TOaccustomed to our talking, we ignore that in many languages the words almost do not exist and we express ourselves with whistles (in some areas of the Canary Islands), drumming or lip smacking called “clicks” (in Africa). Greetings are very important for certain languages. For the Dogon (they live in Mali) confusing good morning with good evening is equivalent to an insult. In other languages, polite formulas are the basis of civil coexistence. In China, etiquette dictates that you must refuse an offer of food at least three times before accepting. And speaking of rudeness, just shortening or lengthening a vowel is enough to make embarrassing gaffes. An example: in English the words bitch (a typical insult) and beach have a similar sound.
“Around the world in 80 languages”, a journey with Veronica Repetti
The seven thousand languages of the world are full of contradictions and odditiesbut they are a mirror of the culture of the peoples who speak them. An anthropological treatise could be written based on how one insults one another or says thank you. Instead Veronica Repettilinguist at the Laboratory of Language and Cognition of the University of Genoa, on social media @linguisticattivatakes us on a journey to “Around the world in 80 languages“through personal experiences, with scientific rigor but also a lot of irony.
Swear words, a fascinating universe
On Instagram he has almost 50 thousand followers, all crazy about languages. How did dissemination on social media begin?
«On TikTok. The first successful series was about swearing. I started posting the videos for fun, thinking they were intended for professionals. Instead I discovered that many were intrigued. I sensed the potential.”
Speaking of swear words, his essay offers a compendium of them.
«Yes, it’s an intriguing topic. My favorite is a Hungarian expression, nyitott szájjal szaladt a faszerdőbewhich however is better not translated here.”
Whistles, clicks, swear words and greetings that can offend: the linguist Veronica Repetti takes you on a journey through the oddities of human language
The most beautiful word? Wanderlust
How many languages does he speak?
«Italian, Polish (half of my family is Polish), English and Spanish. I have taken courses in Swahili and other languages but I don’t master them.”
The most beautiful word?
«The German wanderlust, which indicates the unstoppable desire to travel and which inspired the whole book. Many are in danger of extinction.”
Why do languages die?
«There are languages now spoken by only a few dozen people, such as Kasaya, in North America. In fifty years the seven thousand languages that exist today will be halved. It’s part of a natural process. They die when they are no longer fit to meet the requirements of their speakers. One of the main reasons is globalization. Many previously closed cultural groups have opened up and their language has lost importance for the community.”
The schwa: a neutral vowel?
What origin does the “schwa” have? Is it really a neutral vowel that indicates neither the feminine nor the masculine gender?
«It is a grapheme borrowed from the international phonetic alphabet in which the vowels are arranged on a sort of trapezium which indicates the degree of opening of the mouth for pronunciation. The schwa is right in the center and for this reason it was arbitrarily selected and associated with the idea of neutrality. For us Italians it works because it is a sound that does not exist in our alphabet, but is actually very widespread in English, Russian, Korean…”
In some languages, such as Yimas (Papua New Guinea), there are eleven genders, Swahili has fourteen. Do you think that Italian will also adapt to gender fluidity?
«From a social point of view, the masculine and feminine of our language are inadequate, it’s true. But from a grammatical point of view I don’t see an evolutionary direction that suggests the emergence of a third or fourth gender.”
Gender fluidity: will Italian change?
Is written language flexible? Can you accommodate colloquial terms?
«Yes, it is totally at the mercy of the oral language which drives the changes, even if they are sometimes rather slow. At the beginning of 2000, in elementary school grammars “he” was indicated as the third person. Now it is no longer used, we have “she” or “him”. The way they apologize in the West and in the East is different.”
What does it tell us about their respective peoples?
«In the West the individual is at the centre, apologizing is perceived as difficult because you have to admit that you were wrong. “I’m sorry,” for example, focuses on personal sorrow. In the East they prefer community life and asking for forgiveness is not deplorable, on the contrary, it is normal in order to live in harmony. The Japanese term sumimasen can simultaneously mean “sorry” and “thank you”. It is used for example in a restaurant when a waiter brings a dish. We apologize to express regret for the inconvenience caused.”