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.