Linguistics in the popular media: a LIP discussion

by

Lauren Gawne recaps last night’s Linguistics in the Pub, a monthly informal gathering of linguists in Melbourne to discuss topical areas in our field.

This month’s Linguistics in the Pub meet-up in Melbourne focused on a topic relevant not only to those involved in language documentation but to all linguists – How can we engage the general public in what we do. Although the discussion was ostensibly lead by Ruth Singer and myself, everyone was able to bring their experiences to the discussion and this summary includes the wisdom of all those who attended, and even someone who didn’t.

We started out by looking at communicating with the public using the blogosphere. Blogging has been a useful tool for academics looking to reach a broader audience due to the relatively small overhead compared to other forms of media and the general voraciousness of the internet-reading public. We started off by discussing the more general linguistics blogs out there. While those such as Language Log and Johnson have large readerships they do focus heavily on English, and largely on debates around English usage and pedantry. Fully (Sic) in Australia has a much broader and inclusive focus and should be used more by linguists who wish to share their work in a way that is inclusive, accessible but not ‘dumbed down.’

Read more

Email, RSS Follow

ELDP grants 2012

by

The 2012 grant application round for the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP) of the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages project opens on 17th October 2011. The closing date for receipt of applications is 16th January 2012. ELDP provides grants for: PhD Scholarships (3 years, but no fees are covered), Postdoctoral Fellowships (2 years), Major documentation projects … Read more

Email, RSS Follow

“Indigenous” blogs

by

Back in March I wrote about Kevin Scannell’s website called Indigenous Tweets that tracks use of minority and indigenous languages on Twitter. Scannell has now extended his coverage to blogs that post in what he calls “indigenous and minority languages”, that is, what some people might consider “small” languages. His site tracks blogs hosted at … Read more

Email, RSS Follow

Archiving at ELAR

by

(with corrections from Ed Garrett, 2011-09-22) In April this year I wrote a post called “Who uses digital language archives?”. This post is a short update on the current situation for the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) at the School of Oriental and African Studies. ELAR was established in 2005 as part of the Hans Rausing … Read more

Email, RSS Follow

Using video in language documentation: a LIP discussion

by

This is a recap of Linguistics in the Pub held at Prince Alfred Hotel, Carlton on Tuesday the 6th of September written by Lauren Gawne. From now on this will be a regular feature here at Endangered Languages and Cultures.

For the topic of video in language documentation we were lucky to be joined by Joe Blythe (Max Planck Institute, Nijmegen) and Jenny Green (ELDP funded Postdoc at The University of Melbourne), who have both worked extensively with video and both recently returned from fieldwork. Joe started off the session by talking us through some of his data. Joe has just returned from a field trip in Wadeye where he is continuing to collect conversational data. On this trip Joe tried working with some new speakers and some of his regular speakers but in different environments. He found it interesting that a shift in location for people he worked with regularly, for example into a house instead of out bush, would lead to very different behaviour towards the camera. He was very kind to show us not only some of his excellent (and often quite scenic) data but also some of these less successful attempts. Even less successful recordings are interesting in their own way.

Read more

Email, RSS Follow

Upcoming events

by

The following events may be of interest to readers: 1. Workshop on Language Ethics as a Field of Inquiry 11-12 November 2011, Montreal, Canada This workshop will bring together leading experts in politics, philosophy, linguistics, history and economics, in order to explore language ethics in a strong transdisciplinary environment. Papers that may be of particular … Read more

Email, RSS Follow

Multilingual mindsets are good, but not enough

by

The failure of language revivalists to get people to accept a standard language (here the Swiss language Romansh Grischun) is the topic of a sad little article by Deborah Ball in the Wall Street Journal. (Reprinted in The Australian 3/9/2011 but without the interesting graphics). Google led me to an earlier article on the same … Read more

Email, RSS Follow

Policy playtime

by

First there was (and still is, if you move quickly) the Inquiry into language learning in Indigenous communities being held by the Australian House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, discussed here. Then came the National Cultural Policy. This shouldn’t just be for visual and performing artists. It includes Cultural … Read more

Email, RSS Follow

Submit today!

by

Regarding the Inquiry into language learning in Indigenous communities being held by the Australian House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs: we would like to strongly encourage you all to make a submission to the Inquiry, and to reach out to communities, Indigenous organisations, educational institutions and any other relevant people and organisations.

Submissions are due by this Friday, 19 August. However, the Secretariat is open to giving extensions for submissions. If you need to make a late submission, or are concerned or need more information, you can contact the Secretariat by telephone on (02) 6277 4559 or by email.

Jane Simpson (ANU) has created a proforma of useful topics to include in a submission to the Inquiry. You can download the proforma from the RNLD web site here or read the details below.

23/8/2011: UPDATE from Jane Simpson Please draw on these points if they are helpful, but do include the details of your own situation, or concerns that you are familiar with. That’s more useful to the Committee.

Read more

Email, RSS Follow

LDLT-3 conference news

by

The third Language Documentation and Linguistic Theory conference will be held at SOAS in London on 19th to 20th November, preceded by a workshop on language documentation and archiving on 18th November. The conference programme and workshop programme are now available. On-line registration for the conference is now open here. Note that early bird registration … Read more

Email, RSS Follow