For this assignment, I’m going to choose my mom. She was born in Palestine and came to America when she was 19. She has to learn from my dad because he was born in Palestine as well but came to America when he was much younger so he learned English faster. With that being said my mom learned English from my dad. My mom had trouble learning English though. It was a tough challenge, especially coming to a new country with a whole new language/customs. She is fluent in English but you can tell she was born in another country due to the accent. However, there are times when she does ask me about a word she might not know, so either I or my other siblings would have to explain it to her. Even when she reads something, my siblings and I would have to explain the word that way. When it came to me, it was kind of the opposite. I had trouble learning Arabic. Usually, younger kids learn their foreign language when they’re toddlers that was me for instance. My mom would speak in Arabic while my dad would speak in English. However, as I got older I went into a public school with other American kids. This lead me losing my memory of Arabic words/learn how to say it. Even the pronunciation is due to over the years not speaking it for a while. That’s why when I speak to other Arabic speakers sometimes they may get confused when I say a certain word, (or might be due to my different dialect from them). But usually when I visit back home it’s easier for me to pick up my Arabic because I’m surrounded by my Arabic speakers.

• Proposition: I’m Palestinian
• Truth value: True.
• Truth conditions: In order for this to be true, my immigrant parents would have an ethnically Palestinian background.
• Entailment: “I’m Palestinian” entails “I’m Palestinian because my parents are ethnically Palestinian and born in Palestine which makes me the same ethnicity as them”

• Proposition: I have 3 siblings
• Truth value: True
• Truth conditions: For this to be true, I would have to live and grow up with them
• Entailment: “I have 3 siblings” entails “My mom gave birth to 3 other kids including me”

• Proposition: I have a dog
• Truth value: False
• Truth conditions: For this to be true, I need to own and live with a dog
• Entailment: “I have a dog” would entail “I have a pet dog”

There are a lot of words that are borrowed. For instance, for cafe and coffee, the donor language is from France (Donor language), and it is borrowed from English (Borrowed language) However I noticed one word that stood out to me. The borrowed word is “sushi,” which originated from Japanese and was borrowed into English. Donor Language (Japanese) the pronunciation is /sɯɕi/ In Japanese, “su” is pronounced as /sɯ/ and “shi” as /ɕi/. Japanese has a straightforward phonemic list with limited consonants and vowels. Borrowing Language (English) the pronunciation is /ˈsuːʃi/. English pronunciation of “sushi” to fit its phonemic list and phonotactics. Us English speakers tend to put in a vowel sound between the “s” and “h” sounds, giving us  /suːʃ/. The vowel sound /uː/ is similar to the Japanese /ɯ/, and the affricate /ʃ/ replaces the Japanese fricative /ɕ/.In summary, the pronunciation of “sushi” in English involves phonetic changes to accommodate English phonology, such as vowel lengthening and substitution of consonants, while still keeping the core essence of the Japanese word.

Back in middle school my grammar and wording were always corrected by the teachers. They corrected me about a lot of words that I shouldn’t have used. For instance I used gonna a lot. I used to say “ I’m gonna go to the park” or “I’m gonna go home.” Or I would use ain’t, and say “ I ain’t gonna go to school” However my teachers always corrected my vocabulary/grammar, instead of “gonna,” my teacher told me to use “going”. Instead of “ain’t” I had to use “aren’t”. My teacher thought that these words were improper and used the excuse “In high school/college they will not accept this type of grammar” I can agree the words “ain’t” and “gonna” aren’t formal however I do believe now they aren’t improper words to use though. I wouldn’t stop using these words in my daily life or my writing assignments, especially since linguistics makes me have more free will and there’s no such thing as rules with descriptivism linguistics. However, when I write formal essays I do want to be proper and write formally, and use different words.