The National Museum of Languages

The National Museum of Languages, a new museum specialising in languages of the world, opened on Saturday, May 3. According to its website, the mission of this museum to to enhance understanding of all aspects of language in history, contemporary affairs, and the future. The first exhibition, "Writing Language: Passing It On", features various writing systems such as Arabic, Hebrew, Ge'ez, Chinese, Japanese and Cherokee. The museum is located in College Park, Maryland.

世界の言語に特化した新しい美術館The National Museum of Languagesが5月3日にオープンしました。公式ウェブサイトによると、この美術館は過去・現在・未来における言語のあらゆる側面に関する理解の促進を目標に創立されました。第一回目の特別展示会はWriting Langauge: Passing It Onと題し、アラビア文字、ヘブライ文字、ゲエズ文字、漢字、日本の文字、チェロキー文字など、さまざまな文字に関する特集が組まれるとのことです。The National Museum of LanguagesはアメリカMaryland州のCollege Parkにあります。

[via LINGUIST List]

UPDATE: A Symposium on Kanji Culture and the Future of the Japanese Language/漢字文化と日本語の未来

I have updated the article on the symposium, which will be held on May 17, 2008. For more information, see the symposium's official website.

2008年5月17日に開催されるシンポジウムに関する記事を更新しました。詳細はシンポジウムのウェブサイトをご覧ください。

Written Language and Literacy, 10(2)

Journal Title/雑誌タイトル:
Written Language and Literacy

Volume/巻号:
Vol. 10, No. 2 (Special issue: Constraints on Spelling Changes)

Publisher/出版社:
John Benjamins Publishing Company

TOC/目次:
Available from the publisher's website.

Details/詳細:
Click here.

New Book: Analyses of Script

Book Title/書籍タイトル:
Analyses of Script: Properties of Characters and Writing Systems

Series Title/シリーズ・タイトル:
Quantitative Linguistics, 63

Editors/編者:
Gabriel Altmann & Fan Fengxiang

Publisher/出版社:
Mouton de Gruyter

TOC/目次:
Available from the publisher's website.

Abstract/要旨:

This volume presents 12 papers on a new approach to the analysis of writing systems. For the first time, quantitative methods are introduced into this area of research in a systematic way. The individual contributions give an overview about quantitative properties of symbols and of writing systems, introduce methods of analysis, study individual writing systems as used for different languages, set up an explanatory model of phenomena connected to script development/evolution, and give a perspective to a general theory of writing systems. [Quoted from the publisher's website]

[via LINGUIST List]

Correction: Breton Orthographies and Dialects

In yesterday's article on the new book "Breton Orthographies and Dialects", I mistakenly cited Christian Bieri as the author, who had announced the publication on LINGUIST List. The author of this book is Iwan Wmffre. My sincere apologies for the incorrect information.

新刊"Breton Orthographies and Dialects"に関する昨日の記事の中で、誤って著者をChristian Bieri氏とお伝えしてしまいましたが、氏はLINGUIST Listで出版情報を通知された方でした。この本の実際の著者はIwan Wmffre氏です。不正確な情報を掲載してしまい、誠に申し訳ございません。

New Book: Breton Orthographies and Dialects

Book Title/書籍タイトル:
Breton Orthographies and Dialects: The Twentieth-Century Orthography War in Brittany

Series Title/書籍タイトル:
Contemporary Studies in Descriptive Linguistics, 18 & 19

Author/著者:
Wmffre, Iwan

Publisher/出版社:
Peter Lang Publishing Group

TOC/目次:
Available from the publisher's website.

Abstract/要旨:

This work is for comparative linguists and celticists who are keen to study Breton but may be too daunted to undertake such a venture by the wide variety of orthographical conventions which exist in Breton.
The chronological development of the Breton orthographical debates during the twentieth century is charted along with an attempt to discern the ideological, political and personal motivations which lay behind those debates. Based on a substantial corpus of hitherto unpublished original documents and personal interviews, the research throws new light on the nature of the political, ideological and linguistic divisions of the Breton movement of that period (not least the events that occurred during the 1939-45 war).
The historical and societal background of the language is succinctly delineated and points of orthographical contention are discussed, each in turn, so that their correlation to the spoken varieties of Breton can be judged by the reader.
The work should dispel once and for all the notion - boosted by the existing orthographical instability and variety - that Breton is too dialectally fragmented to be studied profitably without an inordinate amount of effort. [Quoted from the publisher's website]

[via LINGUIST List]

A Feature Article on the Origin of the Alphabet

The May 2008 issue of the Japanese science magazine Newton has a feature article on the origin of the alphabet. The magazine has an established reputation for the quality of articles on a wide range of scientific topics, written in an accessible langauge and illustrated with rich graphic materials.

科学雑誌『Newton』の2008年5月号に「アルファベットのルーツ」と題する特集記事が掲載されています。本誌は、平明なことばで書かれ、美しい写真やイラストで飾られた、科学の様々な分野に関する質の高い記事を掲載することで知られています。

A Symposium on Kanji Culture and the Future of the Japanese Language/漢字文化と日本語の未来

Event title/イベントタイトル:
「漢字文化と日本語の未来」(日本語学会2008年度春季大会シンポジウム)
English title not announced (Trans.: A symposium on Kanji culture and the future of the Japanese language)

Aim/趣旨:

諸メディアの発展に伴い情報化時代を迎えた現在、かな漢字変換辞書を通して打ち出されるJIS漢字が日本語表記に大きな役割を果たしている。一方、JIS 漢字の改正、表外漢字字体表の答申、人名用漢字の追加に加え、常用漢字表の見直しも進められるなど施策を巡る動きも活性化してきた。こうした状況の中で、日本人や日本語学習者にとっての漢字について、過去を見据え、未来を展望するべく種々の観点から検討を加えたい。 [from the symposium's website]

Date/日時:
May 17 (Saturday), 2008, 14:00 - 17:00

Place/会場:
Nihon University (Tokyo, Japan) /日本大学　百周年記念館国際会議場（A会場）

Details/詳細:
Click here.

Journal of Research in Reading, 31(1)

Journal title/雑誌タイトル:
Journal of Research in Reading

Volume/巻号:
Volume 31, No. 1

Publisher/出版社:
Blackwell

Table of contents/目次:
Click here.

Journal of Research in Reading, 30(4)

Journal title/雑誌タイトル:
Journal of Research in Reading

Volume/巻号:
Volume 30, No. 4

Publisher/出版社:
Blackwell

Table of contents/目次:
Click here.

Reading and Writing, 20(6-9)

Journal title/雑誌タイトル:
Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal

Volume/巻号:
Volume 20, Nos. 6-9

Table of contents/目次:
Click here.

New Book: Planning Chinese Characters

Book Title/書籍タイトル:
Planning Chinese Characters: Reaction, Evolution or Revolution?

Series Title/シリーズ・タイトル:
Language Policy, 9

Authors/著者:
Shouhui Zhao & Richard B. Jr. Baldauf

Publisher/出版社:
Springer

TOC/目次:
Available from the publisher's website.

Abstract/要旨:

The whole world has been watching the vast changes that are currently occurring in China, but few people are aware that at the same time, to ensure the writing system serves these changes well, Chinese characters have also undergone significant reform. While focusing on current problems, developments and possible solutions, this book also details the major implementation of language planning programs for the modernization of the Chinese writing system that have occurred over the last century.

The volume provides a broad and in-depth analysis of the conflict between one of the world’s oldest surviving script systems and the latest developments in communication technology. Comprehensive in coverage, interdisciplinary in structure, with copious references to assist readers in locating a wide range of resources, this book offers an analytic discussion of character planning that will prove of great value to language policymakers and those who are interested in China/East Asian studies and sinology. [Quoted from the publishers website]

Details/詳細:
Click here.

New Book: Remembering the Kanji 3 (Second Edition)

Book Title/書籍タイトル:
Remembering the Kanji 3: Writing and Reading Japanese Characters for Upper-Level Proficiency (Second Edition)

Authors/著者:
James W. Heisig & Tanya Sienko

Publisher/出版社:
University of Hawai`i Press

TOC/目次:
Available from the publisher's website.

Abstract/要旨:

Students who have learned to read and write the basic 2,000 characters run into the same difficulty that university students in Japan face: The government-approved list of basic educational kanji is not sufficient for advanced reading and writing. Although each academic specialization requires supplementary kanji of its own, a large number of these kanji overlap. With that in mind, the same methods employed in volumes 1 and 2 of Remembering the Kanji have been applied to 1,000 additional characters determined as useful for upper-level proficiency, and the results published as the third volume in the series. [Quoted from the publisher's website]

Details/詳細:
Click here.

New Book: Remembering the Kanji 2 (Third Edition)

Book Title/書籍タイトル:
Remembering the Kanji 2: A systematic Guide to Reading the Japanese Characters (Third Edition)

Author/著者:
James W. Heisig

Publisher/出版社:
University of Hawai`i Press

TOC/目次:
Available from the publisher's website.

Abstract/要旨:

Following the first volume of Remembering the Kanji, the present work takes up the pronunciation of characters and provides students with helpful tools for memorizing them. Behind the notorious inconsistencies in the way the Japanese language has come to pronounce the characters it received from China lie several coherent patterns. Identifying these patterns and arranging them in logical order can reduce dramatically the amount of time spent in the brute memorization of sounds unrelated to written forms. [Quoted from the publisher's website]

Details/詳細:
Click here.

UPDATE: Nihongo Kutoho Kenkyukai/日本語句読法研究会

The first meeting of the study group 日本語句読法研究会 (Nihongo Kutoho Kenkyukai) was held on January 12. For reviews, click on the links below.

日本語句読法研究会の第一回研究会が1月12日に開催されました。以下のリンクから出席者による報告をご覧になれます。

• 先週の12日、日本語句読法研究会、始動しました。(ひつじ書房)
• 日本語句読法研究会に出席してきました (タマゴの散歩道－文字世界を巡る旅－)
  

Writing Systems Syllabi (via LINGUIST List)

Peter T. Daniels, co-editor of The World's Writing Systems (1996), has posted the following message on LINGUIST List (19.261):

World's Writing Systems (1996) の編著者の一人であるPeter T. Daniels氏が、LINGUIST List (19.261) に以下のメッセージを投稿されています：

Subject: Writing Systems Syllabi

I have been a scholar of writing systems for 20+ years, but I am not a teacher. The opportunity has arisen to perhaps submit a proposal for a textbook on writing systems, so I would appreciate the opportunity of examining syllabi for one-semester (or one-quarter) courses on writing systems that have been taught by linguists, and I am not aware of any repository of such syllabi.

Thus: I would appreciate receiving any syllabus -- the more detailed the better -- that has been used for a course in writing systems.

Thank you.

Call for Papers: The 136th Meeting of the Linguistic Society of Japan/日本言語学会

The 136th Meeting of the Linguistic Society of Japan will be held at Gakushuin University (Tokyo, Japan) from June 21 to 22, 2008. Deadline for papers is March 20, 2008.
For details, click here.

日本言語学界の2008年春季大会（第136回大会）が2008年6月21と22日の両日に学習院大学（東京都）にて開催されます。発表申し込みの締め切りは2008年3月20日となっています。
詳細はこちらをご覧ください。

New Feature: CALENDAR

Today I added the CALENDAR feature to the side bar so that I can list upcoming events and call deadlines. By clicking the links you can jump to the relevant pages.

本日サイドバーにCALENDARを追加しました。ここには学会などの各種イベントの開催日や締め切りなどの予定を掲載していきます。リンクをクリックすると関連ページにジャンプします。