New Language Course – start today!

Today we bring you the first installment in a new course of one of the most popular languages you can learn, in the known universe, at least.

Strange Random Language Quote:

A different language is a different vision of life. - Federico Fellini

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Endangered Languages, video and websites

The language of Ayapaneco has been spoken in the land now known as Mexico for centuries. It has survived the Spanish conquest, seen off wars, revolutions, famines and floods. But now, like so many other indigenous languages, it’s at risk of extinction.

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.

“They don’t have a lot in common,” says Daniel Suslak, a linguistic anthropologist from Indiana University, who is involved with a project to produce a dictionary of Ayapaneco. Segovia, he says, can be “a little prickly” and Velazquez, who is “more stoic,” rarely likes to leave his home.

via http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/13/mexico-language-ayapaneco-dying-out

Putting aside the rather ironic nature of this news, a quick search shows us that language loss is still very much an important issue today. According to the Unesco‘s own Language Atlas, there were still 8 speakers of Ayapanec in 2005, which makes it a “critically endangered” language. Closer to home, Asturian-Leonese is considered a “definitely endangered” language with 150,000 estimated speakers. Basque, although healthier, is seen to be “vulnerable”.

Over on The Rosetta Project website, you can find an online version of their original Rosetta Disc, containing documents and vocabulary in over a thousand languages, since updated and upgraded to more than 2,500.

Last but not least, a video talk worth watching at Fora.tv – Daniel Everett: Endangered Languages and Lost Knowledge. It’s worth watching on the site because the player has several good features such as a Transcript tab, to help you follow along. You can also use the Chapters tab to review specific parts of the talk.

http://fora.tv/2009/03/20/Daniel_Everett_Endangered_Languages_and_Lost_Knowledge

Strange Random Language Quote:

Language is the means of getting an idea from my brain into yours without surgery. – Mark Amidon

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Coming through! Singer’s new ecological transport.

Perhaps in response to the current transport problems being faced in his country, we have a novel video by French musician Robin Leduc, called “Laissez-moi passer”.

Strange Random Transport Quote:

“Transport of the mails, transport of the human voice, transport of flickering pictures-in this century as in others our highest accomplishments still have the single aim of bringing men together.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery (French Pilot, Writer and Author of ‘The Little Prince‘, 1900-1944)

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10 Words That Can’t Be Translated To English – Top 10 Lists | Listverse

Image via Wikipedia

This list looks at some special words that are not from English and, furthermore, are untranslatable to English. These are words which have, for the most part, not become loan words, but describe concepts we generally understand in English, but need many more words to convey.

via 10 Words That Can’t Be Translated To English – Top 10 Lists | Listverse.

Featured words:

Esprit d’Escalier – Hygge – Kyoikumama – Uitwaaien – Qualunquismo – Bakku-shan and more …

Strange Random Word Quotation:

“Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few.” – Pythagoras (Greek philosopher and mathematician, BC 580-500)

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Unfortunate Acronyms

It has to be said, in their defence, that the word means nothing in Spanish, so it’s not as bad as being the Southampton Hair Implant Trade, for example, but even so, I imagine most people here know the word and it would set off alarm bells. Just watch out for their catering!

Strange Random Acronym Quote:

MBWA – Management By Wandering Around. Estimated to describe 83% of managers.

from http://www.saidwhat.co.uk/quotes/acronyms/

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