Our fascinating alphabet

Lots of things fascinate me about the way we communicate with the written word. I’ve recently stumbled across a few alphabet-related facts that might interest you too.

Browsing in a local bookshop, I was delighted to find the Diccionario del origen de las palabras (‘Dictionary of the origin of words’)*. I’ve been looking for an English equivalent for some time, but without success.

Anyway, under abecedario, I found out that our Latin ‘alphabet’ takes its name from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha and beta. In contrast, abecedario refers to abcd (a, be, ce, de), the first four letters of the Latin system.

So, abecedario is the actual name for the collection of Latin letters that we use. Here in Spain, it is often used interchangeably with alfabeto when referring to the alphabet. (I can’t find a different English translation of abecedario – is there one? Or did it get lost on the way to the UK?)

I then spotted a post on the origins of abc on the superb I Love Typography blog. This excellent article starts at the very beginning of the use of the written word (well, systems), taking us on a journey through their evolution and arriving at the alphabet as we know it today.

Both well worth a read, if you can (the book’s only available in Spanish).

* Diccionario del origen de las palabras; Buitrago A, Agustín Torijano J; 978-84-670-2521-7; Editorial Espasa Calpe; Ed. 2008

The sad decline of languages in UK schools

I mean the decline of taught, modern foreign languages, not sweary bad language (I’m sure that’s probably still learnt and applied with enthusiasm).

This article in the Guardian, Who still wants to learn languages?, raises a few key points from recent studies, as well as interesting observations. In summary:

• Funding for languages has been cut and departments are closing across the education spectrum, from schools to universities.
• Since language learning was made optional after the age of 14 in 2004,  numbers have been dropping. (Just in state schools? The article’s not clear.)
• There’s a sharp distinction between provision at state schools and at independents (“38 per cent of 14-year-olds in the state sector were studying one modern language and 1.9 per cent were studying two; 99 per cent of 14-year-olds at independents studied at least one language”).
• As a result, “the experience of other cultures is now confined to an elite”.
• Languages are losing out in the (short-term) education market because they are a long-term choice in terms of competency and gratification.
• German is losing out the most because of its profile, difficulty and competition from non-traditional languages.
• “There is only one UK citizen working in continental Europe for every four EU citizens working in the UK.
• “Studies prove [that] learning a language makes [children] better at learning everything else.”

Learn a language to know your own

However, the end of the article includes two of the more interesting points. Firstly:

“Whoever is not acquainted with languages knows nothing of his own (Goethe).”

I was in school at a time when the state education system decided we didn’t need to learn English grammar. We studied English language, yes, but I remember mostly creative writing rather than covering verbs, nouns, modifiers, the subjunctive and so on.

However, because I also chose to study German and French, I learnt a little about those things. And it’s only now that I’ve taught myself Spanish and help my local friends with their English that I’m learning more about my own language.

(Because I grew up in Wales, it was also compulsory to learn Welsh between the ages of about 6 and 13. I would have chosen Welsh at GCSE too, but the selection process made that a difficult choice.)

Speak a language, understand a people

It’s the comment from a source at the end that resonates with me now; of course, it may well not have done when I was 15. And that’s why it’s so important for the choice not to be left to 15-year-olds (and younger).

“[This trend] is disastrous [because] it leads to people leading insular lives – intellectually, professionally, culturally.”

I’ve learnt so much about the culture I’m living in simply by hearing how they refer to ideas in their own language, and thereby understanding the emphasis of those things in their lives.

Language learning: a great leveller

Learning a new language is one of those great activities that reduces the differences between people. It doesn’t matter what job you do, where you’re from or how much you earn; once you’re thrown together to grasp a new language, everyone’s in the same boat.

This occurred to me while reading one of a series of blog posts in The Guardian by writer Will Self. There’s something reassuring in reading about how a distinguished wordsmith experiences the same challenges in mastering another language (in his case, French) as everyone else.

I can definitely relate to this comment:

I’ve noticed how acutely geared to my general wellbeing my ability to speak French has become: on days when I’m rested and in good spirits, I feel like a saucy Maurice Chevalier in the making, but on down days I’m Antonin Artaud, brokenly raging in a straitjacket of received English locutions.

Some days, I feel as though I could talk forever and my Spanish friends seem to understand me. Other days, I can barely maintain a basic conversation, throwing whoever I’m talking to into a state of confusion.

And while some people swear to a glass (or two) of red wine to make them slip into a fluency they can only dream of normally, I’m pretty certain they’re only fooling themselves. Booze befuddles my brain, making it nearly impossible to string together a coherent Spanish sentence.

Maybe the key’s to get the person I’m talking to drunk, instead; I’ll still be able to hold a conversation and they simply won’t care…!

Learning languages online

As if I needed another distraction, this week I discovered Busuu.com. It calls itself a ‘language learning community’ and is basically another social network with a twist: you create a profile for yourself and add details of the languages you’re learning.

Busuu.com offers courses in English, Spanish, French, German and Italian at the moment. As well as providing units in vocabulary and grammar, it also prompts you to submit a short writing exercise that other members can then check and correct.

Improved site tools and features

This is a great little tool for language learners and much better than anything else I’ve found online so far. I’m not sure how old the website is, but I’m guessing it will of course be further developed.

A few things that I’d like to see are:

• an improved search tool that lets users search using a keyword — I’d like to make ‘friends’ with people in my locality, not just my country
• downloads (PDFs and podcasts) with more detail and exercises than just those found in that unit — these are ‘premium’ content that do not offer anything additional at the moment
• the different languages to have different scripts — at the moment, the script is exactly the same in each unit for different languages, so if you complete ‘weather’ in German and then do it in Spanish too, the information isn’t new
• recognition on your profile that you’re a premium member — I keep needing to remind myself that I’ve upgraded because I’m still being urged to do so!

Grow your ‘language tree’!

However, it’s an excellent start and I’m currently hooked! It’s great to chat to native speakers and the features that Busuu.com has introduced to keep you working are simple but inspired: your ‘language garden’ grows for every unit you progress and you collect ‘Busuu berries’ for every activity you perform.

There’s also a fabulous mix of fellow learners of all ages, and you can chat to people from Mongolia to Chile.

(Wondering what Busuu means? ‘Busuu is a language spoken in Cameroon — based on an ethnological study conducted in the 80s, apparently only eight people are able to speak this language’.)

Book: ‘Biting the wax tadpole’

I decided some time ago that I’d share some of the interesting writing- and language-related books that I read. Unfortunately, I’m very good at starting lots of books at the same time, but not always great at finishing them…

One I did complete a while ago (and, yes, I should have written about it while fresh in my mind) was Biting the wax tadpole (Penguin, 2008) by Elizabeth Little, a self-proclaimed ‘armchair linguist’. This book was a very readable, light-hearted and interesting foray into linguistics for a beginner such as myself.

The one area that stood out in my mind, in comparison with similar books, was an in-depth chapter on the origin and meaning of numbers, i.e. how they’ve been expressed through the ages and why. This topic seems to be neglected in many other books on language.

Aside from discussing the many different ways that cultures do this, Liz (we’re all friends here!) makes a small point about how similar the number ‘nine’ is to the word for ‘new’ (in Indo-European languages). She suggests that we haven’t always used a base-10 number system, but a base-8 one (gaps between the fingers?).

Think about it…

• Spanish: nueve vs nuevo
• French: neuf vs nouveau (and even comme neuf for ‘as good as new’)
• Italian: nove vs nuovo

Aside from numbers, the book also explores the standard linguistic fare: nouns, verbs, modifiers and speech (from pronunciation to good ol’ profanities). It’s a romp through the world’s languages that’s easy to understand but which also makes you think (with the occasional ‘a-ha!’ moment, such as the ‘nine thing’).

If you’ve stumbled into this post by accident, this probably all sounds a bit, well, dull to you. But if you have an interest in writing and language, I definitely recommend this for an enjoyable read.

Learn a language, help your writing, improve your prospects

The Guardian recently reported that “there is increasing demand around the world for [website] translations into English…particularly inside businesses”.

This is an interesting and exciting prospect for me, as a web copywriter living in Spain, learning Spanish and hoping to gain clients here.

Increase credibility and improve search results

As well as needing help translating content into English in the first place, many companies have websites with English (‘the language of business’) pages that, while understandable, could be better.

I already offer help in this area, and have rewritten the English pages for a local Spanish web agency. It recognised that to attract the substantial English businesses in our locality, well-written web pages provided credibility and would help it to appear in relevant search results.

Write appropriately for your readership

But learning a language doesn’t just mean adding another service to your offering; it can help to make you a better writer. John Clifford, Quality Manager at corporate web agency Investis, has a diploma in French translation from the Chartered Institute of Linguists (IoL). He thinks that:

“What [translation exams] assess as much as anything is your ability to write clearly and correctly in the appropriate register for the readership in your mother tongue…so it’s a highly relevant qualification for a copywriter even if most of the work you do is original authoring rather than translating.”

Understand the need for clear and simple content

Another benefit is understanding the need to write simply and clearly in whatever language you speak. Websites are global, which means a large proportion of a site’s potential audience will speak a first language other than the one it’s written in.

If you can empathise with the challenges of understanding and navigating a website written in another tongue, it can only bring greater awareness to your writing.

Simple, clear copy (in any language)

One of the first rules of web copywriting is to use plain English, to give every reader the best chance of understanding your content. Your website is available to the entire world and will have visitors who have a first language different to your own. Don’t forget, however, that native speakers also have differing reading and writing abilities.

Writing in a simple, clear style benefits all users; it makes your website easier to read and understand (communicating your messages more effectively). Concise copy fulfils accessibility requirements for both people and search engines, making your website also easier to find.

Reading ability will vary within your own audience

The W3C’s WCAG 2.0 has a reading level criterion that says if the ‘text requires reading ability more advanced than the lower secondary education level’, a version that is not more advanced should also available.

This caters for ‘people with reading disabilities [which may include highly educated members of the intended audience] while also allowing authors to publish difficult or complex web content’.

Consider users with different native languages

Some websites (and printed materials) provide services for audiences that they know speak a different first language. These sites are often well written, with this fact at the forefront of their writers’ minds. As an immigrant in Spain, I’ve been experiencing this first hand.

I’ve had to sign up to all sorts of exciting (!) government departments, ranging from the local council to social security. Naturally, I’ve tried to find out online what I need to do (I speak some Spanish; learning more).

Where the language has been simple, structured in short sentences and paragraphs, I’ve had fewer problems. (There’s also a point about website usability, in terms of expecting certain buttons in certain places, but that’s for another day.)

This has only reinforced what I already know, but it’s good to be at the receiving end to remind me.

‘Thoughtful, investigative pieces don’t work on the web’

An interesting article on the Guardian’s website today. Aida Edemariam looks at the issue of search on the internet and how this influences online writing in contrast to offline articles.

This, of course, links in to how content for the web must be structured differently in general. Unfortunately, she thinks it makes ‘depressing reading’, interpreting it as meaning that ‘long, thoughtful, investigative pieces don’t work [on the web]‘.

‘Write great content’

She quotes Paul Roach, the Guardian’s head of SEO, who says that for successful search results, ‘you just have to write great content’. Good advice. She then refers to the following advice from Jakob Nielsen:

“Stick to simple presentation formats in all ways: a logical progression of the story, mainly active sentences, simple words, short sentences, and a plain, scrolling page. Also, keep people looking down the page by scattering attractive elements throughout the page in the form of subheads and bulleted lists.”

Edemariam concludes that: ‘Short pieces work. Lists work even better. Long, thoughtful, investigative pieces don’t.’

Help your readers, don’t dismiss them

I think this is a misleading opinion. Of course long, thoughtful pieces wouldn’t work online in the same structure as they would in print. But because they need to be presented differently, it doesn’t mean they won’t work at all.

Break the article down into shorter paragraphs and more pages if necessary. Use subheadings to make it easier to navigate and read. It’s hard to read large sections of unbroken text on screen.

It isn’t a bad thing to use simple words where you can. Do you need to use long, difficult words to get your message across, or to justify yourself as a writer? Remember, your article is available to a global audience, many of whom do not have English as a first language. Don’t make it more difficult than it has to be.

Use the web to your advantage

Finally, use the internet’s features to present your argument in a more interactive and interesting way. Provide links to useful resources, for example. Help your readers and reinforce your points!

The web offers new opportunities to illustrate your communications in different ways. It’s not an obstacle to intelligent thinking or writing.

British English or American English?

Jakob Nielsen recently covered the issue of which English language variant to use in one of his recent Alertbox emails. This topic usually interests me or bugs me in equal measure (but for different reasons).

I’ve written for companies that want to use British English and for those that prefer American English. As Nielsen points out, it’s not just a case of changing the spellings. It’s about terminology and more. He provides some useful tips, as well as guidance on which version to use.

As ever, it boils down to your website’s target audience, which is your first consideration in any type of communication. However, your choice is also influenced to some extent by how you want to portray yourself or your company. That is, as an international business or a regional one.

Nielsen also explains how using the incorrect version can alienate the people you’re trying to speak to. As he says, ‘language matters’. Visitors will make assumptions about a company or product based on the variant used.

Finally, he says to be consistent in your choice, which refers to a source of constant annoyance for me! Switching between the two shows ‘poor attention to detail’ and a poor grasp of the English language, whichever version you choose.