Category Archives: Language

Resource Spotlight: Endangered Languages of Indigenous Peoples of Siberia

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According to a memo authored by the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Science in 2005, at least one third of the 6,000 unique languages spoken today are endangered. Experts anticipate that these languages, nearly 2,000 of them, will be entirely replaced by dominant languages by the end of the 21st century. The memo also notes that 30 endangered languages are currently spoken in Siberia. These languages include Aleutian, Aliutor, Chelkan, Chukchi, Chulym Turk, Enets, Even, Itelmen, Kerek, Ket, Koryak, Kumandin, Mansi, Nanai, Negidal, Nganasan, Nivkh, Oroch, Selkup, Shor, Soyot, Teleut, Tofalar, Udeghe, Uilta (Orok), Ulch, Yukagir, and Yupik.

“…at least one third of the 6,000 unique languages spoken today are endangered.”

As a result of this information, and in response to UNESCO initiative for the preservation of endangered languages, The Institute for Ethnology and Anthropology has launched Endangered Languages of Indigenous Peoples of Siberia, an online resource dedicated to resources related to endangered languages spoken in Siberia. The site is available in both Russian and English.

In addition to information about the project, the portal is divided into several different sections: Languages and Cultures, Bibliographies, Projects, and Instruments.

lake baikal fauna by clurross is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. https://flic.kr/p/5gUVt1

lake baikal fauna by clurross is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. https://flic.kr/p/5gUVt1

Languages and Cultures

This section contains introductory information about all of the 28 languages listed above. This includes general linguistic descriptions, such as relevant ethnonyms, basic grammatical structure, information about number of native speakers and the geographic spread of the language, as well as sociolinguistic and historical details about the language. The amount of information available varies, but in all cases it is enough to give the reader a sense of the language and its characteristics.

Bibliographies

The Bibliographies section is probably the most useful part of the portal. Like the Languages and Cultures section, it is divided by language. For anyone wanting to learn more about these languages, the authors have done a lot of the work for you simply by identifying relevant published materials. It indexes a variety of sources, including linguistic studies, grammars, and textbooks and other instructional materials. The majority of this material is published in Russian. Should you wish to consult it, don’t hesitate to contact the Slavic Reference Service and we will do our best to locate an available copy, either locally or through Interlibrary Loan.

New tram in Irkutsk by Michael Chu is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. https://flic.kr/p/5zcvtP

New tram in Irkutsk by Michael Chu is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. https://flic.kr/p/5zcvtP

Projects and Instruments

The section on Projects tracks ongoing and completed research projects related to the featured languages. A short blurb about each project is available, alongside information about the researchers carrying out the work. Where available, related websites are linked. At the time of writing, the site features projects relating to just 12 of the 28 languages: Aleut, Chelkan, Chulym, Ket, Nivkh, Oroch, Selkup, Shor, Udeghe, and Itelmen, Koryak, and Even (the Languages of Kamchatka Peninsula). For those inspired to carry out their own work, the Instruments section provides information about tools for linguistic research, including specialized software and fonts. This section seems to still be under development, and does not yet contain much information.

Overall, the Endangered Languages of Indigenous Peoples of Siberia portal is a good resource for identifying materials about an important subject that is not widely studied. If this topic has piqued your interest, some additional resources you might consult include:

UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger

Guide to General Resources for Slavic Linguistics

Guide to Resources for the Study of Minorities in Russia

UIUC Linguistics Library Guide

As always, feel free to visit us at the International & Area Studies Library to get research assistance from a subject specialist for the region of the world that you study. Happy researching!

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Africana gets a makeover!

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With much help from the Information & Technology Department and hard work from various International and Area Studies Library employees, Africana Collections and Services is proud to announce the launch of its renovated website. This site serves as both a launching pad for Africana researchers throughout the U of I academic community and a place to advertise the wares of our print and digital collections. More than anything else, creators and contributors would like to facilitate access to a variety of Africana resources from one central and reliable location.

The Way Back Machine, a veritable internet archive, allows us to view former iterations of our site. The previous site, active as recently as 2013, relied on a simplistic layout with minimal colors and even fewer images.

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One goal in the new site’s construction was to make the interface more dynamic and visually appealing. The model used for the new site was based on the Middle East and North Africa Studies’ page design. Note the multiple tabs that are easy to navigate, the prominent imagery to represent the region and the columns that lead to additional resources of interest and newly acquired titles.

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The Africana group followed suit and developed a closely similar theme. Highlights on the new site include the scrolling RSS feed that highlights new titles in the catalog; the Dissertations & Theses page now features a downloadable pdf listing original works written by U of I graduate students from 2000-2014; and colorful  images representing both West and East Africa were culled from open source sites like Wikimedia Commons and Flickr to bring life to the E-Journals and Reference Resources pages.

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As we continue to adapt the site to meet our users’ needs, we discuss a series of additional possibilities. For example, users might benefit from more instruction on navigating the Africana Film Database. Some preliminary information, for the moment, regarding the scope of the collection is provided under Reference Resources -> Research Guides -> Africana Film Database. Additionally, we have the special challenge of adapting a proper code to display works from the Africana collection in our RSS feed in languages of African origin and colonial languages, too. English, French and Portuguese, to name a few European languages, are spoken widely across the continent. However, we are verifying our settings to allow us to select works from the following languages as well:

Afrikaans, Akan, Amharic, Arabic, Bambara, Bamileke, Banda, Basa, Beja, Bemba, Bini, Creoles and Pidgins, English-based, Creoles and Pidgins, French-based, Creoles and Pidgins, Portuguese-based, Cushitic, Dinka, Duala, Dyula, Efik, Ethiopic, Ewe, Ewondo, Fang, Fanti, Fon, Fula, Ga, Ganda, Hausa, Herero, Igbo, Ijo, Kamba, Kanuri, Kikuyu, Kinyarwanda, Kongo, Konkani, Kpelle, Kru, Kuanyama, Lamba, Lingala, Lozi, Luba-Katanga, Lunda, Luo, Malagasy, Mandingo, Masai, Mende, Mossi, Ndebele (Zimbabwe), Ndonga, Niger-Kordofanian, Nilo-Saharan, Northern Sotho, Nubian languages, Nyanja, Nyamwezi, Nyankole, Nyoro, Nzima, Oromo, Papiamento, Rundi, Sandawe, Sango, Serer, Shona, Sidamo, Somali, Songhai, Sotho, Sukuma, Susu, Swahili, Swazi, Tigre, Tigrinya, Timne, Tonga (Nyasa), Tsonga, Tswana, Tumbuka, Twi, Umbundu, Vai, Venda, Walamo, Wolof, Yoruba and Zulu

The site is as robust as ever with the same amount and variety of resources. Now, however, it is more attractive to the eye and more current in its scope of documentation when it comes to works produced by our very own peers. We encourage you to explore, and after visiting the home page, check out our African Studies Internet Portal for a broad array of diverse resources and Other Africana Libraries that can be of interest to you. We send special thanks to Helen Zhou, Sabrina Jaszi, Robert Sarwark, Jon Gorman, Robert Slater, Atoma Batoma and Joe Lenkart.

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International Mother Language Day: An Abbreviated History

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UNESCO/UN News Centre

While some may just know February for its untimely and unnatural spurt of roses and manufacturing of chocolate, it may also help to know that February 21st is known as the International Mother Language Day officiated in 1999 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The purpose of this celebration is to give recognition to an estimated 7,000 languages spoken internationally. This day, also known as Language Martyr’s Day, commemorates students who were killed by police in 1952 for demonstrating for the recognition of their main language, Bangla.

After the end of British rule over India and Pakistan in 1947, Pakistan was split into two and was separated by India: East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (present-day Pakistan). As the founder of the new government of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared Urdu the official language despite the fact that the majority of East Pakistan spoke Bangla. Then, on January 27, 1952, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Khwaja Nazimuddin reiterated Ali Jinnah’s declaration of a state language which led to an organized demonstration by Bengali students. In a blog post from 2012, Dr. Salman Al-Azami describes the events as follows:

“The leaders of the ‘Language Action Committee’ in East Pakistan decided to call a hartal (general strike) and organized demonstrations and processions on 21 February throughout East Pakistan. The government imposed a ban on demonstrators, a ban the people defied. Police fired upon the defiant activists, killing several with more killed on the following day.”

Finally, on February 16, 1956, the National Assembly of Pakistan declared Urdu and Bangla as the official state languages.

So this February, let us not forget the people who sacrificed their lives to protect their mother language and for the opportunity to commemorate them through International Mother Language Day. Let’s celebrate everyday by speaking and learning the mother language of our ancestors and of our neighbors around the world.

Here are some recommended readings if you’d like to more about the Bangla Language movement and International Mother Language Day.

Salman Al-Azami, “The Bangla Language Movement and Ghulam Azam” (February 2013) [A short article to brush up on the history of the Bangla Language Movement.]

UNESCO, “International Mother Language Day” (February 2012) [This UNESCO guide contains a variety of relevant resources.]

To start your research on Bangladesh, check out the following materials from the University of Illinois Library.

The crisis on the Indian subcontinent and the birth of Bangladesh: a selected reading list.
by Kayastha, Ved P. Published 1972
Call Number: Z3186 .K36 1972
Location: International & Area Studies Ref Asian [non-circulating]

Pakistan & Bangladesh: bibliographic essays in social science /
Published 1976
Call Number: Z3196 .P34 1976
Location: International & Area Studies Ref Asian [non-circulating]

Bangladesh, a select bibliography of English language periodical literature, 1971-1986 /
by Rahim, Joyce L. Published 1986
Call Number: Z3186 .R33 1986 Cop. 1
Location: International & Area Studies Ref Asian [non-circulating]

Essays on Ekushey, the language movement, 1952 /
Published 1994
Call Number: 306.4495492 ES73
Location: Main Stacks

Banglapedia: national encyclopedia of Bangladesh /
Published 2003
Call Number: DS393 .B38 2003 v.6
Location: International & Area Studies Ref Asian [non-circulating]

Bangladesh since 1952 language movement /
by Adhikari, Abanti Published 2011
Call Number: 954.92 Ad42b
Location: Main Stacks

Finally, make sure to stop by the International and Area Studies Library on the 3rd floor of the Main Library, Room 321. We have a variety of relevant reference materials and Mara Thacker, subject specialist for South Asia, will be happy to help you with your research.

Happy International Mother Language Day!

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Geocinema.ge – Watch Georgian Films Online!

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Have you ever seen a Georgian film? In a 1998 New York Times profile of filmmaker Nana Jorjadze (also transliterated as Djordjadze), critic Stephen Kinzer describes the long tradition of Georgian cinema as founded on “surrealism and poetic intensity.” Its history dates back to 1908, with the release of the several short films, and the first feature-length film, a documentary, was released in 1912. Over the years, many Georgian films, including several by Ms. Jorjadze, have received international accolades and this tradition carries on into the present day.

If you’re learning Georgian or just interested in learning more about the country’s rich cinema tradition, Geocinema.ge is an indispensable resource. The project, maintained by the Georgian National Filmography, makes the rich history of Georgian cinema available online. Through the online portal, you can find information about the 100+ years of Georgian film history, and find information of films released between 1912 and today. The database can be browsed by year, film title, or artists (including directors, actors, and producers). The amount of detail provided about each film varies. While some records contain detailed plot synopses, other entries are more sparse and provide only the basic bibliographical information about a film: title, director, year of release, and film studio.

Geocinema.ge is available through both a Georgian- and an English-language interface. It is clear from the homepage that the English version of the site is still a work-in-progress and some information, including a short essay on the history of Georgian cinema, is only available in through the Georgian interface. Unfortunately, the search functionality in the English-language interface is limited and browsing the site can be unintuitive. For example, to browse the list of films, you must navigate to the Films tab, select the attribute of your choice (title, director, etc.), and then click on a letter of the alphabet in order to generate a results list.

Screen capture of the film browsing interface for Geocinema.ge.

Browse the history of Georgian cinema at Geocinema.ge.

Despite some of its design flaws, Geocinema.ge is fantastic resource for anyone interested in learning more about the rich tradition of Georgian film. The best feature of the site is that many of the films are available for streaming online – just keep an eye out for the camera icon! Many, but not all, of the films have English subtitles. Unsure of where to start? The default setting when browsing displays the Top 90 Films.

If you want to learn more about Georgia, see our Guide to Georgian Bibliography for information about some helpful resources. On the other hand, if you are curious about finding other foreign films at the University of Illinois Library, see our Glocal Notes post from September 2012 about How to Browse Non-English Language Movies in the Online Catalog. If you’re looking for something specific, get in touch with subject specialist for your region and we’ll help you track it down.

Do you have a new favorite Georgian film? What resources do you turn to when looking for foreign-language movies? Let us know in the comments!

References
Kinzer, S. (1998, September 20). Poetic and Surreal, Georgian Cinema is True to Life. New York Times. p. 30.

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Portuguese and Other World Languages by the Numbers

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“Proportion of U.S. undergraduates studying the Top 20 spoken languages compared to speakers worldwide.” Source: Student Language Exchange. (Click to enlarge)

The above infographic is highly informative: Given the amount of individuals who actually speak a living language, the number of U.S. students currently studying those languages may be completely disproportionate. Clearly this is the case of French, which, for historical and geographic reasons, has been Americans’ and other native Anglophones’ foreign language of choice par excellence (no pun intended) for centuries. But, in reality, only about 1.07% of the world’s population speaks French as a first language (Ethnologue 2014).

Especially in the case of the United States, Spanish also makes logical geopolitical sense to study and master. However, with 414,170,030 speakers worldwide (as opposed to French’s “only” approximately 75 million (Ibid.)), the prevalence of Spanish-language students makes more sense numerically. Still, statistics like those provided by the Student Language Exchange show that U.S. universities are neglecting huge populations and markets by only focusing on the old standbys.

Portuguese is one such example. While Portuguese has certainly been an important world language throughout the last 500 years, many Americans and English speakers in general may not have considered it as a worthy focus of their attention. Until now.

In a recent interview, Edleise Mendes, President of the Sociedade Internacional de Português Língua Estrangeira (SIPLE, the International Society of Portuguese as a Foreign Language), reports that, in the last ten years, interest in studying Portuguese as a foreign language throughout the world has tripled (Neves 2014). She notes that rising interest in China and the United States reflects a worldwide reawakening to the practicality of studying this language.

Of course, one would be quite remiss in omitting the vast influence that Brazil has had in swaying this surge in interest. In fact, and staying within this article’s parameters of “language by the numbers,” approximately 95% of worldwide Portuguese speakers (of a total approaching 210 million) live in Brazil (Ethnologue and CIA World Factbook 2014).

An enormous nation (the sixth most populous in the world) comparable in both territorial and population size to the United States, Brazil’s diversified economy has grown to the point that its is now primed to be one of the leading markets of the 21st century: “Exploiting vast natural resources and a large labor pool, it is today South America’s leading economic power and a regional leader, one of the first in the area to begin an economic recovery” (Ibid.). What’s more, Brazil’s image as a fun-loving, culturally rich patchwork nation of many nuances is a huge part of its worldwide appeal.

For more information regarding how you can study the Portuguese language and all of its many “ports of call” at the University of Illinois (and beyond), check out this LibGuide. The Latin American and Caribbean Studies Collection at the University Library is also a fantastic starting point and resource, along with the reference collection at the International and Area Studies Library.

Map of nations where Portuguese is an official language.

References

_____. (2014). “Brazil.” CIA World Factbook. Web. Accessed 11 December 2014. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/br.html

_____. (2014). “French.” Ethnologue. Web. Accessed 10 December 2014. http://www.ethnologue.com/language/fra

_____. (2014). “Portuguese.” Ethnologue. Web. Accessed 11 December 2014. http://www.ethnologue.com/language/por

_____. (2014). “Spanish.” Ethnologue. Web. Accessed 11 December 2014. http://www.ethnologue.com/language/spa

Neves, Patrícia. (2014). “Português gera interesse mundial ‘nunca visto’.” Plataforma Macau. Web. Accessed 11 December 2014. http://www.plataformamacau.com/macau/portugues-gera-interesse-mundial-nunca-visto/

 

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