mattspeak

[mattspeak]

The Linguistics Starter Pack

Curious about linguistics but not sure where you can learn more? The Linguistics Starter Pack is for you! This is a curated list of my top recommendations for getting started in linguistics. Most of the items on this list are popular science books, aimed at a general audience, and written in a non-technical way. I’ve also included a few highly accessible introductory textbooks if you’re looking for something more structured instead.

Note: The links on this page are Amazon affiliate links, which means I get a small commission from any book you buy through these links (at no additional cost to you).

Language myths (Bauer & Trudgill, 1998)

If there’s one book on this list you should read to introduce yourself to linguistics, it’s this one. Consisting of short, bite-sized chapters each focused on a different myth, this book dispels some of the most common misconceptions about language and linguistics. The book is almost a quarter-century old, but remains one of the best places to start learning about linguistics.

The 5-minute linguist: Bite-sized essays on language and languages (3e) (Myrick & Wolfram, 2019)

A collection of tiny essays answering some of the most common questions about language and linguistics. This book is a more up-to-date take on Language myths (see above), except the style is more FAQ than myth-busting. This third edition is sponsored by the Linguistic Society of America because of the great impact that the first two editions had on educating the broader public about linguistics.

How languages work: An introduction to language and linguistics (2e) (Genetti, 2018)

Hands down the best introductory linguistics textbook on the market. Extremely easy to read, and covers a variety of topics not typically included in other introductory linguistics textbooks. It also includes a number of language profiles, illustrating the rich diversity of languages in the world. The chapters are written mostly by the linguistics faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara, one of the top linguistics departments in the world. Proceeds from the book help fund fieldwork with endangered languages.

Through the language glass: Why the world looks different in other languages (Deutscher, 2010)

How does language influence the way we think and see the world? This book is a brilliant journey into the relationship between language and thought, covering everything from how color terms shape our perception of those colors to how grammatical gender shapes the way we categorize people and things in a surprisingly captivating writing style.

The language myth: Why language is not an instinct (Evans, 2014)

A long-overdue introduction to language and the mind for a general audience, this book explains how humans bring to bear a huge array of cognitive skills to make language possible, debunking the idea that language is an instinct and that we all possess a Universal Grammar. Written by the foremost scholar on cognitive linguistics, this book is perhaps one of the most important popular science books published this century. Think of this book like a non-technical introduction to cognitive linguistics.

When languages die: The extinction of the world’s languages and the erosion of human knowledge (Harrison, 2007)

This book showcases the incredible diversity of ways that Indigenous languages work, and highlights just how much of this diversity and indigenous knowledge is being lost as more and more languages stop being spoken. The book covers topics like Indigenous ways of telling time, spatial orientation, and number systems, while serving as a poignant introduction to linguistic diversity and language endangerment.

The unfolding of language: An evolutionary tour of mankind’s greatest invention (Deutscher, 2006)

An enthralling introduction to how languages change over time, and how languages develop their incredible grammatical complexity, evolving from rudimentary utterances like “man throw spear” to the beautifully intricate Turkish sehirlilestiremediklerimizdensiniz ‘you are one of those whom we couldn’t turn into a town dweller’. This is the second book on this list by author Guy Deutscher (see Through the language glass, above), and for good reason, because his writing style makes his books impossible to put down. Think of this book like a non-technical introduction to historical linguistics.

Empires of the word: A language history of the world (Ostler, 2011)

A history of the world told not by tracing the development of civilizations and empires, but by following the growth of the world’s major languages. Ostler weaves together a fascinating narrative that gives a fresh perspective on history. This book is a must-read for any history buff.

The dawn of language: Axes, lies, midwifery and how we came to talk (Johansson, 2021)

Weaves together the latest research in archaeology, anthropology, neurology, and linguistics to tell the story of how language evolved.

Language files: Materials for an introduction to language and linguistics (13e) (Ohio State University Department of Linguistics)

Want to get your hands dirty with some actual problem sets in linguistics? This is the book for you. Half textbook, half workbook, Language files is one of the most widely-adopted textbooks for introductory linguistics courses, packed with problem sets illustrating each concept in the book.

An introduction to the languages of the world (2e) (Lyovin, Kessler, & Leben, 2017)

If you’re interested in learning about specific languages and language families, this is the book for you. It introduces the field of linguistics by taking you on a tour of the world’s languages. This is one of the most unique textbooks in linguistics, and a lot of fun to read.

An introduction to linguistic typology (Velupillai, 2012)

A survey of the incredibly diverse ways that languages work. This is the most technical / advanced book on the list, but is the ultimate guide to the grammars of the world’s languages. This is a great reference to keep on hand when reading other books and articles about linguistics.

[mattspeak]

Langblr Reactivation Challenge

Week 1, Day 4

Day 4: Create a vocab list for one of the topics you created yesterday, if you want to make more, feel free to make as many as you like! Share your list and reblog other people’s lists. And most importantly, make sure you study these words!

Study-related terms in Uzbek:

Maktab - School

Universitet - University

Kutubxona - Library

Daftar - Notebook

Doklad - Lecture

Kitlob - Book

Ruchka - Pen

Qalam - Pencil

Ta'kidlash vositasi - Highlighter

Lu'gat - Dictionary

Kompyuter - Computer

Savol - Question

O'qimoq - To read

O'ylamoq - To think

Tomosha - To watch

Tadqiq - To research

I finally found an Uzbek-English dictionary! It's been pretty tough finding vocab up until now since most resources for Uzbek seem to be incomplete/limited or just wildly varying in information and quality. I'm glad I finally found something I can refer back to.

Link to the original challenge post

[mattspeak]

Langblr Reactivation Challenge

Week 1, Day 3

Day 3: Create a list or a Mindmap of vocabulary topics. Start with a broad topic and narrow down to more specific topics. An example could be bedroom - furniture - closet - clothes or travelling - languages - study words - school supplies. Keep a hold of this because you’ll use it later to create vocab to study. Some broad topics to start with: house, school, work, travelling, friends and family, nature, city. Feel free to use these or think of your own. Share your mindmap so others can get some ideas if they need it.

A day late since I was pretty busy yesterday, but finished nonetheless!

Here's my mindmap:

School's on my mind since I start back next month. Seems like a good idea to keep vocabulary relevant. I dunno about anyone else, but during the semester, I like to keep my mind on college matters pretty exclusively.

Link to the original challenge post

[mattspeak]

accessible classic lit in spanish

tale as old as time: a learner asks for a classic reading rec and people suggest masterful works like don quijote and cien años de soledad. these are WONDERFUL works of fiction but they're not really level appropriate for someone who is trying to start reading classic lit. so here are some recommendations for someone who wants to start reading but is a bit intimidated by these works. they are by no means an absolute cakewalk to read, but a lot less demanding than the novels mentioned above. here are the criteria i used to select books:

(relatively) canonical: i tried to stick to things i read in college and names that are relatively recognizable. it's easier to start conversations with others about these authors because they're widely read.

on the shorter side: to make it easier to get through the book and to help build stamina. it's like training for a marathon, you don't go out and run 26 miles on your first day

simpler language & graspable plot: it takes some getting used to to be able to read different styles, so i picked things that are a bit simpler and not filled with time skips and narrator changes every step of the way

20th and 21st century: just to keep things a bit more relevant. there are some great works pre-20th century but again, the style takes some getting used to

some of the recommendations might not fit all four criteria, and i'll specify when. that said, i think these are all good options for starting out:

aura, carlos fuentes (mexico, 1962): probably the shortest on the list, gothic, written in second person, really just an enjoyable read. i feel like this should be every learner's first novel in spanish just because of how accessible it feels.

la última niebla, maría luisa bombal (chile, 1934): also quite short, and usually paired with la amortajada, so if you like it, check that novel out as well! bombal's work is very concerned with the position of women in society and uses the gothic to get that across.

el coronel no tiene quien le escriba, gabriel garcía márquez (colombia, 1961): if your heart is SET on cien años de soledad, this is a great alternative by the same author. much shorter but still has the signature garcía márquez feel.

la casa de los espíritus, isabel allende (chile, 1982): this one is on the longer side, but i found it to be like. cien años de soledad written for eighth graders. it's got the same dynamics (magical realism, history of a country, intergenerational story, etc). but just simpler. it's not a bad story by any means.

abel sánchez, miguel de unamuno (spain, 1917). this is the bibical story of cain and abel but told in modern times and in spain. probably my favorite of unamuno's novels (if not niebla). his style is relatively straightfoward in the sense that he isn't constantly looking for the most flowerly language. since it is older than the other novels, you'll have to look out there, but it's still an entertaining option

ficciones, jorge luis borges (argentina, 1944): ok this is cheating. it's not a novel but rather a collection of short stories, AND borges' style can get quite convoluted. i'm putting it here because during my undergrad we read a ton of borges' short stories and they are always very thought provoking and linguistically helped push my limits. since they are stories, you can stop after one if it was too much, later revisit it, let yourself be challenged. my most fondly remembered stories from this collection are la muerte y la brújula, funes el memorioso, and las ruinas circulares

and that’s it for the list! if you’ve read one of these or decide to read one because of this post, let me know what you think! i’m working on making a list of more accessible materials for my students :)

[mattspeak]

Hey did you know I keep a google drive folder with linguistics and language books  that I try to update regularly 

UPDATE because apparently not everyone has seen this yet the new and improved version of this is a MEGA folder

I know there’s so many more urgent things but if you like this resource you may consider buying me a ko-fi to keep this project alive

[mattspeak]

DECOLONIAL ACTION READING

I recently compiled these to add to a comrade’s post about Land Back, but actually I think they deserve their own post as well.

Amílcar Cabral - Return To The Source

Frantz Fanon - The Wretched Of The Earth

Hô Chí Minh - archive via Marxists.org

Thomas King - The Inconvenient Indian

Abdullah Öcalan - Women’s Revolution & Democratic Confederalism

Edward Said - The Question Of Palestine

Thomas Sankara - archive via Marxists.org

Eve Tuck & K. Wayne Yang - Decolonization Is Not A Metaphor

Other key names in postcolonial theory and its practical application include:

Sara Ahmed

Homi K. Bhabha

Aimé Césaire

Albert Memmi

Jean-Paul Sartre

Léopold Séder Senghor

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

All of these will help you interpret and confront the realities of colonisation, and ideally help us understand and extend solidarity to comrades around the globe. Decolonise your mind, and don’t stop there!

[mattspeak]

language study scholarships from the us government

there are a ton of scholarships out there provided by the us government to pursue language study abroad and honestly i wish i had known about them a lot sooner. i'm sharing in the interest of letting people know they're there -- here's just a few for you to look into in case you're interested and eligible. most of them have the caveat that they are for less commonly studied languages, but figure i should put the info out anyway. i unfortunately am acquainted with us gov programs so i invite anyone who has similar information for other countries to share as well!

boren scholarships + fellowships

who's eligible: undergraduate students (scholarships) and graduate students (fellowships)

languages offered: see the list of preferred languages

about: the caveat is that you have to do a year of federal government service afterwards

critical need language award

who's eligible: undergraduate students

languages offered: arabic, azerbaijani, indonesian, bangla, mandarin chinese, hindi, japanese, korean, farsi, portuguese, punjabi, russian, swahili, turkish, urdu

about: based on financial need and is only available to pell grant recipients, provides $5000 to study abroad + $3000 if it's in a country where one of these languages is spoken

critical language scholarship (cls)

who's eligible: undergraduate and graduate students

languages offered: arabic, azerbaijani, bangla, mandarin chinese, hindi, indonesian, japanese, korean, farsi, portuguese, punjabi, russian, swahili, turkish, urdu

about: these are summer intensive programs abroad

foreign language and area studies (flas)

who's eligible: undergraduate and graduate students

languages offered: way too many, check your institution on this google map and then google "university name flas" to see what they offer.

about: this one, the way it works is a bit strange and you apply to universities that have that language in their flas allocation. typically participating universities are assigned an area (like latin america or southeast asia, etc.) and then offer programs for that. here's an example: vanderbilt has a latin america allocation and offers programs for portuguese, k'iche' and haitian creole. summer programs and academic year programs are available depending on the institution

national security language program for youth (nsli-y)

who's eligible: high school students

languages offered: arabic, mandarin chinese, hindi, indonesian, korean, farsi, russian, turkish

about: intensive study abroad for those 8 languages

[mattspeak]

Langblr Reactivation Challenge

Week 1, Day 2

Day 2: Write a list of goals you have for your target languages. Make both long term and short term goals. An overall goal could be to have the ability to talk with native speakers with ease and a smaller goal would be to finally learn that difficult grammar point that’s been plaguing you for ages. How will you achieve them?

I went ahead & dedicated space on the first page of my notebook for goals.

Long-term, I want to:

-Speak with native speakers

-Read research papers (regarding Central Asian politics & economics as well as linguistics)

-Read Uzbek news

Short-term, I don’t have much since I’m brand new. That being said, I want to:

-Introduce myself

-Learn sentence order

-Learn 30 common words

Overall, my goals with Uzbek lie in academics. I became interested in the language during a Central Asian history course I took last semester as part of my Asian Studies certificate program. I wrote a research paper surveying economic development in Uzbekistan during & after the Soviet period, which exposed me to the language and opened me up to learning more about Uzbekistan. Basically, I’m mostly interested in learning Uzbek so I can have access to more research & writing surrounding Central Asia (& Uzbekistan, of course).

Link to the original challenge post

[mattspeak]

[mattspeak]

Langblr Reactivation Challenge

Week 1, Day 1

Day 1: Create an introduction post about yourself. What’s your name? What languages are you studying? What languages do you hope to study? What do you hope you’ll get out of this challenge? Add whatever else you’d like to your introduction post!

Hello, my name's Matt! I'm an American college student studying ASL-English interpretation. I'm also in an Asian Studies certificate program, and I'm mostly interested in Soviet-era Central Asia.

I've been studying ASL for a couple years now, and I'd like to start studying Uzbek. I'm hoping this blog and this challenge will help me get started.

If anyone wants to chat (especially anyone into ASL, Uzbek or other Turkic languages), feel free to DM me or @ me on posts :^)

Link to original challenge post

[mattspeak]

💬 Linguistics Challenge 📚 - August

This challenge will teach you the basics of linguistics step-by-step over the course of 12 months.

This month, we’ll look at: historical linguistics (part 1).

Each month you get a few exercises (depending on how complex the topic is), so you can take breaks in between days or use those days to revise and practice. I’ve put links to all the topics on which i made blog posts, but you’re very welcome to do your own research online.

This challenge is based on what I learned in the first semesters of my linguistic studies at uni, and it’s aimed at giving you a broad introduction and teaching you the most important concepts from several different fields of linguistics.

Throughout the month, you’ll get the chance to apply your new knowledge in some exercises and tasks. If you want, you can share your work via reblog with the tag #linguisticschallenge, i’d love to see your contributions :)

Also, feel free to follow me so you won’t miss next month’s challenge!

Inform yourself about the field of historical linguistics and what it analyses

Look at the difference between diachronic and synchronic language studies

Look at the difference between analytic and synthetic languages

Inform yourself about proto-languages

Inform yourself about language families

Inform yourself about language reconstruction and how we know about the pronunciation of extinct languages and proto-languages

Task: take one language from a country of each continent (this works best if you don’t take ‘coloniser languages’, i.e. English, Spanish, etc.) and look up its language family, which languages it is closely related to, and what that language family’s proto-language is

Now we’ll start looking at language development. Therefore, we’ll look at the field of corpus linguistics first

Inform yourself about the processes of meaning change

Look at association/consociation and dissociation

Task: Find some more examples for association/consociation vs. dissociation

If you’re quick or want to learn more, you could check out my linguistics masterpost to see if i made any new posts on this topic after creating this challenge. You could also take a look at these book tips:

Book tips:

“Historical Linguistics, an introduction”, by Lyle Campbell, 1998

“Trask’s Historical Linguistics”, by Robert McColl Miller, 2007

“The Handbook of Historical Linguistics”, by Joseph & Janda, 2003

“The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics”, 2014

.

Next month, we’ll start looking at historical linguistics (part 2).

(Link to last month’s challenge)

[mattspeak]

Langblr Reactivation Challenge

Hello everyone! As you may know I've created this challenge to help revive the langblr community. It's a three week challenge designed to get you back into learning languages and (hopefully) give you ideas on how to study and share your knowledge of them. It is completely optional to do, but try to reblog other people's posts if you aren't participating.

The challenge is designed to be done daily, however if you miss a day, you can go back and do it later or continue from where you left off. I do encourage you to do your best to keep up with the challenge though. Tag your posts with #langblr reactivation challenge so that others can find your posts.

If you have any questions, please send me an ask or a message and I'll do my best to answer it.

I'll put the prompts under a read more so this post isn't ridiculously long. Good luck to everyone participating! Remember the best way to promote the langblr revival is by reblogging other people's work.

Week 1

Day 1: Create an introduction post about yourself. What's your name? What languages are you studying? What languages do you hope to study? What do you hope you'll get out of this challenge? Add whatever else you’d like to your introduction post!

Day 2: Write a list of goals you have for your target languages. Make both long term and short term goals. An overall goal could be to have the ability to talk with native speakers with ease and a smaller goal would be to finally learn that difficult grammar point that's been plaguing you for ages. How will you achieve them?

Day 3: Create a list or a Mindmap of vocabulary topics. Start with a broad topic and narrow down to more specific topics. An example could be bedroom - furniture - closet - clothes or travelling - languages - study words - school supplies. Keep a hold of this because you'll use it later to create vocab to study. Some broad topics to start with: house, school, work, travelling, friends and family, nature, city. Feel free to use these or think of your own. Share your mindmap so others can get some ideas if they need it. Here are some mind map creation tools (x) (x) (x).

Day 4: Create a vocab list for one of the topics you created yesterday, if you want to make more, feel free to make as many as you like! Share your list and reblog other people's lists. And most importantly, make sure you study these words!

Day 5: Find a video in your target language and watch it as many times as you need to in order to understand it. Make a post about the video. What was it about? Did you like the video? Was it difficult to understand? Make sure you link the video. Try to write your answers in your target language, but if you can’t that’s okay!

Day 6: Look up 3 idioms in your target language and explain what they mean and how you use them in a sentence (with an example!).

Day 7: Send asks to other langblrs (bonus points if it's in a shared target language!) asking them about whatever (for example, ask how their day was, ask questions about their target languages, or share some of your thoughts with them). If you receive one, answer it! You can ask more than one person and it can be on or off anon.

Week 2

Day 1: Over the next week, create a playlist/playlists of songs in your target language(s), they can either have a specific mood or genre or they can be a collection of songs you've discovered. When you feel like you're done with your playlist, share it so others can find some new songs. If you already have a playlist, you can add songs to it and update it.

Day 2: Write an explanation on a grammar rule in your target language (such as verb tenses, exceptions, word order, etc). Include sentences to show how and when it is used.

Day 3: Either make a vocab list or find a vocab list you like and make sentences using those words. You can make them as long or as short as you like. This is a good way to contextualise vocab words and learn them in context. Share your sentences and highlight the vocab word.

Day 4: Record yourself reading an article, short story, or passage (basically anything written in your target language). Listen to it and see if you can point out any areas you can improve with your speaking and any areas that you're doing well. You can post your recording if you wish.

Day 5: Post at least 2 songs that you like in your target language. Make sure you add a link to them so people can go listen to them.

Day 6: Share a study tip you have. This can range from how you organize your notes to playlists that help you study to apps you use to review. Just something that you find makes studying easier (and more fun).

Day 7: Share with everyone some langblrs you enjoy seeing on your dash, try to put at least 5 people (and make sure you @ them!).

Week 3

Day 1: Remember that playlist you made/are making? Take a song you really like and make a vocab list of words you don't understand, learned from the song, or recognize but don't quite remember. Post so others can see and link the song. If you have extra time and/or want a bit more of a challenge, translate the song as well, either into English or another language.

Day 2: Write about a festival or holiday that is celebrated in a country that speaks your target language. This can be either something you’ve celebrated yourself, have wanted to participate in, or have never heard of before. You can write this in any language you’d like.

Day 3: Make another vocab list from the list you made at the beginning of the challenge. If you are learning two or more languages, make the vocab list in 3 languages (meaning for example: French, German, and English or Japanese, Arabic, and Ukrainian).

Day 4: Find a recipe written in your target language and translate it into your native language (or another language of your choice) or find a recipe in your native language and translate it into your target language. Bonus points if you actually make it (share pictures if you do)!

Day 5: Create a collection of resources you use to study/learn your target language. Add links to them if possible so others can also use them.

Day 6: Create a post explaining a grammar rule that you had/are having difficulties learning. If you’re currently having difficulties, do your best to explain and ask others to help you understand it better. Include example sentences in your explanation.

Day 7: How do you feel at the end of this challenge? Did you meet any goals while doing this? Do you feel more confident in your language abilities? Where do you think you'll go from here? Answer these questions either in your native language or your target language.

Hopefully you guys enjoy/enjoyed this challenge. After you've completed the challenge, I encourage you to continue your studies in your target languages and support others in theirs.