This is the linguistics weblog of Christopher Culver, who graduated with a B.A. Classics from Loyola University Chicago and is currently doing an M.A. in Finno-Ugrian linguistics at the University of Helsinki.
As this weblog contains content in numerous languages, written in various scripts, readers are encouraged to download and regularly update the fonts developed by the DejaVu font project.
You are currently browsing the Christopher Culver’s Linguistic Weblog weblog archives for January, 2008.
This is one of the odder reading passages from the textbook Marijskij jazyk dlja vsekh. Мужыраҥыныт ик ялыште кува ден кугыза. Эрлашыжым марийже эр лупс денак шудо солаш кайынеже. Вет эр кынелше пашалан шуэш, а шудым лупсан годынм солат. Тарванымекыже, ватыжлан каласен кода: ― Кече кӱзен шуэшат, кочкаш намий. Марийже э-э сола, э-э сола! Кечат [...]
Last October I wrote a post about the interesting innovations in Nigerian pidgin English as heard in the songs of Fela Kuti. Evidentally I am not the only linguist interested in Fela Kuti’s music, as I’ve discovered an old paper on the topic. Back in 1998 Markus Coester of the University of Mainz wrote a [...]
From an article at BBC News comes this sad news: A woman believed to be the last native speaker of the Eyak language in the north-western US state of Alaska has died at the age of 89. Marie Smith Jones was a champion of indigenous rights and conservation. She died at her home in Anchorage. [...]
At the University of Turku, researchers of the languages spoken on the Volga are fortunate to have a native Chuvash informant, something which is sorely missing in Helsinki. The fruits of this collaboration are beginning to appear. A new Chuvash-Finnish dictionary by Arto Moisio, Eduard Fomin and Jorma Luutonen has appeared in the publication series [...]
In a recent article on the website Mari.ee, Helsinki resident Valery Alikov wrote about the challenges facing Mari literature. I have translated the article from Russian into English. On the 10th of December Mari El observed Marij Tište keče (the Day of Mari Letters), which is a celebrated event in the cultural life of the [...]
While I myself will be busy this summer with Mari and Chuvash, this course seems good value for anyone interested in this Finno-Ugrian language: The Udmurt State University, the Faculty of Udmurt Philology are organizing summer courses of Udmurt under the program The Udmurt language and the culture of the Udmurts, which will be held [...]
This passage from the textbook Marijskij jazyk dlja vsex is a good introduction to the capital city of the Republic of Mari El. ― Шергакан уна-влак! Мый тендам Марий республикын рӱдӧ олаштыже шокшын саламлем. Экскурсийыш кайыме деч ончыч кӱчыкын тудын историйже да кушкын толмо корныж дене палдарынем. Йошкар-Ола 1584 ийыште Иван Грозный кугыжан кӱштымыж почеш [...]