Jennifer Ball, Author at Origin of Alphabet

A Prison of Virgins is a “Gugu” in Akkadian

A Prison of Virgins is a “Gugu” in Akkadian, or in truth, the plot of the Sound of Music, which is really a form…

One’s hairstyle projects one’s status. Female hair telegraphs availability. Certain styles indicate “not yet: this wearer is too young to bear children.” Early communication was often about a female’s ability to carry offspring.

开始使用包容性语言

如果我们想要帮助消除偏见的话，就需要改变我们的语言，包括不再用“黑色”和“黑暗”来指代“不好”。在英文中，可以使用“extortion-敲诈”来代替“blackmail-黑邮件/勒索敲诈”（后者的发音与“black male-黑人男性”同音异意，这样的贬低是不应该发生的）；可以轻而易举地用“illegal commerce-非法经商”代替“black market-黑市”；可以用“renegade-变节者”代替“black sheep-害群之马”表达同样的意思。 Bethany Brown（美国演员）讨论“错误的二分法” Angelina Spicer（美国演员）呼吁，“让我们共同努力！”#改变语言改变思维作为一名语言研究者，当我发现在中国文化里“黑”的概念也同样是贬义的时候（我在中国生活过两年，学习中文有十年了），就开始怀疑这是不是普遍的语言学现象。我们不应该再使用诸如“dark side-阴暗面”，“shrow some shade-盖上阴影，即公开蔑视或批评”这样与“黑”相关的陈词滥调。为什么从最开始的积极表达“made in the shade-无忧无虑”演变成了“throw shade-公开蔑视或批评”？能够保护我们的“shade-阴凉”，现在成为了贬义的怀疑对象，是因为它暗含的颜色指代吗？感谢您帮助我在下面的请愿书上签名，促使WaPo停止使用“民主会在黑暗中死亡”这样的表达，因为我们迫切地需要开始使用具有包容性的语言： http://www.Change.org/DarkIsGood 现在我们正溺亡于“白色特权”之中。WaPo: 改变你的宣传标语！…

"Lioness," "female dog," and "plow" all employ the same root, which implies they are the negative (female) of the positive (male).

在苏美尔语里 “Nig” 的含义是 “婊子” — —这是巧合吗? 绝对不是

在苏美尔语里, “nig” 的发音就等同于雌性哺乳动物或者是农耕工具, 详见下面的例子,代表 “母狮子”, “母狗/婊子”, 以及 “犁地” 等含义的字符, 它们都将阴道的形象作为描述的一部分 (粉色圈出部分). 这些字符内在包含了 “阴性/消极的” 概念, 例如“狗”通常被视为主人的所属物, 女人则被视作男人阳性概念的阴性影响面, 以及后者的附属品.…

Black cat, black, sheep, black swan: all are racist clichés. 黑猫，黑羊，黑天鹅：都是种族歧视俗套。

黑名单”和“白名单

对于无徳出版讨论中种普遍存在的种族歧视性语言的有益警告 Frank Houghton 爱尔兰利利莫瑞克理理工学院HEALR研究小组主任 Sharon Houghton 爱尔兰利利莫瑞克理理工学院心理理学系作者信息、文章注释、版权及许可信息免责声明感谢《医学图书馆协会杂志》译者:李琪摘要本评论文章讨论的是在无徳出版中种族歧视性语言的普遍使用现象。此类例子包含“黑名单”,“白名单”,“黑绵羊(害群之马)”等术语。该类词汇的使用不仅反映了具有种族歧视色彩的文化,同时还使该行为变得合理且可持续。种族歧视主义的祸患是具有潜伏性的,它会悄无声息却不可阻碍地渗透进我们的思维之中, 如同空气传播的微生物漂浮进我们的体内,在我们的血脉中找到终身寄主。 – Maya Angelou 2008年,在位于丹佛的科罗拉多大学有一位名叫 Jeffrey Beall 的图书馆管理员,整理出了一个极有可能的无徳期刊和出版商的清单。尽管Kirsten Bell…

“Blacklists” and “Whitelists”

A salutary warning concerning the prevalence of racist language in discussions of predatory publishing Frank Houghton Director, HEALR Research Group, Limerick Institute of Technology,…

In Sumerian “Nig” is “Bitch”—Coincidence? No.

In Sumerian, the sound “nig” equates to a female mammal or a farming tool, as can be seen below in the words “lioness,” “bitch,”…

“喵”是“猫”的另外一个名字

Jennifer Ball Soochow University, Suzhou, China Email: originofalphabet@me.com How to cite this paper: Ball, J. (2019). “Meow” Is Just Another Name for “Cat”. Open…

“Self, Other, and Canine”: The “Dog” Radical in Chinese History and Its Implications for Chinese Minority Identity

“自我，他指，以及犬系”: “反犬旁”在中国历史中的发展及其对中国少数民族身份的暗示 Author Unknown (It was available at http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/tempus/archives_files/Brown.pdf until Summer 2020) 作者未知(http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/tempus/archives_files/Brown.pdf) Translated by Maggie Li 译者李琪 Presented by Jennifer Ball 出品人包弫 One of…

Start Using Inclusive Language

Announcing The 2024 Inclusive Language Contest Winners: If we want to help eliminate bias, we need to change our…

Gender and Grammar in Chinese With Implications for Language Universals

Gender and Grammar in Chinese With Implications for Language Universals 中文里的性别和语法 ——对语言共性的影响 Dr. Catherine S. Farris University of Washington 凯瑟琳·法里斯华盛顿大学 First published in…

“Covert Sexism in Mandarin Chinese” by David Moser

Sino-Platonic Papers Number 74 January, 1997 David Moser Dept. of Asian Languages and Cultures University of Michigan Introduction Western linguists have been…

The Role of the “Groove” 卯 Character in Chinese Writing: 69 characters and 22 definitions

by Jennifer Ball and Xu Chao Using a Hanzi substructure-search engine designed by Xu Chao and Jennifer Ball Nov. 11, 2018 Thanks to Chinese…

The Role of the “Youth/Essence” 青/靑 Character in Chinese Writing

byJennifer Ball and Xu ChaoUsing a Hanzi substructure-search engine designed by Xu Chao and Jennifer BallNov. 11, 2018 Thanks to Chinese Text Project, Wiktionary,…

The Role of the Female 女 Character in Chinese Writing: 1,495 characters and 645 definitions

by Jennifer Ball and Xu Chao Using a Hanzi substructure-search engine designed by Xu Chao and Jennifer Ball Nov. 5, 2018 Thanks to Chinese…

Role of the “Opposite Dog “犭 Character in Chinese Writing: 947 Characters 279 definitions

by Jennifer Ball and Xu Chao Using a Hanzi substructure-search engine designed by Xu Chao and Jennifer Ball Aug. 16, 2018 Semantic Breakdown of…

Are Jiahu Symbols Writing? Probably

In Chinese, a common type of sentence is four characters; this four-character sentence is known as a “chengyu” 成语. A chengyu is not dissimilar…

Duh, I own it: Possession is Universal

的 de (no tone) = of (possessive), target, bull’s eye Portraying ownership was one of the first usages of writing. “This is mine” was…

汉语里的隐性性别歧视作者：David Moser

导语

西方语言学家对于英语语言当中性别歧视现象各个方面的研究已经持续了几十年。继罗宾拉考夫（Robin Lakoff，1975），米勒凯西以及凯特斯威夫特（Miller Casey，Kate Swift，1977）等人发表了具有影响力的论文之后，更多的学者开始识别并且归类诸如词汇，语法，语篇，甚至是语调等语言特性中所体现的性别歧视现象。（关于英语语言中性别歧视的历史概述可参见巴伦(Baron)1986年的论文。其余近期的研究包含斯坦利(Stanley)的论文1977a，1997b…

We all emerge from an egg stored in a secret place — 我们都来自隐秘在某处的一枚卵

excerpt: 我们都来自隐秘在某处的一枚卵

请注意以下中国汉字间的联系：

Hair as a Medium for Communication

One’s hairstyle projects one’s status. Female hair telegraphs availability. Certain styles indicate “not yet: this wearer is too young to bear children.” Early communication was often about a female’s ability to carry offspring.

Fig. 2 We don't recognize the alphabet's Times Roman capital “B” as related to "mother," but four other cultures do. The Chinese character for “milk” has the "female" radical on the left, and a “B”-shape on right. The Chinese character for “pregnant” has a “B” shape with the word for "child" emerging from its bottom. The Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph for “milk,” rotated 90° clockwise to facilitate comparison was pronounced /irtt/ or "to make TT" which sounds a lot like "tit" or "teat." The Thai character for “mother” has two lower case "b's," which resemble the word "boobs" as well as the actual appendages. The last character is Sumerian for "child," one who sucks milk from her mother. All of these words have both “B” shapes and meanings that relate to "mother." The breast imagery has been highlighted in blue.

乳房，阴道以及工具: 对英语字母系统的思考

如果你要向彼此语言不通的人描述一件事情，最简单的传达意思的方法就是画一张图。

“一图胜过万语千言”，因为不需要任何约定俗成的书面或口语表达就可以将信息传达出去。这种视觉的交流方式不需要面对面的互动，任何人都可以画一幅图，其他任何人都能够看到这幅图。只要信息发出者与接收者的思维方式大致相同：那么，传输完毕。现代人就都满足这样的要求，因为我们都是通过自然选择进化而来的，这个过程既不是民主选择又不是个人独断，而是方向始终如一，不可阻挡的进化过程。从几十万年前起，人类就一直延续着基因上的相似性，因此，我们的基本需求是一样的。早期人类将其反应在字母的形状和发音上，也就是说，我们的字母表就是人类基本需要的层级图。

The shape of the letter “V” means “female” in three different cultures and times

The shape of the letter “V” means “female” in three different cultures and times: Discovered by Denise Schmandt-Besserat, this first character is a Neolithic…

#ChangeLanguageChangeMinds #BlackIsBeautiful #DarkIsDarling #BlackIsNOTBad #DarkIsNOTBad #NoMoreBlackIsBad #NoMoreDarkIsBad

The use of darkness as a synonym for “bad” is a microaggression that results in macro-oppression. The constant devaluing of darkness pings upon the…

#ChangeLanguageChangeMinds #BlackIsBeautiful #DarkIsDarling #BlackIsNOTBad #DarkIsNOTBad #NoMoreBlackIsBad #NoMoreDarkIsBad

The use of darkness as a synonym for “bad” is a microaggression that results in macro-oppression. The constant devaluing of darkness pings upon the…

In ancient Sumerian, the relationship between mother and donkey is clear - both are beasts of burden.

Mother or Donkey? They are both beasts of burden

Soundwise, it’s a close call in Sumerian—Ama vs. Eme. Ama is “mother” in Sumerian 863 times; eme is “donkey” 354 times and “tongue” 178…

Tail = kun in cuneiform

Or would that be tail = cun? The word “tail” has many meanings, but on an animal it is a flag to say, “Here…

The Relationship of Stork to Child is 5,000 Years Old

The suggestive nature of the lily, as seen above, is a clue as to why these flowers were so important to early humans. The…

Could Mayan Flowers Really Be Vaginas?

Is this first character really a Water Lily? Especially considering the package this jaguar is sporting? (See reddened circles.) The bisymmetry of the “u…

Words Beginning With “STR”

The sound “str” is all about objects that are straight, or have structure: “straw” in “strawberries,” for instance, are little straight lines that align. When…

Words Beginning With “CR”

The sound “cr” implies a narrow hole, such as a crack or crevice, or even something bigger that might hold a creature, such as…

Words Beginning With “CL”

The sound “cl” implies two or more things that cluster together because they are very close. They might share a hinge or symmetry or…

Words Beginning With “GR”

The sound “gr” is all about watching the growth of green things: grapes, grass, grain, which all gradually ripen, and when they reach the grocery store,…

Words Beginning With “TH”

Words that begin with “th” are often about other people: One of the biggest holidays in the United States is Thanksgiving, and it always falls…

Words Beginning With “SH”

There are many types of shells: eggshells, seashells, and the outer shell of beans, but all are a shelter for what is inside. “Sh!”…

Words Beginning With “GL”

The sound “GL” has “reflection” at its root because “glacier” and “glaze” show characteristics of ice, which glows when light hits it. Icing or…

Words Beginning With “FR”

The sound “fr” suggests fragmentation. Freckles are fragments of melanin. French fries are fractions of potato. Human fractures make one frail. A frog jumps…

Words Beginning With “BR”

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Language operates on metaphor: The sound “Br” imparts the sense of “branch”—and the actual branch turns into practical broom or brush: a tool.…

Words Beginning With “BL”

The sound “BL” implies a relationship with eyes: “blink” is two eyes closing and opening—“blind” is when they never reopen. The colors “blue” and…

Mammals depicted in Linear B script including male and female characters Female characters are differentiated by an inverted letter V.

More evidence that the “V” shape means “female”— this time in Linear B (circa 1,450 BC)

Script depictions are from a no-longer functional website, but you can find equivalent source material here: https://linearbknossosmycenae.com/2014/04/26/linear-b-ideograms-level-5-0-advanced-ideograms-formed-by-combinations-of-syllabograms/ The vagina is the most consistently represented…

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