What happens – sociologically, linguistically, educationally, politically – when more than one language is in regular use in a community? How do speakers handle these languages simultaneously, and what influence does this language contact have on the languages involved? Although most people in the world use more than one language in everyday life, the approach to the study of language has usually been that monolingualism is the norm.
The Modern World, Volume 1: Civilizations of Africa
Africa is a vast continent. The United States could easily fit into the Sahara, and there would still be room on the continent for China, India, New Zealand, Argentina, and half of Europe. It is a place of great ethnic and linguistic diversity. The land is home to several thousand different ethnic groups, and more than 800 languages are spoken there, including Arabic, native languages such as Swahili, Zulu, and Hausa, and European languages such as English, French, Portuguese. Africa’s history is as complicated and varied as its geography and people. Two of the world’s first great civilizations—the Egyptian and the Kush—arose in Africa thousands of years ago.
Added by: Kahena | Karma: 11526.37 | Fiction literature | 13 February 2011
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The Poetical Works of Ossian
"The Poems of Ossian" by James Macpherson were published in the 1760's, and created a sensation. Over the next thirty years it was translated into many languages, and gave a tremendous impetus to both the nascent romantic movement, and the study of folklore and Celtic languages. Goethe translated parts into German; Napoleon brought a copy to Moscow and also commissioned Ingres to paint The Dream of Ossian; Scandinavian and German princes were named Oscar after the character in it, as was Oscar Wilde; indeed the popularity of this name is due entirely to Macpherson. The city of Selma in Alabama, USA, is named after the palace of Fingal.
The Celtic Languages describes in depth all the Celtic languages from historical, structural and sociolinguistics perspectives with individual chapters on Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Welsh, Breton and Cornish. This new edition has been thoroughly revised to provide a comprehensive and up to date account of the modern Celtic languages and their current sociolinguistic status along with complete descriptions of the historical languages.
Teaching Modern Foreign Languages at Advanced Level
Teaching Modern Foreign Languages at Advanced Level has been designed to compliment Learning to Teach Modern Foreign Languages in the Secondary School and focuses specifically on the skills and processes of teaching Modern Foreign Languages.
