Hollosi Information eXchange /HIX/
HIX HUNGARY 308
Copyright (C) HIX
1995-05-12
Új cikk beküldése (a cikk tartalma az író felelőssége)
Megrendelés Lemondás
1 Hunglish (mind)  23 sor     (cikkei)
2 Re: *** HUNGARY *** #304 (mind)  6 sor     (cikkei)
3 Re: HUNGLISH?? (mind)  31 sor     (cikkei)
4 apartment (mind)  6 sor     (cikkei)
5 Re: Hunglish (mind)  46 sor     (cikkei)

+ - Hunglish (mind) VÁLASZ  Feladó: (cikkei)

Hi folks --
I've been lurking for quite a while, but *finally*, a substantive discussion
about something interesting!  I've grown tired of the same old disputes.

Somebody in the linguistics field correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that
Hunglish is an example of a pidgin, the product of two (or more) languages
that come into contact.  It's the natural evolution process of languages,
although the pidgin itself is not a language in the formal use of the word.

English has gone through an enormous amount of growth through borrowing:
"coyote", "boutique", and "sushi", just to name a very few examples.  It
has not shown any sign of disappearing as a language, but the same fear and
arguments have been raised about the incorporation of Black English,
computer and technical slang, and the appearance of pidgins when groups of
immigrants retain their native languages.

Yeah, it's a little scary to see such a wonderful language as Hungarian
begin to change, but the economic and political success of a country depends
on its ability to interact with other nations.  Let's hope that the Academy
does a good job of protecting the integrity of the language, but I hope that
Hungarian is able to be as vibrant and dynamic as English has been.

Scott
+ - Re: *** HUNGARY *** #304 (mind) VÁLASZ  Feladó: (cikkei)

Hi guys!!
 I'm looking for someone from Hungary to play chess with .
 If anyone interested,please reply.
 Also seeking Hungarian friends to communicate with.
 Sincerely,
 Charles Kamaras from Seattle Washington.
+ - Re: HUNGLISH?? (mind) VÁLASZ  Feladó: (cikkei)

On Thu, 11 May 1995, Susannah Marits wrote:

> I tink it is a disgrace! Even to talk about oit as a new
> language!!!!Ungarian is such a unique language any awful distortion as
> such is criminal. I suggest we spend our energy on preserving the
> language as it was meant to be and correct the people who use such
> mass communication problems as you are referring to
> Susanna
>

I agree with Susanna...

I speak spanish, french, hungarian and a little english...
Even when I speak with my family in "hungspanish" I think
hungarian it' s  the more complete language...
.. and I wish to know it better... Because all my life I passed in Costa
Rica and I haven't the oportunity to speak it out of my family, maybe
you in the "United" States have more connections with "hungarian
speakers" and you can practice it if you want...

The language it' s  more than words, it's a vision of the world and
the past of a culture. Hunglish, hungspanish aren't languages for me, they
are totally spontaneous and they were born by the circumstances, they are
practical... That's all...


        :)  Katalin Duran Burian  e-mail:   :)

                :)   San Jose, COSTA RICA   :)

                           *   *   *
+ - apartment (mind) VÁLASZ  Feladó: (cikkei)

Apartment for rent in Pest, IX district very close to the Nagyvarad ter
and #3 metro line. It is a sixth floor apartment in a modern bulding. It is
46 quarter meters. Has kit,dining area,living room,bedroom-study,toilet,
bathroom, balcony front and back. Phone, washer, hot water heat, and
furnished. Available about early to mid-July 1995. Rent is $325 USD per
month.
+ - Re: Hunglish (mind) VÁLASZ  Feladó: (cikkei)

Dear fellow listmembers,

Not being a linguist, or a Hungarian for that matter, I can't resist the
urge to respond to the "Hunglish" thread.

It seems to me that there are two things going on that influence the
reactions on the list so far:  one is the natural mixing of languages
that takes place when immigrants enter a new linguistic environment and
it begins to influence the way they speak in the language of the "old
country" -- the Czech author Josef Skvorecky, who spent many years in
Toronto working with his wife Zdenka Salivarova (I think, my memory isn't
all that trustworthy) publishing books by authors who couldn't get published
in the old socialist paradise, has some wonderful bits in several of his
novels (I'm thinking particularly about _Engineer of Human Souls_) where
he makes some hilarious use of Czech as spoken by North American Czechs.
Of course it's nearly impossible to capture that effect in translations.
But this is a natural thing and part of the process of immigration,
assimilation and assertion of identity.  It won't affect the survival of the
language as a whole, only whether this particular immigrant or group of
immigrants will go on speaking it (the third generation usually returns
to learn their "mother tongue" in its standard literary version, or at
least that was the theory of Veblen at the turn of the century).

The other thing is the process of influence on languages in their own "home"
environments by another, powerful and dominant language.  On the one hand, we
can say it's bad, it's corrupting the language, but on the other hand, if you
look at the language of our ancestors, it's obvious (no matter which one we
mean) that precisely that has always been happening--in one century it's
the Romans, in another the French, in another the Germans, now it's the
American form of English.  But it has always seemed to me that _most_
well-meant efforts at linguistic purism will fail if the people who speak the
language find the "offensive" terminology more convenient, expressive,
or whatever.

I don't particularly like the flooding in of English (and to a lesser extent
other languages) that I see here in Prague, either, but I can't really see
what to "do about it" except perhaps try to speak better Czech myself.  Or
go back to that pub and work harder on the Prague argot...  Maybe it's just
because my kids have finally forced me to see Jurassic Park, but I think
nature will find a way to keep us all from getting to be too much like each
other.  It seems to prefer variety...

Sincerely,

Hugh Agnew


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