African languages in the 1700s Danish West Indies

by
voyages slave routes

Most of the Danish West Indian population during the colonial era did not come from Denmark, but had African roots. Even though the African languages only survived as traces in the creoles of the islands, we know that they were used (recessively) in the Virgin Islands for centuries. Danish slave ships transported around 100,000 Africans to the West Indies between 1673 and 1807, and census data from the Danish National Archives (Rigsarkivet) shows that in 1841 – just seven years before the emancipation – close to 10 percent of the unfree population on Saint Croix was born in Africa.

So, which African languages were spoken in the former Danish West Indies?

Since there are somewhere between 1,500 and … ↪

An exciting month awaits Lingoblog’s English speaking readers…

by
bog sommer mindre scaled

Lingoblog publishes new, original blog posts about language(s) and linguistics every week, but as regular readers may have noticed, most of our posts are in Danish.

This summer, we are making more posts accessible to our non-Danish speaking readers as we publish English translations of blog posts originally written in Danish! There will be a new translation on the blog each Tuesday during the next five weeks, starting today with Kristoffer Friis Bøegh’s post on African languages in the 1700s Danish West Indies.

Not enough summer reading for you? Then check out our holiday-reading recommendations for English-language books on languages and linguistics!

We wish all of our readers a wonderful summer – and happy reading!

Cover photo by rawpixel.com

How do learners make use of foreign language learning materials?

by
Title illustration

How do learners make use of foreign language learning materials? This was the question that I set out to answer in my ph.d. thesis. Along the way, I learned to use to methods for evaluating usability of a product (think-aloud protocols and constructive interaction), learned how to analyze the results quantitatively (which was scary), and found new ways to look at the data qualitatively (conversation analysis). Especially through detailed qualitative analyses of how our study participants made use of the learning materials in our usability test settings, I learned more about the sequential organization of such sessions, how instructions are realized, and how different visual and other aspects of the learning material drafts were made relevant.

In this blog post, … ↪

Global live presentations on linguistics on the net: Lingoblogger featured on June 7th

by
ABRALIN EVENTS

Interested in language and linguistics? We thought so! Want to attend an almost three month long global event with talks from some of the world’s leading linguists for free? Of course you do! And now you can!

The Brazilian Linguistics Association (Abralin), in a joint project with the Permanent International Committee of Linguists, the Asociación de Lingüística y Filología de América Latina, Sociedad Argentina de Estudios Lingüísticos, the Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée, the Societas Linguistica Europaea, the Linguistic Society of America, the Linguistics Association of Great Britain, and the Australian Linguistic Society, is organizing a virtual event: Abralin ao Vivo – Linguists Online. The event takes place from May 4th… ↪

COVIDictionary. Your go-to dictionary in times of Coronavirus and COVID-19

by
corona tegning til signe

Lingoblog.dk goes viral! Ideas worth spreading! Please send this link: https://www.lingoblog.dk/en/covidictionary-your-go-to-dictionary-in-times-of-coronavirus-and-covid-19/ to all your isolated friends, relatives and colleagues who can be uplifted by some COVID-19 humor.

by Peter Bakker and Joshua Nash

COVIDictionary 20: your go-to dictionary in times of Coronavirus and COVID-19

© Peter Bakker and Joshua Nash

COVIDeology:The idea to shut down the world in order to prevent that hospitals shut down.
COVIDiotic:

 

(1)   The process of closing down the world for no real and apparent reason.

(2)   The process of opening up the world for no real and apparent reason after a lockdown.

(3)   The process of taking no measures for no real and apparent reason.

COVIDe:The feeling of emptiness during lockdown.
COVIDiosity:
… ↪

Tricky Trickster in Amerindian traditions

by
0072fc861f8558ddd0a5b9efefe3ec0b S

It is book review week here on Lingoblog! Today, we are bringing you a review of “Retelling Trickster in Naapi’s Language”.

What is a trickster? Many cultures in the world tell stories about a person or animal that do many things that are tricky. In Medieval Europe, one can think of the fox. In the 12th century, a number of stories about the cunning activities of the fox Renart were written down in France, and such stories with speaking and deceiving animals are widespread through Europe. The fox kills and bullies, and gets away with it. These writings go back to stories transmitted orally from generation to generation.

One can also think of the fables written down by Aesop … ↪

LingoLit: A Linguist’s Quarantine Reading Guide

by
The Wug Test 1

Blogger’s note:
I originally wrote this blog entry with the intention of asking the editors of Lingoblog to release it shortly before the summer holidays. However, since then another situation has arisen, which to an even higher degree seems to leave people needing something good to read, so I’ve decided instead to submit this entry now, as a guide to quarantine rather than summer reading. I urge you to consider it a bit of tragic irony when I refer to the holidays below, rather than to the current situation.
The libraries here in Denmark may be closed, but there’s still audio- and e-books as well as online bookstores that are accessible without venturing into the public and risking contamination. I … ↪