Ethnic distinctions are drawn among specific Jewish sub-communities in Mexico City. Ashkenazi, Sefaradi, and non-Jews tend to evaluate Syrian Jews negatively. This negative evaluation (implicit or explicit) constitutes a sort of “everyday language of Orientalism” parallel to Jane Hill’s everyday language of racism.
Due to a discrepancy in posted dates, submissions for the undergraduate student essay contest will be accepted until July 15.
The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer says conservative Evangelical Christians view President Obama as “the avatar of godless socialism”. Do American Christian conservatives use ‘socialist’ to mean ‘insufficiently religious’? If so, their usage parallels that of Osama bin Laden.
Record fans insist that the plural of ‘vinyl’ to mean “a vinyl record” is the zero-plural ‘vinyl’. This irregular form serves as a shibboleth for audiophiles. Since the form was regular (‘vinyls’) during the 1960s, I conjecture that the irregular form must have arisen relatively recently.
Chad Nilep reflects on work with Akiyo Cantrell to analyze reports from the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 and its aftermath. Evacuees from Fukushima face discrimination based on vague fears of radioactivity or other danger. Nilep expresses hope that academic work can make a positive contribution to recovery.
Lauren Collister, a Ph.D. candidate in sociolinguistics at the University of Pittsburgh, describes how digital ethnography deepened her understanding of multimodal communication within a team of World of Warcraft game players. Players use text, voice-over-IP talk, and face-to-face talk to accomplish distinct functions.
Here are some films that people on the linganth list have mentioned as good to show in class: Mickey Mouse Monopoly (good with Lippi-Green): http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=112 Multilingual… Read More »Films to show in class
This is the famous Jimmy Smits SNL skit that Jane Hill talks about in her discussion of Mock Spanish. https://www.onesnladay.com/2019/05/
NPR’s Morning Edition and the Sunlight Foundation suggest that congressional speech-making is becoming less sophisticated. The presentation appears to validate conventional wisdom that American politics has taken an anti-intellectual turn of late, but the story shows flawed methods coupled with confirmation bias.
The 2013 LSA Linguistic Institute is currently soliciting proposals for workshops and conferences. If you’ve been thinking about a workshop you’d like to create, this would be a great opportunity.
On behalf of the SLA Executive Committee, I invite you to participate in this year’s Society for Linguistic Anthropology student essay prize competition for the… Read More »SLA Undergraduate Student Essay Contest
This HUD video on housing discrimination shows a White man taking on various accents when making phone calls to ask about apts for rent. Useful… Read More »Linguistic profiling
Many of the clips in the 2001 film Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood, and Corporate Power are useful for pairing with Lippi Green http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=112… Read More »Language and character in Disney movies
Black Comedian Steve Harvey compares white and black communication styles. He imitates a white man’s voice at 2:35-4:13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICsHscXzXw0 (2:35-4:13) [Video no longer available due… Read More »Steve Harvey’s white voice
Several episodes of MacGuyver included Hollywood portrayals of “Injun” English. MacGuyver is not currently available to stream, but episodes including Season 4, Episode 9: “Cleo… Read More »Hollywood Injun English in MacGuyver
Examples of Mock Asian Margaret Cho gave examples of Mock Asian http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAmcPS6xoZA&feature=related (8:32-end) [Video no longer available on YouTube]. Gedde Watanabe (Long Duk Dong) on… Read More »Mock Asian in Margaret Cho and Long Duk Dong
On the “Late Show,” David Letterman aired a new segment in 2009 called the “Sonia Sotomayor Pronunciation Round-Up.” The video, found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/02/lettermans-sonia-sotomayo_n_210264.html shows the myriad ways… Read More »Justice Sotomayor’s name
AAA video Race: Are You So Different?
This clip from the TV show Friends demonstrates a media representation of male and female interactional styles.
This website demonstrates regional variation in pronunciation, including examples of how people in different parts of the US pronounce the word “bought.” This video describes… Read More »Regional variation in pronunciation/ dialect map