Listen & Learn Blog

Following in the footsteps of L’Academie francaise, Russian officials have launched a campaign to “clean up” the Russian language.

Russia’s Education and Science Ministry has decided that words borrowed from other languages (loan words) are no longer permissible and Russian words should be used instead. In a project costing around US$150,000, they aim to revise all dictionaries and school teaching material, as well as producing an internet resource on the correct way to speak the language.

Whilst L’Academie francasie has been somewhat successful in replacing loan words for French ones, they’ve really only caught on for official usage. Ordinary people are still shaping their language in the way they want to speak it. I wonder if this project will be successful in Russia, a country with a much larger population than France?

The Onion reports that ‘incomprehensible shouting’ has been named an official US language. Opponents of the move favour Obama’s ‘dulcet tones’ initiative.

Incomprehensible Shouting Named Official U.S. Language

Hilarious.

It’s become fairly common to hear about languages dying, but this is an exception.

Papiamentu, a Creole language spoken on a handful of islands off the coast of Venezuela, is showing signs of official acceptance. Spoken by around 250,000 people on the islands of Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba, the language is used by the media (print, television and radio) and Parliament as well as the people on the street.

Recognised as an official language in 2007, along with Dutch and English, Papiamentu is a rarity in a world where other languages, notably English, are dominant. With an interesting history and structure, the reasons for the languages continued existence seem to be quite complex.

Scholars, writers and composers here say Papiamentu’s resilience has roots in a mixture of radical politics and pragmatic planning. They often tie Papiamentu’s resurgence to a violent uprising against symbols of Dutch power on May 30, 1969, known here as Trinta di Mei.

“Trinta di Mei allowed us to recognize the subversive treasure we had in our language, which existed for centuries so we could keep secrets from the Dutch,” said Frank Martinus, 73, a Curaçaoan writer and founder of Kolegio Erasmo, a grade school where Papiamentu is the main language.

Papiamentu still has a way to go in usurping Dutch from some spheres. Curaçao’s laws are still written in Dutch. Some schools start out teaching children in Papiamentu, but then transition to Dutch, bowing to the economic opportunities the Netherlands still provide for many islanders. (Source: New York Times)

Read the full article here.