Colonial Linguistics

Los avances en el estudio de la escritura jeroglífica maya constituyen un componente dinámico del movimiento maya en Guatemala y ofrecen una gran oportunidad de observar la recuperación de una escritura dormida. Este estudio analiza el texto jeroglífico en la estela moderna recién erigida en Iximche’, Chimaltenango, Guatemala, y propone que ésta manifiesta varias estrategias de la revitalización de lenguas mayas modernas y de la construcción de una identidad panmaya. El aprendizaje y el uso activo de la escritura antigua en el presente, en éste y otros medios, reflejan la dinámica entre la identidad panmaya y la identidad peculiar del pueblo kaqchikel. Además, por retomar una tradición monumental y de escritura antigua, afirma el vínculo cultural sentido por el pueblo maya contemporáneo con su pasado precolombino. Con el estudio de esta recuperación se puede ampliar también nuestro entendimiento del papel de la escritura en cuanto a expresar, reinterpretar y desarrollar tradiciones e identidades.

The revival of the Mayan hieroglyphic script constitutes a dynamic component of the Maya Movement in Guatemala and offers a rare opportunity to observe the reclamation of a dormant writing system. This study analyzes the hieroglyphic text on the recently erected stela at Iximche’, Chimaltenango, Guatemala, and proposes that it manifests various strategies used in revitalizing the modern Mayan languages and in the construction of a Pan-Maya identity. The acquisition and active use of the ancient script in the present in this and other media reflects the dynamic between the Pan-Maya identity and the distinctive identity of the Kaqchikel people. Furthermore, by reasserting an ancient monumental and scribal tradition, it affirms the cultural link experienced by the Maya peoples with the pre-Columbian past. The study of the revived script thus may also enhance our understanding of the role of writing in expressing, reinterpreting, and developing traditions and identities.

This is the first of two articles in which the Marianan tale of the Chaifi is re-edited as it was published by Georg Fritz, the German district captain on Saipan, in 1906. I will be concerned here with the intercultural and intertextual dimensions of that tale, examining literary aspects like genre, motifs, and themes, as well as the motivations of the author. The analysis is followed by a reprint of the tale as published in Fritz (1906b), a free English translation, and the first publication of a personal letter in which Fritz provides important information as to the authenticity of his narration.

On some sociolinguistic mechanisms of lexical transfer in Baltic-Balkan area (based on Turkish-Bulgarian, German-Polish, and Russian-Latvian language contact)

The paper deals with three examples of the so called unbalanced multilingualism (Rzech Pospolita, Ottoman Empire, and Latvian Republic). On the base of the crosslinguistic comparison, the paper shows trigger mechanisms of lexical transfer from the dominant (official) language into stigmatized languages in the postimperial context. The paper deals with three examples of the so called unbalanced multilingualism (Rzech Pospolita, Ottoman Empire, and Latvian Republic). On the base of the crosslinguistic comparison, the paper shows trigger mechanisms of lexical transfer from the dominant (official) language into stigmatized languages in the postimperial context.

Before the French colonial conquest of West Africa, Bamanan, a Western African language known in the French corpus as bambara, was used as a vehicular language by local trader and travelers from the Manding area. And very early on, Bamanan was used as a vehicular language for the colonial con-quest. In my paper, I will analyze some Bamanan handbooks written at the end of the 19th century and beginning of 20th century by French missionaries and military. Looking at those handbooks, I will focus on one particular point: the choices made for transcription, and the translinguistic process they imply. Those choices can be explained by the training, the cultural background and the biographical trajectory of the authors, but also by their role in the French colonial enterprise.

Academic Reference:

Zuckermann, Ghil'ad & Monaghan, Paul (2012). "Revival linguistics and the new media: Talknology in the service of the Barngarla language reclamation", pp. 119-126 of Foundation for Endangered Languages XVI Conference: Language Endangerment in the 21st Century:Globalisation, Technology & New Media. Auckland, New Zealand.

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Revival Linguistics and the New Media:
Talknology in the service of the Barngarla Language Reclamation


Ghil‘ad Zuckermann

Chair of Linguistics and Endangered Languages
School of Humanities, University of Adelaide, SA Adelaide 5005, Australia
[ghilad.zuckermann@adelaide.edu.au]


Paul Monaghan

Mobile Language Team
School of Humanities, University of Adelaide, SA Adelaide 5005, Australia
[paul.monaghan@adelaide.edu.au]


Abstract

Revival Linguistics is a new branch of linguistics, currently being established at Adelaide. It analyses comparatively and systematically the universal constraints and global mechanisms on the one hand (see Zuckermann 2009), and local peculiarities on the other hand, apparent in revival attempts across various sociological backgrounds, all over the world (see Zuckermann & Walsh 2011). A branch of both linguistics and applied linguistics, it combines scientific studies of native language acquisition and foreign language learning (language reclamation is the most extreme case of Second Language Learning).

The study: The Barngarla language (spelled Parnkalla by Schürmann 1844) is a no-longer spoken Thura-Yura Pama-Nyungan Aboriginal language of the Lakes Cultural Region of South Australia. Most recently Zuckermann, Monaghan and the Barngarla community have launched a reclamation of this sleeping beauty in three major rural/urban centres on the Eyre Peninsula, namely Port Lincoln, Whyalla, and Port Augusta. The presence of three Barngarla populations several hours drive apart presents the revival linguist with a need for a sophisticated reclamation involving ‘talknological’ innovations, such as online chatting, newsgroups, photo and resource sharing through a Barngarla wiki. This paper also examines the tensions accompanying the creation of a Barngarla ‘community of practice’ (cf. Wenger 1998) in a post-traditional Aboriginal context. In important ways, the new talknology poses a direct challenge to existing authority structures relating to the everyday management of knowledge, collaboration and participation. We predict that how the broader Barngarla community negotiates these issues will have an important bearing on the ultimate results of the reclamation project.




Revival Linguistics

Revival Linguistics is a new branch of linguistics, currently being established at Adelaide. It analyses comparatively and systematically the universal constraints and global mechanisms on the one hand (see Zuckermann 2009), and local peculiarities and idiosyncrasies on the other hand, apparent in revival attempts across various sociological backgrounds, all over the world (Zuckermann & Walsh 2011). A branch of both linguistics and applied linguistics, it combines scientific studies of native language acquisition and foreign language learning (language reclamation is the most extreme case of Second Language Learning).

Revival Linguistics complements the established field of documentary linguistics, which records endangered languages before they fall asleep. Revival Linguistics ought to revise the fields of grammaticography (writing grammars) and lexicography (writing dictionaries): Grammars and dictionaries ought to be written for language reclamation, i.e. in a user-friendly way, for communities, not only for linguists. For example, juxtapose Lutheran missionary Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann’s 1844 spelling of the Barngarla word nunyara ‘recovery’, which ignores the English environment, thus resulting in the pronunciation nanYAra rather than NOONyara.

Closely related to contact linguistics, Revival Linguistics changes the field of historical linguistics, e.g. by weakening the Family Tree model, which implies that a language ought to have only one parent. Assisting Aboriginal communities in a realistic, non-purisitic way, without selling them myths, Revival Linguistics promotes efficiency and efficacy in language reclamation.

Certainly Australia has been made the ‘Unlucky Country’ through the historical processes of linguicide (language killing) and glottophagy (language eating). These twin forces were in operation from the early colonial period. In her detailed study of the role missionary language practices in the early years of the South Australian colony, Scrimgeour quotes the following colonial language ideology: ‘Mr Forster afterwards adverted to the present mode of teaching the children in their own language. He, with all respect to the Missionaries, would say, on several grounds, that this was wrong. The natives would be sooner civilized if their language was extinct. The children taught would afterwards mix only with whites, where their own language would be of no use – the use of their language would preserve their prejudices and debasement, and their language was not sufficient to express the ideas of civilized life.  He gave the Missionaries full credit for their talents and zeal, but he thought it would be better to teach the children in English’ (from Report on a public meeting of the South Australian Missionary Society in aid of the German Mission to the Aborigines, Southern Australian, 8 September 1843; Scrimgeour, 2007: 116, italics added).

In the case of glottophagy, Governor George Grey noted: ‘The merchant in London who lays on a vessel for a certain port, regards the affair as a mere mercantile speculation, but could he trace out the results he effects in their remotest ramifications, he would stand astonished at the changes he produces.  With the wizard wand of commerce, he touches a lone and trackless forest, and at his bidding, cities arise, and the hum and dust of trade collect – away are swept ancient races; antique laws and customs moulder into oblivion.  The strong-holds of murder and superstition are cleansed, and the Gospel is preached amongst ignorant and savage men. The ruder languages disappear successively, and the tongue of England alone is heard around’ (Grey 1841: 200-201, italics added). Grey was a strong supporter of Aboriginal languages, encouraging Schürmann’s work documenting the Adelaide language (Kaurna) and Barngarla at Port Lincoln (see below).

With globalization, homogenization and Coca-colonization there will be more and more groups all over the world added to the forlorn club of the lost-heritage peoples. Language reclamation will become increasingly relevant as people seek to recover their cultural autonomy, empower their spiritual and intellectual sovereignty, and improve their wellbeing. There are various ethical, aesthetic and utilitarian benefits of language revival: for example, social justice, diversity and employability, respectively.

Zuckermann (2012) has enthusiastically called for Native Tongue Title and linguistic human rights, suggesting that the Australian government ought to compensate Indigenous people not only for the loss of land but equally importantly for the loss of language. Zuckermann has suggested to the Australian government to define Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vernaculars as official languages.

Furthermore, it is predicted that in the future the very insights offered by Revival Linguistics will themselves become part of Indigenous Intellectual Property, when Slovenes and Estonians come to Australia and New Zealand to ask Aboriginal Australians and Maori to assist them in their own European language resurrection.

There is an urgent need to produce perspicacious LINGUISTIC and socio-linguistic insights relevant to language reclamation. Otherwise, linguists or language workers would not be able to offer, if asked by Indigenous people, efficient and efficacious advice. There are linguistic constraints applicable to all revival attempts. Mastering them would help revivalists and First Nations leaders to work more efficiently; for example, to focus more on basic vocabulary and verbal conjugations than on sounds and word order – see Zuckermann (2009: http://www.zuckermann.org/pdf/Hybridity_versus_Revivability.pdf.

Revival linguistics would assist revivalists to be more realistic and to abandon discouraging slogans such as "Give us authenticity or give us death!" The following are among the basic principles that the revival linguist encourages in Aboriginal communities:

i. If your language falls asleep: stop, revive, survive!
ii. If you revive a language, embrace the hybridity of the emerging tongue; and
iii. If your language is healthy, assist others in linguistic need.

One day we may invent devices to “inject” a language into our brains. But until then, any attempt to reclaim a hibernating language will result in a hybrid that combines components from the revivalists' and documenters' mother tongues and, of course, the target language. In the immortal words of Jerry Seinfeld: "Not that there's anything wrong with that!"

The Study


Figure 1: Map of Traditional Aboriginal Country after Norman Tindale (adapted from Hercus 1999)

The Barngarla language reclamation project has arisen through partnerships between the University of Adelaide (Linguistics and the Mobile Language Team) and the Barngarla people. Although still in its infancy, consultations began in September 2011, a number of very significant steps have been made towards reclaiming this ‘sleeping beauty’. Without doubt, the key challenge has been to develop a strategy for the reclamation of the language simultaneously and without favour in three major regional centres. In ways that will be elaborated below, this multi-sited, regional or peripheral reclamation makes demands that are very different to those often found in metropolitan reclamation contexts (e.g. Kaurna, cf. Amery...

In: Modern Africa: Politics, History and Society 7,1: 11-40 (2019)
https://edu.uhk.cz/africa/index.php/ModAfr

The development of the Bantu languages Kinyarwanda and Kirundi is entangled within the colonial histories of Rwanda and Burundi, first under German and then Belgian rule. From the turn of the twentieth century on, missionaries compiled grammars and dictionaries of the two mutually intelligible languages, contributing to the development and instrumentalisation of two prestigious varieties out of a larger dialect continuum. In this contribution, I trace the missionary and colonial activities of corpus planning and textualisation and summarise how Kinyarwanda and Kirundi turned into official languages with distinct linguistic boundaries. The central research question is how speakers of Kinyarwanda and Kirundi thereafter came to be identified as "Rwandans" or as "Burundians," with each language indexing a specific national categorisation. Tentatively, I contrast these developments with contemporary fluid practices in multilingual neighbourhoods.

With close to 200 speakers, the Indo-Portuguese Creole of Diu is currently spoken by a fraction of the island's population and, despite a centuries-old history, has been largely unacknowledged. In the last decade, it was the object of linguistic documentation and description, making it available to researchers in the field of Creole Studies. Before that, however, the only significant source of linguistic information was a seminal 1883 article by Hugo Schuchardt, all the more relevant by the fact that it was one of the first publications dedicated to a creole by the pioneer of Creole Studies. To write it, Schuchardt relied on data obtained through a vast network of correspondents scattered across the globe. The recent edition of Schuchardt's letter and manuscript archive, a collective effort coordinated by the Institute of Linguistics of the University of Graz, now makes it possible to reconstruct 19 th-century interest in this language and ensuing scholarly debates. Here, we explore this archive and complementary sources to: a) retrace Schuchardt's steps in search of adequate informants; b) observe Schuchardt's process of data collection and analysis; c) recover the opinions of several interlocutors about the status of Diu Creole; and d) reconstruct the impact of the article's publication.

Trata-se de rastrear o percurso histórico-político de construção de uma dada noção de língua portuguesa atrelada aos conceitos de brasilidade e de africanidade. Para tanto, o artigo enfoca dois momentos diferentes: (i) o período 1920-1945, que compreende os trabalhos de modernistas e outros intelectuais, bem como as políticas estatais da Era Vargas; (ii) o período contemporâneo pós-2000, que envolve as políticas nacionais em defesa da diversidade. Busca-se de analisar alguns conceitos – como regionalismo, miscigenação, nacionalismo e brasilidade – à luz de regimes de saber específicos que instauraram diferentes chaves teóricas de discursivização da língua portuguesa na sua relação com as africanidades. O texto se filia a uma abordagem de políticas linguísticas críticas que visa problematizar os sentidos históricos de língua, evidenciando as relações de poder que inscrevem esses sentidos.

La obra de teatro de Philip. J. Fisher The Island Heritage. Episodes from the Missionary History of Fernando Poo, West Africa. A Play for Young People (1926) ha permanecido incógnita en los estudios sobre Guinea Ecuatorial. Su importancia reside, según argumentamos en este artículo, no solo en este hecho sino en lo que nos revela sobre el establecimiento de la Misión de la Sociedad Baptista Jamaicana en Fernando Póo entre 1842 y 1845. Retomando los análisis de Bela Vassady (1979) y Dekar (2001), en este artículo se discutirá el papel de los “agentes nativos” jamaicanos en el proyecto misionero baptista y sus consecuencias para la expansión colonial británica al interior del continente africano.

The research on the Cantares of Dzitbalché from a linguistic-poetic perspective enables mayanist to consider these texts as a register of a language with special formal characteristics. Based on the Roman Jakobson proposal, it is possible to appreciate that in the Cantares there is a predominance of the poetic function over the rest of the functions of the language and it is manifested with literary figures as the anaphora, parallelism and alliteration. Trough phonic and syntactic resources, the axis of selection and combination interact and give us as a result marked linguistic forms.  The aspects related with the translation of the literary figures of the indigenous texts are discussed in this article as well. Furthermore, I propose a phonetic transcription of the text that is more related to the characteristics of the spoken maya yucatec than those employed in the colonial register.