Dmc Devil May Cry English Language 16
Odina Conkright
This is quite a motley collection of branches, languages, and topolects, most of which are erroneously called such-and-such a dialect, and two of which are referred to as "-ese". Suzhouese and Minnan (no. 3) belong to completely different branches of Sinitic, while Wenzhou, Tianjin, Changsha, and Shanghai are cities, Shandong, Shaanxi, and Sichuan are provinces, and the Northeast is a region (used to be called Manchuria). Half of the items (5, 7, 8, 9, and 10) are considered to be types of Mandarin, though the degree of intelligibility among them varies greatly; the amount of intelligibility among the remaining five, and between those five and the five supposedly Mandarin types is zero or close to it. The five non-Mandarin types belong to or constitute separate, non-Mandarin branches of Sinitic.
The Chinese term for "devil-language" is guǐhu 鬼话. Here it refers to the kind of language spoken by the devil, but in Mandarin it commonly has the extended meaning of "lie; nonsense; bullshit; deception; humbug".
The author states that, when she was living in a college dorm in Beijing, none of her roommates, "who were from five cities across China, could understand a single word of [her] conversations."
Wenzhouese is generally thought of as a highly divergent member of the Wu branch of Sinitic (includes the languages of Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai, etc.). In actuality, Wenzhouese should be considered as a group of languages, since several of its constituent varieties have a very low degree of intelligibility among them, as observed by commenter Harland:
If all of this talk about "devil language" and mutually unintelligible varieties of Sinitic teaches us anything, it is that "Chinese" is not a single, monolithic tongue and thousands of dialects that are all the same when written down (one of the grossest myths that is accepted by gospel truth by most people who know nothing about the real situation), but that it consists of innumerable languages and many branches that remain to be classified in a systematic fashion comparable to what we have for Indic, Romance, Germanic, Slavic, and so forth.
Based on the materials presented and referred to in the above and other Language Log posts, we need to keep the following caveats in mind when discussing questions of dialect and language in the Chinese context:
Oh yes, I'll clarify, I was generally going off "from the starting position of L1 Putonghua" which I believe was the same premise as the original article in Chinese that's been circulating for years. Of course little kids will figure out how to speak whatever form(s) of speech they're predominantly exposed to as a child.
"X kilometers away from X point" can be very tricky and imprecise when it comes to Sinitic lects, because there are some stark boundaries (like for example between Teochew on one side and Yue/Hakka on the other) and some not-so-clear boundaries, like between Yue and Hakka at certain points, or between Soutwestern Mandarin and Xiang at some points.
I imagine it is very hard to learn any language that has no written form, is spoken only among a fairly small community of like-minded speakers who share cultural and geographical references of which outsiders are not aware, and lacks a standardized "elite/educated" language that can bridge various regional variations within that language.
Many thanks for the great link. Language Log readers are encouraged to look at the comment thread to the Sheik post, where even more ridiculous views are cited. Follow the links. It is encouraging that Wikipedia is not taken in by all of this:
Nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) is endemic in Southern China, with Guandong province and Hong Kong reporting some of the highest incidences in the world. The journal Science has called it a "Cantonese cancer". We propose that in fact NPC is a cancer that originated in the Bai Yue ("proto Tai Kadai" or "proto Austronesian" or "proto Zhuang") peoples and was transmitted to the Han Chinese in southern China through intermarriage. However, the work by John Ho raised the profile of NPC, and because of the high incidence of NPC in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, NPC became known as a Cantonese cancer. We searched historical articles, articles cited in PubMed, Google, monographs, books and Internet articles relating to genetics of the peoples with high populations of NPC. The migration history of these various peoples was extensively researched, and where possible, their genetic fingerprint identified to corroborate with historical accounts. Genetic and anthropological evidence suggest there are a lot of similarities between the Bai Yue and the aboriginal peoples of Borneo and Northeast India; between Inuit of Greenland, Austronesian Mayalo Polynesians of Southeast Asia and Polynesians of Oceania, suggesting some common ancestry. Genetic studies also suggest the present Cantonese, Minnans and Hakkas are probably an admixture of northern Han and southern Bai Yue. All these populations have a high incidence of NPC. Very early contact between southern Chinese and peoples of East Africa and Arabia can also account for the intermediate incidence of NPC in these regions.
The devil mostly speaks a language of his own called Bellsybabble which he makes up himself as he goes along but when he is very angry he can speak quite bad French very well though some who have heard him say that he has a strong Dublin accent.
Dr Ella Whiteley is a Fellow in Philosophy at LSE. They work primarily on topics in ethics, social philosophy (particularly in connection to epistemology and language), political philosophy, and the philosophy of biology. Their PhD investigated the philosophy of salience, referring to the structure and/or presentation of some content, so that some contents are more prominent than others. Certain patterns of salience, they argued, can both cause and constitute harm. To find out more about their research, visit their website, www.ellawhiteleywrites.com
"We can't wait to see how the community reacts to the language of the Devil. It's the first time we've added a voice to our brand, and in our opinion, Halloween is the perfect time," emphasises Marie-Michelle Rioux, assistant brand manager of Trou du diable.
The radio spot, on air for a total of seven days, will gradually change over time to reveal more clues to listeners. On the website, in addition to listening to the original ad, people can also check out the other eight tracks on the album, including an auditory tasting of the microbrewery's eight featured beers, all shared in the devil's language. Patient listeners will also discover little surprises hidden among the hidden tracks.
To promote the initiative, the company created the official campaign album and sent it to influencers across the province. With the help of a QR code, content creators, journalists and radio hosts were invited to join in the fun and engage their listeners and beer lovers in the virtual experience.
The proper use of the phrase "speak of the devil" is not in the context of remembering something or one thing reminding you of something else. That kind of context is where you might say "speaking of groceries" as in your example.
The proper use of "speak of the devil" is when you are speaking about someone - usually having something bad to say or some kind of gossip when that person suddenly comes into earshot. This is appropriate insofar as "speak of the devil" is short for "speak of the devil and he will appear" as was pointed out by Jeff.
It can also be used ironically in a situation where a person joins you in mid conversation, even if this person was not the subject of the conversation. It is an often good-natured jibe on the premise that you may have been gossiping about the person or that you are comparing them to the devil.
As a side note...trying to logically figure out why the phrase doesn't include "ing" is also hinting that the English language somehow has rules anymore. It's a hodgepodge of languages at this point. Only a small fraction of society actually remembers the rules and those are usually copy writers and patent lawyers. It also depends on where you are in the world as grammar is so subjective.
Next read the context. Haley is a slave trader and he is talking about how he treats his slaves, and comparing his methods with those of "Tom" and "Kentucky folks". Haley is particularly talking about separating children from their mothers before being sold, and what to do when the women cry. Haley suggests that Tom's method of "crackin' 'em on the head" (not the accent) is ineffective because "It jest [just] spiles [spoils] your gals [the women]"
Basically, he says "don't beat up the women for crying" but not because he is kind, but because it makes them harder to sell. Because if you beat up women they get "sickly" and "ugly". They also get angry and less willing to follow orders. This is what he means by "broke-in". When training a horse you have to train it to follow the orders of the rider. This is called breaking-in the horse. Haley treats the slaves like animals and uses the same language.
The fact that Jesus said these new languages would be a sign indicates that the ability to speak them would not come from a linguistic study. Rather, it would be an instantaneous gift to fluently preach in a previously unfamiliar language.
There are only three actual examples of speaking in tongues recorded in the Bible, and all of them are found in Acts, a book devoted to the early history of the Christian church. Looking at these three cases, we discover a clear picture of the gift of tongues.
This Pentecostal manifestation of tongues finds its roots not in the Bible, but rather in ancient pagan spiritualistic rituals. In the sixth century BC, the Oracle of Delphi was housed in a temple built near the foot of Mt. Parnassus. Delphi was also sacred to Dionysus, the god associated with wine, fertility, and sensual dance, and to the nine Muses, patron goddesses of music.
While exhilarating music was played, the chief priestess, named Pythia, would breathe intoxicating vapors, go into a frenzied trance, and then begin jabbering. The weird sounds the priestess muttered were then interpreted by a priest, who usually spoke in verse. Her utterances were regarded as the words of Apollo, but the messages were so ambiguous that they could seldom be proven wrong.1
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