Category / Uncategorized / Blog
A Global Crisis of Identity
Reports reach us daily about the state of the world, which should induce us to worry about its future: mass killings in Paris; a criminal, misogynist mob greets the New Year in…
January 21, 2016Knocked out by language change
Regilio Tuur is a once famous lightweight boxer from Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Every Dutchman has heard him give interviews in Dutch many times. Here we see him perform in a Dutch…
January 14, 2016Lecture on Writing systems and Invented languages
“Sumerian? Maya? Armenian? Cherokee? – What writing systems should I select if there are so many? How can I fit into 45 minutes if there is a universe of scripts, each of…
December 10, 2015A Visit From Norway
This week the Department welcomed a delegation of 8 employees from the Norwegian linguistic society ‘Noregs Mållag’, an organisation that works with the promotion of the written variety ‘Nynorsk’ in Norway. The…
November 25, 2015Student blog: Linguistic landscapes (3)
Here’s the last of our student post-series on linguistic landscapes! Hope you enjoyed this short glimpse into one of the topics dealt with in the BA programme and the different blog posts…
November 18, 2015North Catalans rally for more autonomy
November 7 commemorates the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, by which the Spanish king Phillip IV transferred the territories of the County of Rosselló/Roussillon and parts of the…
November 11, 2015Catalans to initiate their secession from Spain, if they can agree among themselves
The Parliament of Catalunya passed legislation on November 9th, 2015, declaring its intention to start a process that will lead this Spanish Autonomous Community to political independence from Spain. The close vote…
November 11, 20156 November: undergraduate visiting day
Coming Friday, the 6th of November, we will be part of the University of Groningen’s big visiting day! We will welcome all prospective students and give them clear information about our programme’s…
November 3, 2015David Crystal on the alleged origin of the Australian accent: “Complete and utter rubbish!”
Just to give a little insight of the goings-on in the world of linguistics: Lately there has been a discussion on where the Australian accent originated, some claim it would have come…
November 3, 2015Five demonstrations supporting minority languages in France
On Saturday October 24th, citizens and politicians got to the streets in support of several local languages spoken within French territory. The simultaneous demonstrations took place in Montpellier (for Occitan and Catalan),…
October 27, 2015