School of Linguistics and International Languages staff have devised an other-worldly sounding dialect for a film that explores an imaginary time in New Zealand’s future. Actors Matthew Sunderland and Aaron Jackson will speak the dialect after receiving coaching by New Zealand-born Dr Paviour-Smith, with advice from Dr Petrucci. “Not being a natural-born New Zealander myself, we decided that Martin be the one to manipulate the dialect to what a New Zealander might sound like in the future,” Dr Petrucci says. "When we devised the dialect we envisaged certain changes in the consonants and vowels along with some interesting new words. Matthew and Aaron will be speaking in English but in variety distinct from what we are used to.”
Click here to read the rest of the article, and you can also listen to some phrases in the new Kiwi language as well.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Ayapaneco language at risk of dying
Anthropologists are racing to compile a dictionary of the centuries-old Ayapaneco tongue, spoken in Mexico. There are just two people left who can speak it fluently – but they refuse to talk to each other. Manuel Segovia, 75, and Isidro Velazquez, 69, live 500 metres apart in the village of Ayapa in the tropical lowlands of the southern state of Tabasco. It is not clear whether there is a long-buried argument behind their mutual avoidance, but people who know them say they have never really enjoyed each other's company.
The dictionary is part of a race against time to revitalise the language before it is definitively too late. "When I was a boy everybody spoke it," Segovia told the Guardian by phone. "It's disappeared little by little, and now I suppose it might die with me." This compiled dictionary is due out later this year.
The rest of the report can be read here, and a full list of the endangered languages of the world can be viewed here; this long list includes languages that are vulnerable, those that are definitely endangered, those critically endangered, & those which are extinct.
The dictionary is part of a race against time to revitalise the language before it is definitively too late. "When I was a boy everybody spoke it," Segovia told the Guardian by phone. "It's disappeared little by little, and now I suppose it might die with me." This compiled dictionary is due out later this year.
The rest of the report can be read here, and a full list of the endangered languages of the world can be viewed here; this long list includes languages that are vulnerable, those that are definitely endangered, those critically endangered, & those which are extinct.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Report: Swedish language under threat in Finland
The Council of Europe thinks Swedish as an official language in Finland is under threat, according to Finnish broadcasting association YLE. In an upcoming report on minority languages the Council of Europe states that Swedish as an official language in Finland is under threat due to officials’ poor Swedish skills and deficiencies in the mandatory Swedish tuition in schools.
Kimmo Sasi of the Finnish Constitutional Law Committee is not surprised by the Council’s findings. He thinks that the matter must be taken seriously. “We will look into it and try to come up with solutions for the ministry of education on how to deal with these issues,” Sasi told Yle.
The Finnish language laws from 2003 specify that the official languages of Finland are Finnish and Swedish. Both languages have the same legal status and authorities in bilingual municipalities must offer their services in either language. The Council has on many occasions pointed to the difficulty in using the Swedish language in Finland, despite the right to be served in Swedish is stipulated in the Finnish constitution. Recently the Finnish parliamentary ombudsman ruled that there should be clearer guidelines at health centres as to what information and medical records should be made available in the patient’s mother tongue. Although the medical records will be allowed to remain kept in Finnish, it must be possible for a Swedish-speaking patient to get access to a Swedish translation. This followed a demand from the Swedish Assembly in Finland (Folktinget) in 2009 that all medical records of Swedish speakers should be kept in Swedish.
Swedish is a compulsory subject in Finnish schools today, a fact that has been criticised from many sides over the years.
More recently the right wing party True Finns (Sannfinländarna) have been demanding the abolishment of obligatory Swedish in Finnish schools. The Council of Europe is now recommending that Finland improves the level of Swedish classes in school and ensures services in Swedish for Swedish-speakers. According to Sasi, the Constitutional Committee will do what they can to give the matter the deserved attention. “It might not lead to any definite measures but at least it will increase the pressure to do something about it,” Sasi told YLE.
Finland was a part of Sweden until 1809 when the area was lost to Russia. The country has been an independent nation since 1917.
The report can be viewed online here
Kimmo Sasi of the Finnish Constitutional Law Committee is not surprised by the Council’s findings. He thinks that the matter must be taken seriously. “We will look into it and try to come up with solutions for the ministry of education on how to deal with these issues,” Sasi told Yle.
The Finnish language laws from 2003 specify that the official languages of Finland are Finnish and Swedish. Both languages have the same legal status and authorities in bilingual municipalities must offer their services in either language. The Council has on many occasions pointed to the difficulty in using the Swedish language in Finland, despite the right to be served in Swedish is stipulated in the Finnish constitution. Recently the Finnish parliamentary ombudsman ruled that there should be clearer guidelines at health centres as to what information and medical records should be made available in the patient’s mother tongue. Although the medical records will be allowed to remain kept in Finnish, it must be possible for a Swedish-speaking patient to get access to a Swedish translation. This followed a demand from the Swedish Assembly in Finland (Folktinget) in 2009 that all medical records of Swedish speakers should be kept in Swedish.
Swedish is a compulsory subject in Finnish schools today, a fact that has been criticised from many sides over the years.
More recently the right wing party True Finns (Sannfinländarna) have been demanding the abolishment of obligatory Swedish in Finnish schools. The Council of Europe is now recommending that Finland improves the level of Swedish classes in school and ensures services in Swedish for Swedish-speakers. According to Sasi, the Constitutional Committee will do what they can to give the matter the deserved attention. “It might not lead to any definite measures but at least it will increase the pressure to do something about it,” Sasi told YLE.
Finland was a part of Sweden until 1809 when the area was lost to Russia. The country has been an independent nation since 1917.
The report can be viewed online here
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