Stories about Language from April, 2011
Jamaica: Honesty in Poetry
Diaspora litblogger Geoffrey Philp notices “a brutal honesty” in his featured poem by Kei Miller.
Jamaica: Walcott's Work
Litblogger Geoffrey Philp features a poem by Derek Walcott, saying: “I swear, [he] makes writing verse look so easy…a poet whose oeuvre shows a deep love for the Caribbean–its language, landscape and light.”
Russia: Discarding marriage
Yelena of Russian Blog discusses the double meaning of the Russian word “brak” namely marriage and discards.
Pakistan: Urdu Losing Its Glory?
“Urdu stands at the brink of artistic and aesthetic extinction,” opines Pakistani blogger Salman Latif.
Jamaica: Patwa
Jamaica Woman Tongue says that although “the Jamaican Constitution covertly acknowledges the fact that ‘patwa’ is, indeed, a national language…there are no ‘fair trial’ and ‘due process’ provisions in civil cases for citizens who speak only Jamaican.”
Brazil/Japan: Bridge Blogging Post-Earthquake News
“I read a post from a japanese blogger, I found it truly interesting and I decided to translate part of it”, said [pt] Satou Mihoko, who has decided to bridge japanese news to the portuguese speaking community, following the earthquake. Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside of...
Jamaica: Divine Poetry
Diaspora litblogger Geoffrey Philp says of Kwame Dawes’ poem Shook Foil: “There is a divine symmetry of the human with music and the landscape– evidence of a ‘natural mystic’ transforming the mundane into the miraculous.”
Guyana: Giving Fish a Bad Name
Boy, does Guyana-Gyal have a fish story for you!
Jamaica: Poetry & Sensuality
For his 21 Days/21 Poems series, diaspora litblogger Geoffrey Philp posts an erotic poem by Jacqueline Johnson, saying: “What I love about this poem is the subdued sensuality.”
Trinidad & Tobago: Laughlin's “Small Husband”
almostisland posts links to the poetry of Nicholas Laughlin; Pleasure reviews his work, saying: “Laughlin's poetry is also a deeply Caribbean meditation, in its concern with the geography of self-actualisation and in its subtle echos of processes known so well by those who are scattered throughout the Caribbean diaspora.”
Brazil: Making the web accessible to the hearing impaired
Leonardo Leite, on the blog Stoa, writes [pt] about Poli-Libras – a software developped in the University of Sao Paulo that translates contextualized sentences in Portuguese language to 3D graphics in “Libras” – the Brazilian Sign Language. According to Leite, the goal of this tool is to promote web content...
Morocco: Tweet Your Way To Change
The Arab spring has brought about enthusiasm for change. As the walls of fear start crumbling, people feel empowered and start taking matters into their own hands. In Morocco, one of the central themes for change is education, and one blogger has been able to launch the debate using Twitter as a medium.
East Timor: Parliament to use Portuguese language
The East Timor Parliament announced that it will use the Portuguese language in plenary sessions at least once a month. A blogger reacts: “It would be like the Australian or United States or English legislatures publishing new laws in Japanese.”
