Is it really almost over? What to see before you leave London!
Boggling Blogging Black Out! Sorry for staying silent so long! It’s been a busy busy week, as any 3Ler would tell you. Oliver Bond wrapped up the morning lecture series today with a delightfully understandable 90 minutes on linguistic typology and universals, stressing the need for ‘fine-grained distinctions’ over generic labels.
With classes over, it looks like there’ll be a sad return home for many of us. Props to everyone in Tutorial Group 1!!!
I’ll admit freely that I couldn’t get much out of the Grammar Writing class in the afternoon this week–I’m not sure the class covered what I expected at all… Though the Nominative/Ergative/Split -Intransitivity and nasal harmony lectures in the Amazonian Languages class were fascinating. Anyone care to share their opinions? I wish I had taken the documenting sign language class in the last period…
But onto the more important stuff: Where to go before leaving London! If you haven’t been before, hop out of the Tube at Embankment and scurry up the road to stumble on Gordon’s Wine Bar–The oldest wine bar in all of London. Even if you don’t drink (wine), I highly encourage it, since they have olives and cheese plates galore. As soon as you’re down the narrow staircase, you’ll see what i’m talking about. Have a go! I’ve posted the link below the photo.
Filming SOAS: Where Are We?
Meet Michael Yorke:
I took a few gems away from our discussion today on film techniques, and really appreciated the opportunity to do some quality, if extremely brief, production work on the SOAS campus. This guy is amazing, and has done some quality documentaries. He sent Mercy and I out on a quest to ask people “Where are we?”, and get some answers we did! Although there was some dispute as to the aim of video data collection and we all came to the day-long class with slightly different things in mind, it was most definitely not a day wasted.
Meet the team that put on the class, with fellow 3Ler Gratien Atindogbe (front right):
The Crew, Clockwise from Front Left: Cathy Edwards, Jens Franz, Zem Moffat, Michael Yorke
Cypriot Greek Sing Along
I couldn’t put up the Salish song without a nod to the Greeks here at 3L, who are all amazing! Here’s Vassiliki singing a Cypriot song, distinguishing her from the mainland. See the video below it for a translation. Apologies again–It’s very dark and you can’t see anything!
Video:
Explanation:
Montana Salish
For those who haven’t met Joshua yet, get to know him! He comes from Montana, and he told me a while back that his tribe is looking at language software programs for the community. If you’ve never heard Salish before, you might find it a bit hard to pronounce–unless, that is, you speak Arabic or another language with pharyngeals. Find the basic phonetics on wikipedia by clicking above!
You can hear a little bit below, as he sings ‘happy birthday’ for everyone outside SOAS. Sorry it was so dark!
Video:
Explanation:
The ABCs of Sign Language Documentation & Description
Click either of the pictures to learn American and British Sign Languages’ Manual Alphabets. I encourage you to pick them up if you don’t have an interpreter handy and want to interact with members of the deaf community in attendance at the 3L School! If you can’t access the link, try clicking Finger Spelling at this address: http://www.handspeak.com/.
Peter Austin closed Adam Schembri’s lecture Thursday morning, June 25 2009, with a one liner I really took to heart:
“We need to start opening our eyes, and not just our ears, linguists!”
The quote comes as a reminder to avoid oral-centric viewpoints when considering human language and the realm of Linguistics as a field of the humanities (or sciences, if you feel strongly about it…). I for one have been inspired! More ahead on endangered or lesser known sign languages, including some in Ghana, Israel, and Cambodia!
–Joe Henderer
Michael Jackson is (Possibly) Dead?
… so now that we’ve got your attention, check out these amazing peeps from 3L, Aoife and Charles! We compared regional dialects with them after our discussion in sociolinguistics about dialects and language endangerment.
Kelly-Speech (see: Valley Girl) and Irish:
Scots-English and Lydia-English:
(and for your entertainment, a little Catherine Tate commentary on what it’s like to be from California)
–Joe H.
Greetings (from Lydia)
Jambo! γεια! Akwaaba! Dobrý den! ‘Sup?
Joe’s been doing most of the writing so far, but I’ve stolen his laptop from him for a moment, so now you get to hear from over here.
My course line-up:
Tutorial Group 2
Data and Archiving (“dater and ahchiving”)
Sociolinguistics of Language Endangerment
Applying for a Research Grant
Software Tools (group 4)
Grammar
Sociolinguistics of Language Endangerment
Pretty fascinating so far, but I’m really enjoying the tea breaks – aka having the chance to get to know the other students who’ve all come here from all over the world (Italy, Japan, Korea, Ghana, Uganda, Greece, Poland, the Netherlands, Russia, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, Germany, and Argentina, just to name a few) and learning about their languages (spoken and signed) and field work experiences.
More pictures and videos to come (I’ll have to nab Joe’s camera and upload them).
-Lydia
Data Collection Methods
I was audibly snoring yet again this morning in the Data Collection Methods lecture taught by Friederike Lüpke… anyone else? Anyone? I mean I love the woman to death and I’ve barely met her. But perhaps my prior theory of sleep deprivation is a bit askew…
Don’t forget to check out the pics on flickr if you haven’t! SOAS has started going up!
Wine & Cheese
Already the 3L summer school is off to a magnificent start, with a fancy little wine and cheese shindig to wrap up an exhausting day. While everyone seems to have their own niche when it comes to documentary linguistics, the people are much more socially adept than linguists are given credit for–what a relief! I’ll admit I fell asleep in the Socioling lecture… but I’ll attribute that to sleep deprivation rather than boredom.
The course line-up:
Tutorial Group 1
Lexicography
Sociolinguistics of Language Endangerment
Advanced Video (Group 1)
Documenting Special Vocabulary
Sociolinguistics of Language Endangerment
Stay tuned for vids and photos!
Doing the Hula in Soho
Our night out at Freedom Bar in Soho starts right with some hula action! Ning found a girl with the hoop randomly in the bar and one thing led to another…
The 3L Dialogues 