THE ALPHABET CONSPIRACY, Part 2

[Music] hello hello why jabber that's very good you're improving hello oh it was the parrot beware the JB buub talking bird but parrots just imitate what people say yes that's because they are not able to associate a given sound or word with a specific meaning it's curious though that they sound like people some animals such as Apes do have a larynx and the rest of our vocal apparatus the speech mechanism of the Chimpanzee is the closest to that of a human being will you please research psychologist Dr Keith Hayes and his wife raised a chimp named Vicki after constant training Vicki had learned to speak only three human words by the time she was 3 years old like human babies she babbled at first later she was rewarded when she made the right sounds Mrs Hayes would shape Vicki's lips to help her pronounce the word Mama the age of Two and a Half she could say Papa and cup now she has learned to use all three of her words appropriately in solicitation now who am I Papa Papa can you say what this is by the age of six Vicki's spoken vocabulary consisted of seven words whereas human children are using hundreds of words by the time they're only 2 years old chimp panies rangatangs and other mammals may have larynxes and the rest of the speech mechanism but it takes more than that it takes brain power well for the present we must conclude that man is the only one of Earth's creatures with true language because the animals can't manage to combine their cries calls their signals to form the infinite variety of meaning that we achieve when we arrange words and sounds into sentences so Judy shouldn't surprise you that some people have argued that what distinguishes man from Beast is grammar I knew it I knew it I suspected it from the moment he started building up this so-called science of linguistics and all these pretentious words are just a cover up from grammar so Judy the sooner we get on with our conspiracy the sooner we get rid of grammar it would be a lovely world without subjects and predicates and split infinitives and the conjugation of verbs but Judy grammar isn't just a bunch of rules I know it's the building blocks of language no it's more like the architect's plan for the building well if you'll pardon me Professor I've got some plans for that plan then grammar is the plan of how we talk it sounds important but rather hard to understand Judy it's simply this the way words are arranged into sentences is as important a meaning as the separate words themselves Judy did you know that your brain was unconsciously using grammar long before you started to school you mean my head's been full of subjects and predicates and I didn't even know it yes of course did you ever triy to make your mind completely blank you can for your mind goes on talking to itself and in language that's what we call thinking for language puts not only words into our mouths but into our heads too well that's another trouble with words maybe the hatter is right oh but Judy before you go let me say that words themselves aren't to blame they were developed through the ages to express the vital experiences of people everywhere in a sense people live in different worlds worlds reflected in their languages we could understand these many languages we might hear the people say we Eskimo must live with snow it shapes Our Lives we have a dozen special words to tell about snow it's far too important to be dismissed with one word to us living in the troan islands our very existence depends on raising our crops we have more than a 100 names for yams Arabic gives us more than 6,000 different words for Camel its Parts and Equipment when language expresses our various ways of life it is indeed our servant but some Scholars have wondered if language is not at times our Master people use words do words use people in most of the Oriental World our various social classes speak one to the other in traditional ways does our language then determine our Behavior dictating for each person the way in which he acts towards his equals his inferiors his superiors our Hopey language has no grammatical way to express past present or future so far as our language is concerned one might conclude that the world is without time altogether scientists too are pondering such questions does our language shape our whole philosophy of Life Is it true that some ideas that are clear in one language may be very difficult to say maybe even difficult to think in another language even so-called primitive peoples have developed languages that admirably Express their cultures their ways of life but scientists have discovered that there are no primitive languages on the face of the Earth these languages used with ease by the crudest Savages are just as complex as other tongues in fact it sometimes requires the lifetime study of our greatest Scholars to figure them out anthropologists like France Boaz who pioneered in American Indian languages sought to discover in each language its own system following Boaz Leonard Bloomfield began collecting materials on American Indian Languages by this and other work he set the stage for modern descriptive Linguistics others such as Edward seir an expert on many Indian tongues studied languages as related to cultures and total ways of life of all the languages now being spoken only a few have been studied scientifically and today linguistic scientists all over the world are con rating upon small speech communities that are rapidly dying out to prevent their languages from being forever lost to the study of man as we understand each new language we learn more about the way human beings communicate with one another oh [Music] look there's an envelope maybe there's a l inside it's an invitation Mad Hatter says we're invited to a mad at tea party he's going to prove that language is madness and the guest of honor is to be Dr Linguistics a fish Whiffle JY and gimbal be right over my goodness tea and Linguistics what a curious combination [Music] the M tea party is about to commence who's coming well I've invited a cowboy from the southwest a theatrical publicity man and and some other guests how do you do Shorty scin me man Judy this is shorty Rogers famous jazz Trumpeter and composer hey there Judy how do you do crazy shorty you're going to meet a very distinguished professor of linguistics is this cat cool square or way out well I'm not sure that I follow you but this should prove a very amusing encounter they won't understand each other at all shorty it is my great pleasure to introduce to you the very distinguished doctor Linguistics doctor this is shorty Rogers I'm very happy to make your acquaintance doctor skin me man man you're really with it what's the bet here well a hat here's been trying to bug me on this ABC Jazz crazy you made the scene man crazy hey you're a real live aspirin well I have to split now so long keep cool they seem to understand each other but I couldn't Mimsy too me either well wiggley meets my next guest oh Dr L I'd like you to meet a theatrical publicity man how do you do hi looks as if you already have a story yep here's my lead tongue's wag is wag's gag but hot hat cools as doc clicks on rhetoric tricks well that just about ball points the hats chat like a fat vat well I got to run out doc this bash is a bu some Socko packed in that flax cracks flax cracks bander snatch to me you're right they do understand each other perhaps this next guest will confuse him enjoying yourself well now I don't want to sound like I was raised on sour milk but I just can't drink enough of this yellow gargle to get a talking load you see these doings give me Buck Fever I get my spurs all tangled and I'm just plain old hog tide when it comes to making Chin music with a pack of strangers well Dr Linguistics well it was all quite simple he said he wasn't mouthy he's fresh out of tongue oil this wingding shortens his steak rope makes him feel like he's got his leg tied up say partner you sa at my lingo you'll do to ride the riv with well I got to roll my wheels so long doc so long Amigo him and me made of the same leather well so much for linguistics now do let us have some tea Judy after that variety of verbal vocalizing surely you would agree that language is a mixed up mess but Dr Linguistics didn't seem to think the tea party was so mad oh actually I thought it was quite sensible Sensible with everyone speaking a different language different dialect if you please now these dialects and occupational vocabularies are what make any language interesting colorful they're part of our humor but they're also the subject of scholarly research well Dr Linguistics I'm afraid that you and I are not made of the same leather well thanks for the Tean Linguistics it was very pleasant Judy would you care to join me in a little research project in American dialect geography the way a man talks tells us where he comes from like in Brooklyn some people call a bird a boid yes it's not only what people say it's the way they say it that gives us Clues to where they were brought up clues that sounds like a mystery it is rather you could look at it as a kind of detective story first we'll need a suspect and a private eye let's make it two now for the last time are you going to tell us where you're from oh you won eh well we have ways of finding out read this Mary Mary Mary aha west of the Alanis they pronounce the wordss alike he pronounce them all differently yeah that's right clue number one puts him east of the alanes all right now read this GRE oh sorry greasy hear that he said greasy not greasy that puts him nor to Philadelphia ha read this park he said Park Park not par yeah yeah I heard it that eliminates Coastal New England read wash water hear that not wash and but wash and water the rest of New England is out must be Central Atlantic State [Music] somewhere father father that senses it I'll put him within a 30 mile radius of Time Square right yeah 30 tide and [Music] TI an amusing paror game Dr Linguistics something like 20 Questions well a dialect geographer using a list of only 30 words can usually place a person within 20 mi of his home locality so long as he lives in the Easter part of the United States dialect geographers began charting their Monumental linguistic Atlas in the east in 1929 and have been painstakingly working their way to the West Dr Hans kurath of the University of Michigan has conducted a good part of this research he and his dialect experts have been traveling around the country for the past 25 years asking people what words they use for all sorts of things and they've recorded dialect differences in words and how they're pronounced perhaps Dr kurath will show us how the atlas is put together well you see the atlas contains hundreds of M speech differences and their geographical boundaries which we call isoglosses may I show you a few examples this isog gloss sets off the area in which wh cases are called fritters this here around Philadelphia shows the area where they call them hot cakes over here they're called FL cakes to the south of it batter cakes it is on the basis of isog glasses like these that we establish the dialect B thank you Dr kurath man takes his speech way wherever he goes as the dialects flowed Westward the way our population did the strands unraveled and began to overlap and here's how they traveled Western New England accents Coast speech Southern Mountain accents Plantation speech Texas accents but down east talk in the state of Maine has stayed put this research has revealed the paths people have taken when they migrated from one part of the country to another and shown the changes going on in American speech patterns This research has Unearthed hitherto unrecorded dialects has also marked off areas where big cities have influenced the speech ways of neighboring localities this Atlas is a most impressive achievement in one branch of the science of linguistics a Dr L it may be Linguistics it may be impressive it may even be an achievement in one branch but don't try to convince me that it's a science a science is test tubes Scopes microscopes and chromium plated machines well actually Linguistics has its own share of Hardware Hardware yes that's what scientists call their machines but before you can build a piece of Hardware you have to know exactly what you want it to do that calls for research and Imagination will you please the kind of imagination that led to Bell's [Music] telephone to Edison's phonograph to marone's wireless and to the first all talking picture didn't movies always talk no Judy when I was your age films were silent how do movies talk well running along the side of our film is the soundtrack I wonder what ever it looks like well we might ask the soundtrack to move in a bit is that what makes the picture talk it's just a routine matter of Technology routine matter of Technology indeed you surely wouldn't make light of the magic of physics converting sound into electrical impulses why electronic machines are nothing short of miraculous you'll see example the sound spectrograph turns speech into pictures first the scientist speaks into the machine never kill a snake with your bare hands it is impressive but what is it doing the machine separates all sounds into two things pitch and loudness the phrase never kill a snake with your bare hands comes out looking like this is it a new kind of alphabet looks more like a fuzzy kind of Shand these patterns of light show pitch and loudness in each instant of sound that gave the scientist an idea why not just create speech artificially by painting these patterns on clear plastic with a brush and when they feed this hand painted speech into the playback machine here's how it sounds never kill a snake with your bare hands it talks by hand yes the sound spectrograph allows linguistic scientists to make very rapid studies of speech sounds and among other things some deaf people have been taught to see speech for example they learn to recognize this pattern as five they hear with their eyes precisely they see pictures of speech oh we've got machines that talk to man and even machines that can listen udrey that's a machine that listens to spoken numbers like a telephone operator and obeys orders four four yes Audrey the auto atic digit recognizer can identify numbers spoken into a telephone and how about the voice typewriter it takes dictation and types words as they are spoken C you read it it's like a secretary who never makes a mistake no they're easily confused by different voices and different accents voice typ iders are still pretty what about machines that talk to each other yes electronic Computing machines can transmit data to each other over ordinary telephone circuits those machines will soon learn that it's a lot easier to get into this talking business than it is to get out of it out of it Bend or snatch I never dreamed machines could be so smart I'd love to have a tea party conversation with machine I'm afraid you find the conversation rather dull you see Judy machines have no minds of their own I thought they had electronic Brains it's the brain of man that tells them what to do I give up you and your scientific attitude magic is just matter of fact to you every Miracle has to have its qualifications reservations footnotes uh goodbye I hope the soundtrack didn't go away mad soundtrack's an impetuous fellow he was in such a hurry he neglected to even mention an automatic trans trans lator you see Judy for a long time now scientists have been working toward the realization of machines that will translate one language into another here's a machine that's helping them it's called The johniac Machine translation will need a dictionary and a grammar book a plan of the language designed for the machines to use there's still a lot to be done though one of the link linguistic scientist working on the problem is Professor Kenneth Harper his students from the University of California at Los angelist are also helping wouldn't it be wonderful if we had a machine that could translate languages so that everybody could understand everybody else yes Judy it would unfortunately translating words from one language to another is not the same as understanding that language but if we knew what the words meant well word for word translation can never quite communicate to us the thinking the overtones that convey true meaning in any language a linguistic Scientist by finding new ways of teaching other languages and making them easier to learn are helping us to break down old barriers Judy differences in language have been one of the greatest barriers to A Meeting of Minds among men one expression of the desire for greater understanding is the United Nations as terellian of Carthage in 200 ad wrote man is the one name belonging to Every Nation on Earth there is one soul and many tongues one spirit and many sounds every country has its own speech but the subjects of speech are common to all yes the subjects of speech daytoday talk the chatter of small talk the exchange of pleasantries news gossip conversation among friends and with strangers who speak different languages but find ways of understanding each other language and speech the basis for communication tools for learning for broadening Horizon Horizons of the mind for developing new ideas for exchanging knowledge exploring New Frontiers of science the gift of speech a universal quality that links each man to the world of men language the pattern of speech May one day be the instrument that will bring compatibility and understanding to human beings everywhere [Music] soon I shall be immortalized as the man who freed people from words but you're already Immortal huh even if your alphabet conspiracy succeeds and you destroy the book you madh Hatter and you too jabberwock will always live on in the minds of men it's because they were created out of words yet you're both very alive to me well I'm very alive to myself and so are you jebor I'm beginning to feel it immortality come on jebber I believe Alice is expecting us [Music] words words words words [Music] words words hello there Judy having trouble with your homework you see there's so much I don't understand and I'd like to understand perhaps I can help just as men of science explore the atom the gene the universe so also do they study the living breath of human speech expressing the needs affections Joys hopes tragedy the affirmation of Faith the very Spirit of man's deepest nature [Music] the Bell System is grateful to the many distinguished scientists who helped to prepare this story of language our thanks to the special advisers who supplied and checked the scientific material for this program our thanks also to The Advisory Board which reviews the scientific aspects of these programs its members represent the broad range of modern science including biology and genetics medicine bacteriology and botony chemistry geophysics physics anthropology electronics and Acoustics mathematics engineering to all these men and to many institutions the Bell System is in indebted for the support they have given this Venture in education through [Music] entertainment for