language contact – Language on the Move

Intercultural communication Next Gen Literacies

Food connections

Afghan-style mantu (Image credit: Wikipedia) One of our family’s favorite dishes is mantu. Mantu are steamed dumplings filled with minced lamb meat and served with a spicy lentil sauce and…

Ingrid PillerJuly 31, 2022

Next Gen Literacies

We, heirs of the multilingual Sumerians

The Sumerian Empire under King Shulgi (2094 to 2046 BCE) (Image Credit: Wikipedia) Do you know in which language the Sumerians started the written chronicle of humanity? It is a…

Ingrid PillerJuly 18, 2021

Language and globalization

Thinking language with chocolate

Easter chocolates in the supermarket (Image credit: Wikimedia) I’ve been thinking a lot about chocolate lately. Maybe because it is Easter and supermarkets in my part of the world…

Ingrid PillerApril 5, 2021

News

2017 Australian PhD Prize for Innovations in Linguistics and Michael Clyne Prize

The Language-on-the-Move team is conducting award-winning research The Language on the Move team is delighted to share news of our multiple-award-winning research! 2017 Australian PhD Prize for Innovations in Linguistics The…

Lg_on_the_moveJuly 19, 2017

Language and migration

Piller, I. (Ed.) (2016) Language and Migration. London: Routledge. Humans are a migratory species. Although in modern society the dominant imagery we have created about ourselves is that it is…

Ingrid PillerSeptember 15, 2016

Next Gen Literacies

Malay Sketches

Editor's note: We are delighted to bring to our readers today another outstanding experience of bilingual creativity, the poem Malay Sketches by Sydney author Aisyah Shah Idil, a runner up of the…

Aisyah Shah IdilOctober 21, 2015

Language learning

Gaining a Green Thumb for Grassroots Language Activism

The researcher wearing a Zhuang employee's work uniform at the Black Clothes Zhuang House in the Ethnic Minorities Village, Nanning, China, 2014 I was surprised, frankly, during my recent fieldwork…

Alexandra GreyOctober 10, 2014

Language learning

How the presence of a bilingual school changes the linguistic profile of a community

German International School Sydney It is one of the great narratives of our time that the market will fix everything. In education this means that parental choice is assumed to…

Ingrid PillerJuly 31, 2014

Linguistic landscapes

Linguistic theory in Dubai

Is this Arabic or English? Or is that asking the wrong question? (Transliteration: sbaisi tinisi tshikn and shrmb*) I’ve often wondered what linguistic theory would look like if its foundations…

Ingrid PillerApril 17, 2013

Language at work

Grassroots multilingualism

Africa Town, Guangzhou (Source: ChinaSmack) What does an urban middle-class male university graduate from Conakry, the capital of Guinea, have in common with a peasant woman with little education from…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 19, 2013

Multilingual histories

A golden age of multiculturalism

Inside the Armenian Cathedral of the Holy Savior in Isfahan. Construction began in 1606 and was completed in the 1660s (Source: Wikipedia) Last week I had the privilege of attending,…

Ingrid PillerJanuary 18, 2013

Language learning

Is bilingualism impolite?

I’m chatting in English to a medical student from Germany who is visiting Sydney, Australia, and we’ve already talked about how I lived in Germany for a while and speak…

Hanna TorshMay 15, 2012

Language learning

Bilingualism: Bane or Boon?

Hungarians in RomaniaUp until a few decades ago, the academic consensus – along with public opinion – was that bilingualism is detrimental to the individual and society. Nowadays, that has…

Ingrid PillerFebruary 20, 2012

Linguistic landscapes

English or Persian?

“What is the meaning of the choice of English in the slogan on this car?” That was one of the questions I asked the participants in the 2nd Language-on-the-Move Workshop…

Ingrid PillerDecember 13, 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