A paper by recent Berkeley Linguistics post-doc Konrad Rybka and Lev Michael, entitled A privative derivational source for standard negation in Lokono (Arawakan), has appeared in the pages of the Journal of Historical Linguistics. Congrats!
March 19, 2020
March 13, 2020
In and around the linguistics department in the next week:
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Syntax and Semantics Circle - Friday March 20 - Zoom (link) - 3-4:30pm
Zachary Wellstood (UC Berkeley): Ellipsis ˀinAkɰanón: Preliminary Insights
March 6, 2020
Congrats to Edwin Ko, who has just been awarded a Foundation for Endangered Languages grant for his project entitled Development of Northern Pomo language revitalization camps!
Belatedly, welcome Katherine Hilton!
Dr. Katherine Hilton has joined the linguistics department this semester as a temporary lecturer teaching Ling 100 “Introduction to Linguistic Science”. Dr. Hilton earned her PhD in 2018 from Stanford, and now lives in Berkeley. Her dissertation was entitled “What does an interruption sound like?” (committee: Rob Podesva, Penny Eckert, and Meghan Sumner), so she might be paying close attention if she hears you interrupt someone. She has an impressive teaching history at Stanford both as a TA (Phonetics, AAVE, and Language and Society), and as an instructor of record (Intro to Linguistics, Language and Society, and Discourse Structure).
You’ll see her holding busy office hours in Dwinelle 1224.
Welcome Katherine!
Big Give is an online fundraising tradition that began in 2014, giving alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, and friends the chance to come together on one day to show support for the Linguistics Department specifically, and the Berkeley campus generally. Big Give begins at 9pm on Wednesday, March 11, and runs through 9pm on Thursday, March 12. Watch for our emails around that time---you might even be able to help us win extra money in the hourly contests!
In and around the linguistics department in the next week:
- Phorum - Monday March 9 - 1303 Dwinelle - 12 - 1pm
Mark Liberman (University of Pennsylvania): Symbols and Signals in Language Sound Structure - Fieldwork Forum - Wednesday March 11 - 1303 Dwinelle - 4-5:30pm
Tessa Scott (UC Berkeley): Dialectal variation in Mam syntax. - Syntax and Semantics Circle - Friday March 13 - 1303 Dwinelle - 3-4:30pm
Lisa Hofmann (UCSC): TBA - 18th Spring Workshop on Linguistic Reconstruction - Friday March 13-Sat March 14 - 3335 Dwinelle
Program here!
February 29, 2020
Postdoc Bernat Bardagil writes to share that he has just organized the 2nd Watjuho Ja'a School, an intensive language school for the Manoki language, a variety of the isolate language Mỹky. It took place at the village of Cravari, in western Mato Grosso, Brazil.
February 28, 2020
In and around the linguistics department in the next week:
- Linguistics Department Colloquium - Friday Feb 28 - Dwinelle 3335 - 3-5pm
Stephanie Shih (USC): Lexical classes in probabilistic phonology - Phorum - Monday March 2 - 1303 Dwinelle - 12-1pm
Matthew Leonard (UCSF): Dynamic Brain Networks for the Perception and Organization of Speech - Fieldwork Forum - Wednesday March 4 - 1303 Dwinelle - 4-5.30pm
Line Mikkelsen (Berkeley): Publishing based on fieldwork - Practice talk - Wednesday March 4 - 1229 Dwinelle - 11-12:30p
Ruth Rouvier (Berkeley): "My language saved my life": Identity, Wellbeing, and Language Reclamation - Practice talk - Wednesday March 4 - 1303 Dwinelle - 2-3:30p
Julia Nee (Berkeley): Language revitalization is about more than language: the role of community building in revitalizing Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec
February 25, 2020
Zach O'Hagan sends the following updates from the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages:
- Maziar Toosarvandani (PhD 2010) archived a new collection on Northern Paiute (Uto-Aztecan; CA, OR, ID, NV), based on 10 years of research with elders Grace Dick, Leona Cluette Dick, Morris Jack, Inez Jim, Elaine Lundy, Edith McCann, Harold Miller, and Jimmy Nez, and in collaboration with Molly Babel (PhD 2009) and Michael Houser (PhD 2010). The collection consists of 281 recordings of lexical and grammatical elicitation (as he writes, with a focus on "nominalization, clausal embedding, clause chaining, and aspect"), and texts. The project grew out of Andrew Garrett's 2005-2006 field methods course on the language.
- Conor Daly (PhD Slavic 1991) archived a new collection on Ninilchik Russian, a variety spoken on the Kenai Peninsula and surrounding region of southern Alaska. Based on fieldwork in July and August 1985, the collection consists of conversations, interviews, and linguistic work with 25 people.
- The five notebooks comprising Marvin Kramer's (PhD 2002) field notes from summers 1968 and 1969 on Kutenai (isolate; British Columbia, ID, MT) are now available (Kramer.002.001-Kramer.002.005). The consultants were Ambrose Gravelle, Catherine Gravelle, and Frank Whitehead. (Thanks to Alex Elias for assisting us in scanning these!)
Congratulations to Virginia Dawson, who has just accepted a tenure-track position in semantics at Western Washington University! Ginny will be joining Western's newest department.
February 21, 2020
In and around the linguistics department in the next week:
- Linguistics Department Colloquium - Friday Feb 21 - Dwinelle 88 - 3-5pm
Charles O'Hara (USC): Inter-Generational Learning Affects Phonotactic Typology - Linguistics Department Colloquium - Monday Feb 24 - Dwinelle 370 - 3-5pm
Gasper Begus (University of Washington): (Deep) Learning in Phonology -
Language Revitalization Working Group - Wednesday Feb 26 - 1303 Dwinelle - 2pm-3pmDiscussion of language revitalization in non English-matrix contexts
- Fieldwork Forum - Wednesday Feb 26 - 1303 Dwinelle - 4-5.30pm
Myriam Lapierre (Berkeley): Challenges of literacy education and orthography development in the Amazonian Indigenous context: a case study from Panãra.
February 20, 2020
Congrats to Susanne Gahl, who has been voted into the Board of Directors of the Aphasia Center of California! The Aphasia Center is a resource and community for people with aphasia, built on the principles of the Life Participation Approach to Aphasia (https://leader.pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/leader.FTR.05032000.4 ).
February 14, 2020
First-year graduate student Alex Elias has assisted in the last few weeks in scanning two Berkeley linguists' field notes on five different languages:
- George Foster's 13 notebooks on the culture and language of the Yuki people of northern California, dating from 1937 (Oswalt.007.001 through Oswalt.007.013). Foster (1913-2006) received his PhD under A.L. Kroeber in 1946, and was later Professor of Anthropology, until 1979. His wife, Mary LeCron Foster (1914-2001), received a PhD from this department in 1965, and the campus's anthropology library is named after them. The notebooks were originally given to Robert Oswalt (PhD 1961). Consultants were Charlie Doorman, Cecilia Logan, George Moore, Ralph Moore, Eben Tilletson, and Old Toby.
- George Foster's 3 notebooks on Huchnom (Yukian; CA) culture, also dating from 1937 (Oswalt.007.014 through Oswalt.007.016). The consultant was Lula Johnson.
- George Grekoff's 3 notebooks on the Clayoquot dialect of Nuu-chah-nulth, a Wakashan language of British Columbia, dating from 1966 and 1967 (Grekoff.002.001 through Grekoff.002.003). Grekoff (1923-1999) was a student of Mary Haas in this department. He did not complete the PhD, but later taught at the University of Washington. Consultants were Hyacinth David, Winifred David, and Odelia Hunter.
- George Grekoff's 5 notebooks on Skagit, a Lushootseed variety (Salishan; WA), dating from 1964 to 1967 (Grekoff.002.004 through Grekoff.002.008). The consultant was Louise George.
- George Grekoff's notebook on Southeastern Pomo (Pomoan; CA), dating from 1957 (Grekoff.002.009). The consultants were Effie and John Kelsey.
In and around the linguistics department in the next week:
February 11, 2020
Raksit Lau, Wendy López Márquez, Alice Shen and Edwin Ko will present a short course at Splash on Sunday, March 8th.
Splash brings over 400 high school students to Berkeley's campus for "a day of unlimited learning".
Mystery Language! Introduction to Linguistic Analysis
February 7, 2020
In and around the linguistics department in the next week:
- BLS Workshop - Phonological Representations: At the crossroad between gradience and categoricity - Friday Feb 7 and Saturday Feb 8
See the full program here! - Syntax and Semantics Circle - Friday Feb 7 - 1303 Dwinelle - 3-4:30pm
Prerna Nadathur (Stanford): Causality, aspect, and modality in actuality inferences - Linguistics Department Colloquium - Monday Feb 10 - 370 Dwinelle - 3-5pm
Hannah Sande (Georgetown): TBA - Thomas Garden Barnes Lecture - Tuesday Feb 11 - 223 Moses Hall - 12:30-2pm
Richard A. Rhodes (Berkeley): Maps, Indigenous Territory, and the Problem of Anachronism - Fieldwork Forum - Wednesday Feb 12 - Social Science Matrix 8th Floor (Barrows Hall) - 4-5.30pm
Mary Hermes (University of Minnesota; Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe): Forest Walks in Ojibwemowin: Documentation and Analysis for Reclamation - Linguistics Department Colloquium - Friday Feb 14 - 3335 Dwinelle - 3-5pm
Anthony Yates (UCLA): TBA
February 4, 2020
Congratulations to Andrew Cheng, whose paper "Cross-linguistics f0 differences in bilingual speakers of English and Korean" just came out in JASA-Express Letters!
January 31, 2020
In and around the linguistics department in the next week:
- Syntax and Semantics Circle - Friday Jan 31 - Dwinelle 1303 - 3-4:30pm
Madeline Bossi: Pronouns in Scottish Gaelic - Fieldwork Forum - Wednesday Feb 5 - Dwinelle 1303 - 4-5.30pm
Tyler Lemon: TBA - BLS Workshop - Phonological Representations: At the crossroad between gradience and categoricity - Friday Feb 7 and Saturday Feb 8
See the full program here! - Syntax and Semantics Circle - Friday Feb 7 - Dwinelle 1303 - 3-4:30pm
Prerna Nadathur (Stanford): TBA