Peter Bakker

Peter Bakker (Dordrecht 1959) 1997tik hona hizkuntzalari lanean ari da Aarhuseko Unibertsitatean, Danimarkan. Nederlandistika, kultur antropologia eta hizkuntzalaritza orokorra ikasi zituen Amsterdameko Unibertsitatean, eta bretoiera eta euskara Leidengo Unibertsitatean. Antropologiak, historiak eta hizkuntzalaritzak partekatzen duten alorrean, batez ere hizkuntza berrien sorkuntzaren nolakotasunez eta zergatiaz arduratu da. 1992an Mixif hizkuntzaz doktoratu zen; aditz indigenak eta izen frantsesak dituen Kanadako hizkuntza nahasiaz, alegia. Euren hizkuntza sortzen duten bikiei buruz argitaratu du, halabeharrez egindako merkataritza-hizkuntzei buruz (pidgin izenekoei buruz) eta kreolerei buruz, hau da, iturri mugatutik sorturiko ama hizkuntzen inguruan. Horrez gain, Ijitoen romani hizkuntzan interesaturik dago, Ameriketako hizkuntz ugaritasun handian – bertan ia 200 hizkuntz familia baitaude – eta Karibe aldeko hizkuntzetan. Euskarak beste hizkuntza batzuekin izandako harremanei buruzko hainbat idazlanen egilea da, eta XVI. mendean Kanada ekialdeko indiarrek euskara hizkuntza atzerritar moduan ikasi zutela frogatu zuen. Gaur egun ere, Mikmak hizkuntzan euskal maileguak aurki daitezke. Islandiako XVII. mendeko merkataritzako euskarari buruz ere idatzi du, erromintxela izeneko euskal ijitoen euskararekin nahasitako hizkuntzari buruz, eta beste herri batzuek mailegaturiko baleen euskal izenei buruz. Peter Bakker 1979an izen zen lehen aldiz Euskal Herrian, eta dagoeneko ez dauka jakiterik zenbat aldiz izan den bertan. Garai batean, bere iritziz, euskaraz ongi egiten zuen, baina orain, gutxitan erabili izanagatik, nekezago.

Book review: An extinct creole language of the Danish West Indies

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Rossem forside the virgin islands dutch creole textual heritage philological perspectives on authenticity and audie 328

Cefas van Rossem defended his thesis on the now extinct Dutch Creole language of the former Danish Antilles, or Dansk Vestindien ‘the Danish West Indies’, or the Virgin Islands, on December 20 2017, at the Radboud University of Nijmegen. I had the privilege of judging the manuscript and being one of the eight (!) opponents.

It is in fact the second dissertation on the language within a year – accidentally one hundred years after the three islands St John, St. Croix and St. Thomas were sold by Denmark to the USA. Robbert van Sluijs defended his thesis of the development of tense, mood and aspect in the language in May 2017.

Why would a Danish colony foster … ↪

Eli Fischer-Jørgensen (1911-2010)

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Lingoblog continues to provide you with suggestions for your summer readings on various linguistic topics. This week we have found a biography of language researcher Eli Fischer-Jørgensen (1911-2010).

In January 1999, a few years after I had moved to Denmark, I was astounded to come across an interview in the Danish weekly Weekendavisen with the renowned Danish phonetician Eli Fischer- Jørgensen (henceforth EFJ) and marveled: She is still alive! Having made her name in publications as early as the first half of the past century, in the interview EFJ still appeared intellectually unabated, and full of new writing plans yet. She even remarked that she hoped soon to finish a major work on a special liturgic form of Danish!

In … ↪

Culture and language of the Kalasha

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kalashabook

Denmark has a special connection with the Kalasha people in northern Pakistan. The Danish scholar of religious sciences Halfdan Siiger visited the Kalasha people in 1948, and he wrote a book – not yet published – about their religion. Later, the anthropologists Mytte Fentz and Svend Castenfeldt undertook field work in the Kalasha valleys. They wrote several articles and books about their observations, in particular Myth Fentz’s wonderful book The Kalasha: Mountain People of the Hindu Kush, published in Denmark at Forlag Rhodes.

The Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus possesses a lot of objects from the people, including some gand’aw, or wooden sculptures of ancestors. In addition, Copenhagen linguist Ida Mørch and Jan Heegård visited the area and studied … ↪

The language of The Julekalender

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Nisser the Julekalender

This year, Danish television is broadcasting the daily Christmas program The Julekalender for the 10th time. It was originally produced in 1991.

In Scandinavia, there is a long tradition of television series in 24 episodes of a story that relates to Christmas, all through the month of December. This is called a Julekalender, a Christmas Calendar. The Julekalender is said to be the one that has been most often repeated.

A special type of little people, locally called Nisse, plural Nisser, usually play a prominent role in these series. They interact in different ways with the human world, and they are mostly invisible to humans. They play a role in Danish folk beliefs – especially for … ↪

Around Europe in Sixty Languages by Gaston Dorren. Book review.

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Dorren cover lingo

This post is a book review of Gaston Dorren’s Lingo: A Language Spotter’s Guide to Europe AND Lingo. Around Europe in Sixty Languages. First edition 2014. New York: Grove Press. Accompanying website: https://languagewriter.com/.

A friend of mine went all the way to the United States and all she bought for me was this book, “Lingo”. The similarity between the name of this blog, Lingoblog.dk and the book is purely coincidental. The author of Lingo is the Dutch language journalist Gaston Dorren.

Lingo is an English adapted version of his Dutch book Taaltoerisme, or “language tourism”, which Dorren wrote a few years ago. A respected friend and colleague had read the book in its Dutch version, and his judgment … ↪

A creole book and a dedication to a creolist: Philip Baker

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Philip Baker March 2017 Giessentafel

Not long before Christmas, I received a parcel from Germany, presumably a book, and when I opened the parcel and it was indeed a book. Attached to the book was a small card with the following text:

Philip Baker, 26 July 1940 – 19 August 2017

This volume was published in February 2017, Philip Baker received it in March and had the satisfaction to see that all the data he compiled in London in the 1980ies – the famous “dossier bleu” – are now available in print (see p. VIII).

We mourn for our dear friend Philip and present this book to you to honour his memory.

Annegret and Willem Bollée

It was inserted in this book:

bollee

Annegret Bollée (Hg.)
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