· June, 2011

Stories about Language from June, 2011

India: The Future of Wikipedia

  30 June 2011

Wikipedia celebrated its tenth anniversary this year, and almost 100 cities and towns in India registered to host celebrations, the highest number of any country. This year the Wikimedia Foundation will open its first office outside the United States, in an Indian city as yet to be announced. Global Voices has spoken to Tinu Cherian, an active Wikipedian, about Wikipedia in India.

Trinidad & Tobago: Defending Our Dialect

  20 June 2011

“I doh know bout alyuh, but I love to talk Trinidadian Creole English all de time”: Karel Mc Intosh suggests that “an educational approach to Creole must start by raising the level of awareness of what Creole languages are, how they came into being, who speaks them and what their...

Africa: First Swahili iPad/iPhone App Released

  17 June 2011

A Ghanaian company releases Swahili iPad/iPhone App: “The two-man Ghanaian language learning apps development team has just released Nkyea Basic Swahili, the first Swahili iPhone and iPad app from their startup, on the Apple App Store. Nkyea Basic Swahili, which sells for $2.99, contains more than 650 essential words and...

Featured Translator: Fabienne Der Hagopian

Fabienne Der Hagopian is a volunteer translator for Global Voices in French. Being of Armenian descent, she has translated into French many posts about the Caucasus, but is also passionate about the world at large. Fabienne reflects on her experience as a volunteer translator.

China: the Mainland Rhetoric

  9 June 2011

Jacky Liu, a mainland Chinese student in Hong Kong, writes a reflective piece about mainland students’ rhetoric in making public speech in China Hush

Equatorial Guinea: A Language That Ignores Human Rights

  7 June 2011

In June the membership of Equatorial Guinea to the Countries of the Portuguese Speaking Community will be considered. Bloggers discuss the weakness of historic and linguistic arguments and the country's wealth of natural resources. They also recognize the constant human rights abuses that go against the orienting principles of the Community.

Indonesia: English speeches are illegal

  6 June 2011

nrg07 mentions an Indonesian law which requires top government officials to use the Bahasa Indonesia language when making speeches. Recently, a constitutional expert said that the Prime Minister's English speeches should be considered illegal.

India: Six More Official Languages For West Bengal

  3 June 2011

Raja Basu at Potpourri comments on the revolutionary decision of Mamata Banerjee-led TMC-Congress government of West Bengal to add six more official languages: “There are some loopholes in the government’s logic, which I cannot ignore.”