1

NAACLT Newsletter of the North American Association of Celtic Teachers

December 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Cornish Nadelik Lowen ha Blydhen Nowydh Da

Irish Nollaig shona duit agus athbhliain faoi shéan is faoi mhaise duit

Manx Nollick Ghennal as Blein Vie Noa

Welsh Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda

Scottish Gaelic Nollaig chridheil agus bliadhna mhath ùr

Breton Nedeleg laouen ha bloavezh mat

Greetings all,

I was unable to put together a newsletter for September as I had planned so the current newsletter is about twice the usual length and contains a selection of articles related to Celtic and to the teaching of languages.

Of special interest are the selections on Bungi Creole and … two languages derived in part from . Since there is so much pessimism in certain linguistic circles about the fate of ‘lesser used languages’, I have included articles on the discovery of an unheard of language in India, and the establishment of a link between the Dene – Apache family of Amerindian languages and a language in Siberia thus confirming the Asiatic origin of Amerindian tongues.

As well, there are several articles of a more general nature on language, and one which highlights a Gaelic link with the last synagogue in . The last article provides some facts about the for those who may be planning to attend our next meeting which will be held there.

Enjoy the articles over the Christmas holidays!

John Donahue, Newsletter editor 2

Bungi creole From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bungi (also Bungee, Bungie, Bungay, or The Red River Dialect) is a creole of Scottish English strongly influenced by Orcadian, Gaelic, Cree and Ojibwe,and spoken by the Red River Métis in present-day Manitoba, Canada. Bungi has been categorized as a “post- creole”; the distinctive features of the language have been gradually abandoned by successive generations of speakers, in favour of standard Canadian English. Today the creole exists in varying degrees of significant decline, mostly survived in the speech of a few elders and limited to non-standard pronunciations and some terminology.

Bungi

Bungee, Bungay, The Red River Dialect

Spoken in Canada

Region Red River Colony and Assiniboia, present-day Manitoba

Total speakers Possibly 500

. Orcadian Language . Gaelic . Scots/English Creole family

Language codes

Linguasphere

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. 3

The name derives from either Ojibwe: bangii, or Cree: pahkī, both words signifying “a little bit” in English. In addition to describing the language, Bungi can refer to First Nations persons generally, or those with mixed European and First Nations ancestry (regardless of perceived cultural affiliation). In these colloquial uses the term may have mildly pejorative connotations, even when used by speakers to describe themselves.

The lexicon is mostly English with words from Cree and Ojibwa and interspersed throughout.

Many speakers in Blain’s studies were ashamed to speak the dialect as the speech community members were discriminated against by other groups.

The major difference with other dialects is in the phonology (sound system & pronunciation). quality differences are noticeably apparent.

The main linguistic documentation of this dialect lies within Blain (1987, 1989) and Walter (1969–19700

********************************* Shelta

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shelta/ Gammon

Spoken in , Irish diaspora

Region Used by some

Total speakers 6,000 in Ireland; 86,000 world-wide Irish Travelers

based on English with a significant Irish component

Language family Shelta

Writing system

Shelta is a language spoken by travelling communities, particularly in Ireland, but also parts of . It is widely known as the , to its native speakers in Ireland as Gammon and to the linguistic community as Shelta. It was often used as a cryptolect to exclude outsiders from comprehending conversations between travellers,[1] although this aspect is frequently over-emphasized. The exact number of native speakers is hard to determine due to sociolinguistic issues but puts the number of speakers in Ireland at 6,000 and 86,000 worldwide. 4

Linguistically Shelta is today seen as a that stems from a community of travelling people in Ireland and that was originally predominantly Irish and Gaelic speaking which went through a period of widespread bilingualism that resulted in a language based heavily on Hiberno-English and/or Scots with heavy influences from Irish and Gaelic. As different varieties of Shelta display different degrees of anglicization (see below), it is hard to determine the extent of the Irish/Gaelic substratum but the Oxford Companion to the English Language puts it as 2,000-3,000 words.

Names and etymology

The language is known by a large number of names. People outside the community often know the language as (the) Cant, the etymology of which is still a matter of debate. Speakers of the language also refer to it as (the) Cant, Gammon or Tarri. Amongst linguists, the name Shelta is the most commonly used term.

Variants of the above names and additional names include: Bog Latin, Caintíotar, Gammen, Sheldru, Shelter, Shelteroch Pave, the Ould Thing, 's Cant.

Etymology

The word Shelta appears in print for the first time 1882 in the book The Gypsies by the "gypsiologist" Charles Leland, who claimed to have discovered it as the "fifth Celtic tongue". The etymology of the word has long been a matter of debate but modern Celticists are convinced that Irish siúl Irish pronunciation: [ʃuːlʲ] "to walk" is at the root, either via a term such as siúltóir Irish pronunciation: [ʃuːl t oːrʲ] "a walker" or the verbal adjective siúlta (cf an lucht siúil "the walking people" Irish pronunciation: [ n l uxt ʃuːl t ], the traditional Irish term for Travellers).

Origins and history

Linguists have been documenting Shelta since at least the 1870s, with the first works published in 1880 and 1882 by Charles Leland. Celtic language expert Kuno Meyer and Romani expert John Sampson both assert that Shelta existed as far back as the 13th century.

In the earliest but undocumented period linguists surmise that the Traveller community was Irish speaking until a period of widespread bilingualism in Irish and Hiberno- English (or Scots in Scotland) set in, leading to creolisation (possibly with a trilingual stage). The resulting language is referred to as Old Shelta and it is suspected that this stage of the language displayed distinctive features, such as non-English syntactic and morphological features, no longer found in Shelta.

Within the diaspora, various sub-branches of Shelta exist. English Shelta is increasingly suffering from anglicization whereas American Traveller's Cant, originally also synonymous with Shelta, has by now been almost fully anglicized. 5

Linguistic features

Sociologist Sharon Gmelch describes the Travellers' language as follows:

Irish Travelers use a secret argot or cant known as Gammon. It is used primarily to conceal meaning from outsiders, especially during business transactions and in the presence of police. Most Gammon utterances are terse and spoken so quickly that a non- Traveler might conclude the words merely had been garbled. Most Gammon words were formed from Irish Gaelic by applying four techniques: reversal, , affixing, and substitution. In the first, an Irish word is reversed to form a Gammon one - mac, or son, in Irish became kam in Gammon. In the second, consonants or consonant clusters were transposed. Thirdly, a sound or cluster of sounds were either prefixed or suffixed to an Irish word. Some of the more frequently prefixed sounds were s, gr, and g. For example, Obair, work or job, became gruber in Gammon. Lastly, many Gammon words were formed by substituting an arbitrary consonant or consonant cluster in an Irish word. In recent years, modern slang and Romani (the language of the gypsies) words have been incorporated. The and syntax are English. The first vocabulary collected from Irish Travelers was published in 1808, indicating that Gammon dates at least back to the 1700s. But many early Celtic scholars who studied it, including the eminent Kuno Meyer, concluded it was much older.

Lexicon

Many Shelta words have been disguised using techniques such as back slang where sounds are transposed (for example gop "kiss" from Irish póg) or the addition of sounds (for example gather "father" from Irish athair).[1] Other examples include lackeen "girl" from Irish cailín, and the word rodas "door" from Irish doras.

It also contains a certain number of lexical items from Romani such as the term gadje "non-Traveller" or "kushti" (from the word for "good"), though the Travellers are not actually Romani.

Grammar

Shelta shares its main syntactic features with Hiberno-English and the majority of its morphological features such as -s plurals and past tense markers. Compare:

Shelta English the gawlya beeged the the child stole the greid money 6

Loanwords

Some Shelta words have been borrowed by mainstream English speakers, such as the word "bloke" meaning "a man" in the mid-19th century, originally likely to have been derived from the Irish word buachaill "boy".

Orthography

There is no standard orthography. Broadly speaking, Shelta can either be written following an Irish-type orthography or an English-type orthography. For example, the word for "married" can either be spelled lósped or lohsped, a "woman" can either be spelled byohr or beoir.

Comparison texts

Below are reproductions of the Lord's Prayer in Shelta as it occurred a century ago, current Shelta, and modern English and Irish versions for comparison. The 19th century Shelta version shows a high Shelta lexical content while the Cant version a much lower Shelta lexical content. Both versions are adapted from Hancock who notes that the Cant reproduction is not exactly representative of actual speech in normal situations.

Shelta (old) Shelta (current) English Irish

Mwilsha's gater, Our gathra, who cradgies in Our Father, who is in Ár n-Athair atá ar swart a manyath, the manyak-norch, heaven, neamh,

Manyi graw a We turry kerrath about your Hallowed be your kradji dilsha's Go naofar d'ainm, moniker. name. manik.

Graw bi greydid, Let's turry to the norch Your kingdom come, Go dtaga do ríocht, Go sheydi laadu where your jeel cradgies, your will be done, ndéantar do thoil

And let your jeel shans get Az aswart in On earth as it is in ar an talamh, mar a greydied nosher same as it manyath. heaven. dhéantar ar neamh. is where you cradgie.

Bag mwilsha talosk Bug us eynik to lush this Give us today our Ár n-arán laethúil minyart goshta thullis, daily bread. tabhair dúinn inniu, dura.

And turri us you're nijesh Geychel aur shaaku And forgive us our Agus maith dúinn ár sharrig for the gammy areyk mwilsha sins, bhfiacha eyniks we greydied

Geychas needjas Just like we ain't sharrig at As we forgive those Mar a mhaithimidne dár 7

greydi gyamyath the gammi needies that who sin against us. bhféichiúna féin mwilsha. greydi the same to us.

Nijesh let us soonie eyniks Nijesh solk mwil Save us from the that'll make us greydi Ach ná lig sinn i gcathú start gyamyath, time of trial, gammy eyniks,

Bat bog mwilsha But solk us away from the and deliver us from saor sinn ó olc. ahim gyamyath. taddy. evil.

Mar is leatsa an ríocht, Diyil the sridag, For the kingdom, the an chumhacht, agus an taajirath an power, and the glory ghlóir manyath are yours,

Gradum a gradum. now and forever. Trí shaol na saol.

Amen. Amen.

Sample Phrases Shelta English

Grāltʹa Hello

Slum hawrum Good Morning

Slum dorahōg Good Evening

Lʹesk mwīlša a hu? How are you?

Mwī’lin topa, munʹia du hu I'm doing well, thank you

Yoordjeele's soonee-in munya It's good to see you

Muni kon Good night

Dhalyōn munʹia God Bless You

Stafa tapa hu Long life to you!

Bin lar't ang lart Good Health

8

Bibliography

 The Secret by R. A. Stewart Macalister. Craobh Rua Books

********************************* From the Morning Herald

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the ancient portion of .

Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern . Galatia was named for the immigrant from Thrace (cf. ), who settled here and became its ruling caste in the 3rd century BC, following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. It has been called the "Gallia" of the East, Roman writers calling its inhabitants "Galli" ("Gauls").[1]

Galatia was bounded on the north by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, on the east by Pontus and Cappadocia, on the south by Cilicia and Lycaonia, and on the west by Phrygia. Its capital was Ancyra (i.e. , today the capital of modern Turkey). 9

Ancient Region of Anatolia Galatia

Location Central Anatolia

State existed: 280–64 BC

Roman province Galatia

Celtic Galatia

Seeing something of a Hellenized savage in the , Francis Bacon and other Renaissance writers called them "Gallo-Graeci", "Gauls settled among the Greeks" and the country "Gallo-Graecia", as had the 3rd century AD Latin historian Justin.[2] The more usual term in Antiquity is Ἑλληνογαλάται (Hellēnogalátai) of Diodorus Siculus' Biblioteca historica v.32.5, in a passage that is translated "...and were called Gallo-Graeci because of their connection with the Greeks", identifying Galatia in the Greek East as opposed to Gallia in the West.[3] 10

The Galatians were in their origin a part of the great Celtic migration which invaded Macedon, led by Brennus. The original who settled in Galatia came through Thrace under the leadership of Leotarios and Leonnorios circa 270 BC. Three tribes comprised these Celts, the , the Trocmii, and the Tolistobogii.

A Galatian's head as depicted on a gold Thracian objet d'art, 3rd century BC. Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

Original location of the Tectosages in .

Brennus invaded Greece in 281 BC with a huge war band and was turned back in the nick of time from plundering the temple of Apollo at Delphi. At the same time, another Gaulish group of men, women, and children were migrating through Thrace. They had split off from Brennus' people in 279 BC, and had migrated into Thrace under their leaders Leonnorius and Lutarius. These invaders appeared in Asia Minor in 278– 277 BC; others invaded Macedonia, killed the Ptolemaic ruler Ptolemy Ceraunus but were eventually ousted by Antigonus Gonatas, the grandson of the defeated Diadoch Antigonus the One-Eyed.

The invaders came at the invitation of Nicomedes I of Bithynia, who required help in a dynastic struggle against his brother. Three tribes crossed over from Thrace to Asia Minor. They numbered about 10,000 fighting men and about the same number of women and children, divided into three tribes, Trocmi, Tolistobogii and Tectosages. They were eventually defeated by the Seleucid king Antiochus I, in a battle where the Seleucid war elephants shocked the Celts. While the momentum of the invasion was broken, the Galatians were by no means exterminated. 11

Galatian bronze horse bit, 3rd century BC, Hidirsihlar tumulus, Bolu. Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

Galatian bracelets and earrings, 3rd century BC, Hidirsihlar tumulus, Bolu. Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

Galatian torcs, 3rd century BC, Hidirsihlar tumulus, Bolu. Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

Instead, the migration led to the establishment of a long-lived Celtic territory in central Anatolia, which included the eastern part of ancient Phrygia, a territory that became known as Galatia. There they ultimately settled, and being strengthened by fresh accessions of the same clan from Europe, they overran Bithynia and supported themselves by plundering neighbouring countries.

The Gauls invaded the eastern part of Phrygia on at least one occasion.[4]

The constitution of the Galatian state is described by Strabo: conformably to custom, each tribe was divided into cantons, each governed by a chief ('tetrarch') of its own with a judge under him, whose powers were unlimited except in cases of murder, which were tried before a council of 300 drawn from the twelve cantons and meeting at a holy place, twenty miles southwest of Ancyra, written in Greek as Drynemeton (Gallic *daru-nemeton holy place of oak). It is likely it was a sacred oak grove, since the name means "sanctuary of the oaks" (from drys, meaning "oak" and nemeton, meaning "sacred ground"). The local population of Cappadocians were left in control of the towns and most of the land, paying tithes to their new overlords, who formed a military aristocracy and kept aloof in fortified farmsteads, surrounded by their bands. 12

Galatian plate, 3rd century BC, Hidirsihlar tumulus, Bolu. Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

Galatian object, 3rd century BC, Hidirsihlar tumulus, Bolu. Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

These Celts were warriors, respected by Greeks and Romans (illustration, right). They hired themselves out as mercenary soldiers, sometimes fighting on both sides in the great battles of the times. For years the chieftains and their war bands ravaged the western half of Asia Minor, as allies of one or other of the warring princes, without any serious check, until they sided with the renegade Seleucid prince Antiochus Hierax, who reigned in Asia Minor. Hierax tried to defeat king Attalus I of Pergamum (241–197 BC), but instead, the Hellenized cities united under his banner, and his armies inflicted several severe defeats upon them, about 232 forcing them to settle permanently and to confine themselves to the region to which they had already given their name. The theme of the Dying Gaul (a famous statue displayed in Pergamon) remained a favorite in Hellenistic art for a generation.

Their right to the district was formally recognized. The three Celtic Galatian tribes remained as described above:

1. the Tectosages in the centre, round with their capital Ancyra, 2. the Tolistobogii on the west, round Pessinus as their chief town, sacred to Cybele, and 3. the Trocmi on the east, round their chief town Tavium. Each tribal territory was divided into four cantons or tetrarchies. Each of the twelve tetrarchs had under him a judge and a general. A council of the nation consisting of the tetrarchs and three hundred senators was periodically held at Drynemeton.

The king of Attalid Pergamene employed their services in the increasingly devastating wars of Asia Minor; another band deserted from their Egyptian overlord Ptolemy IV after a solar eclipse had broken their spirits.

In the early 2nd century BC, they proved terrible allies of Antiochus the Great, the last Seleucid king trying to regain suzerainty over Asia Minor. In 189 BC, Rome sent Gnaeus Manlius Vulso on an expedition against the Galatians, the Galatian War. He defeated them. Galatia was henceforth dominated by Rome through regional rulers from 13

189 BC onward. Galatia declined and fell at times under Pontic ascendancy. They were finally freed by the Mithridatic Wars, during which they supported Rome.

In the settlement of 64 BC, Galatia became a client-state of the , the old constitution disappeared, and three chiefs (wrongly styled "tetrarchs") were appointed, one for each tribe. But this arrangement soon gave way before the ambition of one of these tetrarchs, , the contemporary of Cicero and Julius Caesar, who made himself master of the other two tetrarchies and was finally recognized by the Romans as 'king' of Galatia.

Roman and Christian Galatia Main article: Galatia (Roman province)

Galatia as a Roman province in 117 AD.

Part of a 15th Century map showing Galatia.

On the death of the third king Amyntas in 25 BC, however, Galatia was incorporated by Octavian Augustus into the Roman Empire, becoming a Roman province. Near his capital Ancyra (modern Ankara), Pylamenes, the king's heir, rebuilt a temple of the Phrygian goddess Men to venerate Augustus (the Monumentum Ancyranum), as a sign of fidelity. It was on the walls of this temple in Galatia that the major source for the Res Gestae of Augustus were preserved for modernity. Few of the provinces proved more enthusiastically loyal to Rome. The Galatians also practised a form of Romano-Celtic polytheism, common in Celtic lands.

During his second missionary journey, St. Paul of Tarsus, accompanied by Silas and Timothy (Acts 16:6), visited the "region of Galatia," where he was detained by sickness (Galatians 4:13). 14

Josephus related the Biblical figure Gomer to Galatia (or perhaps to Gaul in general). "For Gomer founded those whom the Greeks now call Galatians, [Galls,] but were then called Gomerites." Antiquities of the Jews, I:6. Others have related Gomer to Cimmerians.

The Galatians were still speaking the (Gaulish) in the time of St. (347–420 AD), who wrote that the Galatians of Ancyra and the of Trier (in what is now the German Rhineland) spoke the same language (Comentarii in Epistolam ad Galatos, 2.3, composed c. 387).

In an administrative reorganisation about 386-95 two new provinces succeeded it, Galatia Prima and Galatia Secunda or Salutaris, which included part of Phrygia. The fate of the Galatian people is a subject of some uncertainty, but they seem ultimately to have been absorbed into the Greek-speaking populations of west-central Anatolia.

There was a short-lived eleventh century attempt to re-establish an independent Galatia by Roussel de Bailleul.

********************************* New book chronicles Asia, North America language link

Map courtesy of Ben Potter

Marmian Grimes 6/28/10

A team of researchers, including several at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, have found what looks to be the first well-supported demonstration of an ancient language connection between people in remote Asia and North America.

Their work is chronicled in “The Dene-Yeniseian Connection,” a publication of the Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska. In the book, lead author Edward Vajda of Western Washington University details his hypothesis that the Ket language of Central Siberia is related to the North American Na-Dene , which includes Tlingit, Gwich’in, Dena’ina, Koyukon, Navajo, Carrier, Hupa, Apache and about 15

45 other languages. Ket is the sole survivor of an earlier language family called “Yeniseian.” The two language groups are separated by thousands of miles of land and an ocean, yet have similarities that indicate they came from the same roots. For scientists, these similarities are convincing evidence that these populations started out in the same area speaking the same language and then migrated via the Bering Sea land bridge.

Vajda’s hypothesis is backed by an international group of scholars, including UAF archaeologist Ben Potter and UAF linguist James Kari, who both served as editors of the 369-page volume.

“What has taken place in the last three years with the publication of these articles is unprecedented as an initial academic presentation of a long-distant language relationship,” Kari said.

Vajda first announced his hypothesis at a UAF symposium in 2008. Vajda has examined the similarities between the Ket language, currently spoken by a small, isolated group of people in central Siberia, and the North America Na-Dene languages. Vajda found more than 100 shared cognates that are related by interconnected sound changes, as well as several verbal affixes that mark tense and aspect, and some shared pronouns. Cognates are words with a common etymological origin. For English speakers, it is similar to hearing the sameness of the English word ‘father’ and the Latin ‘pater’.

The results emphasize the importance of studying disappearing languages for what they can reveal about human prehistory, Vajda said. “The clearest lesson from comparing Yeniseian and Na-Dene is that effort spent documenting the world’s disappearing languages now can have vital impact on the future. Who would have imagined the ancient words Native American and Siberian boarding-school children were punished for speaking a few decades ago could wield a power vast enough to reunite entire continents?”

“The Dene-Yeniseian Connection” is a joint publication of the UAF anthropology department and the Alaska Native Language Center. With the publication of the 369- page book, specialists all over the world will have a chance to carefully examine the hypothesis and the supporting data.

ON THE WEB: To order copies of “The Dene-Yeniseian Connection” visit the UAF anthropology department online at http://www.uaf.edu/anthro/apua/. MG/6-28-10/259-10

********************************* 16

New book claims link between Asian dialects and some Canadian native languages By Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service July 6, 2010

Edward Vajda with Marina Irikova is one of just 200 living speakers of the Ket language. Photograph by: Edward Vajda, Photo Handout

A new book by a leading group of linguists has bolstered a controversial theory that the language of Canada's Dene Nation — along with those of the Navaho and Apache in the U.S., and numerous other "Athapaskan" dialects — is rooted in an ancient and highly endangered Asian tongue spoken today by only a few hundred people in Western Siberia. The landmark discovery, initially proposed two years ago by U.S. researcher Edward Vajda, represents the only known link between any Old World language and the hundreds of speech systems among First Nations in the Western Hemisphere.

The new collection of articles by Vajda and more than a dozen other experts from the U.S., Canada and Europe details a multitude of clear connections — nouns, verbs and key grammatical structures — between the archaic language spoken by the Ket people of Russia's Yenisei River region and dozens of languages used by North American aboriginal groups, primarily in Alaska, Northern and Western Canada and the U.S. Southwest. The newly recognized language link has already prompted the Yukon-based Arctic Athabaskan Council to begin forging cultural and political ties with Russia's tiny population of Ket speakers that lives 8,000 kilometres to the west of Whitehorse and is separated from its distant linguistic cousins in North America by some 10,000 years of history.

Among the scholars endorsing the Ket-Dene link is University of Alberta linguist Jack Ives, who writes in the new essay collection that "the question of just how such a distribution arose — with a separation between Siberia and northwestern North America involving thousands of kilometres — is simply fascinating." University of Alaska linguist James Kari, co-editor of the book titled The Dene-Yeniseian Connection: 17

Bridging Asia and North America, told Canwest News Service on Tuesday that the discovery could rewrite the story of when, where and how ancient Asian migrants arrived in North America at the end of the last Ice Age. He said it should also trigger new avenues of research "across several disciplines" beyond linguistics — including archeology, anthropology, paleo-ecology, biology and genetics.

"It's really a remarkable change to language classification," said Kari, noting that the discovery "stacks up on a worldwide basis" and is gaining support from the global academic community.

In April, representatives of some of the North American nations believed to share a root language with the Ket travelled to Moscow for a "historic meeting" with their new-found linguistic kin.

"The connection between the Ket and Athabaskan peoples is hugely important," AAC spokesman Danny Creswell said in a statement following the Moscow gathering. "Upon this base we can build cultural, economic and perhaps political links."

Vajda, a linguistics professor at Western Washington University near Seattle, told Canwest News Service in 2008 how years of research with the Ket — along with re- assessments of previous scholarship on the suspected language link — culminated with a dramatic insight involving words associated with the canoe. He found that the few remaining Ket speakers in Russia and the Dene, Gwich'in and other Athapaskan speakers in North America used almost identical words for canoe and such component parts as prow and cross-piece.

"Finally, here was the beginning of a system that struck me as beyond the realm of chance," Vajda wrote at the time. "I became irrevocably convinced that demonstrating the connection was actually possible. At that moment, I think I realized how an archeologist must feel who peers inside a freshly opened Egyptian tomb and witnesses what no one has seen for thousands of years."

Currently, only the Eskimo-Aleut family of aboriginal languages spoken by the Inuit of Arctic Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Russia straddle the hemispheric divide between Asia and the Americas. Those connections aren't surprising, given the relatively recent arrival of the Inuit to North America. But linguists had never definitively linked any ancient, Old World language to those spoken by the Indian nations of North and South America, whose ancestors are believed to have migrated from Asia to the New World — across what was then a dried-up Bering Strait — at least 13,000 years ago.

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

********************************* 18

Closure of Cape Breton’s oldest synagogue marks end of era(a Celtic connection)

Vaughan Merchant for National Post Joe O'Connor August 2, 2010

For 50 years, Mark Chernin had been walking through the front doors of the old synagogue on Prince Street and seeing the same things every time. It was like home to him, or a part of home. He knew the place that well. It was where he had his bar mitzvah. Where he went to Hebrew school. Where he learned, as a child, that nobody could escape the all-seeing gaze of old Mr. Lipkus, one of the Jewish elders. Mr. Chernin is 53 now, and when he walked into The Congregation Sons of Israel Synagogue in Glace Bay, N.S., two weeks ago, the place he knew was not there anymore. The covering of the Ark where the Torahs were kept, the Eternal Light that had been on for 109 years, the giant menorah, all of it was gone. Cape Breton’s oldest synagogue had been packed up in boxes and carted down the road to nearby Sydney in a moving van, never to return.

“All I saw when I walked in the door was a giant empty room,” Mr. Chernin says. “That was a little bit strange. But this has been a long process for us.”

For decades, a once-robust Sons of Israel congregation has been in decline. Last year, for the first time in a century, there were no High Holiday services in Glace Bay. And this year, there were not enough Jewish males left in the old coal mining town to form a minyan, the 10-men quorum required for prayer services at an Orthodox synagogue. By closing its doors, the Sons of Israel is closing the book on a rich chapter of Jewish life in Atlantic Canada, while leaving the Temple Sons of Israel Synagogue in Sydney, with its 57 congregants — and falling fast — as the island’s sole surviving place of Jewish worship. “For a time, there was actually more Jews in Cape Breton than Halifax,” says Irving Abella, a Jewish historian at York University. “They were refugees from the Russian pogroms.”

They started arriving in Cape Breton in 1890. The coal companies would advertise in the European papers, offering free passage for any man willing to go into the mines. The Diaspora blew all around the island. Everywhere they went, synagogues sprang up: in Glace Bay, New Waterford, Old Dominion and Sydney. Some Jews stayed underground digging for black gold, but most would put aside a few pennies and migrate to the surface to open a small shop to sell their wares — cloths, cooking utensils, shoes, trinkets — anything required in the coal mining communities.

Ruthie Goldbloom lives in Halifax now, but grew up in New Waterford, a small town not unlike the other coal digging spots that once dappled Cape Breton’s shores. 19

Ms. Goldbloom is 86. She tells the story of her grandfather, Joseph Claener, a Russian Jew, setting up a tiny grocery store in New Waterford. To make extra money, Joseph would travel by horse and buggy to rural areas hawking his wares, door to door.

There is a family tale of Joseph getting stranded after a snowstorm in Cape Smokey. A kindly family took him in for several weeks. Joseph only spoke Russian and Yiddish. When he returned to New Waterford his proud wife told the neighbours that her husband had learned to speak English. She wanted him to thank them for their kindness. So they gathered around. “What he spoke was perfect Gaelic,” Ms. Goldbloom says with a roaring laugh. “What he thought was English was Gaelic. And that’s a true story: he was the only man in Canada, as far as I know, that could speak Russian, Yiddish — and Gaelic.”

Joseph Claener’s little store blossomed and grew and ultimately turned into Schwartz and Company, a department store that today survives as a furniture store and a museum of sorts in Sydney. It is the only Jewish-owned business left on the island.

Sixty years ago, there were Jewish businesses in every town: supermarkets, drug stores, tailors, shoemakers and more. Glace Bay had 6,000 people in 1900. By 1940 the population was 28,000. Cape Breton was booming. The Jews were thriving. At their peak, the island was home to more than 400 families. “The Jews were a one-generation phenomenon,” Mr. Abella says. “People worked and slaved so their children didn’t need to do what they did and the kids went off to school and became professionals and never came back. “It is the professionalization of the Jewish community that doomed the Cape Breton settlements.”

Halifax has two healthy synagogues. Cape Breton has been reduced to one, in Sydney, and its health is in steady decline. Mark Chernin calls it a welcoming place. But it can never replace home. The plan, and there really isn’t a concrete one, is to either sell the Sons of Israel or donate it. Donation seems to be the more popular course among Glace Bay’s surviving congregants. “I just got a call about it today,” says Mr. Chernin, who is president of the synagogue. “It was from a group that takes a piece of property and gets government funding and fixes it up for affordable housing. Something like that would be nice. ”

Something like that would breath some new life into an old place with lots of memories. The best of all may have been nine years ago when the old synagogue on Prince Street welcomed its scattered sons and daughters home for a 100th anniversary party. More than 400 people came back from across North America. The place was packed for services on Friday and Saturday. There were cocktail parties, trips to the country, and trips down memory lane.

“That’s something I’ll remember for a long time,” Mr. Chernin says. “It was a great event. I’m glad we did it when we did.”

National Post Posted in: Holy Post Tags: Cape Breton, Judaism, Nova Scotia

Read more: http://life.nationalpost.com/2010/08/02/closure-of-cape-breton%e2%80%99s-oldest- synagogue-marks-end-of-era/#ixzz17646qjy6

********************************* 20

Hunting One Language, Stumbling

Upon Another By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD Published: October 11, 2010

Gregory Anderson interviewed Kachim, a Koro-speaking woman, for a National Geographic project.

Two years ago, a team of linguists plunged into the remote hill country of northeastern India to study little-known languages, many of them unwritten and in danger of falling out of use.

On average, every two weeks one of the world’s recorded 7,000 languages becomes extinct, and the expedition was seeking to document and help preserve the endangered ones in these isolated villages.

At a rushing mountain river, the linguists crossed on a bamboo raft and entered the tiny village of Kichang. They expected to hear the people speaking Aka, a fairly common tongue in that district. Instead, they heard a language, the linguists said, that sounded as different from Aka as English does from Japanese, a “hidden” language, known locally as Koro, completely new to the world outside these rural communities. While the number of spoken languages continues to decline, at least one new one has been added to the inventory, though Koro too is on the brink of extinction.

“We noticed it instantly” as a distinct and unfamiliar language, said Gregory Anderson, director of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages in Salem, Ore.

Dr. Anderson and K. David Harrison, a linguist at Swarthmore College, were leaders of the expedition, part of the Enduring Voices Project of the National Geographic Society. Another member of the group was Ganash Murmu, a linguist at Ranchi University in India. A scientific paper will be published by the journal Indian Linguistics. When the three researchers reached Kichang, they went door to door asking people to speak their native tongue — not a strenuous undertaking in a village of only four bamboo houses set on stilts. The people live by raising pigs and growing oranges, rice and barley. They share a subsistence economy and a culture with others in the region who speak Aka, or Miji, another somewhat common language.

On the veranda at one house, the linguists heard a young woman named Kachim telling her life story in Koro. She was sold as a child bride, was unhappy in her adopted village and had to overcome hardships before eventually making peace with her new life. Listening, the researchers at first suspected Koro to be a dialect of Aka, but its words, syntax and sounds were entirely different. Few words in Koro were the same as 21 in Aka: mountain in Aka is “phu,” but “nggo” in Koro; pig in Aka is “vo,” but in Koro “lele.” The two languages share only 9 percent of their vocabulary.

The linguists recorded Kachim’s narrative in Koro, and an Indian television crew had her repeat it in Hindi. This not only enabled the researchers to understand her story and her language, but called attention to the cultural pressures threatening the survival of such languages, up against national languages dominant in schools, commerce and mass media.

In “The Last Speakers: The Quest to Save the World’s Most Endangered Languages,” published last month by National Geographic Books, Dr. Harrison noted that Koro speakers “are thoroughly mixed in with other local peoples and number perhaps no more than 800.” Moreover, linguists are not sure how Koro has survived this long as a viable language. Dr. Harrison wrote: “The Koro do not dominate a single village or even an extended family. This leads to curious speech patterns not commonly found in a stable state elsewhere.”

By contrast, the Aka people number about 10,000 living in close relations with Koro speakers in a district of the state of Arunachal Pradesh, where at least 120 languages are spoken. Dr. Anderson said the coexistence of separate languages between two integrated groups that do not acknowledge an ethnic difference between them is highly unusual. As Dr. Harrison and Dr. Anderson expanded their research, comparing Koro with several hundred languages, they determined that it belonged to the Tibeto- Burman language family, which includes 400 tongues related to widely used Tibetan and Burmese. But Koro had never been recognized in any surveys of the approximately 150 languages spoken in India. The effort to identify “hot spots of threatened languages,” the linguists said, is critical in making decisions to preserve and enlarge the use of such tongues, which are repositories of a people’s history and culture. In the case of Koro speakers, Dr. Harrison wrote in his book, “even though they seem to be gradually giving up their language, it remains the most powerful trait that identifies them as a distinct people.”

A version of this article appeared in print on October 12, 2010, on page D3 of the New York edition.

********************************* On the internet, nobody knows you can't spell By [email protected]

22

The English Spelling Society has released a report blaming the internet for what it sees as the current epidemic of bad spelling: "The increasing use of variant spellings . . . has been brought about by people typing at speed in chatrooms and on social networking sites where the general attitude is that there isn't a need to correct typos or conform to spelling rules."

Many people have come to the same conclusion, despite the fact that, by popular demand, almost all of our digital devices come equipped with unforgiving spell-checkers that mark every mistake with bright red lynes lines.

This is hardly the first time that the 'net has been unjustly blamed for bad English. Studies emerge with depressing regularity charging that texting, chatting, and email lead us to abandon the civilizing rules of standard English—whatever that may be—and replace them with monosyllables, abbreviations, and emoticons that are barely a step away from brutish barks and growls.

It turns out, though, that digital technology is only the most recent culprit in the supposed decline of a language that apparently reached perfection at some unspecified point earlier in its history and has been going downhill ever since. Over the past half- century critics have blamed the decay of English on movies, television, comic books, rock ’n roll, permissive parenting, educational reform, Webster’s Third, and the war in Vietnam.

The English Spelling Society holds technology only partially responsible for our current literacy crisis. According to them, an even more basic problem turns out to be the very basis of that literacy, the alphabet: The irregularity of English spelling starts with children being taught the alphabet and finding that it is a poor guide on how to reliably pronounce the written form or reproducing spoken words in writing. The solution is spelling reform, though apparently not the kind of spell-as-you-please reform encouraged by the internet which renders "to be or not to be" as 2b or ∼2b. Instead the Spelling Society favors a more rational spelling on the analogy of the metric system and decimal currency: To improve literacy in the general population, modernisation of the spelling system will bring similar benefits to what decimalisation brought.

But while such modernization might consist of simplified spellings like thru for through or modernization for modernisation, why not go really decimal and create an alphabet of 100 letters and have every word be ten letters long? Or we could write in binary code, with every word spelled as a string of zeroes and ones, so that "to be or not to be" might be transcribed as

01110100 01101111 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100010 01100101

Better yet, we could switch to a where every word is written with scannable vertical lines and spaces, like a bar code: 23

"To be or not to be," written as a barcode – very rational, though it might be a little hard to read.But before we ditch our modern passion for one-spelling-per-word, even if it does allow for variants like theater and theatre, or color and colour, we might consider that our much-maligned text, chat, and email may not be so harmful after all. True, the English Spelling Society reports that the majority of 18-24 year olds surveyed believe that the pressure to write fast on the internet has turned variant spellings into the norm, but a third of them maintain that standard spellings are preferable. This confirms my own nonscientific finding that most people in the 18-24 demographic think that text-speak like cu l8r for ‘see you later’ or OMG for ‘oh, my god,’ is just a developmental phase, something one grows out of after middle school, when conventional writing takes over.

As they mature, most internet writers seek correctness, and to satisfy their continuing demand for standard English, programs for texting, chatting, and email typically come with spell-checkers which mark suspected errors and often suggest corrections. It turns out that, thanks to digital technology, no matter how bad you are with pencil and paper, on the internet, nobody need know you can’t spel spell.

Above, a Facebook “note” with misspelled words automatically underlined. FB’s spell-checker is even programed to mark Facebook as incorrect. Below, Mail also underlines misspellings. Mail finds Facebook is correct, but it marks lower-case facebook as wrong. 24

So far as the question of to spell or not to spell goes, it’s not the internet, but the technology of pencil-and-paper writing, that truly lends itself to creative spelling. Speaking of “to be or not to be,” Shakespeare, one of the greatest English writers, signed his own name six different ways in the six surviving documents that bear his signature: Shackper, Shakspear, Shakspea, Shackspere, Shakspere, and Shakspear, none of them matching the standard spelling, Shakespeare (he penned variants on William as well), and contemporaries spelled his name about 30 more ways, including Shackspyer, Shackspeare, Shagspere, and Shakysper, all of this centuries before the invention of the keyboard.

Had the English Spelling Society been around in 1594 (it was founded in 1908, at a time when some scholars wrote the name of Hamlet's author as Shakespere), it would have blamed these Shakespearean variants on the undependability of the leading writing technology of the day, the quill pen, which did not come with a spell checker, or possibly the recently-invented pencil, which exploded onto the European scene in the 1560s.

Writers like Shakespeare used the age-old technology of the quill pen (above) and the recently-invented hi-tech pencil (below, the first known picture of a pencil and a piece of graphite appears in a book printed in 1565). Both of these technologies could be blamed for the horrendous spelling of the day.

Maybe instead of blaming technology or the alphabet or writers themselves for the fact that English spelling is inconsistent, unphonetic, and difficult, we should just come to terms with the fact that, no matter how strong we feel the need to control it, language, like all human activities, is hard to rein in. We have no mechanism to guaranty 25 spelling—or is it guarantee? Our words, either spoken or written, are variable, not fixed, and we remain free to follow or ignore the spelling recommendations of giants like Microsoft or small bands of orthographical malcontents like the members of the English Spelling Society.

Hamlet in the internet age: If you sit an infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of computers, they will eventually type out, not Hamlet, but HamBasic.

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All hail goddess English? By [email protected]

NDTV (New Delhi TV) reports on festivities at the Goddess English temple being constructed in the village of Bankagaon, UP. The three-foot high statue of the goddess, modeled on the Statue of Liberty, wears a floppy hat instead of a crown and carries the Indian Constitution in her left hand. Her right hand holds aloft a fountain pen instead of a torch. The statue's base is in the form of a personal computer.

Global English may be about to go celestial. A political activist in India wants the country's poorest caste to improve its status by worshipping the English language, and to start off he's building a temple to Goddess English in the obscure village of Bankagaon, near Lakhimpur Khiri in Uttar Pradesh.

English started on the long path to deification back in the colonial age, and in many former British colonies English has become both an indispensable tool for survival in the modern world and a bitter reminder of the Raj. In 1835, Thomas Babington Macaulay recommended to fellow members of the India Council that the 26

British create a system of English-language schools in the colony to train an elite class of civil servants, "Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect," who would help the British rule the subcontinent.

The philologist William Jones, who visited India almost 50 years before Macaulay, had a much more positive view of Indian language and culture. “Oriental” Jones, as he was sometimes called, praised Sanskrit as “more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either,” and he demonstrated that Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek all shared a common Indo-European ancestor. But Macaulay didn’t think much of India’s ancient linguistic heritage, and he told the Council, “A single shelf of a good European library [is] worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.” Macaulay argued that British support for India’s traditional Arabic and Sanskrit schools gave "artificial encouragement to absurd history, absurd metaphysics, absurd physics, absurd theology." In their place he recommended English-language schools that would civilize India, as European languages had already civilized Russia: “I cannot doubt that they will do for the Hindoo what they have done for the Tartar.”

Today Indian nationalists shun Macaulay for his condescending, Eurocentric view of language and culture, but the Dalit activist Chandra Bhan Prasad wants millions of India’s Dalits (the former untouchable caste, before caste discrimination was outlawed), to learn English and let their local languages “wither away.”

Prasad celebrates Macaulay’s birthday, Oct. 25, as “English Day.” But to make English more attractive to ordinary Dalits, he’s created Goddess English, whose image is modeled on the Statue of Liberty, though the goddess wears a floppy hat instead of a crown, carries a copy of the Indian Constitution (the days of the Raj being long gone), and holds aloft a fountain pen. Prasad argues that “Universalism [is] central to the soul of Goddess English,” while India’s indigenous languages are both divisive and discriminatory. For him, speaking English is the way for Dalits to exchange their hereditary poverty for high-status jobs in science and IT, which is why his statue of Goddess English stands on a personal computer.

Goddess English holds aloft a fountain pen

As Macaulay predicted, English became a high-status language in India, where it is an official language alongside Hindi and the several state official languages. English- language schooling is seen by many Indians as essential for success, although as few as 5% of the population actually speak English. The rest of the world seems to agree that 27

English is the language to acquire, but worshipping English in the form of a three-foot high statue draped with garlands and paraded through the neighborhood every October 25 may seem a little over the top, even in a country with a Hindu pantheon that may have up to 330 million deities.

Although though there are no temples dedicated to English in the United States, many Americans do treat their language as sacred. Grammatical errors are often characterized as moral flaws, if not sins against an imaginary goddess English whose mysteries are impenetrable to mere mortals. We bow down before our English teachers as a priestly class who judge us for the words we use and who freely wield their red pens as instruments of correction if not excommunication.

And we revere the language of our civic documents, decrying as heresy the Spanish translation of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” the “Pledge of Allegiance,” even the election ballot. A proposed federal law would require new American citizens to read and understand the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the federal laws in English, despite the fact that many natural-born citizens probably couldn’t pass a test on these documents. H.R. 997 would also prescribe English as the only language that American laws can be written in, not that they’ve ever been written in anything else. Interestingly, the most vociferous of those who want to enshrine English as official see no irony in the fact that they themselves can only read the sacred texts of their own religion in English translation (a practice reflected in the apocryphal claim attributed since 1881 to a variety of English-only advocates, “if English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for me”).

Although he had no patience for Sanskrit, Arabic, or the other languages of India, Thomas Babington Macaulay didn’t for a minute expect to convert millions of Indians to English. Desirable as that might have seemed to him, there simply wasn’t enough money to school everyone in the civilizing tongue. Instead Macaulay planned for British-trained Indians to serve as translators, leveraging their knowledge of the west to improve the indigenous languages and, in turn, the lives, of their speakers:

It is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern,—a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population. [emphasis added]

In Macaulay’s view, the wisdom and science embodied in English would have a trickle-down effect on local languages, improving them instead of replacing them, with the ultimate goal of educating those unfortunates who found themselves outside the inner circle of anglophones. What English schooling created was not quite what Macaulay anticipated, a class of English-speaking Indians who were anglophiles to some extent (as evidenced by the Indian passion for cricket), but who remained in the long run Indian, not British, “in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.” One product of Macaulay’s educational “reform,” as it turned out, was an English-speaking intelligentsia committed to Indian independence, not continued service to the crown. 28

Whether or not Jack L. Warner said, “Dress British, think Yiddish,” Macaulay’s 1835 “Minute on Indian Education” helped create an English-speaking intelligentsia committed to subverting the Raj.

In the end, language doesn’t form people; people form language. And they form it not by listening to their teachers—though teachers are not without influence—but by turning language into a vehicle for their hopes and dreams. Whether or not the Dalit Goddess English draws crowds of worshippers to her temple, which is still under construction, and whether or not Indians throng to the next October 25 English Day Parade in Lakhimpur Khiri, UP, English will continue, at least for a while, to be a global language with more converts than native speakers. It will remain a language not beamed from London or the American heartland to a world waiting to be instructed, but a language with multiple homes and multiple owners, each with a different stake and a different goal. And Thomas Babington Macaulay, the Goddess English, and bills to enshrine English as the official American language--a move which will backfire just as Macaulay's plan did--all of these notwithstanding, English will remain a language with more heretics than high priests.

Outside the Dalit Goddess English temple in Bankagaon, worshippers can buy Goddess English idols for their home puja rooms (Goddess English is preferring fountain pens to ballpoints or rollerballs, and Windows PCs to Macs).

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29

Language Police flunk teachers from

Estonia to Arizona

By [email protected]

Government language inspectors are fanning out across Estonia to ensure that the nation's teachers are speaking good, error-free Estonian. And the same thing is going on in Arizona, where state officials are monitoring teachers to check for foreign accents and grammatical mistakes. There are distinct parallels between the language police in Estonia and Arizona, whose motto is to protect and serve the language -- Estonian in one case, English in the other -- not those who speak it.

In Estonia, instructors whose Estonian isn’t good enough to pass a twenty- minute interview get warnings from the language police, and those flunking a second time can be fined or even lose their jobs. Arizona officials deny rumors that teachers in the state are being removed from classrooms for speaking English poorly, though they acknowledge that inspectors have identified several dozen teachers with “pronunciation problems,” the educational euphemism for Spanish accents, something they don’t permit in classes where the students are still acquiring English.

The problem in Estonia is that many teachers speak only Russian, the language of Estonia’s former Soviet masters. During the Soviet years, Russian was not only the language of Estonia’s political bosses, it was also the language of the nation’s cultural elite and the medium of instruction in the nation’s top schools. But with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian began to be abandoned or forcibly erased in Estonia as well as in other former Soviet satellites, to the chagrin of the large numbers of Russian speakers left behind when the Red Army retreated.

The problem in Arizona isn’t Russian, but Spanish. Spanish speakers predate Anglos in Arizona, which was part of the territory ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican War. Despite the long history of Spanish as the language of government and culture in the American Southwest, some English speakers now think of Spanish as the language poverty, illiteracy, and illegal immigration. Newt Gingrich caused a furor a few years ago when he called Spanish the language of the ghetto, while English was the language of getting ahead.

For much of the twentieth century, areas of heavy immigration like New York and California required that anyone who wanted to be a teacher had to pass a rigorous speech test whose goal was to prevent Asian and Eastern European immigrants from becoming teachers. These speech tests disappeared after the 1950s, but now Arizona has revived the practice in order to cut down on the number of teachers with Spanish accents 30

According to the language tracker Ethnologue, there are 953,000 Estonian speakers in Estonia, and about 407,000 Estonians speak Russian as their first language (in contrast, there are only 570 Yiddish speakers left in the country, most Yiddish speakers having been murdered by the joint efforts of Estonians, Russians, and Germans during World War II).

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there are about 927,000 Spanish speakers in Arizona, and about half of them need to work on their English. In contrast, 3.5 million Arizonans speak only English (the Census doesn’t provide data on how many of these monolingual English speakers need to work on their English). For much of Arizona’s history the government did its best to suppress Native American languages, and while that policy was reversed in the 1970s, there are currently only about 120,000 speakers of Native American languages in the state.

After Estonia’s independence in 1991, Estonian became the nation’s sole official language, and anyone whose family arrived in Estonia after 1940 could only claim citizenship by passing an Estonian language test. That’s not as easy as it sounds, since Estonian is not an Indo-European language like Russian, French, or English, but a member of the completely unrelated Finnic language group. That makes Estonian as hard to learn for speakers of most European languages as Bantu or Chinese. In addition, many of Estonia’s Russian-speaking teachers are simply too old to achieve competence in the country’s official language, which means that in its push to universalize Estonian, the Baltic nation runs the risk of losing its best teachers and undermining its top schools.

In 1989, Arizona made English its official language, as a way of sending a message to the state’s Spanish speakers to get with the program or go back where they came from (even though many of them actually came from Arizona).

Estonia joined the European Union in 2004, and Estonian became one of the EU’s twenty-three official languages. But in focusing on turning Russian speakers bilingual, Estonia’s language police seem to be ignoring the stunning increase in the popularity of English in the country.

The few Estonian businesses operating on an international plane, like Skype, which started in Estonia before moving its headquarters to Luxembourg, operate entirely in English. More telling is the fact that Estonian schoolchildren, like their counterparts throughout Europe, are choosing English, not Russian or Estonian, as the language of their future. 84% of Estonian students study English, more than twice the number taking Russian, and many of Estonia’s young people learn more English from American TV shows like “Family Guy” and “South Park” than from their teachers or textbooks. So it may not be long before Estonia’s language inspectors abandon their attack on Russian-speaking teachers and start quizzing Estonia’s young people to rid their vocabulary of crude and satirical English phrases.

In the meantime, fewer than one-third of the country’s Russian-speaking teachers know enough Estonian to pass the language inspectors’ relatively simple test, and only 27% of Estonia’s Russian-language schools currently meet the government’s demand that 60% of all instruction be delivered in Estonian. 31

In Arizona, 1.23 million people over the age of five speak a language other than English. But 1.1 million of those people also speak some English, and of that number, 940,500 speak English well or very well. That leaves about 108,000 residents of Arizona, about 2.2% of the population, who don’t speak any English at all, at least not yet. Most of them are foreign born, and for that group, longitudinal data suggests that English fluency will typically improve the longer they remain in the U.S.

The long-term prognosis for Russian in Estonia is not good: its Russian-speaking population dropped 25% from 1990 to 2000. But the long-term prognosis for English is good, both in Arizona, where it is a native language for three-quarters of the people, and a second language for almost all the rest, and in Estonia, where it’s becoming a second language for just about everyone.

So far, despite the chilling impact of the language police, it seems that everyone in Arizona and in Estonia is learning English as fast as they can. But even if the language police do manage to purge the schools of bad linguistic influences, it may turn out that language teachers with flawless, standard pronunciation and impeccable good grammar have much less impact on their students in Estonia or in Arizona than American television does.

Fulfilling their constitutional mission to protect and serve the country’s sole official language, Estonian language police switch targets from Russian to English

********************************* Webster's banned for too much sex

By [email protected]

32

Why ban a word when you can ban the whole dictionary? That's the attitude of one southern California school district, which pulled Merriam-Webster's "Collegiate Dictionary" from school shelves after a parent complained that its definition of "oral sex" was too explicit.

In his own Dictionary of the English Language (1755), Samuel Johnson defined a lexicographer as "a harmless drudge."

But when the Menifee Union School District learned that Merriam-Webster defined oral sex as "oral stimulation of the genitals: cunnilingus, fellatio," it decided that dictionaries are harmful to fourth and fifth graders and banned the books pending further investigation.

According to school spokesperson Betti Cadmus, who shares her patronym with the mythical Phoenician credited with bringing writing to the Greeks, the dictionary has been pulled from all Menifee schools (so if you want to know more about Cadmus, or what patronym means, try the public library, because the school library won't be allowed to tell you). Cadmus, who suspects that Webster's may have a lot worse things in it than oral sex, told the local newspaper, "It's hard to sit and read the dictionary, but we'll be looking to find other things of a graphic nature."

Most people don't find reading a dictionary cover to cover all that stimulating, and some parents aren't supporting the school's word witch-hunt. After all, dictionaries are the place where children often go to find out what dirty words mean, because even parents who teach their children the anatomically-correct terms for their private parts balk at explaining taboo terms like fuck and cunt (Webster's exemplary definitions of these words, which are clearly labeled as negative, are written in simple language that even a fifth-grader can understand), plus parents may not have taken enough Latin in school to accurately explain the derivations of words like cunnilingus or fellatio (also in Webster's) to their offspring. And Riverside County continues to use Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary for its annual spelling bee, which will put Menifee students at a competitive disadvantage (Menifee's district spelling bee is set for Thursday, Jan. 28).

But others agree that schools must protect the eyes and ears of the young from the r-rated parts of the language. Supporters of the dictionary ban should draw courage from the fact that Noah Webster, creator of the first Webster's Dictionary and the author of Webster's "blue back" speller, the most popular spelling book of its day, was himself so prudish that in 1833 he rewrote the King James Bible taking out the dirty bits. Webster explained that "many words and phrases are so offensive, especially to females, as to create a reluctance in young persons to attend Bible classes and schools, in which they are required to read passages which cannot be repeated without a blush; and containing words which, on other occasions, a child could not utter without rebuke." 33

Webster expurgated such King James classics as stink, womb, belly, whore, stones, and piss, all of them in the dictionary banned by the Menifee schools, and he bowdlerized phrases suggestive of sexual activity -- for the great American lexicographer, knowledge in the biblical sense was the ultimate dirty word, though it's in the now-banned collegiate dictionary that bears his name. Webster's original dictionary was also chaste, and it's unlikely that he would approve the decision of the lexicographers who came after him to include formerly-prohibited words that people might actually want to look up.

Menifee isn't the first community to ban a dictionary, and it probably won't be the last. In 1982, Carlsbad, New Mexico, banned Merriam-Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary because it defined certain four-letter words. Contrary to rumors circulating on the internet, Wasilla, Alaska, Mayor Sarah Palin did not ban the dictionary, or any other book. The following clip appeared on p. 1 of the Wilmington, North Carolina, Morning Star on Sept. 30, 1982.

Unfortunately, banning dictionaries -- making Webster's liber non gratus, to use the Latin word for this dirty practice -- won't put bad words out of business. Adults will continue to use terms like oral sex, and children will still need to find out they mean. Only now they'll be forced to acquire that knowledge on the street, with all that that entails, instead of in the relative safety of a dusty old reference book at the back of the classroom or in the school library.

Above: the entry for the verb brown nose, collected by Raven McDavid in his glossary of Citadel Slang (American Speech, 1939), followed below by the treatment of the word in Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961), apparently the first major dictionary to include it. Webster's Third added an etymology that is so direct yet so delicate that it was reprinted in later Merriam-Webster desk dictionaries like the one just banned in California, and is quoted in the Oxford English Dictionary entry for the word as well. 34

UPDATE: Several days after removing Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary from elementary school classrooms, the Menifee schools returned the books. Parental discretion is advised, however: before being allowed to use the dictionary, children will have to get signed permission slips from home. What's not clear is whether the school will warn parents and guardians that by signing the slips, they are giving their children permission to explore all the of dangers that await them in the dictionary of the English language.

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About the Isle of Man location and access

An independent, self governing jurisdiction, 33 miles long, 13 miles wide and set in the middle of the Irish Sea, the Isle of Man is situated in the centre of the .No matter where your delegates are based, travelling to the Isle of Man is fast and convenient - serviced by regular sea crossings from Heysham and Liverpool and scheduled flights from most major airports. With the sea crossing taking as little as 2 and a half hours and flights no longer than an hour your colleagues will have more time to settle in and sample some genuine Manx hospitality before the business begins.

MANN FACT

The peak of Snaefell (Norse for snow mountain) is the highest point on the Isle of Man at 2,036 feet (621 metres).

An electric mountain railway runs from Laxey to the summit. a conference destination

With a wide variety of venues the Isle of Man plays host to many different types of events and meetings. Compact as it is, you are rarely more than 30 minutes journey time away from where you need to be and coupled with the heather clad mountains, lush green valleys, breathtaking coastline and unique heritage and culture the Isle of Man is an inspirational breath of fresh air, making it a popular choice for corporate clients, charitable organisations, associations, team building exercises, incentives and events. As an organiser you will have at your disposal a choice of venues and range of accommodation to suit all budgets, an assortment of locations and the support of the Isle of Man Visitor and Convention Bureau. 35

MANN FACT

The Vikings established the system of self-government known as Tynwald - still in use today and the longest continuous parliament in the world. dedicated service

Most venues also have dedicated conference staff who will ensure that you get a warm welcome and professional service and this, along with the flexibility to cater for up to 1500 delegates, state of the art technology and communication facilities will make the Isle of Man your first choice. Whether you require a straight forward conference room for up to 300 delegates or a bespoke setting for just half a dozen, we can provide the solution. Large hotels with conference and meeting rooms or country manors with luxurious libraries give you the flexibility you need.

Everyone on the Island works together to make the most of your visit and the Bureau enjoys an excellent working relationship with the conference and tourism suppliers based here. Where you have special needs, require a tailor-made stage set or a dedicated conference handling agency, we will be able to put you in touch with the right people.

MANN FACT

The Manx language, a form of Gaelic, was universally spoken until it went in to decline in the 18th century.

Today it is being revived thanks to the Manx Gaelic Society. knowledge & expertise

The Isle of Man Visitor and Convention Bureau (IOMVCB) is a non-profit making organisation whose primary role is to assist conference organisers planning to hold their next meeting on the Isle of Man. As part of the Isle of Man Government's Department of Tourism and Leisure, the Bureau exists to offer free and impartial advice to anyone considering holding an event in the Isle of Man.

The knowledge and expertise of the Bureau enables us to offer relevant and friendly advice to you, the organiser, whatever your needs.

The Bureau can assist with:

 Information on access to and from the Island  Advice and assistance on selecting a suitable venue  Suggestions for pre or post conference tours  Site inspections and familiarisation visits  Preparation of bid documents and presentations  Applications for civic hospitality  Marketing support  Sourcing support services and conference ground handlers 36

 Information packs for your delegates

MANN FACT

In 1881 the Manx Government became the first in the world to give women the vote. the alternative venue

For smaller meetings or corporate gatherings there are many venues to choose from along with plenty of fresh ideas for staff incentives or rewards. A number of hotels have health clubs attached for some quality time or, for a day out with a difference, ride a quad bike through the Manx countryside, take a luxurious cruise round the Island or learn about the local landscape with a knowledgeable and friendly guide.

Activity days including gorge walking, abseiling, sea kayaking and sailing can also be organised - ideal for team building or simply a great day out. For an alternative treat you can try your luck at the local Casino, situated in one of the larger hotels where you can gain instant membership. Casino fun nights can also be arranged at a minimal cost per head which include a buffet and the opportunity to try out some of the games.

Champagne receptions on a local steam train offer a more tranquil setting and for high powered, edge of the seat action the TT Races provide a variety of corporate hospitality opportunities.

MANN FACT

In 1823 the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) was founded by Sir William Hillary.

His lasting legacy is the Tower of Refuge that can be seen in Douglas Bay. after work

Spoiling yourself or finding that special gift, satisfying your taste buds and quenching your thirst in the company of friends old and new are the mainstay of any conference and the Isle of Man will not disappoint.

Douglas, the island's capital, offers an excellent shopping experience featuring many contemporary high street brands, but it is in the towns and villages around the island you will likely find that special gift. With numerous restaurants and pubs there is always somewhere different to go and eat, drink and relax after the day's business has been done. Being an island fresh fish is plentiful and one of our local specialities the queenie a small sweet scallop is a must for lovers of seafood. For those with energy left after a busy day there are a number of night clubs where you can dance the night away or listen to some live music from our wide range of talented local bands. The Island also boasts two cinemas, a magnificent Victorian theatre ( which can also be hired) and the spectacular Villa Marina where many international bands and artists appear for that special night out. 37

MANN FACT

Since 1973 the Isle of Man Post Office has issued stamps with it's own unique designs for use only on the island, which have since become popular throughout the world.

Fore!

The Isle of Man boasts nine excellent golf courses where visitors can enjoy a few rounds whilst seeing a bit more of the Island. Of the eight eighteen holers, Castletown Golf links, designed by the legendary Mackenzie Ross, is amongst the best in Britain and has been host to many prestigious competitions. British Open Champion George Duncan created the course at Port St Mary so the Island's golfing pedigree is a high class one. From tree-lined fairways to greens surrounded by gorse and views towards townscapes, landscapes and seascapes, a game of golf has never been more enjoyable.

Whether you just want to wind down with some free time or create a full corporate day out there are plenty of options available.

MANN FACT

The Island's three legs emblem is found on the Manx Sword of State and is carried at the front of the procession on Tynwald Day. out & about

Rich in history, Celtic folklore and Viking customs, the Island has too much to discover in just a few days. So, take the opportunity to extend your stay beyond your conference; we can put together tours to suit your schedule. Once all the needs of the conference delegates are met, we will not overlook the interests of their partners and the Bureau can assist with planning social programmes to make their stay an enjoyable and relaxing experience. Take a trip on the Victorian Steam Railway or go to new heights on a tram to the top of the island - Snaefell Mountain. Head south to see Castle Rushen, picturesque harbours, a smuggler's hideaway with a 17th century boat and see how the lived in years gone by at Cregneash - a working folk museum - stark contrast to life enjoyed by the wealthy landowners as can be seen at the Grove Museum in Ramsey. Award winning museums and heritage sites are around every corner and provide many hours of interest.

The Laxey Wheel, the world's largest water wheel, dramatically celebrates our mining heritage and the House of Manannan at Peel more than acknowledges the Celtic, Viking and maritime history of the Island with Peel Castle providing the perfect backdrop.

MANN FACT

The Raad ny Foillan (Way of the Gull) is a footpath of 95 miles in length that travels around the whole of the Island's coastline. 38

This walk was created to mark the Island's Heritage Year in 1986. the need for speed

If you enjoy life in the fast lane, the Island?s motorsport events offer excitement and entertainment. The world famous TT Races, Manx Grand Prix and Southern 100 showcase motorcycle road racing at its very best, whilst kart racing, motocross and beach racing all feature in the Island?s busy motorsport calendar. In addition there are boat festivals, including powerboat races and Viking longboats, as well as numerous art, music and drama festivals throughout the year.

For those who enjoy a more active lifestyle, there are also considerable opportunities for cycling and walking with many routes signposted around the Island for the beginner or expert. Cycle hire is available in Douglas and Horse riding may be another avenue that you will wish to explore.

MANN FACT

The TT races, originated by the RAC in 1905, were initially for cars.

Motorbikes first competed in 1907, the winners averaging under 40 mph - compared with more than 125mph today! here to help

The Tourist Information Centre is situated at the Sea Terminal in Douglas and the friendly staff will provide a wealth of information on days out, accommodation, timetables and information on activities and attractions that will help make your visit a successful one.

With 688 miles of uncongested roads, it is easy to get about on the Island and whether you hire a car or bring your own it is a rewarding way to explore just remember to say hello to the little people when you cross the Fairy Bridge. Alternatively, there is an excellent national transport network and Island Explorer passes can be obtained which include unlimited travel on the buses, the Steam Railway, the Manx Electric Railway, the Snaefell Mountain Railway and the horse drawn trams on Douglas promenade.

MANN FACT

The Isle of Man is one of the very few places in the world where you can travel on steam and electric railways, which are over a century old.

The Steam Railway, founded in 1873, operates throughout the summer and runs from Douglas to Port Erin. *********************************