MSL: Michif Sign Language-The Noun Phrases

By focusing on the noun portion of the conventional Michif sentence, consisting of Cree verb phrases with the intertwining of French noun phrases, the objective of this research is to attempt to reveal some novel parallels in languages, as an initial step in the process of understanding more about the genesis of Michif and American Sign Language. In examining the separate and individual histories and applications of French Sign Language (FSL), American Sign Language (ASL), North American Indian Sign Language (NAISL), and the Amerindian Michif Language, certain commonalities and parallels are indeed present, even transcending the boundaries of diverse races, cultures, and modalities of transmission. Subsequently, one language’s perspective may be used in an effort to understand the genesis of another. Having withstood negative attitudes, these languages have respectfully endured and have persisted in defining the affiliated members’ respective cultures and in depicting their self-identifying empowerment in a dominating society different from and unlike their own. Translating randomly selected Michif nouns to American Sign Language is perhaps, at best, an initial step in optimistically discovering both how and why the Michif language was derived from two separate and distinct language entities, with further research obviously required. A sociolinguistic perspective then allows the reader to examine how these particular languages and their parallels are capable of signifying and demonstrating a cultural self-identity, relative status, and perception of the world

Sociolinguistic attitudes, ethnolinguistic identity, and L2 proficiency : the Quebec context

Tableau d’honneur de la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales, 2013-2014.Portant sur les relations intergroupes francophones-anglophones au Québec, cette étude est consacrée au rôle du contexte social dans l’apprentissage d’une langue seconde (L2) en milieu scolaire. L’étude a porté sur la relation entre les attitudes envers la L2, la communauté de la L2 et la politique linguistique, d’une part, et la compétence en L2, d’autre part. Le rôle du rapport entretenu avec la L1 et la communauté de la L1 dans la construction de ces attitudes a également été étudié. Au total, 121 élèves francophones et anglophones fréquentant l’école secondaire ont répondu à un questionnaire, et leurs données ont été analysées par rapport aux résultats obtenus aux tests de L2. Des relations significatives entre les attitudes envers la politique linguistique, la L2 et la compétence en L2 ont été confirmées, ainsi que le rôle de l’identité ethnolinguistique dans la construction de ces attitudes. Ces résultats diffèrent selon le groupe linguistique.Focussing on the case of Francophone-Anglophone intergroup relations in Quebec (Canada), this quantitative study examined the role of social context in second language (L2) classroom learning. Specifically, the relationships between attitudes toward the L2, the L2 community, and language policy and planning on the one hand and L2 proficiency on the other were investigated. As a secondary objective, the role played by students’ relationship with their first language (L1) and L1 community (i.e., ethnolinguistic identity) in the construction of these attitudes was also studied. In total, 121 Francophone and Anglophone high school students responded to a multi-part questionnaire, and their data was analyzed with respect to their scores on provincial L2 tests. Significant relationships between attitudes toward language policy and planning, attitudes toward the L2, and proficiency were confirmed as was the role of ethnolinguistic identity in the construction of these attitudes. However, these findings varied across linguistic groups

Fugitive Borders

Fugitive Borders explores a new archive of 19th-century autobiographical writing by black authors in North America. For that purpose, Nele Sawallisch examines four different texts written by formerly enslaved men in the 1850s that emerged in or around the historical region of Canada West (now known as Ontario) and that defy the genre conventions of the classic slave narrative. Instead, these texts demonstrate originality in expressing complex, often ambivalent attitudes towards the so-called Canadian Promised Land and contribute to a form of textual community-building across national borders. In the context of emerging national discourses before Canada's Confederation in 1867, they offer alternatives to the hegemonic narrative of the white settler nation

Fugitive Borders

Fugitive Borders explores a new archive of 19th-century autobiographical writing by black authors in North America. For that purpose, Nele Sawallisch examines four different texts written by formerly enslaved men in the 1850s that emerged in or around the historical region of Canada West (now known as Ontario) and that defy the genre conventions of the classic slave narrative. Instead, these texts demonstrate originality in expressing complex, often ambivalent attitudes towards the so-called Canadian Promised Land and contribute to a form of textual community-building across national borders. In the context of emerging national discourses before Canada's Confederation in 1867, they offer alternatives to the hegemonic narrative of the white settler nation

Fugitive Borders

Fugitive Borders explores a new archive of 19th-century autobiographical writing by black authors in North America. For that purpose, Nele Sawallisch examines four different texts written by formerly enslaved men in the 1850s that emerged in or around the historical region of Canada West (now known as Ontario) and that defy the genre conventions of the classic slave narrative. Instead, these texts demonstrate originality in expressing complex, often ambivalent attitudes towards the so-called Canadian Promised Land and contribute to a form of textual community-building across national borders. In the context of emerging national discourses before Canada's Confederation in 1867, they offer alternatives to the hegemonic narrative of the white settler nation

Fugitive Borders

Fugitive Borders explores a new archive of 19th-century autobiographical writing by black authors in North America. For that purpose, Nele Sawallisch examines four different texts written by formerly enslaved men in the 1850s that emerged in or around the historical region of Canada West (now known as Ontario) and that defy the genre conventions of the classic slave narrative. Instead, these texts demonstrate originality in expressing complex, often ambivalent attitudes towards the so-called Canadian Promised Land and contribute to a form of textual community-building across national borders. In the context of emerging national discourses before Canada's Confederation in 1867, they offer alternatives to the hegemonic narrative of the white settler nation

Analytical phonetic study of three areas of Al-Farahidiy's legacy

It is the purpose of the present thesis to present an analytical phonetic study of three areas of alFarahidiy1s linguistic legacy in a general phonetic perspective in such a way as to preserve a proper balance between the analytical and historical sides of our subject, Phonetics. Only three areas have been decided upon due to the fact that a comprehensive, analytical study of al Farahidiy's linguistic legacy would be a lifetime-work. The thesis is presented in four major sections: an introduction and an analytical phonetic study of three areas. The introduction deals in general terms with alFarahidiy1s biography and his contributions to fields pertinent to Phonetics, though they are not primarily phonetic. The three areas deal respectively with his approach to verse structure, the time-substratum underlying his system, and his restoration of the principles which lie hid underneath what I have called (since no other term exists) the phoniconic symbols1 of the East Mediterranean scripts. Each analytical section includes either a theoretical, phonetic discuss¬ ion against which alFarahidiy's contribution is projected in terms of its relation to the general phonetic spectrum, or an empirical evidence in support of a hypothesis discovered in the construction of his prosodic system. Towards this end, the first area, following a more or less Stetsonian line, includes a theoretical view of the articulatory actualization of the respir¬ atory potential1 and rhythmicality in Arabic; the second section is focused on the empirical authentication of the time-units which underlie his prosodic system, whilst the third section starts with an analytico-phonetic approach to the East Mediterranean scripts. The thesis is concluded with a general bibliography of works that have been cited or consulted, with a special section allocated to works by or about alFarahidiy. The author is convinced that the soundest basis for an understanding of certain phonological phenomena (particularly, the superimposed stretches, quantity and rhythm) of a living language with a long history behind it, would be an illumination of the path of development it has pursued. Such a path, in normal conditions, is provided by phoneticians or writers on phonetics. It is also the conviction of the author that for an enlightened attitude towards the history of phonetics, especially in olden times when phonetics was a practice not a discipline, an analytical, phonetic approach to the pertinent writing system constitutes a proper springboard. For this reason, equal attention has been paid to the development of the 'pure' iconic and phoniconic writing systems in Mesopotamia and the East Mediterranean in the prelude to alFarahidiy's restoration of certain scriptological, phoniconic principles which lie in the background of the Ugaritic script in his prosodization of the Arabic script

Proceedings 2014: Selected papers from the eighteenth college-wide conference for students in languages, linguistics & literature

Your voice, my voice: Literature, language, culture, and society. Selected papers from the eigtheenth annual college-wide conference for students in languages, linguistics & literature, at the University of Hawai`i at MānoaYour voice, my voice: Literature, language, culture, and society. Selected papers from the eigtheenth annual college-wide conference for students in languages, linguistics & literature, at the University of Hawai`i at MānoaSupport for the conference was provided by the UH College of Language, Linguistics & Literature; the National Foreign Language Resource Center; and the Center for Interpretation and Translation Studies