Languages Are Good for Us

Languages Are Good for Us
Author: Sophie Hardach
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2021-01-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1789543940

This is a book about languages and the people who love them. Sophie Hardach is here to guide us through the strange and wonderful ways that humans have used languages throughout history. She takes us from the earliest Mesopotamian clay tablets and the 'book cemeteries' of medieval synagogues to the first sounds a child hears in their mother's womb and their incredible capacity for language learning. Along the way, Hardach explores the role of trade in transmitting words across cultures and untangles riddles of hieroglyphics, cuneiform and the ancient scripts of Crete and Cyprus. This is a book about languages, the people who love them and the linguistic threads that connect us all. 'Impeccably researched and engagingly presented... Sophie Hardach tells wonderful stories about words that have travelled vast distances in space and time to make English what it is' David Bellos, author of Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything

Historical Linguistics and Endangered Languages

Historical Linguistics and Endangered Languages
Author: Patience Epps
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2021-07-28
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0429641613

This collection showcases the contributions of the study of endangered and understudied languages to historical linguistic analysis, and the broader relevance of diachronic approaches toward developing better informed approaches to language documentation and description. The volume brings together perspectives from both established and up-and-coming scholars and represents a globally and linguistically diverse range of languages.The collected papers demonstrate the ways in which endangered languages can challenge existing models of language change based on more commonly studied languages, and can generate innovative insights into linguistic phenomena such as pathways of grammaticalization, forms and dynamics of contact-driven change, and the diachronic relationship between lexical and grammatical categories. In so doing, the book highlights the idea that processes and outcomes of language change long held to be universally relevant may be more sensitive to cultural and typological variability than previously assumed. Taken as a whole, this collection brings together perspectives from language documentation and historical linguistics to point the way forward for richer understandings of both language change and documentary-descriptive approaches, making this key reading for scholars in these fields.

From Elvish to Klingon

From Elvish to Klingon
Author: Michael Adams
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2011-10-27
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0191631604

How are languages invented? Why are they invented? Who uses them? What are the cultural effects of invented languages? This fascinating book looks at all manner of invented languages and explores the origins, purpose, and usage of these curious artefacts of culture. Written by experts in the field, chapters discuss languages from Esperanto to Klingon and uncover the motives behind their creation, and the outcomes of their existence. Introduction by Michael Adams Linking all invented languages, Michael Adams explains how creating a language is intimidating work; no one would attempt to invent one unless driven by a serious purpose or aspiration. He explains how the origin and development of each invented language illustrates inventors' and users' dissatisfaction with the language(s) already available to them, and how each invented language expresses one or more of a wide range of purposes and aspirations: political, social, aesthetic, intellectual, and technological. Chapter 1: International Auxiliary Languages by Arden Smith From the mythical Language of Adam to Esperanto and Solrésol, this chapter looks at the history, linguistics, and significance of international or universal languages (including sign languages). Chapter 2: Invented Vocabularies: Newspeak and Nadsat by Howard Jackson Looking at the invented vocabularies of science fiction, for example 1984's 'Newspeak' and Clockwork Orange's 'Nadsat', this chapter discusses the feasibility of such vocabularies, the plausibility of such lexical change, and the validity of the Sapir-Whorfian echoes heard in such literary experiments. Chapter 3: 'Oirish' Inventions: James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Paul Muldoon by Stephen Watt This chapter looks at literary inventions of another kind, nonsense and semi-nonsense languages, including those used in the works of James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. Chapter 4: Tolkien's Invented Languages by Edmund Weiner Focussing on the work of the accomplished philologist J.R.R. Tolkien, the fifteen languages he created are considered in the context of invented languages of other kinds. Chapter 5: Klingon and other Science Fiction Languages by Marc Okrand, Judith Hendriks-Hermans, and Sjaak Kroon Klingon is the most fully developed of fictional languages (besides Tolkien's). Used by many, this chapter explores the speech community of 'Trekkies', alongside other science fiction vocabularies. Chapter 6: Logical Languages by Michael Adams This chapter introduces conlangs, 'constructed languages'. For example, Láaden, created to express feminine experience better than 'patriarchal' languages. Chapter 7: Gaming Languages and Language Games by James Portnow Languages and games are both fundamentally interactive, based on the adoption of arbitrary sign systems, and come with a set of formal rules which can be manipulated to express different outcomes. This being one of the drivers for the popularity of invented languages within the gaming community, James Portnow looks at several gaming languages and language games, such as Gargish, D'ni, Simlish, and Logos. Chapter 8: Revitalized Languages as Invented Languages by Suzanne Romaine The final chapter looks at language continuation, renewal, revival, and resurrection - in the cases of Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, and Breton - as well as language regulation.

The Atlas of Unusual Languages: An exploration of language, people and geography

The Atlas of Unusual Languages: An exploration of language, people and geography
Author: Zoran Nikolic
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2021-10-14
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 0008524041

We communicate through the spoken and written word and language has evolved over the centuries. Many languages have survived although only in small pockets throughout the world. This book explores a selection of those languages.

Exploring the Dynamics of Second Language Writing

Exploring the Dynamics of Second Language Writing
Author: Barbara Kroll
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2003-04-14
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 0521822920

A collection of 13 original articles, this book is intended to provide a series of discussions about multiple aspects of second language writing, presenting chapters that collectively address a range of issues that are important to new teachers at the post-secondary level. The chapters provide scholarly visions, insight, and interpretation oriented toward explaining the field of teaching academic writing to non-native speakers. The book is designed to provide foundational content-knowledge in this area, each chapter authored by recognized experts in the field. Throughout the chapters, presentation and review of scholarship is presented primarily in the interest of understanding how such knowledge directly or potentially impart teaching, making this a pedagogically relevant book. In addition to helping train new teachers, the book will serve as an updated reference book for practicing teachers and scholars to consult.

Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research

Exploring Language Pedagogy through Second Language Acquisition Research
Author: Rod Ellis
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2013-07-31
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1135136025

Routledge Introductions to Applied Linguistics is a series of introductory level textbooks covering the core topics in Applied Linguistics, primarily designed for those beginning postgraduate studies, or taking an introductory MA course as well as advanced undergraduates. Titles in the series are also ideal for language professionals returning to academic study. The books take an innovative 'practice to theory' approach, with a 'back-to-front' structure. This leads the reader from real-world problems and issues, through a discussion of intervention and how to engage with these concerns, before finally relating these practical issues to theoretical foundations. Additional features include a glossary of key terms, and discussion questions. Following the back-to-front approach of the series, the book takes problematic issues in language pedagogy as its starting points. These are then examined in terms of second language acquisition. Each chapter begins with a look at the pedagogical proposals found in teacher guides and then asks ‘Do these proposals accord with what we know about how languages are acquired?’ Pedagogical topics covered include teaching methods, syllabus design, explicit instruction, comprehension versus production-based instruction, task-based instruction, authentic materials, the role of the learners’ first language in the classroom, error correction and catering for individual differences. Including a glossary of key terms and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter, and assuming no prior knowledge of second language acquisition, this is the ideal text for all students studying language teaching methods, language teacher education, English teaching methodology and second language acquisition modules in advanced undergraduate and postgraduate/graduate TESOL and Applied Linguistics courses.

Language and Spirit

Language and Spirit
Author: Robyn Moloney
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2022-11-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3030930645

​This edited book explores stories of linguistic and spiritual identity in the urban and rural Australian landscape. It is an innovative mix of thirty six personal narratives and eleven research studies, which together offer accounts of the intersection of languages, religion and spirituality in people’s lives. Teachers of Indigenous languages speak of the critical connection between language revitalization, the spirituality of Country, and well-being. Both new and long-established diaspora individuals speak of the often complex but vital joint role of language and faith in belonging and heritage. The new dimension which the book brings to multilingualism is relevant to all complex global societies. Language and Spirit is ideal for both the general reader interested in community languages and interfaith issues, and academics in global intercultural studies and Applied Linguistics study wishing to gain a nuanced insight into the Language and Spirit intersection.

Creative Multilingualism

Creative Multilingualism
Author: Rajinder Dudrah
Publisher:
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2020-05-05
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9781783749294

Creative Multilingualism: A Manifesto is a welcome contribution to the field of modern languages, highlighting the intricate relationship between multilingualism and creativity, and, crucially, reaching beyond an Anglo-centric view of the world.

Survival and Development of Language Communities

Survival and Development of Language Communities
Author: F. Xavier Vila
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2012-11-09
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1847698360

This volume explores the main challenges facing 7 well-established medium-sized language communities with regard to their survival and development at the beginning of the 21st century. The book provides an in-depth analysis of each case, and reaches conclusions that are relevant to other cases and to language policy theory in general.