LINGUIST List 3.328

Thu 09 Apr 1992

FYI: Slavic, Genie, Vikings

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. 317, Announcing the Journal of Slavic Linguistics
2. BROADWELL GEORGE AARON, Linguistics in the New Yorker
3. Katherine Elizabeth Krohn , Vikings

 Call for papers: NEW JOURNAL!!

Indiana University Linguistics Club announces the publication of a new
journal, the JOURNAL OF SLAVIC LINGUISTICS. This refereed publication seeks
to provide a timely outlet and readily accessible forum for current research
in diverse areas of Slavic linguistics. JSL will appear biannually, with
the first issue devoted to a particular area within Slavic linguistics and
the second issue unrestricted in scope. JSL is intended to address issues in
the description and analysis of Slavic languages of general interest to
linguists, regardless of theoretical orientation. Papers dealing with any
aspect of synchronic or diachronic Slavic phonetics, phonology, morphology,
syntax, semantics, and pragmatics will be considered, as long as they raise
substantive problems of broad theoretical concern and/or propose significant
descriptive generalizations. Comparative studies and formal analyses are
especially encouraged. Submissions ranging from full-length articles to
shorter notes, remarks and replies, and substantive review articles will be
considered.

The Editors are currently seeking appropriate submissions for the inaugural
volume of JSL. Volume 1, Number 1 will focus on the morphosyntax of the
Slavic languages; Number 2 will be non-topical. For inclusion in this volume,
interested individuals are invited to submit manuscripts for review by
***15 AUGUST 1992***. Our intention is to make at least the first issue
available by the 1992 AATSEEL meeting in December.

Since editorial costs must be reduced as far as possible in order to keep the
price of JSL to a minimum, we ask that manuscripts be submitted in four
printed copies, with the text not to exceed 50 pages. The Editors would also
appreciate receiving a disk copy of the manuscript; consult us in advance on
format. The manuscript should not explicitly identify the author(s). Provide
on a separate sheet of paper your name, affiliation, full mailing address,
telephone number, and E-mail address (where available). We request that you
follow the LSA style sheet in manuscript preparation.

Individuals interested in reviewing manuscripts are URGED to contact the
Editors. After the first volume an Editorial Board will be established to
facilitate reviewing.

George Fowler Steven Franks
Dept. of Slavic Languages Dept. of Linguistics
Ballantine 502 Memorial 322
Indiana University Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405 Bloomington, IN 47405
(812) 855-2624 (812) 855-8169
GFowlerIUBACS.Bitnet FranksIUBACS.Bitnet
GFowlerUCS.Indiana.EDU FranksUCS.Indiana.EDU

There is an article on Genie in this week's New Yorker that dicusses
linguistics quite well. The author interviews Susie Curtiss and
Chomsky, and discusses several other people as well, including
Vicky Fromkin. It is the first of a two part series.

******************************************************************************
Aaron Broadwell, Dept. of Linguistics, University at Albany -- SUNY,
Albany, NY 12222 gb661thor.albany.edu

>From ANSAXNET:
>From The Guardian, 3 April 1992, p. 26:

LAST BATTLE TO SAVE A VIKING TONGUE
Alex Duval Smith on the dialect you were not supposed to speak in public.

 Teachers in Sweden are campaigning to save A"lvdalska, the Scandinavian
dialect closest to the language of the Vikings.
 A"lvdalska is taught in a dozen schools in northern Dalerna, central
Sweden, where the dialect has survived thanks to the region's remoteness
and despite a ban which lasted until 1960 on speaking it in public.
 A"lvdalska is the remnant of the language which was spoken in
Scandinavia by the Vikings 900 years ago. Among national languages, only
Icelandic and Faeroese come close [to] it, while Swedish, Danish, and
Norwegian have incorporated many Germanic and Latin words. Today,
A"lvdalska is incomprehensible to most Scandinavian[s].
 In 1990, 12 schools in an area of Dalarna which has speakers of
A"lvdalska, began teaching it for three hours a week--the time
allocated for the teaching of native languages, usually to immigrant
children.
 Now the grant for the special lessons has been withdrawn, prompting
campaigners to claim immigrants have a better chance of maintaining
their knowledge of their mother tongues--through the native languages
teaching schemes--than A"lvdalen's children.
 According to Ulumdalska, which campaigns for the dialect, 70 per cent
of pensioners in A"lvdalen county use it daily but only 5 per cent of
children and 20 per cent of their parents do. "You can photograph and
restore old objects for posterity but a dialect is a living cultural
inheritance which must be passed on by being spoken", said Aake Haarden
a teacher in the town of Aasen.
 The Swedish education ministry says it cannot bring the teaching
of A"lvdalska into its native languages programme as it is not a
foreign language.
 There are also local disputes because the dialect is spoken in
such a remote area that there are six variants of it within a 200
kilometre radius and campaigners cannot agree on which should
be adopted as standard.
 Meanwhile, Ulumdalska campaigners are saying: <Wildum fersyo"ts dja"ro
nod fer te biwaaraa dialekte>, which means, "we want to do something to
save the dialect". And, they add, A"lvdalska is <spraatser saa int will dao>,
- --"the language that will not diw".
 But it may die. "This is the last generation that can save the dialect,"
said Haarden. If they can agree on which variant of the dialect to save.

Michael Everson
School of Architecture, UCD, Richview, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14, E/ire
Phone: +353-1-706-2745 Fax: +353-1-283-7778