Language maps

Today I found an interesting website called MuturZikin which has many different maps showing where languages and dialects are spoken. The site and the maps are mainly in French and English, with some parts in Basque, Spanish and quite a few other languages. The maps include the native names of the languages, which are given in many other languages as well, and also show language families.

Here are some other language maps:
MLA language map (USA)
World Atlas of language structures
World Language Phyla/Family Mapping
The Language Families of the World
Zompist Language family maps

Romansh

The other day I came across an interesting article on efforts to keep the Romansh language alive. Romansh or Romansch, which you can hear in last week’s language quiz, is a Romance language spoken mainly in the Swiss Canton of Graubuenden (Grischun/Grigione/Grissons) by about 60,000 people.

There appears to be mixed views on the language – some people are very enthusiastic about the language and do everything they can to encourage its use, others see the language as a handicap.

One significant problem is that Romansh speakers can’t agree which of the five varieties of Romansh should be taught in schools. Lia Rumantscha, the organisation that promotes the language, would like to see Rumantsch Grischun, a standard written form of the language, used in all schools by next year. Other people would prefer to continue using their local varieties of Romansh in schools.

According to a book I was reading yesterday, Sustaining linguistic diversity: endangered and minority languages and language varieties, there have been similar problems in Ireland with the government wanting a standard form of Irish taught in schools, while people in Irish-speaking areas (gealtachtaí) would prefer to use their local varieties of the language.

Traethawd hir

Wel, dw i bron wedi gorffen fy nghwrs MA, heblaw ysgrifennu fy nhraethawd hir, a na fydd gen i darlithoedd eraill y blwyddyn ‘ma. Dw i’n gwneud traethawd ar y adfywiad Manaweg, a neithiwr mi gwrddais ag un o’r teuloedd sy’n siarad Manaweg gyda’n gilydd – ‘sdim llawer ohonynt. Ym Mis Mehefin a i i Ynys Manaw i siarad efo siaradwyr a dysgwyr Manaweg, ac ar hyn o bryd dw i’n dysgu mwy o Fanaweg.

Tráchtas

Bhuel, tá mo chúrsa MA beagnach críochnaithe, lasmuigh de mo thráchtas, agus ní bheidh léachtaí eile agam i mbliana. Tá mé ag déanamh mo thráchtas ar athbheochan na Manainnis, agus aréir chas mé le teaghlach atá ag labhairt Manainnis le cheile – níl mórán dóibh. I mí Meitheamh rachaidh mé go dtí an Oileáin Mhanann chun comhrá a dhéanamh le cainteoirí agus foghlaimeoirí na Manainnis, agus tá mé ag foghlaim níos mó Manainnis ar faoi láthair.

Dissertation

Well, I’ve almost finished my MA course, apart from writing my dissertation, and I don’t have any more lectures this year. I’ll be writing my disseration about the revival of the Manx language, and last night I met one of the few families who speak Manx among themselves. In June I’ll be going to the Isle of Man to talk to speakers and learners of Manx, and I’m learning more Manx at the moment.

Research projects

Chinese Englishes

One of my classmates at university is doing a research project on mutual intelligibility between varieties of English spoken in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and the UK.

It involves listening to recordings of these varieties of English and answering simple questions. The recordings are divided into five sections, each lasting less than 15 minutes, which you can listen to at any time. There’s also a questionnaire to complete.

If you come from one of these places and are willing to help, please go to one of the following pages:

Listening task for native speakers of English
Listening task for native speakers of other languages

Quantifier Intuitions

Here’s another project you could maybe help with: a researcher from the University of Massachusetts Amherst but temporarily based at Bangor University is doing a study exploring the different meanings the words like, all, each, and every have in everyday life, and exploring their effect on the mathematics performance of children with different language and dialect backgrounds.

This involves completing this online questionnaire (43 questions).

buusuu.com

buusuu.com, a website that describes itself as an “online community for learning languages”, provides online lessons in English, Spanish, French and German, as well as opportunities for language learners to learn from one another.

They are currently celebrating their first anniversary and are offering a 10% discount on premium memberships.

They have also added video language lessons recently, and they have an interesting feature about Silbo Gomero, the whistled language of La Gomera in the Canary Islands.

Languages and jobs in Spain

According to an article I found the other day, a knowledge of languages is required for 27% of jobs in Spain, and the language most in demand is English. So if you speak English and Spanish and would like to work in Spain, there should be plenty of jobs you could apply for.

The article, which is based on information from Infoempleo, a site where you kind find jobs in Spain, also shows that French, German, Italian and Portuguese are in demand in Spain, although to a much lesser extent than English.

The article also mentions that 28% of jobs in the Basque country require a knowledge of Basque, that 13% of jobs in Catalonia require Catalan (this seems quite a low figure given the strength of the language), and that 10% of jobs in Galicia and Valencia require knowledge of the local languages.

I don’t have stats for how many jobs in Wales require a knowledge of Welsh, but I do know that Welsh is needed for many jobs in the public sector.

New Welsh news website

I discovered an interesting new Welsh language news website today – Golwg 360 – which lets you choose what type of news you want to read, and the way it’s displayed. You can also choose to see news from different areas of Wales.

Other Welsh language news sites include the BBC, which includes local, national and international news and Radio Acen. There are also local news sites such as Newyddion Gwent, Menter Iaith Blaenau Gwent, Menter Patagonia, Menter Caerdydd and Menter Iaith y Gogledd.

Mentrau Iaith (Language Initiatives) are local groups that help communities to increase and expand their use of Welsh.