SS - language

The language that you speak torments me in my sleep*

I hate repeating myself (or do I?) and I know I've posted these lyrics before. But, you see, I'm obsessed about languages, as much as I'm obsessed about certain songs. And how could I help it? It's right in the first sentence -"or do I?" - shouldn't it be "or don't I?". To be honest, I don't know but it's these crazy language hiccups that make things interesting. 

With languages it is often a case of the stranger the better. Typically, as you get to know a language and begin to master it, it gradually becomes less mysterious. It stops being something that is foreign and exterior and it becomes a part of you, an instrument of you. This has happened to me and English. I started to learn the language when I was 10 years old. Before that happened, I was so fascinated by it that I pretended to know it and tried to immitate the sounds from songs and films. 

Then began the slow process of mastering the language. It was incredibly fascinating because it was the language of all things cool. But it was also immensely frustrating wanting to use it as if it was my own - I wrote a lot of terrible phrasing before my words sounded more or less decent. It took years of practice of both reading and writing and, in the process, English became a part of me, not the language that singers sang in anymore.  I know this because I cannot help but write in English, it is now a part of my mental processes, my creativity, my writing abilities. And even though I still enjoy it, it has become too familiar to keep the previous allure, so I have to turn elsewhere for fascination.

The fascination is in the sounds, the musicality, the accents, the similarities, the differences, the meanings, the connections, the exceptions, the origins, the evolutions. Really, what is there not to like? Unless you aren't into languages, which is also an option.

As I mentioned above, I believe a language becomes a part of you when you use it frequently enough. Being the way to express yourself, you have to mold it to your preferences and to your profile. This makes me wonder if, considering how different languages can be, certain languages aren't a better fit for certain people or certain usages and expressions. Obviously every language has the ability to express the whole range of realities, but can one language trap you in your expression? Could you express a side of you more easily using a different language? Or are you able to be more 'you' in a certain language? I don't know if these questions make any sense to you. 

More Sunday Scribblings.

*lyrics by Smoke City "It's Amazing" / photo on everystockphoto.com

If

If I could speak your language the way you do, 

use and abuse the words the way you can, 

if I could dispose of the sounds, organize the music, arrange the sentences and construct poetry with the simple usage of your grammar,

then I would express the richness of feeling, 

the palette of spring tones that is now a mere black and white film,

I would describe tones of dusk and dawn,

sounds of the silvery night, 

landscapes of pure sensation.

I wouldn't feel so tied down in my way of speaking of this matter,

I would leave the symbolic and the allegoric behind,

I would write only of the tried and true,

embody the dream I thought was ethereal

and I would feel closer to you.

Image from stock.xchng

a completely different post, out of utter uninspiration

In the 19th century, experts expected English spoken in the British Isles and English spoken in North America to be mutually unintelligible over 100 years. Even more recently, considering the various regions where English is spoken (America, India, Africa, Australia...), experts thought something similar to what happen to Latin would happen to English: gradually separate and become distinct languages.

I've read this in books about languages, but there is an important factor: they were written before the boom of the Internet. So now I have to look at it from a completely different perspective: in this era of global communication, not only do people try to use a standard english to make themselves intelligible and to understand others from various parts of the globe, but also the more regional terms used in specific parts are more susceptible to be imported by other people living in distinct regions, making the language more uniform. At least that's my viewpoint. Do you have a different take?

(I'm very behind on my script, not just in words but especially in plot-terms. I'm still in the middle of the story and there's only one week left. (scream) There's no danger of me not reaching the 20,000 words by the 30th (I expect) and become an official winner, but then I have to promise myself to end the script even if it's past the deadline. I need to create NOW)

Italian Aid

I thought I'd give it a go at translating the song I posted below. The video is a scene of a film with the same name ("Dio, come ti amo"), an Italian film from the sixties with Gigliola Cinquetti. She's singing this song, that was originally sung by Domenico Modugno in the Eurovision Song Contest somewhere in the sixties too. So this is the possible translation - bare in mind that Italian is not my strong point!

Dio, come ti amo

(God, how I love you!)

Nel cielo passano le nuvole (In the sky, the clouds pass)

che vanno verso il mare, (going towards the sea)

sembrano fazzoletti bianchi (they seem like white handkerchiefs)

che salutano il nostro amore.(that salute our love)

Dio come ti amo(God, how I love you)

non è possibile, avere fra le braccia tanta felicità

(it's not possible that within your arms there is so much happiness)

baciare le tue labbra che odorano di vento

(kissing you lips that smell like the wind)

noi due innamorati come nessuno al mondo

(both of us in love, like no one else in the world)

Dio come ti amo (God, how I love you)
mi vien da piangere (I feel like crying)
in tutta la mia vita non ho provato mai

(In all my life, I haven't experienced it any more)

un bene così caro, un bene così vero (something so dear, something so true)

chi può fermare il fiume che corre verso il mare?
(Who can stop the river that runs towards the sea?)

le rondini nel cielo che vanno verso il sole

(the swallows in the sky, that go towards the sun)

chi può cambiar l'amore, l'amore mio per te?

(Who can change my love, my love for you?)