Section
3 essay
In the proud culture of the ZYRO, the adults know the
significance of keeping our language alive. We teach our children on a daily
the language of our ancestors. Adult’s help children acquire language by
consistently repeating our language with them and pointing out the visuals that
go with certain words. I grew up only
knowing one language and so do the children of our culture. ZYRO children communicate
with gestures early on since we the ZYRO communicate with hand gestures in a
daily basis. Facial expressions also help our children with getting certain
responses to have a sense of emotion. We teach literacy as soon as the children
have a well enough understanding of our spoken language, usually around the age
of five. Language development starts with simple cooing in our children. In
addition, with time, gestures come along with cooing and other sounds. Later
on, we encounter ZYRO children beginning to pronounce certain letters from our
language, with time actual words begin to be pronounced.
Even
though our language has stayed the same for many generations there are some
minor changes in the ZYRO language. In the ZYRO language, we have many gods by
the name of MYE, FEY, JYE and so on. However, in the early days of the ZYRO
people, we only had one word for god and that was YEE. Early on in our history,
many of our ancestors only believed in one god, however, with the passage of
time many of the people began to create freedom among themselves and with freedom
came many other beliefs and other gods. Therefore, as years went YEE became
MYE, FEY, JYE and many other variations. In addition, we spoke ZYRO as first
person, due to our early importance of self-improvement and view of the world.
In current day ZYRO language, we speak in first, second, and third person. This
goes back to the freedom of people, many ZYRO realized that the us mindset is
more important than the I mindset. Our worldview and beliefs are the cultural
features that have changed our language throughout the years.
Mood,
emotion, and beliefs are expressed largely in the ZYRO language. Like mentioned
earlier, many changes that came from the early days of the ZYRO people and,
current day ZYRO people comes from individual beliefs that eventually spread to
every person in the ZYRO community. Mood and emotion are expressed with the use
of hand gestures. It is rare to see conversation among our people not include
gestures of some kind. In terms of norms, every ZYRO individual nonverbal
communication usually starts with some type of wave to get in touch with
someone. If the person waves back, they can converse. If they turn around it
means they are not available or not in the mood to talk. In addition, when it
comes to hand gestures a ZYRO must never get too close to a person’s face. We
as ZYRO people do our best to uplift each other, which is why our facial
expressions are always of happiness even if the situation is tense or sad. Eye
contact is essential, we always have to concentrate on the person speaking and
eye contact is a way to show our concentration. The personal space between
individuals in a conversation does not matter it is the hand gestures that
matter. Just stay away from the face. Lastly, touching is strictly to show an
example of something the individual is trying to express in the conversation.
The use of slang in our language is limited to food and
festivities. In terms of popularity, young ZYRO use festivities slang more
often than older ZYRO. Every ZYRO no matter the age uses food slang. For example,
there are many ways to interpret the action of catching fish or going fishing. ZFYY
(fish) is the proper way to speak. However, when fishing with family we use MITYY
(multiple) largely because A ZYRO would expect to catch more fishes with their
family. Slang is various when it comes to fishing because the ocean is an
essential part of our lives. In addition, a festivity slang would be using WY
(west) or WYS (farther west) this is a more recent slang used by younger ZYRO
to allude a certain party or festivity. I assume it is because most of the
festivities are held on the farthest west island. As an older ZYRO, I have had many festivities
in my life and in the lives of others. It is no surprise that much of our slang
comes from festive actions or someone alluding to a certain festivity. Being a
culture of joy and self-joy it only seems right to have many words that are
replaced with slang during festivities. When
a ZYRO is greeting a longtime friend, he or she usually begins the conversation
focusing on old but happy memories among the other ZYRO. In addition, when
greeting an old friend you greet them by saying family member or close friend.
If the ZYRO is not an old friend, we usually just greet them by saying their
last name. For us, much of our leisure time is usually spent with our family
outside swimming after a long day of hard work. If that day was not spent, working
then the time we have is spent on fixing the house or cleaning our boats and
hunting materials. Female ZYRO like to gather flowers to have the house
exterior seem colorful. Our wives and daughters also spent their leisure time
working on future festivities. In terms of our semantic domain, I suppose the
ocean is an example. NAEY (Lake), KJY (river), and FDEY (stream). All fall into
that certain category. The ocean to us means anything that can carry water that
can help us, therefore, NAEY, KJY, and FDEY all fall under ocean. Like mentioned
earlier the ocean is vital to our culture and beliefs. In addition, there is
fish. YYM (raw fish) NTY (cooked fish) MNE (fresh fish) since there are various
ways to express fish, putting them into groups seems reasonable. Again, since
the ocean is vital for survival, it is only reasonable to have domains for fishes.
Moreover, our houses also have categorization. MY (strong house) BTY (weak, but
useful) MTYY (house close to ocean) NETT (house built inland) for our houses we
make sure we have multiple ways to interpret. Due to storms we build MY, the
ZYRO family chooses if they want a MTYY or NETT for their convenience. Our hunting
weapons are essential as well. HTY (bow) MUEY (spear) NUEY (knife) are all representations
of weapons that are used on the battlefield when encountering wild animals.
Hunting is important way of life due to needing food. Another example of our domains is our plants.
BETE (similar to daisy, larger) YTEY (trees) JUEY (a large group of flowers
that are all different colors) every single plant helps us. BETE helps with
cooking. YTEY to us is a large plant that helps with building, and JUEY helps
with festivities. Every single domain represents such a vital side of our
culture. The ocean interacts with the fish and we interact with the fish. We live
among the plants that help us live out our lives. We build our own weapons when
we hunt for food. And of course, we have our houses that represent our family importance.
Furthermore, in the eyes of every single ZYRO, we are all the same even though
some of us might work in our islands government, fish, or hunting. Our female
ZYRO are as equal to the males in work and competition and, our language when spoken
to reflecst that. Class positions do make some difference but not much. Manny ZYRO
will not be able to work in politics, these ZYRO usually talk to government
ZYRO with pride as if they are honored to be in their presence. ZYRO in
politics do not change tone when talking to other individuals. There is no rich
or poor because we are all equal. However, there is a sense of importance or pride
when it comes to the workload done. If a ZYRO fishes a great amount compared to
his counterpart he will speak highly of himself. The other ZYRO will
congratulate his counterpart and will continue to do so until they outdo his or
her ZYRO counterpart’s workload. This also applies to our children if my son is
more accomplished than another ZYRO son I will not bring it up but my
counterpart will most likely speak highly in front of me.
The beautiful language of the ZYRO demonstrates our
cultural norms and beliefs because it constantly reminds us that we are equal
even when we do not feel like it. Since equality, family, and support are
essential it is only reasonable that our language shows that. Since every
fellow ZYRO knows, our norms it helps just in case to have a language that
helps us react with patience and calmness in the rare occurrence in which a norm
is disturbed or broken. Values of being helpful and supportive are shown in
ZYRO language because we speak our language that is filled with positive
reaction or sayings. In hard times, the power of ZYRO language is essential to
move and keep fighting and helping any fellow ZYRO. In terms of our food strategies,
we find food in the ocean and in the wilderness. Hunters are precise and
helpful of each other, which helps the communication among each other when
speaking in the wilderness. ZYRO language calms every hunter down and,
constantly reminds him or her that a ZYRO is there to help. When it comes to fishing,
there are many semantic domains for water related words. Since the ocean is big
and helpful our interaction when speaking is essential and so, our language helps
in these circumstances. In terms of metaphors, we the ZYRO people try to keep
it simple. For example, “calmer than a sunny day in the beach.” This is because
if it is not sunny at the beach there is usually a storm and storms are the
opposite of calm. This is significant because every ZYRO knows how deadly a
storm can be however, we still use this metaphor for any situation around the
islands. In addition, one of my favorites is “work for time” this means that the
faster you work the more time you will have afterward. This is interesting
because most of us like to work, but every once in a while a ZYRO might just to
be with their family. Another of my favorites is “fast as wild animal” this can
be good or bad. If a person has slow hunting reflexes, the metaphor can be
used. If a person has fast hunting reflexes he is” fast as wild animal.” Some
wild animals are speedy while others are not that is why the metaphor can be interpreted
in multiple ways. “Patience like the sun” this is significant because we tend
to promote peacefulness, and this metaphor is used to calm someone down. The sun takes a long time to go down therefore,
a ZYRO must be patient with time. Another great metaphor used in my culture is “mind
is clear like water.” The ocean water around our islands are beautiful and can have
great visibility. As I mentioned the
ocean is vital to us. Therefore, we have many metaphors concerning the ocean. When
everything is good in life we say, “Mind is clear like water” to express the peacefulness
in our lives.
This whole project from making my own culture to creating
a new language has been nothing but interesting. I think to fully a have grasp
of culture and language an individual must understand that both are the same in
a way. To say that culture doesn’t change the way we approach language is wrong
and vice versa. I truly believe that this
project just goes to show how one word can mean so much in a culture. I speak English
and Spanish and when I change from one to another, I do feel a cultural impact
in the words I am saying. Making my own culture and language made me realize
how important and privileged I am to see two different worlds due to language. Furthermore,
language and culture seem to be attached even when we do not realize it. I can simply
say “y’all” in such a natural way and not think much of it. I won’t say it with
a Texan flare, but with a city like pronunciation. To an outsider the word y’all
is simply wrong. However, growing up in Texas it is common no matter what part
of Texas you’re in. I guess you can say it’s part of the Texas culture. Thanks for
allowing me to find such a profound understanding of culture and language it truly
was an experience.
