Tag: linguistics
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Dagaare – Inherently Plural, Inherently Singular
Today’s post concerns Dagaare, the language spoken by the Dagaaba people in Ghana and Burkina Faso. The language possesses a feature that requires some in-depth explanation, but I don’t doubt that once you understand the beautiful complexity of it, that you will see why this is such an interesting feature. We start by making English…
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Arapaho – Marking for the Fourth Person
I was reading on articles discussing verb-markings when I learned a new term: Obviative. There are not many languages that use the Obviative but this feature has been attested in a few African languages, a Eurasian language, and today’s discussion: Arapaho, an Algonquian language and people in Wyoming and Oklahoma To review, let’s use English…
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Tzeltal – A Language with Categories of Eating
The other day, I listened to an audio podcast about the Maya peoples. Contrary to popular belief, the Maya were not just one singular group. In fact, they were a collection of different peoples of then Mesoamerica. They did not have a sense of common unity or identity. Furthermore, they had their own cultures, traditions,…
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Avoiuli – Vanuatu Writing based on traditional Sand Drawings
Today, I completed another linguistics puzzle and discovered Avoiuli! (It turns out, I really like writing systems, haha!) Aviouli is a writing system found in Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, used by the Turaga Indigenous Movement. Chief Viraleo Boborenvanua from the Turaga Indigenous Movement spent 14 years to create this writing system. (it only started in 1990s,…
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Hanuno’o Writing – all with a knife and Bamboo
One of my few interests is looking at different writing scripts around the world. I know how to read and write in English (the Latin alphabet), Chinese (Chinese characters), and I have looked at Korean Hangul as well. I also started practising Baybayin myself. One day, I picked up a Linguistics puzzle and it talked…
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First Conference Attendance!
Hi everyone! This is another big update on my part. I can only hope that my words do well enough to show you how awesome my time has been so far. I should start off by saying I have had many opportunities given to me by my professors/supervisors to share my MA thesis work to…
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Now a Freelance Research Assistant! (I guess?)
It has been 3 months in my new Teaching Assistant position and all I can say is I am grateful. Of course, there are so many other words I can use! Exhausted, lost, and frustrated are some negative ones. Fortunate, happy, and confident are some positive ones. The first term has proven to be a…
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Ending my 2021 Summer Vacation!
The date is 29/8/2021 as I’m writing this. Today marks the last day of a very special circumstance. By resigning from and leaving my previous job at the end of June and having my next secured job starting at the end of August, that gave me 2 months with no obligations, no deadlines, and no…
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My first ever (mini-)conference!
Hi there! It’s been a while since I posted anything on my blog (let alone touch the darn thing, haha!). Let me first start by saying that: I’ve had 2 jobs since my last post (both being teachers in a tutorial centre and a playgroup centre). I am going to start being a TA for…
Carleon Mendoza 