GovTeen Forums - Wordplay http://forums.govteen.com/ en Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:51:25 GMT vBulletin 60 http://forums.govteen.com/GT4/images/misc/rss.png GovTeen Forums - Wordplay http://forums.govteen.com/ Linguistics Puzzles http://forums.govteen.com/showthread.php?323614-Linguistics-Puzzles&goto=newpost Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:31:17 GMT The University of Oregon has some linguistic puzzles that range from almost too easy to insanely difficult.

They don't require too much linguistic training and are certainly puzzles rather than linguistic problem sets. They are, nonetheless, still entertaining! :D

Let us know how you fared.

P.S. I noticed some of the javascript on the a few of the problem sets seems to be a bit wonky. ]]> Wordplay Oxford http://forums.govteen.com/showthread.php?323614-Linguistics-Puzzles Attempts to revive Cornish http://forums.govteen.com/showthread.php?323514-Attempts-to-revive-Cornish&goto=newpost Thu, 26 Aug 2010 01:19:22 GMT Cornish is a Celtic language originally spoken in Cornwall which went extinct in the 1800s under relentless pressure from English. This map shows its demise over a span of several centuries. Image: http://strangemaps.files.wordpress.com/2006/10/cornish-language-map.jpg There has been an... Cornish is a Celtic language originally spoken in Cornwall which went extinct in the 1800s under relentless pressure from English. This map shows its demise over a span of several centuries.



There has been an attempt to revive Cornish. Enthusiasts of a revived Cornish can point to Hebrew of a language which was revived after it not been used for daily discourse for 2,000 years. Hebrew language enthusiasts led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in the late 1800s who settled in what is now Israel decided to use Hebrew as an everyday spoken language. Today there are millions of native speakers of Hebrew.

The Cornish revival enthusiasts face a more daunting problem than the Hebrew enthusiasts of over 100 years ago. Hebrew had remained a language of liturgy and religious scholarship in the Jewish diaspora. On the other hand, Cornish got little use or attention for many decades after its last native speaker died.

The language site Omniglot gives Cornish the same treatment that it gives living languages. This is what they say about the attempt to revive it.

Quote:
Revival

Henry Jenner (1848-1934) was the first person to try to revive the language. His interest was sparked by the discovery of a number of lines from a medieval Cornish play in a 14th century manuscript in the British Museum. Jenner spent many years travelling all over Cornwall interviewing Cornish speakers, learning Cornish from them and studying any Cornish texts he could find. Then in 1904 he published a Handbook of the Cornish language, an introductory textbook for people interested in learning the language. Jenner also learned to speak Breton and was surprised by the many similarities between the two languages.

Jenner's work was continued by Robert Morton Nance (1873-1959), who reconstructed a version of Cornish he called Unified Cornish (Kernewek Unys) based on Medieval miracle plays and borrowing words from the middle and late periods and even from Welsh and Breton. Nance also devised his own spelling system. In 1929 Nance published his work in a book called Cornish for All.

In 1967 the Cornish Language Board (Kevas an taves Kernewek) was set up to promote the language. The version of the language they promoted was Unified Cornish and their efforts attracted considerable interest. During the 1980s as an increasing number of people became interested in Cornish, they started to notice the inaccuracies and shortcomings of Unified Cornish. After the publication in 1984 of Professor Glanville Price's book The Languages of Britain, which severely criticised Unified Cornish, Celtic scholars and linguists decided that they couldn't take the language seriously any more and the Cornish Language Board had to find an alternative. They decided to adopt a new version of Cornish devised by Dr Ken George.

George's system was originally known as Phonemic Cornish and is now called Common Cornish (Kernewek Kemmyn). He based it on Medieval cornish manuscripts and used a computer to analyse the pronunciation. His spelling system was so different to those used for other versions of the language that it meet with fierce opposition among supporters of Cornish and academics.

In the early 1980s, a version of Cornish based on Late/Modern Cornish and known as Modern Cornish (Curnoack Nowedga) was reconstructed by a group of Cornish enthusiasts led by Richard Gendall. In 1986 they set up the Cornish Language Council (Cussel an Tavas Kernuack) to promote Modern Cornish and to encourage the study of Cornish from all periods.

In 1995, the Celtic scholar Nicholas Williams devised a new version of Unified Cornish known as Unified Cornish Revised or UCR (Kernowek Unys Amendys) which addressed some of the shortcomings of Unified Cornish. UCR modifies the standard spelling in order to indicate the reconstructed phonology in light of current scholarship, while keeping to the traditional orthographic practices of the medieval scribes. It also makes full use of the Late Cornish prose materials unavailable to Nance, taking advantage of the same fluent, natural style that made Gendall's Modern Cornish appeal to many. Williams published a English-Cornish Dictionary in this orthography in 2000.

The most popular versions of Cornish are currently Common Cornish and UCR, though other versions also have supporters. The differences between the various versions of Cornish are not huge and do not prevent speakers from communicating with one another.

Current status

Some families are now bringing up their children with Cornish as their first language. Cornish names are popular for children, pets, houses and boats. People are writing and performing songs and poetry in Cornish, and the language is taught in some schools and at the University of Exeter.

There are a number of magazines solely in Cornish: An Gannas, An Gowser and An Garrick. BBC Radio Cornwall have regular news broadcasts in Cornish, and sometimes have other programmes and features for learners and enthusiasts. Local newspapers, such as the Western Morning News, often have articles in Cornish, and such newspapers as The Packet, The West Briton and The Cornishman also support the language. The first ever feature film entirely in Cornish, Hwerow Hweg (Bitter Sweet) was released in 2002, and a number of other films in Cornish have been made since then.

After much discussion, a Standard Written Form (SWF) of Cornish was agreed on in 2008. The SWF is intended for official use and for formal education. In other contexts people are free to choose the form of written Cornish they prefer.

In 2010 a bilingual Cornish/English creche or Skol dy’Sadorn Kernewek (Cornish Saturday School) was set up. The group is held on Saturdays at the Cornwall College in Cambourne and children between 2 and 5 years old are attending. The children are immersed in Cornish in one room, and their parents learn Cornish in another. The Cornish lessons for the parents focus particularly on language they can use with their children.
]]> Wordplay optid http://forums.govteen.com/showthread.php?323514-Attempts-to-revive-Cornish Johannesburg Taxi Language http://forums.govteen.com/showthread.php?323008-Johannesburg-Taxi-Language&goto=newpost Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:12:30 GMT While actually looking for videos of South African Sign Language, I came across this video about the signs people use to hail a minibus taxi in and around Johannesburg, South Africa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nORTtQuDBvw

It's not quite language, but I thought it was interesting enough to pass along.

I couldn't help being reminded of Taxilinga from Snow Crash. "Taxilinga is mellifluous babble with a few harsh foreign sounds, like butter spiced with broken glass." ]]> Wordplay Oxford http://forums.govteen.com/showthread.php?323008-Johannesburg-Taxi-Language