LINGUIST List 7.1087

Wed Jul 31 1996

Qs: Sign lg, Mailing lists, Sociolinguistics, Translator

Editor for this issue: T. Daniel Seely <dseelyemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. Salem.Ghazaliirsit.rnrt.tn, Sign language
2. Kirk McElhearn, CA and E-mail mailing lists
3. Kirk Belnap, Sociolinguistics of Jerusalem
4. Alan Baumann, Translator

I have been asked by the Institute for the Promotion of the
Handicapped in Tunisia for help in developing an Arabic sign language.
I am a linguist, but I know very little about the structure of sign
languages. I would be very greateful if specialists could provide me
with some ideas on how to proceed and some basic bibliography. Note
that some of the hearing impaired people in the country do use sign
language, but I have been told that these languages are just chunks of
different "dialects" that developed spontaneously out of
necessity. They need to be collected, analyzed, built on, completed,
and standardized. Needless to say that I have many questions about
the syntax, morphology, semantics, etc of these languages and their
relation to the language spoken in a specific environment, but I will
leave them for those willing to help.

Many thanks
Salem Ghazali.

For a Master's dissertation about e-mail mailing lists, I am looking
for some transcribed conversations to compare with mailing list
interaction.

Can anyone provide me with a few transcriptions of the following:

1. Requests for Information
 Such as:
A: Can you tell me...
B: (Response)
A: Thank you.

2. Transcriptions of meetings, where a large number of people are all
making suggestions, or presenting ideas (10 or more people).

I am hoping to show that mailing lists use similar conversational
structures.

Thanks very much,

Kirk McElhearn

Translations from French to English, English to French
Traductions francais-anglais, anglais-francais

kirklenet.fr
http://www.nirvanet.fr/kirk/kirk.html

91 rue de la Mesangerie
37540 St Cyr sur Loire
France

While in Jerusalem I will be teaching an undergraduate course on language
issues connected with Jerusalem. I have Spolsky & Cooper's THE LANGUAGES
OF JERUSALEM (Oxford University Press 1991) and plan to use it. In the
course I plan to touch on a number of instances of language contact
situations. We'll read about and discuss biblical linguistic references,
the Canaanite dialects, the switch to Aramaic by Hebrew speakers, the
influence of Greek, Arabization of the area, Middle Arabic, the revival of
Hebrew, and the present Hebrew/Arabic contact situation. I would
appreciate help with the following:

1) Articles or books you would recommend that would be appropriate for
bright undergraduate students, most with little or no background in
linguistics, Arabic, or Hebrew. (In a "Language in Society" Honors Seminar
I conducted with a colleage a few years ago we found that with a little
preparatory discussion such students are quite capable of reading and
benefitting from a variety of articles written for linguists. We taught
them the essential linguistics they needed to know as we went along.)

2) My background is in Arabic sociolinguistics. I'm fairly well versed in
the history of Arabic. I certainly need to do some boning up on most of
the other topics. I could definitely use some pointers on good
sociolinguistic studies focusing on Palestinian Arabic (I know a lot more
about the Cairo speech community.). I would also appreciate
recommendations on useful general references on whatever you feel might be
handy. For example, I'd like good, concise references on: the history of
Hebrew, other language contact refs., and perhaps even some quotes or
readings from medieval and early modern travel literature where language is
discussed. Fortunately, a colleage with a background in ancient Near
Eastern languages (Biblical Studies) will be sitting in on the class and
helping out.

Thanks in advance for your help. I'll post a summary to the list.


 --------------------------------------------
 Kirk Belnap
 4062 JKHB
 Brigham Young University
 Provo, Utah 84602
 801/378-6531
 FAX: 801-378-5866
 kirk_belnapbyu.edu
 --------------------------------------------

Desperately searching for a mongolic translator!!!

Can you help me?

Thank you in advance,

Sonia