Language Shift
No Béarla
Play videoThis miniseries follows an Irish filmmaker who tries to go about daily life in Ireland without speaking English. Despite Irish being one of the official languages of the Republic of Ireland, a minority of people in Ireland are competent in it. I found it interesting that most people he interacted with seemed very confused as to why he would not just converse in English, especially when he was interacting with someone who didn't speak Irish. People in Ireland clearly do not expect there to be people who speak Irish who don't also speak English. I also find it interesting how Irish people refer to the language's situation. They talk about being competent in Irish as "having Irish", as in "I don't have any Irish".
Why "No Problem" Can Seem Rude
Play videoThis video elaborates on the clash between different speakers' interpretations of phatic expressions like "no problem." It cites Dinkin (2017) as one of its sources.
Life of Brian - Latin Lesson - Romans Go Home!
Play video1979's "Life of Brian" comedically depicts the titular main character, played by Graham Chapman, defacing, in Latin, a Roman monument. A Roman centurion, played by John Cleese, stops him and punishes him for his "bad" grammar. The scene is largely a parody of the relationship between English schoolchildren and their teachers. Linguistically, it's interesting as a demonstration of prescriptive norms as well as the representation of different dialects. Cleese's dialect is meant to sound more elevated while Graham Chapman's, who is from Melton Mowbray, north of London, is meant to sound less elevated, which is supposed to add to the comedy. Funnily enough, I think some of Brian's usages correlate with changes that would end up occurring in Latin before it changed into the various Romance languages.
Nigerian Pidgin English accepted as unofficial second language
Play videoThis article shows how Nigerian Pidgin English is up and coming as more people are starting to listen to it and learn it.
"We Don't Say That" NPR Podcast
This podcast discusses terminology used by and for Black folx in France, and how this has changed over the past half century. This is especially interesting because of the influence that the Académie Française has (or tries to have) over the French language, while demonstrating the connection between race and language. [Published on 05-01-2019]
Sicilian and Italian: What's the difference?
Lingua o dialetto? Although Sicily is politically Italian, the variety spoken there has clear differences from mainstream Italian. From what I can gather, the relationship between Sicilian and Italian seems similar to that of Catalan and Spanish (Castellano), with the difference that it has assimilated more toward mainstream Italian in recent years than Catalan has toward Spanish. [Published on 06-02-2010]
Boers of Patagonia
cutting from The Times about Afrikaans in Patagonia [Published on 01-12-2019]
No Problem vs. You're Welcome
The Tumblr post referenced by Dinkin in his "response to thanks" paper. An older person gives his opinion on employees using "no problem" instead of "you're welcome," then a Tumblr user offers a sociolinguistic theory as a response.
The RP English Accent – What is it, how does it sound, and who uses it?
Play videoA brief overview of RP - the history and cultural significance of the accent, and a few physiological details
India’s Hindu nationalists changing Muslim town names
This article discusses the language ideology of a political party in India. The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is making an effort to change names of towns that have had connections to Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, India to Hindu association names. The latest attempt is of the town of Agra where the Taj Mahal stands, which is trying to be changed to something of Hindu association due to it being the capital of the Mughal Empire for many years in the 17th Century. The language ideology of the BJP nationalist party is that names deriving from Arabic, Persian, or those of Muslim association are anti-Indian and should be restored to Hindu names. [Published on 01-15-2019]
Different Chinese Dialect Groups in Malaysia
Play videoThis video shows different Chinese dialect groups in Malaysia and their respective histories. From the video, the relationship between language and immigration can be seen clearly, addressing the importance of social environment in the process of forming different Chinese dialect groups in Malaysia.
Patterns behind color names around the world
Play videoBerlin and Kay did a study in 1969 comparing the ways people of different native languages recognized and categorized colors. Some, like russian had words for as many as 12 color categories, while some had as few as 4. They came up with the hypothesis that they are derived in a certain order across languages, Black and white, red, green/yellow, blue, brown, then the rest. There are criticisms in this study as the sample size was small and all participants, while native speakers of a variety of languages, were bilingual english speakers. Sometimes words for color categories can come as a noun resembling the color, eg tree sap-like, ocean like. We also do this in english to describe more specific colors like the entire pantone spectrum; seafoam green, lava orange, blood red. Upon review the same researchers re-checked their methodology with more languages including unwritten ones, and a larger sample size.
Language Death- How do languages die?
Play videoThis in an informational video about language death and language extinction. This video gives several examples of languages that have become extinct, and how languages become dead and/or extinct. He also goes into detail about the different kinds of language death which include, gradual, bottom-to-top, sudden, and radical. To offer a more clear understanding, the video also describes case studies of language death.
Hinglish - Code Switched Hindi + English
Play videoThe Portsmouth College, UK has started a course for Hinglish language. Hinglish is the mixed/code switched version of Hindi and English, and is the popular street language in India.
The monolingual mindset: Felicity Meakins at TEDxSouthBankWomen
Play videoThis is a Tedx talk about how linguistics can better inform teaching practices, using the relationship between multi-lingual indigenous children and monolingual English teachers in Australia as an example. While the solutions proposed are quite simple (such as providing teachers with resources about the at-home languages of these children), it just shows how under-informed these teachers can be about where these children are coming from. The talk also briefly addresses the issue of the monolingual argument "These people need to learn English."
Moana Reo Maori
This article discusses the immense popularity of the Maori dub of Moana, showed at 30 free theaters across New Zealand. Maori has historically been a highly stigmatized language in New Zealand, and many speakers of the boomer generation were discouraged from speaking Maori when they were younger. Much like Hungarian in the Gal (1978) paper dealing with a Hungarian/German bilingual community, Maori is in danger of extinction as younger speakers use it less and less to attain prestige through English. However, this film is part of an effort to give Maori covert and explicit prestige among younger speakers through its association with a cool, hip film.
Listen To What Shakespeare Sounded Like In The Original Pronunciation From 1600s
Linguist David Crystal and his son Ben (an actor) present an argument which reconstructs the "Original Pronunciation" of Shakespearean texts through historical linguistics. They claim that these works were meant to be read/performed with rhoticity and vowel changes that don't correspond well to Modern British English.
CW: near the end of the video, a joke is reconstructed in OP that uses language some may find troubling [Published on 10-31-2016]
Can Facebook save endangered languages?
This article shows Facebook's attempts of saving endangered languages. Facebook is adding the option of many endangered languages, such as Corsican, to make the world more connected. Many endangered languages are not available digitally. With these efforts, users have the option of selecting their language as opposed to a more "mainstream" language. This allows endangered languages to cross the digital divide and allow it to be more available.
Anne Curzan: What makes a word "real"?
Play videoIn this video Anne Curzan reviews how a word can be introduced to language, how words can begin to move out of the language, and how the usage of words change and alter through time. Curzan also covers how people use dictionaries and resources in order to stay caught up but, editors of dictionaries are struggling to keep up with our vocabulary and have to gabble on which words will actually survive.
Fabricated Cognates as Memes
In October 2016 a trend began of tweets that were probably photos of food, with a caption that ended with a nonsense phrase; a phrase that when read, makes no sense, but when spoken, sounds oddly like "bon appetít." The use of this and related phrases indexed the users/tweeters as cool, hip, and knowledgeable about pop culture, and it allowed them to show off their creativity as the actual photos of food became more and more ridiculous. This meme is particularly interesting from a sociolinguist viewpoint because there's no actual speaking occurring, but anyone in on the joke knows that speech is a vital part of the humor - this entire phenomenon is text-based, and yet intimately tied to the pronunciation of English.
HIP HOP SLANGS
Play videoThis is about a Guy who is trying to explain rap slang. Based on the video he is a white male trying to explain the hip hop cultures slang. The thing that I found really interesting about the video is his persona that presents the word. How he tries to explain the word with “appropriate English”. I noticed that this related to our class because we talked about how we appropriate certain styles of language over the other. Even though rap slang is only used by a small group of people it seem to be represented a an inferior way of speak based on the presentation of this video. When they gave examples it was looked at as silly. Just a really interesting video especially when you relate it to this topic.
Icelanders Seek to Keep Their Language Alive and Out of 'the Latin Bin'
Icelanders are becoming concerned that their language is being overridden by the English language. The current official language in Iceland is Old Norse. It has changed in incredible amount over more than a thousand years and is now a unique dialect. Nowadays English is becoming more prominent due to the tourism industry and devices with automated voices in English. Only about 400,000 people speak it now, and with the vast globalization Icelanders as well as linguistic experts are in fear that Old Norse will have the same fate as Latin. [Published on 04-22-2017]
Similarities Between Spanish And Arabic
Play videoThis video shows two young women comparing some of the most commonly used words in Arabic and Spanish. Approximately 9% of the Spanish language is thought to have derived from Arabic due to the Islamic invasion of Spain by the Moors in 711. Through this invasion, we have the two languages mixing and creating what is modern day Spanish. You can hear the similarities between the two languages, and visually see how the Romanized spelling of Arabic looks like Spanish. I would also consider this code switching, because the words are first introduced in English, and then a count of 1, 2, 3 is given for each girl to say the word at the same time. It also shows the concept of mutual intelligibility with some words, and a modern-day proof of how the Spanish language was assimilated into what it is now from Arabic, because the Spaniards acquired words and syntax of their captor's language. You see how each girl and speakers of either language can understand what the other is saying without any type of special prior knowledge.
Stunning animated game helps teach endangered Aboriginal language
In recent times there has been a resurgence for Australians to get in touch with their families native languages, possibly noticing that once their family members die off, there is no one left to speak it. With this game being released, it's hopes are to draw enough attention to Merra, by interactively engaging players with words, and icons to keep the language alive. There are only a handful of people in the world that speak Merra, and the creator related with his own native Indigenous language being almost lost within his family as well. Hopefully this game takes off and is successful enough to spur other similar games that bring attention to Indigenous Australian languages globally. [Published on 10-06-2016]
Why I love living in a multilingual town
This article is about a young woman who studied abroad in South Tyrol, a German speaking province in Northern Italy. She speaks about her experiences living in a town that speaks both German and Italian. She says that using both languages every day while she was there gave her confidence.
The Differences Between Latin American Spanish and Spanish in Spain
This article, by Alex Hammond, gives a historical background on how Spanish came to be different all throughout South America, Central America, and Spain through segregated colonialism and practices of differing phrases and words. [Published on 02-06-2012]
Why Linguists are Fascinated by the American Jewish Accent
In this article, the various features of what are commonly associated with the American Jewish accent are detailed. This accent is often associated with comedians such as Mel Brooks, Larry David, and Don Rickles. The accent, while not as widespread as it used to be, is still recognizable to listeners by the word order and intonation it borrows from Yiddish, Hebrew, and other languages of prominent Jewish communities.
[Published on 09-26-2016]
New Slang Added to Australian Dictionary
This article covers the addition of modern Australian slang to their national dictionary. The content added includes modern words and phrases commonly used by the various Australian native dialects and their definitions. As a lot of Australian saying and slang are uncommon and foreign to other English speakers, this addition to the Australian dictionary can provide definitions for their otherwise unfamiliar sayings. [Published on 08-24-2016]
Internet Language
This article goes over the beginning unique language on the Internet. It also goes over grammar that is unique the Internet. [Published on 01-22-2015]
Language Could Diagnose Parkinson's, ALS and Schizophrenia before Lab Tests
A recent study shows the use, or lack of, certain words by patients could be diagnostic indicators of a future disease or ailment. [Published on 02-01-2016]
code-switching and hispandering
This site has a good audio clip that really delves into the hispandering issue and the code-switching.
Pera Code Mixing
Play videoA little girl explains why she combines the Turkish and English language in her speech. She explains that she combines the two languages because she uses both languages, but at times it is hard for her to think of the words in English so she reverts to the Turkish term. It gives great examples of specific terms that she tends to revert to the Turkish term and the reason why she does.
How Code-Switching Explains The World
This NPR article addresses the linguistic practices of code switching and how prevalent it is in today's society. NPR's approach is not as true to the linguistic anthropologist term because it looks at different linguistic practices and behaviors of individuals when interacting with different groups or in different settings. It looks at at broader range than just the mixture of two different languages.
Who speaks Wukchumni?
A short documentary profiling the last fluent speaker of Wukchumni, a Native American language spoken in Central California, and her efforts to document the language through the creation of a dictionary. [Published on 08-18-2014]
What will globalization do to languages?
A 2008 forum on the effects of globalization on language, including thoughts from linguist Mark Liberman.