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 … ↪

Balanguru – a Kalasha village in northern Pakistan described

by
1592 balanguru web

It is book review week here on Lingoblog! Today, we are bringing you a review of “Balanguru: mennesker og myter i en kalashalandsby i Hindukush [Balanguru: people and myths in a Kalasha village in Hindukush]”.

When I was a student and studied linguistic anthropology in Amsterdam, taught by the anthropologist Johannes Fabian (now 82 years old), one of the tasks that we got as students was that we all had to read an anthropological monograph of our own choice. An ethnographic description of a tribal group’s nature. Thus, while we read the book, we were instructed to be particularly aware of what the anthropologist wrote about language. Did they learn the language to be able to communicate with the natives? … ↪

The Danish pronoun ‘man’ used as ‘I’ in conversation

by
conversation 545621 12801

In English, you is both a definite and an indefinite pronoun. This means that speakers can use the same form to refer to a specific person and to refer to someone unspecific, someone in general. In Danish, the pronoun man is used to refer to someone in general, just like the English indefinite you, and the word’s primary meaning, listed in dictionaries and grammars, is this generic function. However, there are instances in the language where man occurs as an indefinite pronoun with self-reference. These instances are only briefly mentioned in the literature and are not described in detail at all.

This blog post is based on a presentation and an article from the 17th MUDS – Møderne … ↪

Liet International 2020 in Aabenraa, Nordschleswig/Denmark: songs in 20 languages 

by
Zaman

UPDATE: Because of the Corona virus, the event has been cancelled/postponed.

The line-up of 20 participants of the 13th edition of Liet International 2020 on 3 and 4 April 2020 in Apenrade/Aabenraa, Denmark is set. 45 songs were submitted for Liet International 2020, the song festival for regional and minority languages. These 45 songs show a huge rise in applications, and showing a growing interest in Liet International.

A selection jury consisting of Anneke Holwerda (The Netherlands), chairman of the jury at Frisian song festival Liet 2019, Laura Fosten (United Kingdom), member of the Cornish band The Rowan Tree, winner of Liet International 2018, and Uffe Iwersen (Denmark), culture consultant at Bund Deutscher Nordschleswiger, the organisers of Liet International 2020, … ↪

Only 100 spoken words per day: Vox

by
MTUwMDYxLWVib2c6T0ROMDAwMzg3NzM3Nw

Can you imagine a world where you are only allowed to speak a certain amount of words per day? Imagine if the amount was 100 words. It does not take a conversation analyst to argue or explain that this number is incredibly low, just try counting the number of words you have used in your last conversation today, and you will see how the numbers add up pretty quickly. Imagine if a metal bracelet around your wrist keeps track of your verbal behavior. Then imagine that, if you exceed this number, the bracelet will give you an electric shock. Finally, imagine if this only applies to women.

This is the world that the author Christina Dalcher invites us in to … ↪

A Brief History of the Canadian Language Museum or How a Posting on Linguist List Changed My Life

by
Cree at WIPCE 2017 1

On June 8, 2007 a posting was distributed on Linguist List with the following subject line: “An International Language Museum in Denmark”. I was teaching Linguistics at the University of Toronto at the time and received many messages from Linguist List daily, but this one caught my eye. I had never heard of a language museum before, and my first thought was ‘A language museum! If any country should have a language museum, Canada should have a language museum!’ There are more than 60 Indigenous languages in Canada; early European settlers brought both English and French, now the country’s official languages, and more recent immigrants have brought hundreds of languages from around the world. Issues, debates and conflicts … ↪