International Romani Day

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Today it is the day of Romani culture. Stéphane Laederich informs us about the intricacies of this transnational language.
A Danish version can be read here and a Russian version can be read here.

On Romanes

Romanes, often also denoted as Romani Čhib or Romani Šib [the Roma language], is originally spoken by all Roma and continues to be so by many Roma in the world. Be it either by migration or by work and social niche specialization, Roma divided themselves into distinct groups. Some groups, such as many of the Hungarian Carpathian Roma or the Spanish Cale, have completely lost the language, partly due to earlier bans on speaking Romanes. Others only speak it in a version that … ↪

The Language Song/Oqaatsigut

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TheLanguageSong

Language is something all humans share, and perhaps, since we all have it, we sometimes take it for granted. During my years as a researcher I have spoken with many people who themselves, their parents, or grandparents have lost their language. A language loss is often experienced as a trauma and simultaneously as a loss of one’s culture, identity, and roots. A language is but one attribute of a person’s individual identity and group identity. This attribute very often coincides with other attributes – traditions, heritage, clothing, food and more. When a language disappears, due to colonisation or other types of power manifestations, many other of the groups’ attributes disappear.

About half of today’s languages are at risk of dying … ↪

Apolonia 13. A woman’s journey to the moon and back. From theater to painter. A moving documentary worth watching

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APOLONIA poster e1677069915285

— SHORTLISTED FOR AN OSCAR NOMINATION FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY —

(Translated/revised from Danish for the occasion for an international audience.)

(The slightly different Danish version: https://www.lingoblog.dk/apolonia-13-en-kvindes-rejse-til-maanen-og-tilbage/)

It took 13 years to make the film. Lea Glob, a former student at Aarhus Cathedral School, Denmark, trained as a documentary filmmaker, decided in 2009 to make a film about a young woman, Apolonia Sokol, living in Paris. They became friends and no matter where they are, they keep in touch. Lea is fairly stable in Denmark, while Apolonia moves from one place to another. Lea has been able to film Apolonia everywhere and always. After all, Apolonia was used to being filmed. Her parents filmed their intercourse where she was … ↪

Some Bridges

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It is with some trepidation that I approached the second issue of Some Islands, not least because it was described to me as a journal about linguistics, art, and architecture. My training in these fields causes me to tense up with a conscientious undergraduate’s panic about not having studied for the exam. My trepidation was amplified when I saw that Lingoblog’s review of the previous issue was also beautifully illustrated by Miša Hejná, also a contributor to the present issue — something I have not braved in the present review. 

The theme, representation, conjures half-remembered memories of lectures in semantics that I’m sure were also only half-understood. So, perhaps, as befits the issue’s theme of representation, it’s best to begin … ↪

World Endangered Writing Day: January 23rd, 2024

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WEWD poster2

World Endangered Writing Day was born out of a suggestion by David Crystal, the author of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, and many other books on language topics.

He was reading through the manuscript of my new book Writing Beyond Writing: Lessons from Endangered Alphabets, and came to the passage where I say that in traditional Balinese culture one day a year, the day consecrated to Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom, Balinese revere their books, and writing itself.

Nothing written may be destroyed, or even a letter crossed out. Each household takes out its books (which in Balinese tradition are oblong pages of palm leaf, written on with a stylus and then bound between wooden slats), dusts them off, … ↪

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL LINGUISTIC CHRISTMAS

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now thats what i call linguistic christmas

It’s Christmas-time again – and what would this time of year be without Christmas music? A lot of us start counting the days ’till Christmas from the moment “Last Christmas” surprises us in a shopping center sometime around November 20th – and let’s just admit it: We can’t get enough of Christmas songs!

Or maybe Christmas music just isn’t your thing. Is it really possible to listen to ”All I Want for Christmas is You” throughout December without losing your mind, you might be thinking. I mean, I’d say it is, but… I get it. You need something new – something different! I’ve dug around on the internet and asked Twitter for help, and now I’m happy to present … ↪

Can we linguists prevent a war? How can linguistic research establish whether Venezuela could have some kind of right to claim parts of Guyana?

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venezuela guyana referendum map 1

Venezuela wants a large part of its neighboring country Guyana. Venezuela and Guyana have sent troops to the borders. In addition, Brazil and the USA are mobilized in the region. Will Venezuela invade Guyana? Venezuela has already spread official maps where the Essequibo region is part of Venezuela, and they distribute Venezuelan IDs to people in that part of Guyana. Will Venezuela, with 350,000 troops, invade Guyana, with 8,000 troops?

The part of the world called Essequibo has been a matter of conflict since the early 1800s, when the British took over the Dutch colonies in the region. In 1814 the British established officially what was then called British Guyana, by incorporating the Dutch colonies settled from the early … ↪