Language politics – Language on the Move

Language politics Next Gen Literacies

Is it ok for linguists to hate new words?

Linguists are famously very cool with words changing their meaning, new words arising, and basically language just doing whatever the hell it wants, irregardless (heh) of what the language pedants…

Dave SayersMay 15, 2024

Language politics Next Gen Literacies

Minority languages on social media

On this year’s International Mother Language Day, the UN is encouraging us to reflect on the role of technology in multilingual learning. Here, we are looking at the role of…

Gegentuul BaioudFebruary 28, 2022

Language politics

Language month in the Philippines

(Image credit: Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino) August is celebrated in the Philippines as Buwan ng Wika (language month). This celebration began in 1946, shortly after the then Philippine President Manuel…

Loy LisingAugust 5, 2021

Language politics

Brexit and the politics of English

Editor's note: As the world anxiously anticipates the outcome of the US presidential election next week - and the consequences it will have for global politics - we've asked the…

Robert PhillipsonOctober 29, 2020

Language politics

“I regret having named him Sahil”: Urdu names in India

Akhlaq Ahmad at work on the mural in Shahdara for the ‘Delhi, I Love You’ project. (Image Credit: Delhi, I Love You) On July 8, 2020, The Wire published an…

Rizwan AhmadJuly 24, 2020

Language politics

Debating refugee credibility

Manus Hospital often treats refugees (Image credit: ABC News, Natalie Whiting) A growing body of literature across multiple disciplines attests to the importance of credibility in the bureaucratic processes for…

Laura Smith-KhanJuly 11, 2019

Language politics

Advocating for linguistic diversity

Linguistic diversity is a demographic reality, as Dr Alexandra Grey pointed out in her presentation This week, Professor Lisa Lim and her colleagues from Sydney University’ School of Languages and Cultures…

Ingrid PillerMay 17, 2019

Language politics

Counting the uncountable: linguistic diversity in Nepal

Students in a Tibetan-medium school in Kathmandu study for their exams. By knowing the number and age of speakers of a particular language, policy makers can better plan for their…

Naomi FillmoreFebruary 26, 2019

Language politics

How do language rights affect minority languages in China?

Alexandra Grey proudly holding the physical product of her PhD research My university will shortly require only a digital copy of each PhD after it has been examined and awarded,…

Alexandra GreyJune 8, 2017

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Language politics

Will technology make language rights obsolete?

Something has been nagging at me recently. I read a lot of tech news, and it seems automated translation is about to get a whole lot better, and a whole…

Dave SayersApril 25, 2017

Language politics

How to Study Language and Social Relations in Times of Global Mobility

The Sociolinguistic Economy of Berlin Imagine you want to study language diversity as a phenomenon of contemporary society. Where do you start? You can, for example, ask teachers to count…

Britta SchneiderAugust 22, 2016

Language politics

What’s in a name?

Annastacia Palaszczuk and members of her family (Source: Couriermail) Would Kirk Douglas be a Hollywood legend if he had kept his birth name Issur Danielovitch? Would Bob Dylan have achieved…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 4, 2015

Language politics

Language Politics and Policy in Contemporary Maharashtra

Hutatma Smarak (Martyrs's Memorial) on Flora Square in Mumbai constructed in the memory of 106 people killed during the agitation for the creation of Unified Maharashtra. The two individuals in…

Deepak PawarJanuary 28, 2015

Language politics

#yallaCSU

This tweet says: "CSU issues correction: its proposal was translated into German incorrectly" Germany is currently witnessing a delightful language ideological farce. It all started when the conservative Christian Social…

Ingrid PillerDecember 9, 2014

Language politics

The politics of subtitling

Recently, I watched a TV documentary about the proliferation of Nomura jellyfish in Japanese coastal waters. It was a shocking tale of the devastating environmental, economic, social and human impact…

Ingrid PillerOctober 19, 2011

Language politics

Shibboleth: Kyrgyz or Uzbek?

In his recent post “Accent and History,” Khan asked whether it’s possible to escape the prison of our accent and our language. Looking at the civil war and humanitarian disaster…

Ingrid PillerJune 15, 2010