Huliganov hosts a seasonal quiz for those interested in things linguistic. In case you cannot hear or understand all the questions and options properly, I'll write them here. This will also be the place I explain the answers once someone has answered all the questions properly. Q1 What is the highest number of strokes in a kanji character used in Modern Japanese? a 13, b 23, c 33, d 43 Q2 What is the number of cases in Modern and Ancient Greek, respectively? a. 4,5 b. 4,6 c. 3,5 d. 3.6 Q3. Rank these languages by the combined GDP of the speakers, in descending order: a) Japanese, Chinese, German b) Chinese, Japanese, German c) German, Chinese, Japanese d) Japanese, German, Chinese Q4 Which of the following languages is usually written in a non-Latin-based script? a. Albanian b. Armenian c. Malay d. Tagalog 5. What was the name of the place where, according to the Book of Genesis, linguistic diversity began among mankind? a. The Garden of Eden b. Babylon c. Pentecost d. Babel Q6. Which of the following fairytale writers was also a leading expert in historical linguistics? a. Aesop b. Lafontaine c. The Brothers Grimm d. Hans-Christian Andersen Q7 Which of the following fantasy writers was/is also a scholar in Medieval languages? a. H. G. Wells b. J.K. Rowling c. Ray Bradbury d. Tolkien Q8. Which of the following word trios in English do not all share a common root? a. creative, cretin, recreation b. cordial, hearty, cardiac c. monitor, admonition, Monica d. hello, whole, hale Q9. Which of the following statements about Russian is true? a. Every word needs to contain at least one vowel b. The stress always takes the same syllable in a noun, regardless of the conjugation? c. More that 3 consonants cannot be found side by side in a Russian word without a consonant breaking them up d. There is a vocative case in Russian, but only a few words still get declined in it. Q10. Which of the following statements about Arabic is NOT true? a. Arabic uses substantially the same alphabet today as at the time of writing of the Koran. b. The Arabic alphabet contains no vowels, but vowels can be added as diacritic marks above or below the consonants. c. There are many ways to form the plurals of nouns in Arabic, so the beginner needs to learn the plural form with each new noun he or she learns. d. Arabic is quite closely related to Hebrew. About 4,000 years ago they were even the same language. Good luck. Please place your answers in the comments area. I will only tell the total number of correct answers, until someone gets all 10. One entry per person per day, please. Further attempts by the same person within the same day will not receive a response until the next day.

Spanish is the official language in Paraguay where native cultural tradition is still thriving in modern times. Every citizen is also fluent in Guarani, the language of the country's indigenous people. Al Jazeera's Lualjazeeracia Newman reports on the linguistic equality that is unique in Latin America.

HUD as on Linguistic Profiling Catherine Davies

Discusses the linguistic profiling research of John Baugh. Linguistic profiling is when are discriminated against on the basis of perceived dialect (see also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAZMIC_OwTw, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KCL97s1lJg). Also discusses one theory on the origins of African American English. The theory here is the creolist view. Other views include (1) substratist view, (2) dialectologist (or Anglicist) view, (3) settler principle view, (4) founder principle view. Also briefly mentions Gullah, a creole language spoken by the descendents of slaves off the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. ---- Transcript In the 1960s Detroit was the home of Motown. Today there's a thriving hip hop scence. Even the white cross-over rapper Eminem comes from the area called 8-mile. Inner city Detroit is 82% African American. But language can define you just as much as the color of your skin. At the main bus station we meet John Baugh, a professor of linguistics from Stanford University in California. John joins us in Detroit to demonstrate an experiment he's been conducting for years about how American react to different accents. It's called linguistic profiling. First, he checks the rental housing section in the city paper. Then, he calls properties that are advertised for rent. He calls first using an African American accent. Realtor: May I help you? JB: Yes, my name is Michael Davis. I was calling to see if you might have any houses for rent that might be available? RM: Then, he calls again speaking with a Latino accent. JB: Hello. This is Juan Ramirez. I'm calling about the apartment you have advertised in the paper. Yes. RM: Finally, he calls in a perfectly neutral American accent, which is, in fact, how he reall talks. RM: What kind of results have you been getting today? JB: I've actually been getting some mixed results today, but generally speaking the minority dialects do not fair as well and particularly in the affluent communities. RM: Is that race or economic class? JB: It's both. Race in and of itself will not be the factor that excludes one from a particular neighbourhood or a house for sale in an affluent community. RM: Linguists like Baugh believe the racism behind such prejudice shows ignorance of black history and language. That history is celebrated in this African American museum. The stories of slavery and black english are inextricably linked. It's often assumed by blacks as well as whites that African Americans speak bad or lazy English. In fact, black English has roots as deep and a grammar as consistent as Scottish, Irish, or any other of the Englishes spoken around the world. It was the dreadful traffic in human lives that brought English to the coast of Africa. British and American slavers trading up river introduced the English language to the African middlemen from who they bought the slaves. 20 years ago when we filmed our TV series The Story of English, we went to an upriver trading post in Sierra Leone. 300 years ago blacks and whites communicated with a simplified English known as pidgin. JB: The contemporary African American dialects all grew from the trade languages that evolved from slavery. The language mixing that took place between the African languages and English on the West Coast of Africa for trading purposes still function today. RM: This Anglo-African mixture is still the lingua franca on this river. River trade carried it down to the coast and slave depots. This is Bunce Island. The ruins of an old slave fort still stand here. To prevent revolts, trades made sure the slaves penned up here spoke different languages. To talk to each other, the slaves created their own pidgin. So, even before they left Africa, they were speaking an English that was all their own. JB: And so the slave factories and these trading languages that you've illustrated here are the very origins of contemporary African American English. RM: 20 years ago, when we filmed off the coast of South Carolina, you could still hear the faint whispers of slave English. On the islands of Kiowah, Edisto, Daufuskie, and Wadamalaw, older people like Benjamin Bligen and his sister Janie Hunter still spoke Gullah and Geechy.

Discusses linguistic discrimination of African American dialects and a court case that has helped to prevent further discrimination based on language. ---- Transcript When rural southern blacks eventually moved to the cities of the north, they brought their own kind of English with them. They're young men now, but 25 years ago, Dwayne, Asheen, and Kihilee were students at this school. Situated in a prosperous, mostly white suburb of Ann Arbor, there were not many black kids at the Martin Luther King school. When they spoke, as they did at home in African American English, their teachers simploy assumed they couldn't do school work. ABrenen: They sort of felt like we were unteachable in a sense, I would feel. So, it kind of made them go towards other students more and gave them a little bit more help than they would give us. RM: Can you remember some of the things that were said? Teachers would say? ABrenen: Actually to be honest, the teachers really didn't even communicate with us too much. It just was sort of like, in a sense, that we were on our own. RM: Do you remember any of that? You were younger. KB: I was really young, but I mean I remember enough to know that I wasn't being treated the same way as all the other kids in the class, or a lot of the other kids. You know, that's the irony of it all. It's Martin Luther King's School and, you know, they hadn't learned anything from Martin Luther King. Well, hopefully, they learned it, but they didn't learn it back then. RM: Three mothers who refused to accept 2nd best for their sons. RM: Annie, what was it that got you and other parents upset enough to bring a lawsuit against the school? ABlair: My kids was tested and was tested and was put into special ed classes, and I felt like that they were not getting educated and was not treated equally. And I felt like that shouldn't be a barrier because of the language to stop them from being educated. RM: Ruth Zweifler is a social worker familiar with the housing project the boys came from. Listening to Annie tell how her son and his friends were failing at school, she knew something was wrong. RZ: There were maybe 24 black, poor black children in a sea of affluent white families. And they really were having a very hard time. RM: Ruth became convinced that the kids were being discriminated against because of their African-American English. RZ: Language is the marker for assumed attitudes. Coming with an implied criticism, which is what I think a black child carries with him. We as adults, as mainstream society, as Americans have really done bad by these little kids. RM: Unable to make any headway with the school admininstrators, Ruth went to Detroit. One of the lawyers she consulted as Ken Lewis. The legal strategy they and others thrased out led to a landmark court decision on black English. KL: Our job was to see if we could come up with some legal theories that made sense that we could pursue on their behalf. The initial thrust of the case was to deal with the children's poverty, as the reason why they were not being educated. There is really no Constitutional right not to be poor in this country. And so, trying to find some constitutional provision that would help us along those lines was a futile effort. So, language became a part of it. And since that language barrier seemed to impact adversely only on black youngsters, we were able to tie in the race issue. John Baugh: The most significant thing that I believe was raised during that trial was that you had a federal judge acknowledge formally that African American vernacular English represented a significant linguistic barrier to academic achievement and success. He confirmed that the school district was really insensitive to the linguistic background of the vast majority of African American students within the school district. RM: Years later, the argument Ken Lewis used in this courthouse was raised by educators in Oakland, California. But, they claimed Black English, which they called Ebonics, was a separate language. That caused a national storm.

Cultural and Linguistic Competency - Implications for Reseach Symposium Keynote Address Speaker: Tawana Goode Location: Wolstein Research Building, Room 1413 Date: 19 May 2008 Tawara Goode presents the keynote address at a half-day symposium looking at techniques for designing research projects sensitive to cultural dynamics of patient population. This symposium is sponsored in part by Case Western Reserve University, the Francis Payne Bolton School of Nursing, the Clinical & Translational Science Collaborative, and the Center for Reducing Health Disparities.

Adamorobe is a village in Ghana with a high % of deafness and a unique, locally evolved SL, AdaSL. This language is currently endangered, as the deaf children of the village acquire ASL in their boarding school. I wrote my descriptive PhD thesis at this language. You can download it at http://www.lotpublications.nl/index3.html The video here is featuring myself, preparing myself to give a summary of my thesis in Sign Language of the Netherlands to the general public during my defence ("lekenpraatje"). You can find more info on AdaSL on http://www.lucl.leidenuniv.nl/index.php3?m=&c=596

1 Interpreting Media NLP Neuro-linguistic programming Neuro-linguistic programming (or NLP) is a controversial interpersonal communication model applied in psychotherapy and other contexts of communication and change. It was initially co-created by Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder in the 1970s based on the communication and behavioral patterns acquired from gestalt therapist Fritz Perls, family systems therapist Virginia Satir and psychiatrist Milton H. Erickson. The originators emphasize modeling of excellence as the core methodology of NLP, that is, the methods they used to imitate and produce the models of exceptional communicators. They also claim that the basic assumptions of NLP draw from aspects of neurology ("neuro-"), transformational grammar ("linguistics") and cybernetics ("programming"). It has often been promoted as an art and science of effective communication and defined as 'the study of the structure of subjective experience'. Others put more emphasis on the tools, techniques and applications specific to contexts such as psychotherapy, business management and communications training, motivational seminars, personal development, and teaching. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming

Neuro Linguistic Programming tips from Pure Elation on things like dating, confidence and relationships. Contact john@pure-elation.co.uk

Neuro Linguistic Programming tips from Pure Elation on quitting smoking and easing the cravings. Contact john@pure-elation.co.uk

A video with examples of the ways that people commonly discriminate based on language or accent.

If the Elite's NWO master Plan for Utopia is so great then why all the wars, death, destruction, starvation, SECRECY and LIES? I see all countries are passing Gestapo style anti-terrorism laws that allow them to target people that criticize government. Thought crimes. The truth is being suppressed. You have nothing to fear but fear itself. We are like the ants driving off the elephant, we don't need a leader. The Theorem of Cognitive Dissonance holds that the mind automatically and involuntarily rejects information not in line with previously held beliefs. Keep following the Elite's script to global Armageddon and a one world dictatorship as laid out in their book, the revelations. Sycophants to authority all simply going along with it. I love that you are educating yourself but there are only a few million people awake globally at the present time. If you could think of better content for the short clips take it away. I'm just sharing suppressed information. I see a large grassroots movement growing slowly, email and internet video sharing sites as well as p2p is causing the global conscience to stir. I see family and friends physically sick from what they now see is going on. No more hiding from the facts. Wikipedia - Aspartame - Health concerns Aspartame has been the subject of controversy regarding its safety and the circumstances of its approval by the American FDA and European FSA. Some studies have also recommended further investigation into possible connections between aspartame and negative effects such as headaches, brain tumors, brain lesions, and lymphoma. These findings, combined with possible conflicts of interest involving CEO Donald Rumsfeld in the approval process, have engendered vocal activism regarding the possible risks of aspartame. Brain Tumors? Approved by Donald Rumsfeld around the same time he was shaking hands with Saddam Hussein and selling him chemical weapons with which to gas the Kurds? I've been working on a 12 step video, hoping to squeeze enough into 2 hours of youtube ten minute videos to break the spell of lies. A hand-out format to make it easier for people to share around would be nice. "12 Steps to Freedom" First let me start by saying that the term conspiracy theory is often used by the guilty to eliminate articulate dissent. Secondly "Paranoid" is the ability to connect seemingly unconnected events! 1) Admitting you have a problem: Food Poisoned with Government Approval MSG Aspartame GMO 2) Came to believe in the power Greater than ourselves: Education School is for indoctrination into debt slavery 3) Made a decision to get the Truth: Media has been lying and spitting on our faces 4) Made a searching and fearless moral inventory: Organized Religion has been lying and stealing our joy 5) Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs: Narcotics Hemp eases a myriad of symptoms and is nearly free yet they claim it makes you insane. It would replace the petrochemical industry. 6) Were entirely ready to remove these shortcomings of society: Economics, debt slavery, Usury is theft plain and simple. 7) Humbly asked for help to remove these shortcomings: Politicians have been lying and spitting on our faces, Seek direct democracy. 8) Made a list of all the wrongdoers: Conscience, Take personal responsibility and stop being childish 9) Made direct amends for all the wrongs: Community Say hello to the neighbors, call old friends and family. 10) Continued to take personal inventory and when we saw a wrong promptly corrected it: Learn the truth about earth 11) Sought through meditation and fellowship to improve our contact with each other, the earth and Cosmos: Learn to meditate, relax and entertain yourself. 12) Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps we carried this message to our fellow humans: Responsibly take alternatives, solutions, discussions, questions, and open debates honestly seeking help. We need some collective gathering place for the people around the globe, political differences aside, this is a human issue not a political one. Politics is the only arena we have left with which to enter and hope to have our voices heard on mainstream media. I'm using email, video hosting and many world wide forums to attract attention, raise doubts, cause controversy and create debate. Stir it up, wake the world, nothing good was ever accomplished while we slept. http://members.shaw.ca/davefparker/

A short talk about the linguistic miracle of the Quran by Hamza Andreas Tzortzis http://www.theinimitablequran.com/ http://hamzatzortzis.blogspot.com/

The collapse of the Soviet Union left a complex mixture of ethnic groups in republics of the former empire. Their common language, Russian, expanded at the expense of native languages, which former Soviet republics are seeking to revive. Ukraine is demanding that students pass college entrance exams in Ukrainian, and the language is taught in all of the country's elementary and high schools. But as VOA Correspondent Peter Fedynsky reports, the effort involves practical obstacles, even outright hostility from some who are content to speak Russian.

Video Catalog

this video speaks for itself!

2 Interpreting Media Neuro-linguistic programming or NLP Neuro-linguistic programming (or NLP) is a controversial interpersonal communication model applied in psychotherapy and other contexts of communication and change. It was initially co-created by Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder in the 1970s based on the communication and behavioral patterns acquired from gestalt therapist Fritz Perls, family systems therapist Virginia Satir and psychiatrist Milton H. Erickson. The originators emphasize modeling of excellence as the core methodology of NLP, that is, the methods they used to imitate and produce the models of exceptional communicators. They also claim that the basic assumptions of NLP draw from aspects of neurology ("neuro-"), transformational grammar ("linguistics") and cybernetics ("programming"). It has often been promoted as an art and science of effective communication and defined as 'the study of the structure of subjective experience'. Others put more emphasis on the tools, techniques and applications specific to contexts such as psychotherapy, business management and communications training, motivational seminars, personal development, and teaching. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming

John McCain's amazingly eloquent Wisconsin victory speech, 2/19/08. I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often. No, seriously. It's a dramatic event.

Valkyrie Profile - Eternal Engine of Linguistic Massacre

3 Interpreting Media Neuro-linguistic programming or NLP Neuro-linguistic programming (or NLP) is a controversial interpersonal communication model applied in psychotherapy and other contexts of communication and change. It was initially co-created by Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder in the 1970s based on the communication and behavioral patterns acquired from gestalt therapist Fritz Perls, family systems therapist Virginia Satir and psychiatrist Milton H. Erickson. The originators emphasize modeling of excellence as the core methodology of NLP, that is, the methods they used to imitate and produce the models of exceptional communicators. They also claim that the basic assumptions of NLP draw from aspects of neurology ("neuro-"), transformational grammar ("linguistics") and cybernetics ("programming"). It has often been promoted as an art and science of effective communication and defined as 'the study of the structure of subjective experience'. Others put more emphasis on the tools, techniques and applications specific to contexts such as psychotherapy, business management and communications training, motivational seminars, personal development, and teaching. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming

To bring the nomination home, there's one demographic that Barack Obama needs on his side. Arriba arriba!

Melvyn Bragg explains how slaves developed their own version of the English language.

"Language Secrets From a Linguistic Junkie" This is the first of my personal video posts. This episode is divided into 2 Parts / 2 separate clips. I've tried to answer some of the many questions that have been sent to me in emails and messages since I posted my first clip on Youtube in 2007. I thought to make it interesting, I've tried to choose several different languages to respond to (subtitled in English). Questions include: What separates languages - politic or linguistic differences? What's the history behind some of your languages? What's the most difficult language? What are some secrets to learning new languages? How do I get motivated to learn languages? I've chosen languages that I'm at different competency levels in - and as you can see, it shows! Some of them I hadn't used for a long time - just putting this clip together was great to get the linguistic juices flowing again in some of my dormant languages. I also used as a personal challenge for the first time in public Vietnamese. I put this post public to set a bar for myself - so hopefully in a few months time, my Vietnamese will be much more fluent than what you see in this clip. I'll keep you updated on my progress! Languages that I speak in or about in this episode include: English Bahasa Indonesia Javanese Bahasa Melayu Japanese Chinese - Mandarin Danish

"Language Secrets From a Linguistic Junkie" - Episode 1 Part 2 This is the second part of the first of my personal video posts. This episode is divided into 2 Parts / 2 separate clips. for a full review see blog entry: http://stujay.blogspot.com/2008/09/polyglot-stuart-jay-raj-language.html I've tried to answer some of the many questions that have been sent to me in emails and messages since I posted my first clip on Youtube in 2007. I thought to make it interesting, I've tried to choose several different languages to respond to (subtitled in English). Questions include: What separates languages - politic or linguistic differences? What's the history behind some of your languages? What's the most difficult language? What are some secrets to learning new languages? How do I get motivated to learn languages? I've chosen languages that I'm at different competency levels in - and as you can see, it shows! Some of them I hadn't used for a long time - just putting this clip together was great to get the linguistic juices flowing again in some of my dormant languages. I also used as a personal challenge for the first time in public Vietnamese. I put this post public to set a bar for myself - so hopefully in a few months time, my Vietnamese will be much more fluent than what you see in this clip. I'll keep you updated on my progress! Languages that I speak in or about in this episode include: English Bahasa Indonesia Javanese Bahasa Melayu Japanese Chinese - Mandarin Danish language linguistics motivation polyglot thai mandarin chinese bahasa indonesia jawa danish stuart stu jay raj Norwegian Swedish Italian Spanish Hindi Japanese Vietnamese Sign Language Morse Code

Informative conversation with K. David Harrison, assistant professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College near Philadelphia and the author of the new book "When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge". He is the Director of Research at the Living Tongues Institute and was recently featured in the documentary called "The Linguists" which followed hands-on linguistic field work in countries around the world. In this fascinating interview, Harrison discusses the critical importance of the world's many threatened languages and the vital knowledge that each language uniquely packages and holds for all of us. Harrison also discusses the need for more trained linguistic personnel to go out into some of the remotest parts of the world to document these nearly extinct languages before they are lost to humanity forever.