Hamburger or Beef Patty?

Many languages borrow words from other languages. The urban areas of the United States are heavily populated with fast-food joints where Americans gather in herds during the lunch and dinner hours. Most of these "restaurants" serve hamburgers. It has always been curious to me that there is no ham in these burgers.

Although meat patties can be traced back to the eleventh century as noted in the chronology, History of Hamburgers, it wasn't until the late eighteenth century that the term "Hamburg Steak" would make it's debut. That's right, sailors travelling between the ports of New York in the U.S. and Hamburg, Germany carried the term across the Atlantic that would later be known as a "hamburger".

We have mistaken the term "hamburger" as a compound word formed by our English word "ham" and the assumed other, "burger", though "Hamburg" is the word of origin, and is not a food, but a place. Therefore, the term "cheeseburger" is actually misleading in the sense that what we term "burger" is actually a "patty".

Nevertheless, language has many functions and the colloquial use of "burger," though a transformation from the borrowed "Hamburg Steak,"  is now an accepted universal term  for a beef patty in the U.S. Now when I think of the word "hamburger," rather than be bewildered by a seemingly unfitting word, I can think of a creative meshing of language and culture.

English Practice: A great resource for English fanatics

How do we effortlessly speak the complex structures of our language? As an ESL educator I am always looking for new ways to refine the English skills of my students. While searching for effective strategies, I came across the website English Practice. The articles found here were full of suggestive strategies to practice English. What I found especially interesting was that many are strategies native English speakers have used and continue to use; we just never considered them strategies.

Articles like Learning English Through Watching Television and Practice Speaking English by Talking to a Friend  are full of approaches that involve modeling and practice; strategies all humans have practiced since exiting the womb. We observe and interact with our environment on a daily basis to learn new words and to apply them in context.

Don't just take the article titles as face value for the author's advice; read on. For example, in Practice Speaking English by Talking to a Friend, you could make the mistake I did and assume the strategy requires speaking to a native English-speaking friend. Reading further finds the strategy can be applied by practicing with another non-native English speaker, so long as the friend knows the learner is practicing. Even if the friend needs translation, the learner is working through the process of the language. By not relying on my assumptions, I was able to expand my knowledge and add new ideas to my bag of tricks on teaching my students how to practice English. 

Under the Video section, learners have an opportunity to view embedded Youtube videos ranging from "The History of Language" to "The Future of the Language". Some videos use captions, others use humor. These videos are interesting for English language learners, educators, and others who are simply fascinated by the language. 

Language is a process we all engage in. English Practice is a great website for resources that not only help English language learners, but enhance the knowledge of native English speakers as well. Take time to read one of the articles, or watch one of the videos and report back what you found interesting or helpful.

Beauty of Structure

                                                        

The Eiffel Tower, an amazing structure with endless detail, inspires human ability to construct such beauty. Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel and his crew assembled 18,000 pieces of wrought iron to complete the fascinating structure we see today. The process took just under 21 months, not including the time it took for Eiffel to draft his blueprints.

Communication is not achieved by ascending a floating set of stairs. A series of events and experiences constructs our ability to communicate effectively with others. Many of us never think about detail in the structure of our language. Since the process begins at birth, it seems as if we have effortlessly constructed our native language. The case is rather that our brain has worked, even as we have slept, to make connections and build the language we use every day. The connections are assembled to construct communication that is unique from other members of the animal world.

Noam Chomsky, linguist, political activist, writer, 1928 - , has studied the nature of language and indicates the unique elements of human language are structures within the brain that cause innate abilities. He compares these innate abilities as similar to our ability to walk. These structures of our brain give us ability; experience and cultural interaction determine the particular dialect we speak. Therefore, we do not innately know English, or any other language for that matter. We construct our language to participate in the context of our experience.

Humans are adaptable, creative, and innovative. Our minds construct more than skyscrapers and industry. If we look closer, can we appreciate the beauty in the structure of our language?


Picture credit given to: credit Sigurd Decroos       credit Michael Faes          

About this blog

I am a native English speaker studying Spanish; my studies have opened my eyes to differing structures between the two languages. Learning a new language requires an understanding of origins or purpose in order to learn what a fluent speaker of a language "inherently" knows.

Fascinated by linguistics and history, I find myself with queries about the English language; why is it that the only written difference between the words "plow" and "flow" is their first letter, yet the endings are pronounced different?

Watching my three children's language development has been a fascinating experience. Even though their understanding of spoken language at this age is more developed than their ability to produce it, their seemingly effortless ability to acquire language is amazing.

From the first day we use our senses we begin to categorize our world. A child sees a dog and is told it is a dog; the child places into memory that a moving object with four legs is a dog. Later the child sees a cow and says "Dog" but is told "No sweetie, that's a cow." Now the child has created a new category; they place into their memory that a moving object with black and white spots and four legs is a cow.

In language there are patterns that are learned through categorization. The silent "E" generally indicates the pronunciation of the preceding vowel letter to say its name; thus, "can" turns into "cane," "hat" turns into "hate." But what about exceptions? The word "some" does not pronounce the preceding vowel letter "O" as its name even though it has the silent "E." My purpose of this blog is to have a little fun and explore the questions that children and adults might wonder but never ask.

I invite readers to respond with answers or queries of their own. For example, do you know why the word "some" doesn't follow the rule of the silent "E"? Or, does another query of the English language interest you?

This blog may not result in all of our questions being answered, but it certainly will give us an opportunity to infer, explore, and discover meaning of the language we engage with every day.

Moose or Meese?

If we have one goose and multiple geese, why is there one moose and multiple moose?

According to "Ask a Scientist":

"The word "moose" came to us from Algonquian Indians. Consequently
its plural, instead of being "mooses" or "meese", is the same as the
singular. That is true of most Indian names whether of a tribe, such as
the Winnebago and Potawatomi, or of an object such as papoose. It is
also true of many wildlife names not of Indian origin -- for example:
deer, mink and grouse."

A process of learning requires that we categorize items in order to make sense of new experiences that we must fit into a new category. Sometimes we experience a little disequilibrium trying to fit something into a category; subsequently we inquire and learn something new.

Language has traceable and fascinating origins. Taking the time to feed our curiosity can be interesting and rewarding. What other pluralization can we find that strays from the rule of add -s, -es? Can we explain it?