Linguistics, a whirlwind tour!

A Friday afternoon talk at 99designs on a few areas of linguistics, leading into the inspiration for the Great Language Game.

Transcript

1. Linguistics,

   a whirlwind tour!
   A 99designs Friday afternoon ramble
   !
   @larsyencken
   

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2. Language
   preservation
   

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3. ~7000 languages
   half are no longer
   taught to children
   

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4. Most languages
   are endangered!
   

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6. Guugu Yimithirr
   Use compass directions rather
   than relative directions
   

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7. Phonetics
   

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8. “The cat ate it.”
   

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9. /ðəә kæt eɪdɪ/
   

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10. THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET (revised to 2005)
    CONSONANTS (PULMONIC)
    i y È Ë ¨ u
    P
    e
    e
    š Ø o
    I Y U
    Front Central Back
    Close
    Close-mid
    Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Post alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
    Plosive p b t d Ê ˜ c Ô k g q G /
    Nasal m µ n =  N –
    Trill
    ı r R
    Tap or Flap v | «
    Fricative F B f v T D s ¬¬z S Z ß Ÿ ç J x V X  © ? h H
    Lateral
    fricative Ò L
    Approximant
    ¥ ® ’ j ˜
    Lateral
    approximant l Ò ¥ K
    Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.
    CONSONANTS (NON-PULMONIC) VOWELS
    Clicks Voiced implosives Ejectives
    > Bilabial
    œ
    Bilabial
    ’ Examples:
    ˘ Dental Î Dental/alveolar p’ Bilabial
    ! (Post)alveolar
    ˙ Palatal t’ Dental/alveolar
    © 2005 IPA
    

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11. ´
    A Å
    i y È Ë ¨ u
    P
    e
    e
    š Ø o
    E { ‰ ø O
    a ”
    å
    I Y U
    Front Central Back
    Close
    Close-mid
    Open-mid
    Open
    Where symbols appear in pairs, the one
    to the right represents a rounded vowel.
    œ
    ò
    ts a voiced consonant. Shaded areas denote articulations judged impossible.
    SUPRASEGMENTALS
    VOWELS
    eolar
    ricative
    tives
    al flap
    d x
    

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12. And more!!!
    

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13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31zzMb3U0iY
    

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14. Teaching and
    learning languages
    

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15. Category I:
    “Closely related to English”
    575-600 class hours
    Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese,
    Romanian, Spanish, Swedish
    Category II:
    “Significant linguistic and/or
    cultural differences”
    1100 class hours
    Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Bosnian,
    Bulgarian, Burmese, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Finish, Georgian,
    Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Khmer, Lao, Latvian,
    Lithuanian, Macedonian, Mongolian, Nepali, Pashto, Persian
    (Dari, Farsi, Tajik), Polish, Russian, Serbian, Sinhalese, Slovak,
    Slovenian, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Ukranian, Urdu, Uzbek,
    Vietnamese, Xhosa, Zulu
    Category III:
    “Exceptionally difficult for
    native English speakers”
    2200 class hours
    Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean
    DIFFICULTY OF LEARNING LANGUAGES
    FOREIGN SERVICE INSTITUTE, US DEPARTMENT OF STATE
    

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22. Demo time!
    

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24. Open data
    

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25. http://www.replicatedtypo.com/the-great-language-game-confusing-languages/7926.html
    

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26. Crowdfunding?
    

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27. Thanks!

    
    

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