Pop quiz: Happy Polyglossic Birthday!

Tags

applied linguistics, blogiversary, endangered languages, inspiration, languages, linguistics, polyglossic

Dear blog readers,

Today Polyglossic officially turns one year old!  On March 5, 2012, I published my very first post.  This year we’ve explored endangered languages, applied linguistics, ancient tongues, writing systems, and even a mystery or two.  I’ve been excited to share featured speakers of ten different languages.  And during this year this blog has been visited by readers by 113 different countries.  (Isn’t the internet astonishing??)

Today, to celebrate, I have created a little pop quiz!  Here is how you say “Happy Birthday” in ten different languages; the multiple-choice options are countries I’ve had blog visitors from this year.  In which of the countries would you be most likely to hear the greeting?  (Please note: I have sneakily chosen transliterated text so you don’t have a different script as a hint)

1. Yom Huledet Sameakh
   a. Maldives   b. Israel   c. Cyprus   d. Hungary
2. ¡Feliz cumpleaños!
   a. Spain  b. El Salvador  c. Ecuador  d. Argentina
3. S dniom roždenija!
   a. Croatia   b. Greece   c. Russia   d. Malaysia
4. Til hamingju með afmælið
   a. Iceland   b. Finland   c. Lithuania   d. Latvia
5. Selamat ulang tahun
   a. South Africa   b. Indonesia   c. Slovakia   d. Cambodia
6. otanjōbi omedetō gozaimasu
   a. Japan   b. Hong Kong   c. Myanmar   d. Marshall Islands
7. eid mīlad sa’aīd
   a. Libya   b. Lebanon   c. Morocco   d. Egypt
8. Gëzuar Ditëlindjen
   a. Azerbaijan   b. Turkey   c. Ukraine   d. Albania
9. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag
   a. Belgium   b. Austria   c. Germany   d. Switzerland
10. Breithlá sona duit
    a. France   b. Poland   c. Ireland   d. Malta

All text here comes from the good people at Omniglot.  If you click through you’ll find audio files for most of them!

Map of visitors to Polyglossic!

Answers:

1. b. Israel (listen to some Hebrew here!)
2. e. all of the above   Here is our featured speaker of Argentinian Spanish!
3. c. Russia
4. a. Iceland
5. b. Indonesia (our first featured speaker shared an Indonesian poem here)
6. a. Japan (and here is a poem in Japanese!)
7. e. all of the above.  Another trick!  This is Modern Standard Arabic, so although all of the countries listed here would have their local equivalents, this version would be understood in all of them.
8. d. Albania
9. e. oh now I’m just not being fair at all.  This is the phrase in German, which is an official language in all four of these countries!  (Here is our featured speaker of German)
10. c. Ireland (listen to some spoken Irish here!)

*   *   *

Thank you everyone who has visited, read, shared, and commented.  It’s been a wonderful year and it has been a joy to get to share my love of languages with this little part of the internet.  Like I say in my “About” page, Polyglossic describes a world that is rich, vibrant, and robust in linguistic diversity.  I’m looking forward to another year of encouraging and celebrating that world.

Happy birthday, blog!

Sharing words

Tags

endangered languages, language, language revitalization, languages, Papua New Guinea, speakers, talking dictionaries

There’s something about hearing the sounds of a language.

I am a devoted lover of the written word, and I believe in writing’s place in the study of linguistics even though that’s not an easy position to defend.  As I wrote in my last post, I believe every child should have printed books in their very own languages, and I think that authentic texts are easily one of the most powerful tools for second language acquisition.

But!  There is something special about the human voice, isn’t there?

One of my very favorite things I get to do on this blog is my Featured Speaker project.  Whenever I get the recordings from native speakers I get a little thrill, and I set aside time to put on my best headphones, close my eyes, and listen.  I usually get goosebumps.  It’s not just the language, though obviously languages are my very favorite things.  I can read about different languages, and read texts in different languages (or at least look at them), and I have to admit I do get a thrill from seeing different writing systems.  But there’s something about having a human voice coming through the wire.  Two of my Featured Speakers are actually classmates from my Master’s program, which is conducted entirely online; for months I’ve read their words, had “conversations” with them, got to know them.  But when I heard them speaking their words, that’s when I really felt like we got to be friends.

Linguists who document languages in the field make audio recordings as well as written notes, but these recordings are usually pretty technical, inaccessible to the average listener both in terms of technology and in terms of content.  In recent years, however, some innovative linguists have developed a tool called the “talking dictionary,” which is…exactly what it sounds like!  The Living Tongues Institute in particular, with the support of the National Geographic Society, has hosted workshops around the world where speakers of endangered languages learn the techniques to not only record their languages, but to format them in ways that are accessible to anyone interested in hearing the words.  It makes the difference between reading that gay-yuu mvtlh-wvsh means “baby basket laces” in the Siletz language, and actually clicking on this link and hearing someone say the words to you.

Living Tongues hosts robust talking dictionaries of several different languages, and just this week they unveiled an entirely new database of languages from Latin America.  It is an amazing resource and learning tool, and it represents a vibrant and ongoing collaboration between professional linguists, language activists, and native speakers.  I think it’s really exciting!

They are planning to continue their work by holding their next workshop in Papua New Guinea, the country with the single highest number of languages found anywhere in the world.  There are an estimated 836 different languages spoken in Papua New Guinea; if you’re keeping track, that’s something like 12% of all of the languages in the world.  The organizers of this particular workshop are expecting participants representing 50 different local languages.

This work requires some gutgut matan (listen here!).  If you are as excited about supporting this kind of work as I am, please head over to the Indiegogo fundraising page and consider chipping in.  A little goes a long way to helping build an online world where human voices can reach us through our headphones.

Happy International Mother Language Day!

Tags

endangered languages, language learning, language revitalization, languages, writing

February 21 is the day that UNESCO has designated as International Mother Language Day.  Isn’t that a great holiday?

Multilingualism is a source of strength and opportunity for humanity.  It embodies our cultural diversity and encourages the exchange of views, the renewal of ideas and the broadening of our capacity to imagine.

-Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director General

This day not only is a celebration of our rich linguistic diversity, but is also a day to focus on practical measures.  The theme of this year’s celebration is “Books for Mother Tongue Education,” and projects around the theme underscore the importance of written materials and mother tongue literacy for the maintenance of global language diversity.  This theme is particularly close to my heart; my interests as a scholar (and general language fan) meet at the intersection of endangered language revitalization and writing.  And for me the two are inextricable.  David Crystal, in his book Language Death, argues that a written corpus is essential to the maintenance of endangered languages; in our hyper-literate world, any language which does not have a body of text just doesn’t stand a chance to capture the minds and hearts of young speakers.  And as Irina Bokova argues, “Digital tools can help to fill this gap, but they are not enough. We must do more to distribute materials and books as widely and fairly as possible, so that all people – children above all – can read in the language of their choice, including in their mother tongue.”

In addition to the great resources on UNESCO’s website, you should also check out the Living Tongues Institute’s live “tweeting extravaganza” as well as this great featured interview with “global hero in education” and National Geographic fellow K. David Harrison.

Here’s to a world where every child has the opportunity to learn arithmetic, search an encyclopedia, and read their favorite stories in their very own languages!

Do you remember a book from your childhood that helped you broaden your capacity to imagine?

What’s Language Got to Do with It?

Tags

graduate school, language, languages, PhD comics, research, Sherpa, sociolinguistics

If any of you are currently suffering through graduate school, I hope you have at one point or another come across the delightful PhD Comics.  It’s good to be able to laugh at the things that are currently making all your hair fall out, and to know that there are plenty of smart, sleep-deprived people trudging on right along with you.

Recently the folks behind the comic started posting a series of videos to their youtube channel called “Two Minute Thesis.”  Their most recent one features a linguist from the University of Melbourne discussing her work with Sherpa children!  If you’ve ever wondered what linguists do “in the field,” what kinds of things sociolinguists research, or how language and culture relate to each other, here’s a nice introduction in a few short minutes:

New Year, New Challenge

Tags

ancient languages, applied linguistics, classical languages, Greek, language learning, languages

If all goes according to plan, at the end of this coming semester I will hold in my hands a bright, shiny new Master’s degree with my name on it!  My last requirement is a practicum, and the Fates must be smiling on me, because I’ve worked out a way to fulfill that requirement while also…studying ancient Greek!  Somehow timing and patience and a few lovely professors have given me a two-for-one deal.

This is exciting, and also, I must admit, just a little harrowing.  I took three semesters of Greek two years ago, so I’ll basically be picking up right where I left off, except for that unfortunate, you know, complete lapse in studying.  I’ve dabbled here and there but it has certainly taken a back seat, especially when I became a full-time graduate student.  And since I’m supposed to be assisting with the course, not merely attending, I don’t think a fake-it-til-you-make-it approach is going to suffice.  Classes start in 11 days, so I have joined the ranks of probably countless generations of budding scholars – I’m cramming for Greek.

This reviewing/learning process presents some unique challenges, and unique opportunities.  As part of my “assignment,” my Greek professor has asked me to keep a detailed journal of my process, something I was interested in doing anyway.  She says that there’s a hypothesis, purely anecdotal, that she and most of her Classics colleagues have: if you stop studying a language, you can pick it back up pretty easily after a year; it starts getting harder after that; and after two years, you’re toast.  Square one.  Considering I am right at the two year mark, almost to the day, it should be, as she put it, “interesting.”    I’m the subject of my own applied linguistics research!  (Do I get extra credit?)

I’ll be posting occasional updates over the next few months as to how things are going.  In the mean time, wish me luck!  And Happy New Year!

 

Happy New Long Count!

Tags

2012, endangered languages, language, languages, Long Count, Mayan, Mesoamerican, Native American

I spent the last few weeks buried under piles of books, articles, reports, bibliographies, papers, flashcards, study sessions, and exams, gasping for air and trying to remember where I left my brain.  Somehow I survived!  I am in the mood to stretch my legs, shake off the past semester, and start a new season.

Speaking of new season, I’m sure that by now you are aware that the “world” is going to “end” today according to the “Mayans.”  Hopefully you are also aware that the Mayans never actually said the world was going to end today.  Instead, what is ending today is a full cycle of the so-called Long Count, a period in the incredibly complex Mesoamerican calendar system that works out to roughly 400 years in the current Western system.  The idea that the Mayans prophesied the world would end at the end of Long Count 12 is sort of like believing the publishers of my desk calendar have foreseen the end of the world coming in June 2013.  Previous Long Counts have ended in recorded history (the most recent being in 1618), and we have Mayan texts which foresee events occurring in future Long Counts as well.  A combination of limited historical understanding, broad stereotyping of ancient civilizations, and sensationalism means that everyone is talking about the Mayan “Doomsday,” cracking jokes about the fact that they couldn’t even foresee their own destruction (which I imagine is pretty painful for the living Mayan communities), and most likely tomorrow, when the world continues to exist, the Mayans and their “prophecy” will be held up to ridicule.

All of this is really unfortunate.  Instead of hyperventilating about doomsday, we could all be treating this like the event it actually is – the end of a very long cycle and the beginning of a brand new one.  I love that this day falls exactly on the Winter Solstice.  The world won’t be over tomorrow; the world will begin fresh tomorrow.  A brand new Long Count, a little more sunlight every day.  I think I’m lucky to see the transition between Long Counts. It doesn’t come around very often (!) and it has given me the opportunity to learn more about a very complex and sophisticated calendar system.  And of course, behind that calendar system is the language in which it was recorded.

Al Jazeera had a special on the Maya of Guatemala as part of their Living the Language series.  Perhaps we should all watch that instead of more Doomsdaypocalypse 2012 coverage.

(You can see an indigenous educator discussing the Maya numbering system and showing off the tools used to teach the calendar system to young Maya students at 16:40 – 17:25)

We celebrate our New Year’s Day as a day to start fresh.  I think that’s what today is, according the Mayan calendar, only an order of magnitude more significant.  Happy New Long Count, everyone!

Pop Quiz! Election Day etymology

Tags

America, Arabic, election, etymology, German, Greek, languages, vote, Yiddish

Happy Election Day, my fellow Americans!  I don’t know about you, but I have been suffering from campaign exhaustion and was just praying that it would all be over soon.  But now that the day is here, I feel proud to exercise my right to vote.  I know that there are a lot of problems in our political process, but when it comes down to it, I get to go fill in a ballot and have a voice (in my own small way) in the direction of my country and city, and that is pretty amazing.

As you may know, the English word democracy derives from the Greek words demos (“the people” or “the citizens”) and kratos (“power” or “might”). Greek gives us a lot of our words for politics and power.  But plenty of other languages give us words that also come into play during an election cycle.  Can you guess which of these languages give us the following words?

1. election
   a. Arabic, b. German, c. Latin, d. Yiddish
2. suffrage
   a. Arabic, b. German, c. Latin, d. Yiddish
3. zenith (for those of you who follow campaign polling numbers closely…)
   a. Arabic, b. German, c. Latin, d. Yiddish
4. kaput (see above!)
   a. Arabic, b. German, c. Latin, d. Yiddish
5. schmuck (of which there are always quite a few running for office, right?)
   a. Arabic, b. German, c. Latin, d. Yiddish
6. mea culpa
   a. Arabic, b. German, c. Latin, d. Yiddish
7. chutzpah (ed. note: I love this word.)
   a. Arabic, b. German, c. Latin, d. Yiddish
8. dollar (oh yes, this is a very important word for elections)
   a. Arabic, b. German, c. Latin, d. Yiddish
9. coffee (what campaign staffers live on for months, I imagine)
   a. Arabic, b. German, c. Latin, d. Yiddish
10. alcohol (what those staffers will probably switch to at the end of tonight…)
    a. Arabic, b. German, c. Latin, d. Yiddish

Extra credit: You might have heard all of the words above used in commentary delivered by political pundits.  From which language does the word pundit derive?

***
Answers: 1. c. Latin; 2. c. Latin, 3. a. Arabic, 4. b. German, 5. d. Yiddish, 6. c. Latin, 7. d. Yiddish, 8. b. German, 9. a. Arabic, 10. a. Arabic
Extra credit: Pundit comes directly from Sanskrit.

However you did on this quiz, I hope you follow the advice of these adorable fourth graders – if you are an American citizen, go vote!!

Monday Inspiration: Russell Means

Tags

endangered languages, Lakota, language, language diversity, language revitalization, languages, Native American, Russell Means

I’ve just learned that Russell Means passed away this morning.  I was going to call this post “Rest in peace, Russell Means,” but that phrase seemed out of place for a man who made fire and passion the mission of his life.  Mr. Means was certainly a controversial figure, but no one can deny his role in changing the conversation we have about indigenous people here in the US.  Lakota people, American Indians, and Americans in general lost a powerful voice today.

I read on a comment board that Mr. Means’ name, in the Lakota language, was Oyate Wachyapin, which means “helper of his people.”  Another commenter left this message:  Waŋná wanáǧiyata níŋ na uŋ líla ičháŋteuŋšičapi, oíyokšiče ló. Éyaš óhiŋniyaŋ čhíksuya uŋk’úŋpi kte ló.

Now you are making the journey to the spirit world and we are sad. But we will always remember you.

I’d like to add that although I just said he “passed away,” that is not how his family phrased it: they say that he “now walks among the ancestors.”  In every part of life, from small interactions to large events of joy and grief, we can choose different words to express ourselves.  In honor of the life and work of Mr. Means, I’d like to think about a world where families can celebrate and mourn in Lakota or English or any other language that is dear to them.

“It’s all so precious.”

Tags

Columbus Day, endangered languages, inspiration, language diversity, language revitalization, languages, Native American

Today is a federal holiday in the US, known as Columbus Day.  Anyone with a passing familiarity with the history of Christopher Columbus and everything he represents to the indigenous peoples of the Americas probably won’t be surprised that there are quite a few protests associated with this holiday.

I’m going take a cue from many activists (as well as the South Dakota state government) and use today to recognize the linguistic heritage of indigenous Americans.  Instead of celebrating the man who “discovered” America (ha), I invite you all to join me in celebrating the incredible richness and diversity of the languages of the people who were here for quite a few years before the Santa María rolled in.  Read a little bit about the indigenous languages of the Americas on wikipedia.  Explore the interactive map of the Americas at Google’s Endangered Languages website.  Discover the features at the fabulous and inspirational project called Our Mother Tongues (and send your friends an e-postcard!)  And watch this video of an incredible woman who is almost single-handedly reviving that which was lost:

Happy European Day of Languages!

Tags

Europe, Indo-European, inspiration, languages, linguistic diversity, speakers

The Council of Europe has designated September 26 as European Day of Languages, and this year marks the 11th time that educators and policymakers across the continent have marked the occasion.  There is an eye-popping array of activities and events organized by school groups, language institutes, and community organizations.  There are competitions and tournaments, community fairs, language panels, book launches…all sorts of exciting and creative ways of celebrating languages in Europe.

The central website for the day itself is rich and informative and entertaining; you really should take a look!  There are facts and trivia and way too many fun language-themed games.  Plus you can self-assess your language skills using the European framework or take a quiz to test your knowledge of the languages of Europe.  I especially love that the website takes into account ALL of the languages currently spoken on the continent, not just the big Indo-European ones we all probably studied in high school (French-German-Spanish); immigrant languages like Arabic and Urdu and smaller indigenous languages like Basque and Irish are also represented.

 

(By the way, if you’d like to hear more of some of these languages, please check out the featured speakers who shared Danish, German, Irish, and Italian with us on this blog!)

The Council of Europe identified three goals for this Day:

1. Alerting the public to the importance of language learning and diversifying the range of languages learnt in order to increase plurilingualism and intercultural understanding;
2. Promoting the rich linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe, which must be preserved and fostered;
3. Encouraging lifelong language learning in and out of school, whether for study purposes, for professional needs, for purposes of mobility or for pleasure and exchanges.

Plurilingualism, linguistic diversity, and lifelong language learning.  Now those are great reasons to throw a party!

***
P.S. I am so inspired by the enthusiasm and mass participation that this day gets.  I think we need one of these for every continent.  It’s high time we celebrate North American Languages Day!  Who’s with me?