Just a quick reminder of tomorrow evening's talk by Dr. Marc Zender. You can RSVP at the Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113878285294454 "Why study Elvish?" Dr. Marc Zender (Lecturer on Anthropology, Harvard University) Thu Apr 1, 7pm CAS 326 Abstract: Beyond popular accolades and prestigious positions at powerful research institutions (which unfortunately are not at all involved), there are some practical benefits to a study of JRR Tolkien's invented languages and scripts. For one thing, they provide a challenge: poorly attested, highly restrictive in genre, and without comprehensive dictionaries and grammars. Like scholars of Gothic, Tocharian, and other fragmentary tongues known primarily (or solely) from disconnected manuscripts, students of Tolkien's languages employ the methods of comparative linguistics to decode these tongues, all of which are (carefully designed to appear to be) historically related. Further, although a philologist of distinction, it is frequently lamented that Tolkien did not publish nearly as many theoretical papers as some of his contemporaries; nonetheless, he worked for some sixty years perfecting the histories and relationships of his invented languages. In recent years, Tolkienian linguists have shown that these languages became the repositories of some of his most profound reflections on linguistics, philosophy, and the theory of translation: ample reward indeed for intrepid decipherers. You can keep up with other BULA happenings at the BULA web site http://bula.bu.edu Other upcoming events: Prof. Jim McCloskey (two talks: April 8, 7:30pm, KCB 101, "Sex and the Irish language: The cultural politics of language attrition" and April 9, 3:30pm, KCB 106, "Yes, no, and the construction of finite verbs in a VSO language") Please RSVP at the Facebook events: April 8: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=382245611264 April 9: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=383231800427 Movies (CAS 537C, 7pm) Apr 13: Cracking the Maya code Apr 20: The Linguists Apr 27: The Wild Child (L'enfant sauvage)