* Michel Faber
* The Guardian, Saturday 30 July 2005

Dirty Words: The Story of Sex Talk by Mark Morton

Buy Dirty Words: The Story of Sex Talk at the Guardian bookshop

Dirty Words: The Story of Sex Talk
by Mark Morton
368pp, Atlantic Books, £12.99

Seductively billed as "the perfect book for lovers, and language-lovers, alike", Dirty Words attempts to catalogue every English word ever used for sexual purposes. In an orgy of etymological fervour, it ploughs into the roots of love, limerence, glamour, cunnilingus and fartleberries. There are 1,300 terms listed for the male sex organ, many of them amusingly surreal (hairy banana, blue-veined custard chucker, whoopee stick, finger puppet) and many others pitiably desperate (dangling participle, male interfemoral infidel). I doubt that this is the perfect book for lovers, but it's certainly the perfect book for anyone who can imagine themselves enlivening a dull dinner party by saying: "Did you know that the word felch denotes the act of sucking one's own semen out of another person's buttocks?"

The joy of lascivious lingo is diminished, however, by Morton's approach and writing style. Tracing the evolution of words back to their conjectural proto-Indo-European origins is a scholarly business, yet this book seems touched by a nymphomaniac desire to attract all passersby, regardless of their levels of intellect or interest. So hard does Morton strive to service everyone, and so determined is he not to appear offputtingly intellectual, that he often seems to be addressing Homer Simpsons who've never given a thought to language before: "Clearly, Old English doesn't look much like Modern English - you might even say they're different languages. Then again, you probably don't resemble your grandmother, and yet think of how much, at the genetic level, you owe her: if she hadn't existed, you wouldn't be here." (This observation, already twice as long as it needs to be, is elaborated for a further six lines.)

From the outset, Morton promises not to trouble us with "squiggly marks" (ie, lexicographical symbols). He also cautions us against reading too much of his book at once, because "you'll probably get a headache". His day job as a professor at the University of Winnipeg makes him eminently qualified to discuss ribald Shakespearian puns, but perhaps his lifelong devotion to pedagogy blinds him to the fact that not everybody has yet to glean the basics of an education. Some of his gestures are so condescending as to be unintentionally parodic: "Mother-fucker emerged as an insult in the 1920s, though that incest taboo was articulated much earlier, most notably in Oedipus Rex, a Greek tragedy written in the fifth century BC by Sophocles."

Dirty Words is plumped out to 368 pages by a shameful amount of padding. Morton, apart from being a waffly stylist, cannot resist telling us the origins of words that have little or nothing to do with his subject. "Amazingly, the word mouse is closely related to both muscle and mussel," he enthuses, and there are hundreds more of these Reader's Digest tickles of edification. Morton's passion for etymology is commendable, but an editor should have reminded him what book he was supposed to be writing.

Sadly, Morton's labour of love seems to have been unassisted. Several glaring copyediting errors in the introduction (including one in the third sentence) make it obvious that Dirty Words was originally called The Lover's Tongue, before the UK publishers ditched this title - evidently in haste - in favour of a sensationalist surrogate. Real shock value, however, is supplied by Atlantic's slipshod production of the book. There is a chunk of text missing between pages 24 and 25, and a disconnected paragraph on the etymology of bunkum is left stranded on page 220. Morton's heavyhanded humour when he denies imagined accusations of coprophemia, aischrolatreia and lalochezia by saying that "you - dear reader - can decide for yourself after perusing the remaining two hundred pages" is made heavier still by the fact that nobody at Atlantic noticed that this estimate is 100 pages out. Editorial passivity may also be the reason why no one thought to anglicise the confusing American usages of pants and ass, cut out the Canadian in-jokes, or dispense with Morton's step-by-step explanation of how Cockney rhyming slang works. There is no index, so the chances of finding that elusive synonym for gamahuching a second time are slim.

Sometimes, the saving grace of an annoyingly written textbook is that it offers information unavailable elsewhere, or collects material from disparate sources in a uniquely convenient form. Dirty Words aims for the latter distinction; Morton has done an admirable job combing through the available literature on "indecent" words - shelfloads of dictionaries, thesauruses, histories, and specialist studies - and collating the results in a single volume. While there are websites such as sex-lexis.com that list all the terms in Morton's book and more, there is, to my knowledge, no other book that offers such a compendious and up-to-date trove of erotic etymology. The closest contender is Hugh Rawson's A Dictionary of Invective, which is narrower in scope (though not as narrow as its title suggests) and goes no further than 1989.

For an authority who might influence people's attitudes towards language, Morton is regrettably reluctant to use basic English words himself. Whenever he speaks in his own, "neutral" voice, he resorts to copulate and the deplorable pudendum (a term derived from a Latin verb meaning "to cause shame"). Far from proving that the study of language can cure deep-seated anxieties about "dirty" words, Morton merely confirms the cliché of the donnish lexicographer, goggling at exotic linguistic behaviours he's too prim to adopt.

· Michel Faber's new short story collection, The Fahrenheit Twins, will be published by Canongate in September.

Foreigners Beat Chinese Team in Varsity Chinese Linguistics Competition

The Epoch Times
Jul 05, 2005

The first prize in a recent Chinese language competition went to an overseas team this year, which beat the local Chinese team, much to the consternation of many Chinese.

According to Wenhui Daily, this annual competition tests contestants from different faculties on aspects of Chinese language such as structure, phonetics, idiomatic expressions and general knowledge.

Overseas students previously ranked towards the bottom, but this year they made it to the top. The local Chinese teams paled in comparison when it came to general knowledge and performance, despite the fact that many of the participants were freshmen who had just entered college and therefore still had a strong foundation in the Chinese language.

This year the competition was held at the prestigious Fudan University. Professor Fu Jie from the Chinese Studies department of Fudan University said, “Having lived in China for so long, many Chinese students have become desensitized and fail to appreciate the beauty of their mother tongue. In contrast, overseas students are more willing to spend time exploring the cultural phenomenon underlying the Chinese language.”

Professor Qi Senhua from East China Normal University raised three points to support his observation that Chinese language studies are being marginalized by universities. Firstly, the Ministry of Education does not make Chinese language studies compulsory at the tertiary level. In fact, certain polytechnics and medical colleges simply do away with such courses. Secondly, many students would rather invest their time in learning a foreign language, as this is more advantageous to their career advancement. Thirdly, institutions of higher learning tend to adopt a utilitarian approach in planning their curriculums. Consequently, Chinese language is relegated to a “forgotten corner.”

Mr. Xu Xiao, a middle school language teacher, had similar sentiments. Under the exam-oriented education system, he felt that the curriculum has become too utilitarian. In middle schools, the time spent teaching mathematics and sciences has increased at the expense of the morning reading program, which has been canceled.

Quoting French writer Romain Roland, Mr. Xu said, “Language is the distinctive feature of a race; it is the most intimate and enduring aspect of the human condition.” The French have used the constitution to protect their native language, while the Israelites have strived to preserve their mother tongue, the Hebrew language. Mr. Xu said, “Looking at these countries, I feel saddened by the decline of the Chinese language in this utilitarian education system.”

Teaching method holds the key in Chinese learning
By Louisa Winkler (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-07-28 05:53

In every corner of the world there are students struggling with Chinese tones, practising writing characters and perhaps even making sure they have a few chengyu - idiomatic four-character phrases - up their sleeve for extra kudos.

But their progress is not as rapid as might be expected. At least that's according to the international group of experts that gathered at the First World Chinese Conference in Beijing last week. They have been discussing the way Chinese is taught around the world.

Estimates vary as to the number of people learning Chinese, but none falls below 30 million. The numbers are growing as Chinese is offered at more and more universities and even schools, and as the China National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language enthusiastically directs the establishment of teaching institutes.

But many students do not seem to be getting very far. The high level of interest in Chinese and hours of hard work are not paying off.

One of the experts at the conference was Peter Kupfer, director of the School of Applied Linguistics and Culture Studies in Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. He contrasted the high number of Chinese learners with a lack of really competent Chinese speakers, citing Germany as an example.

There, he said, there are only three people who can provide thoroughly proficient German-Chinese simultaneous translation.

The problem exists even at the very heart of China's international interactions - in the world of business. Kupfer pointed out that many foreigners who come to work in China speak limited or no Chinese, and although many local staff have studied English, communication over technical matters can sometimes be highly problematic.

Why is the Chinese language giving the world such a hard time?

One major obstacle is that Chinese language acquisition is so poorly understood.

Hao Ping, director of Beijing Foreign Languages University, spoke at the conference.

Until now, he said, Chinese learning and teaching methods have relied upon European language acquisition theory, which is completely inappropriate as the two language families are radically different.

Expressing a belief endorsed by many of the speakers at the forum, Hao stated that it is imperative a specialized field of Chinese language acquisition theory be developed as soon as possible.

The process of Chinese language acquisition is thought to be unique.

An interesting piece of evidence for this was offered by Zhou Xuan, assistant to the President of Nanjing University. Zhou noted Chinese students have a particularly strong academic record at foreign universities.

This is believed, he said, to be influenced by the nature of Chinese language acquisition and the way in which it stimulates development of the brain from a young age. Some research suggests knowing Chinese increases IQ by 15-20 points.

The character-based writing system generally takes the blame for the language's difficulty. Even Chinese children take longer to reach a certain level of literacy than their counterparts learning to read in languages with phonetic writing systems.

It is into this aspect of Chinese, therefore, that research is most urgently needed. Studies are already under way in Australia, which has the world's highest percentage population of Chinese learners.

Andrew Scrimgeour is a research fellow at the University of South Australia's Research Centre for Languages and Cultures Education.

"In an alphabetic language, the reader looks at a word on the page, immediately knows its sound, and can connect it to a meaning directly through the brain's oral lexicon," he said.

"When a learner looks at a Chinese character, the brain must connect it separately to its sound and to its meaning."

This aspect of learning Chinese poses a particular challenge for Western learners. Japanese and Korean students have an advantage as their languages, though unrelated to Chinese, give them some exposure to characters.

Despite this, said Scrimgeour, teaching methods in China are biased towards Japanese and Korean learners. These students make up around two-thirds of foreign students in China, and have therefore been on the receiving end of the bulk of resources allocated to teaching research.

Speakers at the conference were advocating changes to Chinese teaching methods worldwide.

"Modern Chinese language teaching is too traditional and lacks vitality," said Zhu Yongsheng, Dean of Fudan University's International Cultural Exchange College, referring to the heavy reliance on textbooks, passive learning and emphasis on grammar.

"Language learning should not be a torture for foreign students," Zhu said.

Speakers advocated a shift from teacher-oriented to student-centred methods. Teacher-centred learning has the student entirely dependent upon the instructor for information, rather than being given the freedom to create his or her own learning process.

"Students don't learn what the teacher tells them, they learn what they understand," said Scrimgeour. As a result, student-centred learning is far more effective.

The excellent Chinese spoken by many foreign experts at the conference demonstrated indisputably that fluency in Chinese is an attainable goal for second-language learners.

But very few students have the stamina and motivation to pursue this goal, often painfully, even to the bright end.

As the government moves ahead with plans to pour US$200 million into its international "Bridge of Chinese Language Programme," it is hoped that careful research and creative thinking will profoundly change teaching methods and materials, and perhaps reveal some of the mysteries of the Chinese language to an eager world.

(China Daily 07/28/2005 page5)

News | Sun 31st Jul 2005 |
Plaid slams 'cavalier' attitude to Welsh language
Plaid slams 'cavalier' attitude to Welsh language

Current rules on the position of the Welsh language are "weak and ineffective", Plaid Cymru has said.

The nationalists also said on Monday that ministers had displayed a "cavalier" attitude to the language.

There should be a new Welsh Language Act with the Cardiff assembly becoming the responsible legislative body, the party proposed.

Among other changes, Plaid Cymru is also calling for Welsh to become an official EU language on a par with Irish.

Plaid president Dafydd Iwan pointed to the failure of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to provide bilingual pub-licensing forms as proof of the shortcomings of the current system.

"The present act is weak and ineffective in ensuring equal status for Welsh and English, stating that the Welsh and English languages are equal under certain circumstances only," he said.

"The recent failure by the DCMS to prepare documents in bilingual form under the New Licensing Act is a blatant example of the weakness of the present Language Act, and of the cavalier attitude of government.

"We also need to involve the private sector in a meaningful way, and I believe the private sector would welcome robust and clear guidance in the use of the Welsh language."

MP Hywel Williams said the aim was for Wales to become "a model of functioning and sustainable bilingualism".

And Caernarfon AM Alun Ffred Jones said: "There is more to a bilingual Wales than forms and documents in two languages.

"We wish to see an increase the use of Welsh in all walks of life, be that in the home, at work or in the local community.

"All citizens must have the right and opportunity to use either English or Welsh."

Germany's Spelling Divide

Do I have to capitalize that word or not?
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Do I have to capitalize that word or not?
As of Monday, the new spelling rules for German officially take effect. Pupils have been making the adjustment to the new rules for years, but two states say more time is needed.


The classrooms in Germany are still empty as summer vacation continues. Children are not thinking about homework, and most probably they not paying much attention to the continuing debate amongst adults about the new orthographic norms.

As of Aug. 1, though, if they don't watch their p's, q's and other letters, at least according to the new German orthography, then they will be penalized -- at least in 14 of Germany's 16 states.

Just a few examples of spelling reform suggestionsBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Just a few examples of spelling reform suggestionsBavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia, which make up over one-third of Germany's population and are ruled by the Christian Democrats (CDU), have decided to be more lenient with their kids and allow more time to still use the old rules.

The resistance of the two states may not cause a return to old ways, but they are causing great irritation, particularly since Germany's two Alpine neighbors, Austria and Switzerland, have implemented the new orthographic reforms with hardly a peep.

Criticism from within own ranks

The spelling reform in Germany has created such a stir for many reasons, but much depends on which party is ruling a state and whether the political atmosphere allows resistance. Since educational matters are a state affair, Bavaria and NRW can refuse to implement the agreed-upon spelling reform. Just a few months ago, when NRW was still ruled by the Social Democrats, there was no talk of not implementing the reforms.

Also, the summer period, when the Bundestag parliament is in recess, is often a time to take advantage of the lull in political coverage within the media. Some politicians like to score points in the press. The spelling reform has generated tons of coverage. Some newspapers, most prominently, Germany's leading newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, still adheres to the old rules.

The German press has had a field day with the spelling reform debateBildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The German press has had a field day with the spelling reform debateYet the current head of the Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK), Germany's council which deals with educational matters that go beyond state and national borders, is unhappy with the refusal of Bavaria and NRW.

"We have a problem in Germany with all reforms, even with the spelling reform," said Jutta Wanka, a member of the opposition, in German radio.

She doesn't understand why two states would want to opt out of a reform that kids have learned for the past six years. She thinks the two states must realize that it is also a disadvantage to those pupils who leave Bavaria or NRW and move to a state where only the new rules apply.

Deadline of summer 2006

The Bavarians and those in NRW are sticking to their guns though. They want to wait for the final word from the Council for Spelling Reform, the council has had the task of determining just which orthographic changes, if any, should be made -- and still must be made. The chair of the council just happens to be Bavaria's former state cultural minister, Hans Zehetmair.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: On Bavarian radio, he said the decision by Bavaria and NRW was rational. After all, it won't be until the summer of 2006 that the possible changes should be completed.

Until then, students in Bavaria and NRW can still use the old rules without fear of seeing red ink on their homework and tests. Those in the other 14 states, must face the fact that they will lose points for not using the new spelling rules.



DW staff (jdk)

Almost Before We Spoke, We Swore

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By NATALIE ANGIER
Published: September 20, 2005

Incensed by what it sees as a virtual pandemic of verbal vulgarity issuing from the diverse likes of Howard Stern, Bono of U2 and Robert Novak, the United States Senate is poised to consider a bill that would sharply increase the penalty for obscenity on the air.
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Tim Bower

William Shakespeare, in keeping with traditions of Elizabethan drama, peppered his plays with profanity and celebrated the vulgar as well as the sublime.
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Graphic Cursing Through the Ages
Cursing Through the Ages
Tim Bower

Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" were unabashedly bawdy and profane. That may be why students can still be persuaded to read them.

By raising the fines that would be levied against offending broadcasters some fifteenfold, to a fee of about $500,000 per crudity broadcast, and by threatening to revoke the licenses of repeat polluters, the Senate seeks to return to the public square the gentler tenor of yesteryear, when seldom were heard any scurrilous words, and famous guys were not foul mouthed all day.

Yet researchers who study the evolution of language and the psychology of swearing say that they have no idea what mystic model of linguistic gentility the critics might have in mind. Cursing, they say, is a human universal. Every language, dialect or patois ever studied, living or dead, spoken by millions or by a small tribe, turns out to have its share of forbidden speech, some variant on comedian George Carlin's famous list of the seven dirty words that are not supposed to be uttered on radio or television.

Young children will memorize the illicit inventory long before they can grasp its sense, said John McWhorter, a scholar of linguistics at the Manhattan Institute and the author of "The Power of Babel," and literary giants have always constructed their art on its spine.

"The Jacobean dramatist Ben Jonson peppered his plays with fackings and "peremptorie Asses," and Shakespeare could hardly quill a stanza without inserting profanities of the day like "zounds" or "sblood" - offensive contractions of "God's wounds" and "God's blood" - or some wondrous sexual pun.

The title "Much Ado About Nothing," Dr. McWhorter said, is a word play on "Much Ado About an O Thing," the O thing being a reference to female genitalia.

Even the quintessential Good Book abounds in naughty passages like the men in II Kings 18:27 who, as the comparatively tame King James translation puts it, "eat their own dung, and drink their own piss."

In fact, said Guy Deutscher, a linguist at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and the author of "The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention," the earliest writings, which date from 5,000 years ago, include their share of off-color descriptions of the human form and its ever-colorful functions. And the written record is merely a reflection of an oral tradition that Dr. Deutscher and many other psychologists and evolutionary linguists suspect dates from the rise of the human larynx, if not before.

Some researchers are so impressed by the depth and power of strong language that they are using it as a peephole into the architecture of the brain, as a means of probing the tangled, cryptic bonds between the newer, "higher" regions of the brain in charge of intellect, reason and planning, and the older, more "bestial" neural neighborhoods that give birth to our emotions.

Researchers point out that cursing is often an amalgam of raw, spontaneous feeling and targeted, gimlet-eyed cunning. When one person curses at another, they say, the curser rarely spews obscenities and insults at random, but rather will assess the object of his wrath, and adjust the content of the "uncontrollable" outburst accordingly.

Because cursing calls on the thinking and feeling pathways of the brain in roughly equal measure and with handily assessable fervor, scientists say that by studying the neural circuitry behind it they are gaining new insights into how the different domains of the brain communicate - and all for the sake of a well-venomed retort.

Other investigators have examined the physiology of cursing, how our senses and reflexes react to the sound or sight of an obscene word. They have determined that hearing a curse elicits a literal rise out of people. When electrodermal wires are placed on people's arms and fingertips to study their skin conductance patterns and the subjects then hear a few obscenities spoken clearly and firmly, participants show signs of instant arousal.

Their skin conductance patterns spike, the hairs on their arms rise, their pulse quickens, and their breathing becomes shallow.

Russian security forces keep tight rein on Finno-Ugric congress in Mari Republic
President says all problems "provoked or invented by Finnish media"

Russian security forces keep tight rein on Finno-Ugric congress in Mari Republic
Russian security forces keep tight rein on Finno-Ugric congress in Mari Republic
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By Kirsikka Moring

The International Congress of Finno-Ugric Studies, which concluded at the weekend in Joskar-Ola, the capital of Russia's Mari El Republic, did not yield much in the way of linguistic science or anthropology, but in other respects the meeting was quite colourful.
Already before the gathering the militia and security forces of the republic held conspicuous "rescue exercises". The local Mari El newspaper reported on the exercises, which were aimed at practising repulsing attacks by "terrorists and other extremist elements".
According to the paper, there was no reason for participants to fear, as the congress was being monitored by the city's entire police force.

In one of the police exercises, the officers rehearsed removing a bomb from the location of the congress - the large stage of the Mari National Theatre. In another exercise they defused a dummy explosive in a Lada parked on a highway, and in another, they captured a terrorist after a shooting incident.
In the imaginary situation, a sniper was removed from the building where the guests of the congress were housed.
"It was in this atmosphere that we were supposed to engage in scientific discourse", said Riho Grünthal, Professor of Baltic Finnish Languages at the University of Helsinki.
"In the West we feel that one of the important tasks of universities is societal interaction. In Mari this seems to be impossible."

Fewer than 40 researchers from Finland took part in the congress, even though over 80 had registered. The delegations of Estonia and Hungary had also shrunk to less than half. There were only about 20 Estonians, and just under 40 Hungarians.
Some of the scientists, such as Finnish Professor Pauli Saukkonen, had stayed away to protest the policies of the government of the Mari Republic, which has been accused of oppressing the ethnic Mari in the region.
There were only about 500 people taking part in the congress, even though the number of participants had been expected to exceed 1,000.
An atmosphere of anxiety prevailed.

In the working groups the shortage of experts caused certain problems. Only half of the presentations marked in the programme were held, and the timetables were not kept.
Finnish participants said that science turned into politics. Their local colleagues were ordered not to discuss anything concerning the problems of the republic. Anyone asking a question about a controversial matter was faced with a brick wall of silence.
The foreign guests were constantly followed by police, and an entire police convoy would accompany each of the various excursions. It was certainly safe, but it was difficult to meet ordinary residents, and photography was also restricted.
The scrutiny went so far that mobile phones used by Finnish participants were silenced when they tried to set up meetings with local colleagues.
Scheduled meetings were cancelled, when a local colleague was suddenly compelled to go on holiday on the day in question. The Mari participants at the congress were also threatened with "repercussions" after the departure of the foreign guests.

Municipal leaders would often begin their speeches by saying "Thanks to President Leonid Markelov, we are doing well". After a folk dance performance it was said: "Only a happy nation dances like this!"
The Mari, who are known for their hospitality, received their foreign guests well. Food and drink was abundantly available, but the assistants at the congress did not get a single kopek for their work.
The Finnish Ambassador to Moscow, Harry Helenius, hosted a reception for the participants of the congress together with the Estonians and Hungarians.
Also holding a reception was President Markelov, where the focus was on how well things are going in the Mari Republic. According to the President, all problems are provoked, or invented, by the Finnish media.

The status of minority languages in Russia does not look good in the light of the congress. The Finnish participants are especially concerned about the marginalisation of the national languages, which they fear could be rendered into "museum languages" of rural villages.
National languages are not favoured in the cities. Radio and television programmes are being reduced further, and language education is being pruned away. The position of teaching of the mother tongue is especially grim in the schools of Udmurtia.
The linguists taking part in the congress suspected that languages that are limited to rural villages lack the possibilities for vital cultural and linguistic modernisation.
Regional development and the construction of new regional centres are, in their view, almost at a complete standstill in Mari.
The next International Congress of Finno-Ugric Studies is to be held in five years time in the Hungarian university town of Piliscaba.

Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 26.8.2005

This kid can speak in 7 languages
Nadia Menezes / DNA
Sunday, November 13, 2005 23:00 IST
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PANVEL: Four-year-old Tanish Shelar passes a surprised look at his six-year-old cousin when he pronounces Belgium as 'Bel-jim'. He corrects his cousin promptly, "It's 'Belgium'."

Shelar, a junior kindergarten student at St Jude's in Panvel, can speak in seven languages -- Sanskrit, German, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi and English. It all started when Tanish was eight-months-old when his mother, Dr Vedika Shelar, then living in Sholapur with her in-laws, heard through a friend about Siddha Samadhi Yoga (SSY). Founded by Rushi Prabhakar Guruji, their Infant Siddha Programme helps the overall development of a child. The programme specified that a child can be taught up to 20 languages by the age of six.

"I started speaking to him in English when he was just eight months. Then I proceeded to read and identify words with him in various languages," says the dentist who has a clinic at Khandeshwar.

His parents say that by one year and eight months, Tanish could identify words. And he also spoke his first Marathi word - 'paav' (bread). At two years, he could read text books of Class I children -- and that too in front of a mesmerised audience of 2,000-plus at Panvel.

SSY had called him to demonstrate the effectiveness of their programme.

However, his talent has had its negative sides too. "People think he's showing off," says his father, Dr Vinay Shelar, a 32-year-old consultant physician at Gandhi Hospital, Panvel.

Unconcerned about people's opinions and frustrated about being denied cable television for the next two days till school reopens, Tanish shrugs, "Amistake is a mistake." And gets back to impersonating Batman with his towel.

A major new international resource for researching deafness

Main Category: Hearing / Deafness
Article Date: 11 Oct 2005 - 0:00 PDT

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The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) announces the award of funding for a significant new research centre - the Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL). The centre, based at the UCL (University College London) Department of Human Communication Science, will see ESRC inject �4.5 million over an initial 5 year period into a study of deafness, linguistic systems and communication that will run over a 10 year programme.

The aim is to create a world class hub of excellence that will connect various fields of research in a new way. As such the centre will be a world-first in this area of research and will lead international collaborations. The ESRC funding award, to run from January 2006 to December 2015 (subject to a mid-term review) will support 12 new post -doctorate and post - graduate researchers in the first five years.

With Professor Bencie Woll as Director, and Co-Directors Gabriella Vigliocco and Dr Gary Morgan, of City University, DCAL will link a research programme ranging from neuroscience and linguistics to the deaf individual in the community. Changing the perception of deafness by the hearing community, and transferring communications techniques will be other aspects of the centre's role.

Professor Woll states: "The creation of the Centre places research with deaf people at the core of linguistic and psychological research. We will create new tools for assessing sign language and sign language development; describe the role of the face and gesture in language and develop our understanding of how language is processed by the brain. By studying deaf people's language we will be able to illuminate all aspects of human communication"

The centre will bring together previously disparate research in one multi-disciplinary project, and aims to influence and contribute to both scientific and social aspects of the research agenda. That agenda will focus on sign language, linguistics, psychology, and deaf communication through a series of thematically linked research projects.

The centre will contribute to academic debates as well as to policy and practice, through for example, publications in major journals and the development of a professional assessment tool. Every researcher will be expected to become fluent in British Sign Language (BSL).

Close access to neuro-imaging facilities in London and the ability to provide a broad coverage across different disciplines and groups of deaf people will be a core aspect to the excellence and capacity the centre will create. DCAL will operate independently from the new UCL Ear Institute - which will investigate the physiology of hearing impairment as a separate theme.

The DCAL work will be carried out in collaboration with other institutes and in partnerships with the major deaf organisations including the British Deaf Association, Royal Association for Deaf People, Royal National Institute for the Deaf, National Deaf Children's Society and the Deafness Research Trust. Partnerships will also be forged with government.

The British Deaf Association comments: "We at the British Deaf Association (BDA) are delighted to see this exciting initiative. We are pleased to see that this programme will actually study our language, set within the wider context of our own cultural values and identity as a unique cultural group. The results from this research will create an important platform of evidence for those who reject the notion of medical 'deafness', to enable a shift of focus from 'disability' to that of a diverse cultural and linguistic group."

This is an important point that the DCAL centre will include in its core operating ethos. To enhance this, the centre will also train scientists who are deaf themselves.

"Above all, the DCAL Centre will have an immediate effect on the landscape of deafness research. The centre will bring together separate strands of research and be a unique focus for the study of language and communication. Our funding really will be helping to change peoples lives," says ESRC Chief Executive Professor Ian Diamond.

1. The ESRC is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It provides independent, high quality, relevant research to business, the public sector and Government. The ESRC invests more than �123million every year in social science and at any time is supporting some 2,000 researchers in academic institutions and research policy institutes. It also funds postgraduate training within the social sciences to nurture the researchers of tomorrow. More at esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk

2. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence. UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2005 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi(Economics 1969, Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954 - Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales), Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s - inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.

Becky Gammon
becky.gammon@esrc.ac.uk
01-793-413-122
Economic & Social Research Council
esrc.ac.uk

Tweenspeak: The world's newest language

• Sunday, October 16 - 2005 at 09:29

Tweens communicate with others all around the globe. In fact, 15 percent are doing this on a weekly basis.

Article continues below ▼

• 
  Martin Lindstrom.

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Furthermore, 70 percent of all tweens in Europe text message - or SMS - each other every day. According to BRANDchild, the world's largest study exploring kids and their relationship with brands, a unique language is emerging. I call it "Tweenspeak."

Our research figures show close to 60 percent of all kids around the world have discarded traditional grammar in favor of the far cooler texting language. Twenty-five percent state they would prefer to text on their cell phones or chat on the Internet than communicate "for real" -- even if they are sitting side by side!

Increasingly clear to me is Tweenspeak is much more than a new way of writing. It's a new language, which operates with icon-based symbols, abbreviations, contractions, and numerals -- enabling tweens in the U.S. to talk with tweens in Japan with very little misunderstanding. Now that phones come with full-color screens and built-in cameras, messages are jam-packed with cartoons, broken hearts, houses, trees, animals, and a whole host of emoticons.

See for yourself. Ask any tween to give you a glance at her e-mail or online conversations. You will see what they call "cute" icons, proving in a whole new way a picture is worth a thousand words.

What does it mean for you? A lot. The BRANDchild study revealed 80 percent of all brands purchased by parents are heavily influenced by their tweens, so marketers must develop dual strategies.

Part of the strategy necessitates talking Tweenspeak. This is not to say you should discard your corporate language, but considering the value of communicating to both audiences simultaneously is important. The challenge is to integrate corporate language and the cooler Tweenspeak.

Tweens are a totally and thoroughly unique generation. They are the world's first truly interactive population. They are born with a computer screen as their window on the world and use a mouse to navigate. Their expectations of brands are enormous. Their desires need to be satisfied instantaneously. Their influence, as we've discovered, is huge. For all these reasons, it's important you rethink who your target audience is. Then redesign to appeal to your audience.

It's a challenge to balance conveying your brand message and maintaining the ethical (and legal) standards required to speak directly to kids. If nothing else, you need to begin discussing this internally. Because if you fail to pay heed to the language of tweens, it won't take long for them to persuade their parents to support a much "cooler" brand, which may very likely be on your competitor's site.

New ways of communicating will most likely replace the traditional channels that we know today. It's already happening. About a third of all tweens prefer surfing the Internet to watching television. And close to 50 per cent would rather play a computer game than turn on a television show. Bearing these figures in mind, it's clear that we'll need to change our language to reach the generation of the future.

4 Bahasa dengan penulisan huruf Tersulit di Dunia

4 Bahasa dengan penulisan huruf Tersulit di Dunia

1. Bahasa Mandarin:
Bahasa Mandarin (Tradisional: 北方話, Sederhana: 北方话, Hanyu Pinyin: Běifānghuà, harafiah: "bahasa percakapan Utara" atau 北方方言 Hanyu Pinyin: Běifāng Fāngyán, harafiah: "dialek Utara") adalah dialek Bahasa Tionghoa yang dituturkan di sepanjang utara dan barat daya Republik Rakyat Cina. Kata "Mandarin", dalam bahasa Inggris (dan mungkin juga Indonesia), digunakan untuk menerjemahkan beberapa istilah Cina yang berbeda yang merujuk kepada kategori-kategori bahasa Cina lisan.
Dalam pengertian yang sempit, Mandarin berarti Putonghua 普通话 dan Guoyu 國語 yang merupakan dua bahasa standar yang hampir sama yang didasarkan pada bahasa lisan Beifanghua* (lihat di bawah). Putonghua adalah bahasa resmi Cina dan Guoyu adalah bahasa resmi Taiwan. Putonghua - yang biasanya malah dipanggil Huayu - juga adalah salah satu dari empat bahasa resmi Singapura.

Dalam pengertian yang luas, Mandarin berarti Beifanghua (secara harafiah berarti "bahasa percakapan Utara"), yang merupakan sebuah kategori yang luas yang mencakup beragam jenis dialek percakapan yang digunakan sebagai bahasa lokal di sebagian besar bagian utara dan barat daya Cina, dan menjadi dasar bagi Putonghua dan Guoyu. Beifanghua mempunyai lebih banyak penutur daripada bahasa apapun yang lainnya dan terdiri dari banyak jenis termasuk versi-versi yang sama sekali tidak dapat dimengerti.
Seperti ragam-ragam bahasa Cina lainnya, ada banyak orang yang berpendapat bahwa bahasa Mandarin itu merupakan semacam dialek, bukan bahasa.
Contoh huruf mandarin:您好嗎 (apa kabar)

2. Bahasa Korea:
Bahasa Korea (한국어/한국말) adalah bahasa yang paling luas digunakan di Korea, dan merupakan bahasa resmi Korea Selatan dan Korea Utara. Bahasa ini juga dituturkan secara luas di Yanbian di Cina timur laut. Secara keseluruhan terdapat sekitar 78 juta penutur bahasa Korea di seluruh dunia termasuk kelompok-kelompok besar di Uni Soviet, AS, Kanada dan Jepang. Klasifikasi resmi bahasa Korea masih belum disetujui secara universal, namun dianggap oleh banyak orang sebagai bahasa isolat. Beberapa ahli bahasa memasukkannya ke dalam kelompok bahasa Altaik. Bahasa Korea juga banyak mirip dengan bahasa Jepang yang status kekerabatannya juga kurang jelas.
Sistem penulisan bahasa Korea yang asli — disebut Hangul — merupakan sistem yang silabik dan fonetik. Aksara-aksara Sino-Korea (Hanja) juga digunakan untuk menulis bahasa Korea. Walaupun kata-kata yang paling umum digunakan merupakan Hangul, lebih dari 70% kosakata bahasa Korea terdiri dari kata-kata yang dibentuk dari Hanja atau diambil dari bahasa Mandarin.
Contoh Huruf Korea : 어떻게 지내세요 (apa kabar)

3. Bahasa Arab:
Bahasa Arab (اللغة العربية al-lughah al-‘Arabīyyah), atau secara mudahnya Arab (عربي ‘Arabī), adalah sebuah bahasa Semitik yang muncul dari daerah yang sekarang termasuk wilayah Arab Saudi. Bahasa ini adalah sebuah bahasa yang terbesar dari segi jumlah penutur dalam keluarga bahasa Semitik. Bahasa ini berkerabat dekat dengan bahasa Ibrani dan bahasa Aram. Bahasa Arab Modern telah diklasifikasikan sebagai satu makrobahasa dengan 27 sub-bahasa dalam ISO 639-3. Bahasa-bahasa ini dituturkan di seluruh Dunia Arab, sedangkan Bahasa Arab Baku diketahui di seluruh Dunia Islam.
Bahasa Arab Modern berasal dari Bahasa Arab Klasik yang telah menjadi bahasa kesusasteraan dan bahasa liturgi Islam sejak lebih kurang abad ke-6. Abjad Arab ditulis dari kanan ke kiri.
Bahasa Arab telah memberi banyak kosakata kepada bahasa lain dari dunia Islam, sama seperti peranan Latin kepada kebanyakan bahasa Eropa. Semasa Abad Pertengahan bahasa Arab juga merupakan alat utama budaya, terutamanya dalam sains, matematik adan filsafah, yang menyebabkan banyak bahasa Eropa turut meminjam banyak kosakata dari bahasa Arab.
Contoh huruf Arab : كيف حالك (apa kabar)

4. Bahasa Jepang:
Bahasa Jepang (日本語; romaji: Nihongo) merupakan bahasa resmi di Jepang dan jumlah penutur 127 juta jiwa.
Bahasa Jepang juga digunakan oleh sejumlah penduduk negara yang pernah ditaklukkannya seperti Korea dan Republik Cina. Ia juga dapat didengarkan di Amerika Serikat (California dan Hawaii) dan Brasil akibat emigrasi orang Jepang ke sana. Namun keturunan mereka yang disebut nisei (二世, generasi kedua), tidak lagi fasih dalam bahasa tersebut.
Bahasa Jepang terbagi kepada dua bentuk yaitu Hyoujungo (標準語), pertuturan standar, dan Kyoutsugo (共通語), pertuturan umum. Hyoujungo adalah bentuk yang diajarkan di sekolah dan digunakan di televisi dan segala perhubungan resmi.
Contoh Huruf Jepang : お元気ですか (apa kabar)