Polyglot Society/Lex

The Language Exchange

The purpose of the Polyglot Society is to promote and facilitate the independent study and practice of languages. Lex is a resource provided by the Polyglot society to connect students with other interested in learning the language. We are also seeking native speakers interested in teaching their languages, and

Bislama
Meetings: TBA

Participants: Adam, Claire, Ian, Luke

Language description: Bislama is an English-based creole language spoken as the official language in the Republic of Vanatu. Wikipedia describes the language as a language with an English lexicon and an Austronesian grammar, because whoever wrote the Wikipedia article couldn't be bothered to use any sources published after 1980. The more modern language bioprogram hypothesis, developed by Derek Bickerton of the University of Hawai'i, and expanded by other creolists, such as John McWhorter, holds that creoles are generally developed by children whose parents speak pidgins. The prototypical creoles generally have common grammatical features, such as Tense-Aspect-Mood verb marking, serial verbs, SOV word order, and a lack of lexical or grammatical tone. As creoles develop, they begin to develop away from the source creole. Bislama is a fairly typical English based creole, unusual in the fact that it is also a national language (an honor shared with the macrolanguage Tok Pisin, and Haitian creole).

Group description:

Resources:


 * The Peace Corps Bislama Self-Instruction Manual: http://www.peacecorps.vu/bislama.html
 * Recordings of Bislama songs: http://globalrecordings.net/program/C80310 ("Yumi Yumi", The national anthem of Vanatu is the first one)

English
See Polyglot_Society/ESOL, under construction

Esperanto
Meetings: TBA

Participants: Adam, Claire, Ian

Language description: Esperanto is an artificial language created by a Polish guy names Zamenhof around the turn of the century. While Zamenhof's goal was to create a universal language with a logical grammar, the language is today spoken by a group of enthusiasts. The grammar, which originally resembled that of no natural language has since taken on a life of its own.

Group description:

Resources:

Luke Kundl Pinette
I speak: English: natively; Spanish: conversantly; Arabic: semi-conversantly

I've studied: ASL, Japanese

Will teach: English, Spanish, Arabic

Will practice: Spanish, Arabic, ASL, Japanese

Languages I will be learning: Bislama {Ian, Claire, Adam}, Yiddish (Jan Term)

Languages I may be learning: Georgian (http://webzone.imer.mah.se/projects/georgianV04/INTRO/apply.html)

Languages I'd like to learn:


 * High priority: Turkish, German, Portuguese
 * Mid priority: Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian/Malay, Mandarin
 * Low priority: Farsi/Dari/Persian, Hindi/Urdu, French, Icelandic, Scots, Kazakh, Mongolian {Telegu, Tamil, Malayalam, or Kannada}, Nahuatl, Aymara, Quechua, Gurani, Mapuche, Thai, {Finnish or Hungarian}, Swahili, Lingala, Hausa, Modern Hebrew, Amharic

I'd consider: pretty much anything