history – Language on the Move

Chats in Linguistic Diversity Research reflections

History of Modern Linguistics

In Episode 12 of the Language on the Move Podcast, I speak with James McElvenny about his new book History of Modern Linguistics. This book offers a highly readable, concise…

Ingrid PillerApril 10, 2024

Language learning Multilingual histories

Why Are Uzbek Youth Learning Arabic?

Map of Transoxania (Source: Wikipedia) Editor’s note: Arabic language learning is experiencing a revival in many parts of the world, such as China, where it may be a source of…

Rizwan AhmadJanuary 16, 2024

Chats in Linguistic Diversity Multilingual histories

Lies we tell ourselves about multilingualism

Just before the holidays, Professor Aneta Pavlenko and I chatted about Aneta’s new book Multilingualism and History. We talked about amnesia and ignorance pacts in contemporary sociolinguistics, ghost signs that point to dark…

Ingrid PillerJanuary 3, 2024

Chats in Linguistic Diversity Multilingual histories

Can we ever unthink linguistic nationalism?

In this latest installment of Chats in Linguistic Diversity, I talk to Professor Aneta Pavlenko about multilingualism through the ages. We start from the question whether the world today is…

Ingrid PillerOctober 4, 2021

Intercultural communication

The interpreting profession in Ancient Egypt

Remember Joseph speaking to his brothers through an interpreter? Joseph is sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers Academic interpreting often labors under the assumption that the profession…

Ingrid PillerJune 29, 2021

Intercultural communication

Why the linguist needs the historian

Diagram of the ‘radial definition routes’ of Panoptic Conjugation (Ogden 1930: 12) A fascinating turn in recent Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) scholarship is the development of 'Minimal English', an international…

James McElvennyAugust 28, 2020

Multilingual histories

Is English spelling an insult to human intelligence?

One of countless internet memes about crazy English spelling (Source: angmohdan.com) During a dreary German winter in the 1980s, I would get up early each Friday morning, wrap myself up…

Ingrid PillerAugust 10, 2020

Multilingual histories

Serendipity, Cyberspace, and the Tactility of Documents

Front of postcard sent by Private Jacob Isak Sicherman on 1 June 1916 Remember library stacks? Browsing among books? Serendipitously finding on a nearby shelf what you didn’t know you…

Carol SichermanJuly 28, 2016

Multilingual histories

Erasing diversity

Barely legible today but evidence of 'super-diversity' in the 9th century: Runic graffiti in Hagia Sophia On a parapet in Hagia Sophia’s gallery there is an obscure little graffiti written…

Ingrid PillerJune 21, 2013

Multilingual histories

Internationalization of Higher Education, 1933

Ernst Reuter, West Berlin's post-war Mayor, was Professor of Urban Studies in Ankara from 1938 to 1946 (Source: turkishpress.de) While the internationalization of higher education is a hot topic at…

Ingrid PillerMay 14, 2013

History of Modern Linguistics

Why Are Uzbek Youth Learning Arabic?

Lies we tell ourselves about multilingualism

Can we ever unthink linguistic nationalism?

The interpreting profession in Ancient Egypt

Why the linguist needs the historian

Is English spelling an insult to human intelligence?

Erasing diversity

Internationalization of Higher Education, 1933

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