Following up from my previous post.

[randomness]

As bloodstones observes, more research into local firewaters is clearly needed if we're going to see whether drinking the local alcohol improves language production.

But what common hard liquors are nationally distinctive?

For example, in the case of báijiǔ, one of the inexpensive varieties is èrguōtóu, a clear sorghum liquor. One of the most popular brands is Red Star (红星, hóng xīng), which comes in a variety of strengths up to 112 proof:



I read that it's available for as little as $1.50 per 100mL bottle.*

Then there's Russian vodka, which I'm told is produced by thousands of distilleries all over the country, some of which is very cheap indeed. This discussion on bad vodka led me to a brand called Охта, from the ЛИВИЗ distillery in St. Petersburg. I snagged a photo of the label from a post on an auction site in Russia which lists the completed auction as having gone for 15 rubles plus 30 rubles shipping, or a total of 45 rubles ($1.50) for the liter bottle.



As a useful side-benefit, using inexpensive hard liquor will reduce our research expenses. We should highlight this in our grant proposal.

Brazil has cachaça, the United States has bourbon, Latin America has aguardiente, the Balkans have rakia (of which slivovitz is a variety made from plums). Korea has soju, Japan has shōchū, and Southeast Asia has arrack, which is distinct from Middle Eastern arak.

Anyway, you get the idea.

Edit to add: This site has Cachaça 51 Pirassununga (one of the best selling brands in Brazil), 78 proof, for R$5.95 a 965mL bottle. That's about $3.20 for the bottle, or $3.32 a liter.

It also comes in aluminum cans:

*I overestimated the cost of èrguōtóu. http://www.cntvs.com/product/1663/081031/25907/ has the stronger 65% (130 proof) for 12 yuan ($1.75) per 500mL bottle, or around $3.50/liter.

Comments

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Okay, I found a cite in the above paper to the following:

Guiora, A., B. Beit-Hallahmi, R. Brannon, C. Dull, and T. Scovel. 1972. The effects of experimentally induced changes in ego states on pronunciation ability in a second language: An exploratory study.' Comprehensive Psychiatry 13:421-7.

which describes the method:

Eighty-seven University of Michigan students served as subjects for the experiment. All were over 21 years of age and were informed in advance only that the experiment would involve responses to an alcoholic beverage. Half of the subjects were required to avoid intake of any food or beverage after lunchtime on the day of the experiment, which took place during the early evening. The other group of subjects was given the same instructions except that they were to eat a full-sized candy bar one hour before reporting to the laboratory and to bring the wrapper with them.* Upon entering the laboratory the subjects were assigned to one of five treatment conditions based upon self-reported body weight and previously ascertained Scholastic Aptitude Test scores (obtained from university records). The purpose of the assignment procedure was to control the effects of body weight and general intellectual ability by equating the treatment groups on these attributes as nearly as possible.

The subjects were then asked to drink a “cocktail” presented by the experimenter. All such cocktails were served with cocktail napkins, in stemmed glasses, and were garnished with a cherry and a twist of lemon peel. A darkroom signal timer was set to allow exactly 10 minutes for the drink to take effect, and at the end of this period subjects immediately began the language test described below.

The “cocktail” ingested by each subject contained either zero, one, one and a half, two, or three ounces of ninety proof liquor. The four alcohol treatments consisted of varying amounts of a punch known for its deceptive potency. It is one half liquor (cognac, light and dark rum) and one half other ingredients, such as citrus juices. A three-ounce serving thus contained one and a half ounces and so on.

(Full paper available at http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/34041)

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

I bet that was a really popular study to participate in.
It occurs to me that in addition to seeing if the various liquors have language specific properties we'll have to control for the possibility that it's just alcohol in general by mixing it up - have some people drink vodka and then asking them to speak mandarin, etc.

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

I will be _happy_ to test either báijiǔ with my moderately good Russian abilities, or vodka with my extremely limited Mandarin abilities.