Week Two

Hello all! I hope you have had a wonderful week!

This marks the end of week two of my research project. This week, I received instructions on what it is that I will be doing for my internship. I will be helping a graduate student identify the syllables and hiatus’ in words in Gaelic poetry in hopes that this will give us an insight into how Gaelic speakers determine how many syllables are in a word. In English, we have seemingly clear rules as to where we break up words into their different syllables (however, there are some exceptions). In Gaelic, there are a variety of words that non-Gaelic speakers would, for example, say have two syllables, whereas a Gaelic speaker would argue that, although it is pronounced as if there were two syllables, there is in fact only one syllable. Why is this? Why is it that the pronunciation makes the word sound as if there are two syllables when, if you ask a Gaelic speaker, it is actually only one syllable? Why are the rules for syllables in English different than the rules in Gaelic? Are these Gaelic words this way for poetic reasons? 

In my independent research, I am studying the basics of language construction, specifically vowels, monophthongs, and diphthongs. I am currently working on selecting vowels for the language I am creating and am editing the basics of the culture I have created. My advisor and I spoke about possibilities for my culture and their relation to language. Are these creatures humanoid? How would their physiology change their vocabulary? Are they able to make inhuman sounds that contribute to their language? Would telepathy change their vocabulary? I am considering all of these factors in the process of developing my culture and language. The possibilities are endless and I am very excited to be working on this. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Thank you for reading!

An Introduction

Hello everyone! 

1. Who am I?

I am Shashi Armstrong, a senior at BASIS Tucson North. I am a writer, reader, guitarist, student, daughter, sister, and friend. I love the works of Walt Whitman, Ken Grimwood, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

2. What do I plan on doing?

In my senior research project, I plan to explore the linguistic trade and the relations between language, culture, and literature. My goal of one day becoming a professional writer and my love for the works of Tolkien have inspired me to pursue linguistics for my project. By the end of my internship, I will have created a culture with their very own language. I plan to demonstrate the language by writing several poems about my made up culture in the language I create. By doing so, I will be able to show the interactions language, culture, and literature have with one another. I will be interning with Mike Hammond at the University of Arizona Linguistics Department and looking into the poetic “rules,” meter, and syllables in Gaelic poetry. I will also be doing my own research outside of my internship. 

I am very excited to begin this project and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!