LINGUIST List 7.924

Sun Jun 23 1996

Qs: Qs: Lg & Paranoia, /wo/-> jo/, True People, Com. Tension

Editor for this issue: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar <aristartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. Valeri Belianine, Qs: language and paranoia
2. Bertinetto, /wo/ -> /jo/
3. TurtleSeaaol.com, "True People"
4. Bert Peeters, Ethnic stereotypes and communicative tensions

Question:

Paranoia and language

Dear linguists?
Does anybody know anything about the manifestation of
paranoia in language?

I have found out that they:
- like to write with capital letters
- divide people into 'honest' and 'treacherous',
- divide people into 'friends' and 'enemies'
- like 'light' ('luz' en Espanol)
- like 'clear'
- like 'future'
- like religion ("God", 'son", 'father'0
- like 'fatherland", 'home', 'house'
- like 'heart'
- like 'I'

But what else? i need at least 5 features more.

Truly Yours, Valeri Belianine
e-mail: fortunaglas.apc.org. :)

Hi everybody.
On behalf of a colleague (but also out of personal curiosity), I would
propose the following phonological problem.
A few words in the Venetian dialect show the following change: /wo/ -> /jo/.
Cf. (using the Italian spelling): "siola" for "suola", "niora" for "nuora",
"frutariol" for "frutaruol" (It. fruttivendolo).
The questions are:
1) does anybody know of such examples in any other language?
2) What is the most likely explanation?
As to the latter point, the two proposals which have been put forth are the
following:
a) dissimilation
b) analogical attraction by the far more frequent /je/ diphthong.
I shall post a summary if appropriate.
Thanks, and best regards from

Pier Marco Bertinetto
bertinetsns.it



 Elina Clara Carlo
 ,,,, Bessi Pier Marco .
 //""\\ ,,,, ___ ,mm, /:\
 //o o\\ / 0\___) |000| /o o\ _/_:_\_
 //( / )\\ //_/,,,,, _|___|_ /( / )\ C o o D
 \- / /===/ <!o -!> \O / \ U /
=+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+oOO=( )=OOo+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+=

 bert.NETcaen.it
 is the address of the family BERTINETTO:

 ====> ELINA VOIPIO + CLARA & CARLO B. <====
 via Matteotti 197, I-55049 Viareggio LU
<Phone (and Fax, if you call us beforehand) ++39/(0)584/32215>

 ====> as for PIER MARCO, write preferably to: <====
 bertinetsns.it
 Scuola Normale Superiore, I-56126 Pisa
 <Phone: +39/(0)50/509111 - Fax: +39/(0)50/563513>

=+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+==+=
 / | | \
 0oooO Oooo0

 [NB: The screen font is Mishawaka 9;
 without it, the portraits may be a mess]

At some point in my reading I came across a discussion of the use of words
meaning "people", "true people", and the like used by American Indians in
referring to their own tribes. (Names used for tribes other than the
speaker's own were based on a range of concepts -- geography, social and
physical attributes, etc.) After considerable searching, however, I have not
been able to relocate this material or any detailed study of the issue. 

Could anyone refer me to articles or books addressing this topic? I.e.,
"People" and "True People" terms used by Amerindian tribes in naming their
own tribe.

Thank you,

Dale Milne
TurtleSeaaol.com

Specialists of cross-cultural communication talk a lot about "stereotypes"
and "communicative tensions". Could anyone provide pointers to work on
ethnic stereotypes, esp. with regard to how speakers of French (any variety
of it) think about speakers of English (again, any variety of it), and 
vice versa?

And on communicative tensions which result when speakers of French and
English meet? I know of work by Christine B=E9al (Latrobe University,
Melbourne), by W.E. Lambert et al. back in the sixties, and by 
(social psychologist) Peter Ball back in the eighties. What else 
is out there? I've been looking for weeks, and have exhausted just 
about all the avenues that were open to me.

I'll post a summary.
Thanks for any input!
Bert Peeters
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dr Bert Peeters =20
Department of Modern Languages (French) =20
University of Tasmania =20
GPO Box 252C Tel. (002) 202344 +61 02 202344
Hobart TAS 7001 Fax. (002) 207813 +61 02 207813
Australia Email: Bert.Peetersmodlang.utas.edu.au
http://info.utas.edu.au/docs/humsoc/modern_languages/peeters/peeters.htm
http://info.utas.edu.au/docs/humsoc/modern_languages/french/welcome.htm