Before Switching to the Political Stuff...

Hello everybody, I realize you haven't heard from me for a while, and I feel very bad about that. I am taking the GRE tomorrow morning, and because of my hectic schedule (I'm feeling all of you out there who are feeling imprisoned by your over-scheduled lives. It's draining and terrifying, and it makes me incredibly moody), I haven't had the chance to prepare at all until today. So I am certainly doing things with words right now-- I am LEARNING them. I should be done by 1pm, but in case I'm late to class tomorrow, the GRE is why. I have to miss my morning class, and I can't be bothered to do the homework for it tonight because I still have so much other reading to do...

I just wanted to go back and give my recapitulating thoughts on the verbal art and wordplay section.

First off, Cockney rhyming slang. When I was making up my half-dozen play languages, I kind of "cheated." I got on Wikipedia and read about dozens of other play languages. I had never heard of rhyming slang, and I find it hysterical and amusing. It seems so much more versatile than a play language that works off syllable insertion or vowel change (although i did want to mention one of my syllable insertion languages that i thought was quite fun... adding "ge"-- pronounced "guh" after every syllable... "regemegembeger toge doge thege digesheges!!!!" Say it, I promise it's fun). Rhyming slang actually requires some sort of logical connection, replaying a word with a descriptor of a common rhyming word.

For instance, a friend, or "mate," becomes "china"... "china plate!" "Jam" is a "car," because of "jam jar." And replace "Yank" with "septic," as in "septic tank." I made up my own... "sleep" becomes "rubbish," as in "rubbish heap." A "house" becomes "Mickey," "Mickey Mouse." Can you think of a good one for "Notre Dame?" Baggage (claim)? Candle (flame)? Picture (frame)?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyming_slang

Second, I listen to a lot of Spanish-language music on the radio or Pandora, and I notice a lot of "code-switching" within songs, where the artist(s) insert an English phrase or sentence-- sometimes sung but often spoken-- into an otherwise Spanish song. This is especially noticeable in Spanish-language singers who live in the United States, like Aventura out of NYC. In their song "Mi Corazoncito," there's spoken lines like "Give us our crown," "Henry? Tell them it's my heart, mio, ok?" And, I mean, that's the first one that comes to my mind, but there are a ton of instances like that... RBD's "Tu Amor" is probably the most cheesy bilingual song I have ever heard in my life. Then of course there's Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca." And I always get a kick out of hearing the same song in multiple languages--- Enrique Iglesias, anyone? The music video for "Dimelo" (English version: Do You Know?/The Ping-Pong Song) is interesting in that it sets up a "frame" for the performance of the song, which is interrupted multiple times in performance. The music video calls into question when the song begins and ends, and it comments on its meaning. I find the differences in the Spanish/English lyrics to be very interesting; the sounds/rhythms of the words become more important than the literal translation. I have pasted the choruses below:

Spanish:
¿Dímelo por que estás fuera de mi?
Y al mismo tiempo estás muy dentro
Dímelo sin hablar y hazme sentir
Todo lo que yo ya siento

English:
Do you know what it feels like loving someone
That's in a rush to throw you away?
Do you know what it feels like to be the last one
to know the lock on the door has changed?

Tu Amor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6WjGKmomXE
Dimelo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSp6H4SdH7Y

And I'm not always sure why Spanish artists add English lyrics. For artists who live in the U.S., it is understandable because they are probably bilingual, and there might be words and ideas they would choose to communicate in English. For huge cross-over artists like Enrique Iglesias, it makes a lot of commercial sense. RBD is a Mexican pop group composed of cast members from the telenovela Rebelde, which had a cult-ish, teen following from what I gather. I find RBD's English songs and inserts (like the persistent "baby" in "Ser o Parecer"... sooo Britney Spears) laughable, but it plays to the group's audience and is a tactic for enlarging the audience. English-language comments were a characteristic of the original tv show, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBD

I meant to talk about that book I mentioned, Doing Our Own Thing by John McWhorter, because it collects a lot of different examples of different ways people use language. Maybe I'll go into all this tomorrow after the GRE.

Speaking of which, I just found out my ride can't take me home after I'm done with the test. So it looks like I'll be walking 4 miles back to class if I don't get this figured out by 8am. Sorry if I'm at all late or irritable tomorow.

Aack! The reading!!! Sorry for the ramble.