Hangul was encouraged as a means of separating Korea from Chinese influence. Although Japanese became the official language, a mixed Hangul-Hanja script was taught in the colonial school system; education, moreover, was mandatory, and for the first time the use of Hangul letters became universal in Korea.

Soon after independence in 1945, an official Hangul orthography was adopted, and today in both Koreas Hangul has replaced the Hanja as the common writing system.

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2) The Hangul Alphabet. Hold onto your hats, folks: the alphabet that King Sejong and his Hall of Worthies created is remarkable by any standard. In its current form, Hangul has 24 letters, of which 14 are consonants and 10 vowels.

a) Hangul is a partially featural alphabet; that is, the shapes of its letters (or letterforms) reflect the sounds they represent. It is the only featural script in widespread use.

b) Consonants are classified by the vocal organ that produces them: molar (velar), tongue (coronal), lip (bilabial), incisor (sibilant), throat (guttural), and light lip (labiodental). The letterform of each of these classes is based on a shape that is meant to resemble the vocal organ involved, with additional strokes being added to indicate the particular letter’s modification(s) from the model/basic shape.

Other consonant’ featural characteristics include a vertical top stroke over a letter to indicate a plain stop; the nonstops lack the stroke.

c) Sejong and his scholars designed the letterforms of Hangul vowels themselves; they are based on just three symbols: a dot (representing the sun), a horizontal stroke (representing the earth), and a vertical stroke (representing man). Vowel harmony was an important consideration in the design of the vowels, though VH is not as important in spoken Korean as it was during Sejong’s period.

d) Letters in Hangul that are pronounced as a syllable are not written consecutively, but are rather grouped together in blocks. The syllable blocks have three advantages: the letters within them are arranged in the block in an order reflecting the sequence of sounds in the syllable;  the blocks save space in writing and printing; and the blocks are beautiful.

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Of course, there’s more to the alphabet than the brief description above covers; to get an better idea of the script, study this chart of jamo, or Hangul letters:

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3) Modeling a Future Universal Alphabet on Hangul. A writing reform based on the development of Hangul would go far towards  increasing literacy and bringing cultures across the globe closer together. Here are some of the Hangul principles that one might use to create this alphabet:

a) A strict adherence to phonetic letters;

b) A letterform design that reflects that vocal organs used in producing the sound;

c) A uniform method of marking the same kind of modification to a class’s basic letterform;

d) A logical arrangement of the letters by class; and

e) The continued use of current alphabets until their use become burdensome.

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Photos: Top: Public Statue of King Sejong in Seoul, Korea. Author: David Hepworth. WikiCmns. CC 2.0 Generic. Bottom: Papers printed with Hangul letters. Author: jared. WikiCmns. CC 2.0 Generic.

Seven Ingredients of Good Writing

It’s always the right time to brush up on the basics…

 

Seven Ingredients of Good Writing.

Tea Time with the Dragons of Grammar (A Drama)

Tea Time with the Dragons of Grammar

(A Romantical Comedy in Three Acts)

Just when you thought the Dragons of Grammar couldn’t get any sillier, here we are to prove you wrong. To be sure, there will be a certain element of competition (and perhaps even a little back-scratching) in the conversation that follows, but all the dragons have promised to be on their best manners, so we can expect to see more cucumber sandwiches perched precariously on claws than dead-dragon looks (and if you don’t know what a DDL is, how lucky for you! )

A. Our Mise-en-Scene

So where were we? Ah yes, imagine we’re inside a large, airy cave with a view–a dramatic one, of the ocean and exotic lands far away. Next, let’s reintroduce our company of grammarian daredevils: 1) Morphology (the Chocoholic Dragon); 2) Syntax (the Aviator Dragon); 3) Phonology (the Absent-Minded Dragon); 4) Phonetics (the Dragon with a Tape-Recorder); 5) Semantics (the Acupuncturist); and 6) Pragmatics (the Fuzzy Dragon).

And lest any of our readers have (gasp!) forgotten the Dragons’ respective bailiwicks, here they are: a) Morphology: the classification of word- and language-types; b) Syntax: the construction of sentences and languages; c) Phonology: the link between sound and meaning; d) Phonetics: the mechanics of language; e) Semantics: the shades of meaning; and f) Pragmatics: the real-world approach to language, or the poetry of language).

B. Act One: A Critical Question!

Our dragons are all seated in a circle, each holding his (or her!) cup of tea. A large, elaborate oak coffee-table sits in the center of the circle; on the table is an ornate Victorian tea-service, including scones, frittatas (a modern concession), six very large porcelain pots of tea, and enough cookies to give even an active sweet-tooth second thoughts. Morphology (or Morfilene) is wearing PJs and a bathrobe, with curlers in her hair and a large box of Godiva chocolates on her lap; Syntax (or Capt. Sopwith)  is wearing a leather aviator jacket, a white silk scarf, and a pair of goggles; Phonology (or Prof. GrumpyChuckle) is wearing a tweed jacket, a large pair of round glasses, a rumpled white shirt with a rather natty plaid bow-tie, and has red string tied around one finger–he is supposed to be our process monitor!!); Phonetics (or Ranger Eagle-Ear) is dressed in a no-nonsense khaki uniform and dark-brown field-hat; Semantics (or Dr. Silverneedle) is wearing light-blue scrubs, sandals, and a yellow ribbon in her dark hair); and Pragmatics (or Ms. CoolStuff) is wearing designer jeans, a mohair sweater, and bangle earrings. (Next to GrumpyChuckle is an enormous standing gong).

1. RT starts the ball rolling by asking: How are the Dragons of Grammar related to each other? A sensitive question this, and accompanied by many an arched eyebrow, many a set of pursed lips. No one wants to be the first to make a comment, and some minutes pass before Ranger Eagle-Ear pipes up and says: “It all starts with a sound! The important thing is to have a tape-recorder with you.” Capt. Sopwith snorts at the remark and says, “Hogwash! You must have a plan first, a plan!” Things look like they might degenerate into a shouting match, but Ms. Coolstuff intervenes with a bright smile and “Get over yourselves! The man didn’t ask us who was first; he wanted to know how we’re related.” Sopwith and Eagle-Ear momentarily look indisposed (having failed to think of a sharp retort), and then the group sinks back into silence.

2. At length, Prof. GrumpyChuckle restarts the conversation with “By gosh and golly, there is no real distinction between us; we exist as a team, a department, everyone acting in harmony.” Several Bronx cheers greet this remark, and GrumpyChuckle reminds the dragons that this is supposed to be a polite conversation. More Bronx cheers.

3. A fragile silence follows, soon broken by Morfilene, who says, “What you are obviously failing to see is that grammar is An Art, involving taste and the ability to understand distinctions, say, the difference between a Royal Coconut Bon-Bon and a Cherry Explosion Truffle.” Morfilene temporarily disappears behind puffs of steam blown at her by the others (who want some of the chocolates she is so zealously hoarding).

Indeed, tempers are beginning to fray, so RT thinks it the better part of valor to call a time-out. The curtain descends.

C. Act Two: A Desperate Duel!

The curtain rises on our dragons engrossed in an appalling spectacle: Eagle-Eye and Sopwith are dueling with sabres; they have offended each other’s honor, and as gentlemen dragons, they must fight to the death! All eyes are rivetted on the pair as they dance around each other, assuming threatening poses and exchanging DDLs. Then Eagle-Eye dashes in and scores a direct hit! Green dragon blood dribbles out from Sopwith circles round and slashes EE’s arm. But it is too late; EE takes his sabre in his left hand and rushes at Sopwith, slashing away. Sopwith is overwhelmed, hit multiple times, and crys out “Forsooth! I am struck a grievious blow!” before falling to the ground. But GrumpyChuckle saves the day, banging on his gong so loud that EE’s ears explode with ringing, he loses balance, and falls to the floor, unconscious. Silverneedle (who has always had a crush on Sopwith) rushes to his side, and before long her magic needles have revived him. Morfilene (who has always had passionate feelings for EE), feeds him her secret hemp-and-soybean bon-bons, which heal his ears of all hurt.

Bravo, GrumpyChuckle! The curtain descends.

D. Act Three: All is Fair in Love and Food!

Our curtain rises on a tragical scene–our dragons are divided into two camps, one on either side of the stage. The tea table and service are gone, as are Morfilene’s chocolates.

RT’s final question: If you had a choice, which would you rather do: go to a lavish banquet or read a book on grammar?

An uproar ensures, as dragons raise their hands, jump up and down, and make faces at the opposing side–the sole exception being Morfilene, who rolls her eyeballs. At last she jumps up and shouts down everyone else. “Where are my chocolates! I want my chocolates!”

In response, Eagle-Eye roars out: “Balderdash! Why are you worried about food when more important matters are at stake?”

But now CoolStuff is getting angry: “Why do dragons waste time on duels? If we change grammar, we can change the way people think and get rid of this nonsense !” To which Eagle-Eye huffs and puffs and says: “And how are we going to do that?” GrumpyChuckle then proceeds to bang on his gong, an enormous sound, and everyone sits down.

By way of reward, GC waves to unseen lizard helpers, and they run onto the stage with the table, service, and a new supply of tea, sandwiches, cookies–and chocolates! A few satisfied minutes follow as the dragons sip and munch away. Then Silverneedle gets bored and starts throwing crumbs at Sopwith (he never does pay any attention to her!). Sopwith responds with a volley of strawberries, and before GrumpyChuckle can do anything, the tea party has degenerated into a food fight. As four of the dragons chase each other around the room, Morfilene holds on tightly to her chocolates and GrumpyChuckle bangs on his gong. Exeunt the four dragons stage left,  followed by GrumpyChuckle and Morfilene.

Finis

(and the Dragons of Grammar will be back to provide further insights–and settle their differences)

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Photos: Top:  Tea Colors; WikiCmns; User, Haneburger; Public Domain. Bottom: Tea Cup With Dragon Motif; WikiCmns; User: Yunomi; Public Domain.

Fibby

 

form with a twist (and a photo hard as the year’s death)…bravo to Emma!

Fibby.