Spoken Here: Mohawk

Time to visit Canada on our Spoken Here journey. Start with Omniglot's Mohawk page or links from Native American Langage Net. Here's a cool idea-- Mohawk lessons via podcast. Or visit the Kahnawake Language Center. Recommended features: Photo archive and radio, just to hear what the language sounds like. There's also a bit of Mohawk in this audio documentary about Mohawk ironworkers who worked on the World Trade Center from Lost and Found Sound.

Spoken Here; Provencal

More encounters with the endangered languages of Spoken Here. Probably, if I was capable of searching in French, we'd have better links for Provencal, but here's Omniglot's Occitan page, with orthographic comparison. Otherwise, I get a lot of dead links... not a good sign for an endangered language. I suggest going back to your Manx lessons or planning your own linguistic fieldwork (with sidetrips) in Provence.

Spoken Here; Manx

Next stop on our Spoken Here journey is the Isle of Man and we are full of amusements! For you serious types, you can check out the Manx language Omniglot page. But then its time to visit the Bunscoill Ghaelgagh, the Manx language primary school, and check out the pictures of Leslie Quirk. Try this site for some Manx lessons with audio, or play a little vocab game here. If you get more serious you can try the Learning Manx blog. If you just want some good visuals (or to plan your vacation) visit Manx National Heritage Web Site or Isle of Man Guide,

Spoken Here: Yuchi

Continuing with our Spoken Here adventures, our visit to Oklahoma is a little thin on resources, but here's a page of Yuchi links from Native American Language Net and here's the tribe's official site.

Spoken Here: Australia

What's a travel book without pictures? And a travel book about languages without sound? Bear with me for a series of posts related to Mark Abley's Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages that will fill in some of the audio-visual gaps. Beginning with Australia, I encourage a visit to the Postcards From Halls Creek website, poke around for pictures and give a listen to the audio program featuring voices of residents talking about their community, including some Jaru speakers. Wadeye Aboriginal Community has a similar friendly site, while the Tiwi Islands site features tempting photographs for tourists but a less personal feel.

If you want to explore some more, Aboriginal Languages of Australia might be a good place to site or the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies (check out this map). For less academic wanderings, try Aboriginal Art Online.

Happy wandering!

Good News! Helen Berhane Released

Coming into the season for giving thanks, we are grateful for the release of Eritrean gospel singer Helen Berhane (see previous post). Official Amnesty press release here. There is still much work to be done, however. Click here for an action urging the government of Libya not to return refugees to Eritrea to be tortured. Libyan authorities rounded up and detained 300 Eritrean refugees in August, including 80 women and five children between the ages of two and six. Refugees need protection, not further persecution.

Our November Author: Mark Abley

Here's a little background on Mark Abley, author of Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages. First, a little bit of biographical information, as well as a bit about his other books, is available here. A couple of interviews are available online, one from his publisher and one from the Montreal Review of Books. He drops hints about his next book:

It's kind of a follow-up to Spoken Here. The topic is a huge one - how English and the other major languages of the world are changing, and what the future might hold for the way we speak and write.

Finally, the Foundation for Endangered Languages shares one of his poems.