…bilinguals and multilinguals are associated with migrant populations, Aboriginal people, language freaks and other nutjobs who don’t quite fit in…
READ MOREMarch, 2011
Minimus the Pythoness?
Maximus the Python is possibly the longest scrub python in captivity. Here’s the story for those who (like me) like snakes. What caught my eye was the last line of the article: ‘”He’s got a girlfriend out the back called Minimus,” laughed Ms Hill.’ The girlfriend’s called Minimus?! This will cause a giggle from those [...]
READ MOREWhat linguists want you to know, part I
We are not translators nor interpreters. ASIO, one of Australia’s highest level defence and security organisations recently advertised for linguists. As I’ve been looking for some work (though I currently have some), it was suggested that I apply. I considered it for a few seconds, until I read the description: “As a linguist you will [...]
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Guns, Germs and Gramophones
What did ordinary Indians get up to in their free time in the 1920s? Did they sit in the shade of a tree on hot summer days, and wonder how much longer George V would be Emperor of India, Dei Gratia? Or did they perhaps discuss current affairs – the massacre here, the riot there, [...]
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Does Moomba really mean ‘up your bum’?
Piers Kelly writes: At Melbourne’s very first Moomba carnival in March of 1955, my father recalls Sir Reginald Dallas Brooks, opening the proceedings from the banks of the Yarra river. In his crown-appointed role as Governor of Victoria, he made a plummy declaration that ‘moomba’ is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘Let’s get together and have [...]
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Pardon my French
Ingrid Piller from Language on the Move writes: My daughter attends a public elementary school in NSW where the children are taught French for one hour each week. In 2009, she was away from her school and did not receive any French instruction during that year. When she returned, it turned out that she had [...]
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