Philological Society Grammar of Space Workshop

As previously reported here, the Department is hosting a Philological Society Workshop on the Grammar of Space November 7.  You can register for the meeting with this form (deadline Oct 31) and check out the schedule here.

Matras on Ecology and Language Evolution

Colleague Yaron Matras is one of three invited speakers (along with leading Arabist Kees Versteegh and leading Creolist Salikoko Mufwene) at a workshop on ‘Ecology and Language Evolution’ [http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/colloque/ecologie/index.htm] organised by the department for Languages, Civilisations and Oral Traditions of the National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris, on 23 October 2008.

Hail to the chief!

Manchet has heard whispers in the halls of Samuel Alexander that colleague David Denison has assumed the presidency of the recently formed International Society for the Linguistics of English, which had a hum-dinger of an inaugural 300 person strong meeting recently in Freiburg. You can view pictures of the society’s salute to their new chief here and accompany the celebration with our Stoke-on-Trent neighboor Slash (of Guns N Roses fame)’s Jimi Hendrix wannabe rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. (Manchet couldn’t find an appropriate version of Hail to the Chief, but no worries, we’re resourceful and make do with what we can find.)

Seminar talks

Last week’s and this week’s seminars combine for a Manchester double sucker punch,  with our own John Payne last week on The English possessive ’s and Suffixaufnahme and German Department PhD student John Bellamy this week on `Language attitudes in Austria and England: Comparing reactions towards high and low prestige varieties in Vienna and Manchester’.  The talk, as usual, is on Tuesday 4pm-5.15pm, room S.3.1, Samuel Alexander Building, and is followed by drinks from 5.15pm -6pm, in room W.3.13.  All this and more than your linguistic heart could have imagined is on offer here.

Language Sandwidge

Manchet is in catch-up mode this morning, announcing last week’s Language Sandwidge and this coming week’s meeting in one fell swoop.  Last week featured our own Stephen Laker on ‘Investigating Celtic influence on English phonology’.  This week, we’re treated to Javier Pérez-Guerra (Vigo) on ‘Measuring text types: two quantitative approaches to text-type variation in the (recent) history of English’.  The talk, as usual, is at 1pm on Tuesday, in S.1.5 of the Samuel Alexander Building.  These details, as well as future talks, are all here.

Whitworth Art Gallery Cafe

Manchet can now report that investigators acting on its behalf, and with the department’s dime, have been to the Whitworth Art Gallery Cafe, previously reported on here, and can enthusiastically recommend it.  Said reporters would place it a couple of steps above the nearby Couture at the Manchester Museum, despite its being no farther away and of comparable price.

Romani project on the Beeb

The Romani Project’s audio cd ‘Romani Soundbites’ will be broadcast in weekly sequels on BBC 3 Counties Radio, starting next month. The CD contains 30 chapters, each devoted to the roots and usages of individual Romani expressions and word classes, as used by the English and Welsh Romani in what researchers refer to as ‘Anglo-Romani’. The CD is one of the products of a two-year project on Anglo-Romani coordinated by colleague Yaron Matras, which has been funded by the ESRC. Other findings of the project are presented in an article by Matras & collaborators in a recent edition of the journal Anthropological Linguistics.

Manchester linguists at ISLE 1

Our department was well represented at last weekend’s 300-person strong First Triennial Conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English.  Among those on the program were:  David Denison, Kersti Börjars, Alan Scott, John Payne, and Eva Berlage.  Check out the details here.

Matras in Berkeley

Colleague Yaron Matras is slated to give a colloquium in the Department of Linguistics at UC Berkeley on November 6 entitled Borrowing verbs: Formal and functional aspects.  Details here.

Language Sandwidge kickoff

Via David D:

Dear (potential) Sandwidgistas,

Just to remind you all that our sequence of informal lunchtime seminars kicks off
tomorrow with our own* Stephen Laker.  Stephen will be

‘Investigating Celtic influence on English phonology’

Room S.1.5, Tuesday 14 Oct, 1-2 pm.  Programme at http://tinyurl.com/langsand

Hot and cold drinks provided.

Hope to see you there.

best
David and Nuria

*Well, OK, Leiden have a share of him too.