Further Comments from my Linguistics Course (English)

So far, I think you've all added some really good contributions to this discussion, but I'm a little disappointed that not more of you caught on to the very different ways those who speak Mohawk and those who speak English view their world.

There are two concepts which I often share with my language students: Crossing the Bridge & Parallel but Incongruous Linguistic Universes.

Crossing the Bridge: this is a term I learned during my early years of learning Welsh and being, albeit marginally, involved in Welsh and Welsh language politics. Back in the 80's there was a movement in Wales called "Croesi'r Bont," or Crossing the Bridge. This idea was used to demonstrate how non-Welsh speakers could cross the bridge to the Welsh speaking world with time and practice. I remember Welsh Tutor John Albert Evans describing people in our class in relationship to the bridge (much to the glee of my own ego, I was described as having already crossed it!) Other students were described as setting foot on the bridge, or halfway across, etc. I tell my own students about this bridge and explain to them that when they finally do it, when they finally master their chosen language well enough to function comfortably in their new language, that they have now crossed a bridge to somewhere new...

...to a Parallel but Incongruous Linguistic Universe. No matter how close two languages may be, say French and English, the perception of everything shifts when you move from one to the other. You really do "see" the universe differently while wearing French colored glasses as opposed to English colored ones, and vice-versa. The same is true for any language. There are whole ideas, concepts, from the mundane to the profound that differ wildly from one language to the other.

It is indeed true what Noam Chomsky claims about language, that all human languages are equal, at least theoretically. In practice they do not exchange relevant concepts that are unique and different between them to make each complete. It is not just the concepts (semantics) however, but also the syntax, morphology and pragmatics that give each language a different perspective, each totally unique. As hard as it is to imagine, but when I'm in Wales, speaking Welsh all day, everyday, my universe is Welsh. China has a Welsh accent (there are Welsh speakers there having Welsh thoughts about it!). Quantum Physics flows like poetry through ancient concepts of the natural world, even if the math behind it is no easier in Welsh than in English (but in Welsh I get to talk about my numbers in base ten or base twenty, or for fun mix the two systems up!). World politics are colored by millenia old Celtic concepts of federation, tribal allegiance, freedom and fair play. It is not the world that I occupy in English, and because none of you speaks Welsh, you will never really understand what I mean unelss one day you do. However, some of you have crossed bridges into English or other languages, and perhaps, if you're proficient enough, and you're sensitive enough, you will perceive these linguistic differences in perception. French, Japanese, English, Mandarin, Wolof, Mohawk, Latin, Russian, Arabic, and all the other languages of the Earth occupy the same space and time, but do not share the same reality.

If you get a chance, go back and read the chapter on Mohawk again, and see if you can begin to appreciate what this means in relation to how Mohawk perceives reality.

Hen Ferchetan (English / Welsh)

Wow another great old song, and one with which I can so empathize! The term hen ferchetan in Welsh means a woman who never married; it does not mean that she goes to the grave a virgin...

Hen Ferchetan
(Old Maid)

Hen ferchetan wedi colli'i chariad
(An old maid lost her lover)
Ffol-di rol-di rol-lol ffol-di rol-di ro
Cael un arall, dyna oedd ei bwriad
(To get another one was her plan)
Ffol-di rol-di rol-lol ffol-di rol-di ro
Ond nid oedd un o lancie'r pentre
(But there wasn't one of the village boys )
Ffol-di rol-dol-di rol-di ro
Am briodi Lisa fach yr Hendre
(who wanted to marry Lisa fach yr Hendre)
Ffol-di rol-di rol-lol ffol-di rol-di ro

Hen ferchetan sydd yn dal i dreio
(So the old maid keeps on trying)
Ffol-di rol-di rol-lol ffol-di rol-di ro
Gwisgo lase sidan ac ymbincio
(All dolled up in satin lace and make-up)
Ffol-di rol-di rol-lol ffol-di rol-di ro
Ond er bod brân i frân yn rhywle
(But eventhough every raven finds his mate somewhere)
Ffol-di rol-dol-di rol-di ro
Nid oes neb i Lisa fach yr Hendre
(There's no one for Lisa fach yr Hendre)
Ffol-di rol-di rol-lol ffol-di rol-di ro

Hen ferchetan bron â thorri'i chalon
(The old maid's heart is nearly broken)
Ffol-di rol-di rol-lol ffol-di rol-di ro
Mynd i'r llan mae pawb o'i hen gariadon
(Everyone of her lovers has married)
Ffol-di rol-di rol-lol ffol-di rol-di ro
Bydd tatws newydd ar bren 'fale
(There'll be new potatoes on apple trees)
Ffol-di rol-dol-di rol-di ro
Cyn priodith Lisa fach yr Hendre
(Before Lisa fach yr Hendre will marry)
Ffol-di rol-di rol-lol ffol-di rol-di ro

Hen ferchetan aeth i Ffair y Bala
(The old maid went to the the Bala Fair)
Ffol-di rol-di rol-lol ffol-di rol-di ro
Gweld Siôn Prys yn fachgen digon smala
(Saw Siôn Prys a cute lad)
Ffol-di rol-di rol-lol ffol-di rol-di ro
Gair a ddywedodd wrth fynd adre'
(A word he said as he went home)
Ffol-di rol-dol-di rol-di ro
Gododd galon Lisa fach yr Hendre
(Lisa fach yr Hendre's heavy heart was lightened)
Ffol-di rol-di rol-lol ffol-di rol-di ro

Marwnad yr Ehedydd (English / Welsh)

I came home to a pile of things today. Well, honestly I come home all the time to piles of things that need doing, and that is why two whole rooms in my house are off limits to the public, since these are the places where the piles dwell, and well, I wouldn't want to lose a guest beneath the masses of ditritis, since, like tectonic plates, they can shift without warning. I keep hoping that they will not grow to consume a third, but I digress. One of the things I'm busy doing is ripping songs from my CD collection to my iPod, and today I had a small pile of CDs which I had lent to the Welsh Society for our booth at the Celebration of Celts back in May. They were sitting, waiting patiently to be ripped for weeks (an odd thing, both to anthropomorphize compact disks, and to imagine their waiting to be, of all things, ripped, but I digress again...) One of the tracks I ripped is an ancient song of symbolic love, the object of veneration and adoration being yr Ehedydd, the Lark. I think the symbolism is clear enough. Some attribute this song to the death of Owain Glyndŵr, but I think it's meaning much broader.


Marwnad yr Ehedydd

(Death of the Lark)

Mi glywais fod yr 'hedydd,
Wedi marw ar y mynydd;
Pe gwyddwn i mai gwir y geiriau,
Awn a gyrr o wŷr ac arfau,
I gyrchu corff yr 'hedydd adre.

(I heard that the Lark,
Has died on the mountain;
If I knew these words were true,
I would go with a group of men and arms,
To fetch the Lark's body home.)

Mi glywais fod yr hebog
Eto'n fynych uwch y fawnog,
A bod ei galon a'i adenydd
Wrth fynd heibio i gorff yr 'hedydd
Yn curo'n llwfr fel calon llofrudd.

(I heard that the hawk
Still frequent above the peatbog,
Has his heart and his wings aflutter
Ready to go after the body of the Lark
Beating cowardly like a murderer's heart.)

Mi a glywais fod cornchwiglan
Yn ei ddychryn i ffwrdd o'r siglan
Ac na chaiff, er dianc rhagddi,
Wedi rhusio o dan y drysni,
Ond aderyn y bawn i'w boeni.

(I heard that a loud horn
Can frighten him from the bog
And he won't get the body, but run away,
Hidden away beneath the thicket
But such a bird I would bring to suffer pain.)