Did you miss one of our Noon Talks formerly known as Brown Bag presentations?
You can catch up here:
February 3rd, 2021
Cross-Generational Change in Heritage Languages in Toronto?
By Professor Naomi Nagy
Linguistics departments – University of Toronto
The Heritage Language Variation and Change project (Nagy 2009, 2011) is based on intergenerational comparisons (i.e., how many generations since the family immigrated to Toronto?) of speakers in language diaspora in Toronto. I will discuss some differences between the results of experimental studies and our variationist sociolinguistic studies based on spontaneous speech. The focus will be on the picture we see of intergenerational differences, as well as differences between homeland vs. heritage varieties. In general, greater linguistic stability is illustrated by the variationist approach than experimental methods. The data are from studies of Voice Onset Time (VOT), case marking, and null subject pronoun variation (listed athttp://projects.chass.utoronto.ca/ngn/HLVC/1_5_publications.php). The languages discussed include Cantonese, Faetar (a Francoprovençal variety spoken in southern Italy), Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian.
More about Professor Naomi Nagy
Naomi Nagy is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Toronto. Her area is sociolinguistics, with particular interest in understanding language contact through variationist sociolinguistic approaches. She directs the Heritage Language Variation and Change (http://projects.chass.utoronto.ca/ngn/HLVC/) Project which examines variation in 10 languages spoken in Toronto, includingFaetar, an endangered Francoprovençal variety. Goals of this project include documenting cross-generational variation inheritage languages, via digital recordings and time-aligned orthographictranscriptionsofconversations, ethnic orientationquestionnaires, andelicitation tasks. Cross-linguistic comparisons allow the development of a generalized understanding of contact-induced language change and helps push the field of variationist sociolinguistics to expand beyond its monolingually-oriented core.
She has published recently inAsia-Pacific Language Variation,International Journal of Bilingualism, International Journal of the Sociology of Language,Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development,Journal of Phonetics,Journal of Sociolinguistics,Language Documentation and Conservation,Language Learning,Language Variation and ChangeandLinguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. She co-editedSocial Lives in Language—Sociolinguistics and multilingual speech communities with Miriam Meyerhoff, andissues of theCanadian Journal of Linguistics(Variation at the Crossroads: Advancing theory by integrating methods, with Michol Hoffman) and theInternational Journal of the Sociology of Language (Francoprovençal: documenting contact varieties in Europe and North America, with Jonathan Kasstan). She is currently advising/supervising PhD students conducting variationist analyses of Ciociaro, Arabic, Inuktitut, Tagalog and Uruguayan Portuguese.
References
Nagy, N. 2009. Heritage Language Variation and Change in Toronto.http://projects.chass.utoronto.ca/ngn/HLVC/
Nagy, N. 2011. A multilingualcorpusto explore geographic variation.Rassegna Italiana di Linguistica Applicata43.1-2:65-84.
See also:http://projects.chass.utoronto.ca/ngn/HLVC/1_5_publications.php
Challenges and Strategies in Quijos Linguistic and Cultural Revitalization in the Ecuadorian Amazon
by Etsa Sharupi Tapuy et Cheryl Martens
Jan 13, 2021 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
The power point presentation can be found here: Quijos Revitalization York 2021
Challenges and Strategies in Quijos Linguistic and Cultural Revitalization in the Ecuadorian Amazon
This presentation will discuss the challenges of the linguistic and cultural revitalization of the Quijos Nationality in Ecuador. First officially recognized as a nationality group by the Ecuadorian state in 2013, this talk examines Quijos communication processes concerning self-determination and the resurgence of the Quijos linguistic, cultural, and political project. This talk will reflect on the radio programming Kayu Ayllu Shinalla in Napo Province and the radio’s expansion via digital means. The talk will also consider the challenges encountered in interactions with technocratic gatekeepers in developing the Quijos online presence and the techno-politics of knowledge construction and visibility on the Internet.
Revitalisation de la langue et de la culture Quijos en Amazonie équatorienne : défis et stratégies
Cette conférence abordera les défis de la revitalisation linguistique et culturelle de la nation Quijos en Équateur. Elle examinera les processus de communication concernant l’autodétermination et la résurgence du projet linguistique, culturel et politique des Quijos, et s’attardera sur la programmation de la radio Kayu Ayllu Shinalla dans la province de Napo et sur son expansion par des moyens numériques. La conférence portera aussi sur la technopolitique de la construction de la connaissance et de la visibilité sur Internet : seront notamment soulignés les défis rencontrés lors des interactions avec les Gatekeepers comme les modérateurs de Wikipedia pour développer la présence en ligne des Quijos.
Desafíos y estrategias en la revitalización lingüística y cultural de los quijos en la Amazonía Ecuatoriana
Esta charla examinará los desafíos de la revitalización lingüística y cultural de la Nacionalidad Quijosa en el Ecuador. Sólo reconocida oficialmente como grupo de nacionalidad por el Estado ecuatoriano en 2013, esta charla considera el uso de las herramientas de comunicación digital en la organización comunitaria de los Quijos, y en la defensa del territorio. También se discuten los procesos de comunicación relacionados con el empoderamiento y el resurgimiento del proyecto lingüístico, cultural y político de los Quijos. Esta charla reflexionará sobre la programación de la radio Kayu Ayllu Shinalla en la provincia de Napo y la expansión de la radio a través de los medios digitales. En la charla también se examinarán los desafíos que se plantean en las interacciones con los guardianes tecnocráticos en el desarrollo de la presencia en línea del Quijos y la tecnopolítica de la construcción de conocimientos y la visibilidad en el la red.
November 18th, 2020 from 12pm to 1:15pm
“At the Edges of Empathy: Journalistic Ethics and Translation in Sarah Glidden’s Rolling Blackouts (2016)”-Eva C Karpinski
This presentation looks at the role of translation in comics journalism through the prism of difficulties involved in reporting on war and trauma stories from outside one’s own culture, language, religion, and class. It brings under scrutiny professional expectations for a journalistic practice to be “informative, verifiable, accountable, and independent” (Glidden), expectations which are exacerbated by the challenges posed by contradictory politics, unequal power dynamics, guilt, cultural ignorance, and multiple mediations involved in creating and transmitting a “newsworthy” story. In the global news context, journalistic translational decisions are always imbricated with power inequalities and operate as a double-edged technology of knowledge production: they can open up new channels of understanding and communication; and equally well, they can reinforce the status quo and reify existing geo-political structures of domination (Bielsa and Bassnett 6). Glidden elaborates a meta-critique of journalism as a translational practice, grounded in an ethics of transcultural encounter that is performatively enacted as risking one’s own vulnerability.
SUSAN INGRAM – WHERE ARE WE NOW? THE CULTURAL TRANSLATION OF DAVID BOWIE’S LAZARUS
Two months before his death in January 2016, David Bowie had the pleasure of attending the New York première of his first musical, Lazarus, which followed the fate of Thomas Newton, the character he had played in his first film, The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976, dir. Nicholas Roeg). The misadventures of an alien who found himself in a hostile environment and ended up an incarcerated alcoholic had resonated with Bowie when he made the film, as it came at the end of his drug-addled America period, after which he had fled for the healing anonymity and productivity of Berlin. After his death, to the surprise of many, Bowie’s musical quickly found its way onto German-language stages. Of the over a dozen productions that have since taken place, only the first two in New York and London, where Michael C. Hall played Newton, were entirely in English, until the show premiered in Melbourne in May 2019.
In this paper Susan Ingram examines the appeal of Lazarus for German-speaking audiences by analyzing four of the musical’s 17 songs: “‘Heroes,’” “Where Are We Now?,” “This Is Not America,” and “Valentine’s Day.” She argues that because Bowie already laid the groundwork for such work by returning to the first album in his Berlin triptych in his penultimate album The Next Day, this translation work has been able to follow suit and has encouraged each production to be performed in such a way as to maximize affective intensity for local audiences.
IAN MARTIN – LIMITS TO LINGUISTIC DECOLONIZATION IN CANADA : THE CASE OF BILL C-91
September 16th, 2020
