April News: Hey Linguists! We have some exciting new events coming up, please check these out: Ice Cream/Cake Social Thursday, April 23 @ 7:00 PM in 621 Comm. Ave B02 (basement). Let's hang out and have some treats! We'll be talking about plans for next year and officer selection. Note that BU is on a "Monday schedule." The Linguists Wednesday, April 29 @ 7:30 PM in the Conference Auditorium (GSU 2nd floor) This is our big event to end the semester! We know it's during the last week of class, but you won't want to miss it. After the movie (which was a big hit at last year's Sundance festival), Prof. Norvin Richards (MIT) will speak briefly about his own work on language documentation and revitalization, followed by some time for Q&A. Just read this exciting description of the film: Scientists estimate that of 7,000 languages in the world, half will be gone by the end of this century. On average, one language disappears every two weeks. "The Linguists" is a hilarious and poignant chronicle of two scientists--David Harrison and Gregory Anderson--racing to document languages on the verge of extinction. In Siberia, India, and Bolivia, the linguists confront head-on the very forces silencing languages: racism, humiliation, and violent economic unrest. David and Greg's journey takes them deep into the heart of the cultures, knowledge, and communities at risk when a language dies. In other linguistics news, this website is pretty clever. It's a sample of what English would be like if it had resisted all non-Germanic influences. http://mithridates.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-english-might-look-like-with-al... [Thanks to Tricia K. for putting this newsletter together.]