What are the important landscape components for habitat selection of the ortolan bunting Emberiza hortulana in northern limit of range?

Ortolan buntings Emberiza hotulana have undergone one of the most severe population declines of any European farmland bird over the last thirty years. The aim of this study was to find out which habitat features, including crop characteristics, ortolan bunting prefers in Estonia in breeding areas. This study compared currently occupied and unoccupied ortolan bunting territories. Occupied areas contained significantly more tall broadleaf trees, crop types, structural elements (trees, bushes, roads, overhead power lines and buildings) and spring wheat, but also had lower crop drilling densities. Ortolan bunting territories were best described by a logistic regression model containing six variables: amount of structural point elements, length of power lines, amount of tall broadleaf trees and number of different crops had a positive effect, whereas crop density and area of autumn-sown crops had a negative effect. Based on the findings of this study, the following conservation measures can be recommended: lower crop densities; spring rather than autumn-sown crops; small-field systems containing a variety of crops; scattered scrub preserved or planted; habitat patches of permanent grasslands, hedges and tall broadleaf trees retained within the agricultural landscape

What happens in language loss?

Besprechung Kehayov, Petar. 2017. The fate of mood and modality in language death. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 385 pp

Erzya chastushka – vanishing or changing oral tradition?

The current paper presents a short overview and selection of Erzya chastushkas that were recorded in Erzya villages during expeditions that were made in the 1990’s. Chastushkas are known from the 20th century folklore tradition of other Finno-Ugric peoples living in the European part of Russia as well and the first examples werepublished before the Second World War.   The publishing of the following data thus serves three aims. Firstly, it introduces a modern form of oral tradition that historically, in a way, fills the gap of several lost genres. Secondly, it presents chastushkas as a genre that was originally adopted from Russian culture but was transferred to the Erzya as it did among other groups. Thirdly, it seeks to promote the interest of folklorists towards living tradition of Finno-Ugric peoples

Canonical and non-canonical patterns in the adpositional phrase of Western Uralic : constraints of borrowing

Notions about adpositions and adpositional phrases (AdpP) reflect the ambiguous nature of this particular domain. While postpositions and prepositions are often dealt with as lexical categories, their syntactic context determines the grammatical relations of individual postpositions. In the diachronic development of individual adpositions, the phrasal unit of AdpP plays a crucial role either enhancing or diminishing the possibility of adopting new adpositions. In Uralic both the head and complement may be inflected, which increases the divergence of the adpositional system in comparison with most neighboring contact languages. This is illustratively seen in the bulk of adpositions in Finnic, Saamic and Mordvinic, which only exceptionally include borrowed lexemes. The focus of this article is bifold. Firstly, it briefly outlines the main structural types of AdpP, particularly in Western Uralic. Secondly, it discusses why loanwords only seldom occur in the adpositional system of languages that are strongly influenced by language contact and widespread bilingualism, such as contemporary Veps and Erzya.Peer reviewe

Education for Foreign-Born Students at Japanese Public Schools

Over the past few decades, the number of foreign-born students registered in Japanese public schools, as well as the number of these students who require Japanese language instruction, have been increasing. However, foreign-born students who need language instruction vary by nationality and live throughout the nation, not necessarily in school zones in which experienced language teachers serve. This makes it difficult to provide extra teachers for only a few students, particularly considering that the Japanese Constitution does not obligate schools to provide basic education for these non-Japanese students. Consequently, an official scheme for Japanese language learning at public schools in Japan was not provided until 2014. The main objective of this study is to explore the dynamics of education for foreign-born students who study at Japanese public schools to examine whether the special language instruction course (tokubetsuno kyoiku katei) given to these students provides a scaffold for cultural diversity and enshrines incisive social development for all children at the school. More concretely, by conducting local teacher interviews at primary and lower secondary public schools, as well as with affiliated language class teachers, and by exploring policies and practices for foreign-born students at Japanese schools, this study delineates the dynamics and challenges of social inclusiveness. The results indicate that Japanese language special instruction classes not only have enabled foreign-born students to become accustomed to the language and the school culture, but the classes have also encouraged mutual personal understanding between Japanese and foreign-born students. Keywords: Foreign-Born Students, Japanese Public Schools, Immigration Policy, Multicultural Understanding DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-18-22 Publication date:June 30th 202