BLING

The September 2009 issue of Language (Vol. 85, No. 3) contains a special section entitled “SIL and the disciplinary culture of linguistics,” comprising an important set of papers about the role of SIL’s linguistic work. Several of the contributors have connections to our department:  Lise Dobrin and Ken Olson are PhDs from our department; Jeff Good earned his B.A. here; and Courtney Handman is a current joint Anthro/Ling PhD candidate.

Thanks to all for your contributions to this issue, and thanks to Amy Dahlstrom for bringing this involvement to our attention!

Chicago linguistics alumnus Aaron Griffith, now a lecturer at the University of Vienna, had his article, “The animacy hierarchy and the distribution of the notae augentes in Old Irish,” published in the December 2008 issue of the journal Ériu. Aaron’s recent conference presentations have included “Raising of *e to *i before *µ in Old Irish” at the Sound of Indo-European conference in Copenhagen this month, and “pro in Old Irish,” presented at the Formal Approaches to Celtic Linguistics conference last month in Arizona.

In addition, alumna Arika Okrent has a book coming out next month on created languages. The book, In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build A Perfect Language, is published by the Spiegel & Grau imprint of Random House and is set to be released May 19.

Jung-Hyuck Lee (Ph.D. 2006) has been appointed senior lecturer at the University of Notre Dame teaching Korean languages and civilization courses. Congratulations, Jung-Hyuck!

Almerindo Ojeda (PhD, 1982) has recently launched the Center for Human Rights in the Americas, an interdisciplinary center dedicated to scholarship and education about human rights in the Americas. The history and rationale behind this endeavor was featured on the UC Davis website.

Greg Anderson (UofC PhD 2000) and David Harrison were interviewed on NPR’s On Point. They discuss the making of the film, The Linguists, as well as the significance of working on endangered languages. To hear the interview, visit http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2008/01/20080125_b_main.asp.