On the Evolution of Language

When my father went to Finland in the 1980s, the locals regarded his speech as curious and quaint. My father spoke the Finnish he'd learned as a child from his parents who'd left czarist Russia in early 20th century, a Finnish that had no words for electricity, telephone, or toothpaste. The Finnish spoken in Gardner and Kivijarvi came from common stock, but evolved separately.

This summer's reading list included Because Internet, a nifty look at the new world of writing. Canadian linguist Gretchen McCulloch brings a scholar's eye and and a gifted writer's touch to the study of emoji-laden emanations that are the lingua franca of this here world.

"We're still bridging the gap," writes McCulloch, "between the people raised on internet culture and people trying to understand how the Internet can even have a culture."

Internet writing is more like speech than like traditional writing, she observes. imagine if we'd learned to speak, not from our parents and friends, but from television and movies. We'd speak in complete sentences, unpunctuated by er or um. Linguists now, for the first time, can study speech in written form. Analyzing text on Twitter and other publicly accessible channels, researchers can see the organic patterns of language usage and evolution in near real-time. Themes grow and die quickly, influencing and influenced by the technology that carries this new speech.

This is not all new. "Medieval scribes smooshed common words together," writes McCulloch, "into new symbols such as & and %." The difference, though, is then it took decades and centuries for languages to evolve. A musician friend said, in the 1960s, the slang of jazz took about two years to reach the general population. Neologisms now have a half-life of an afternoon.

The words "text," "textile," and "technology" have common linguistic roots with the Latin texere, to weave, bringing threads of different colors and tenacity into fabrics for formal and everyday use.

Studying only formal language, McColloch concludes, is viewing language through a pinhole. It's informal language that holds family, friends, and communities together.

Don't Mess with Librarians 

There will be a longer wait for new electronic books. Publisher Macmillan announced that, starting in November, library systems will be able to purchase just one copy of popular new titles during the first eight weeks after release. Why? The publisher is responding to "our growing fears that library lending was cannibalizing sales."

"Their solution isn't just unsupportive, it doesn't even make sense," writes Jessamyn West. The Los Angeles library system would be able to purchase just one electronic copy, the same number as Randolph, Vermont, serving 1200 people.

The American Library Association (ALA) and its allies are fighting back, not just against this issue with Macmillan, but also against the notion that libraries are no longer useful. When titles aren't available, said the ALA, the public blames the library, not the publishers. The library is seen as not meeting community needs.

OverDrive, the company that provides access to digital media through local libraries, is a partner in the Panorama Project, a research project that uses public library data to assist libraries, booksellers, publishers, and readers with insights about library usage. This includes Panorama Picks, which identifies waitlists for lesser-known titles, helping local booksellers promote sales of books that might not have made it to the national best-seller lists.

Libraries pay more for their ebooks than you do for your Kindle version. During the eight-week embargo, libraries can purchase rights to one copy for $30; the library can then offer that title indefinitely. Later copies cost $80 for two years' of distribution rights.

West, the librarian and tech supporter from Randolph, said, "Public libraries exist in large part because they are necessary to a functioning democracy." Barriers to access to electronic resources disproportionately affects the poor, those with transportation or mobility limitations, and with other impairments.

Real-World Learning

At my recent visit to the dentist, it was time to update my x-rays. The hygienist spent as much time talking with office administrator about my insurance coverage as she did taking the pictures. I asked her, "Did they teach you about insurance in school?"

"No. We just learned about teeth."

Nitish M. Devadiga authored a study, "Software Engineering Education: Converging with the Startup Industry," that reviews the standard software engineering curriculum and compares it to the needs of startups.

It's not only the technical aspects of software development that change when you move to a startup, says Devadiga. The breadth of responsibility requires that you think differently about the business and your role in it. "They may do market research and contribute to new product ideas, define and design system architecture, and handle development operations."

Further, the skills taught in most colleges are not the skills needed in the startup workplace. The most sought-after IT skill, according to a Global Knowledge report, is cloud computing. Small companies use Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, among others, for development and product delivery. Devadiga notes that these types of computing environments are rarely included in software development curricula.

Even beyond the choice of college and selection of a major, college students need to make a the careful review of the specific courses and syllabi. Real-world computing, just like real-world dentistry or real-world law, is where the real-world jobs reside.

Find Yourself in a Museum

I am, I guess, the old man with a beard and a hat. That's the best match that the Google Arts and Culture app found. "Oude man met een baard en een muts" by Wallerant Vaillant is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

The Art Selfie feature of the Arts and Culture app lets you take a selfie and then finds matches to your picture.

Most the pictures look old (but, then, so too is your scribe). That's fine. We've earned our gray hairs. No Miss Tic or Shepard Fairey here. We can take selfies and find our doppelgänger.

The app is available in the Apple App Store or in Google Play.

Further, the product reviews and commentary reflect the opinion of your correspondent and not necessarily of WISE, the Communications Committee, or others.

Contents may settle during shipping. Prepared in a facility where nuts were consumed. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.