Stories about Language
Explaining the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China: Struggle and fight
Overseas Chinese dissidents anticipate an endless struggle targeting different social groups in China.
One of the last Ladino language speakers in Bosnia, Moris Albahari, passed away
Ladino or Judeo-Spanish is an endangered Romance language derived from Old Spanish, used by around 60,000 Sephardic Jews living in the Israel, Turkey, the Balkans, North Africa, and other former parts of Ottoman Empire.
Explaining the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China: Jiangshan
The political rhetoric, which reflects the determination of the party to safeguard the single-party system with force, however, has become less and less appealing.
The struggle to maintain an independent russophone voice in Moldova
In de facto bilingual Moldova, russophone media Newsmaker offers independent coverage as an alternative to pro-Moscow media that influence a large part of the population, including about Ukraine.
Russian social media users now also want to say no to war while not actually saying it
Russians have to revert to language of allusions yet again if they want to continue anti-war resistance.
“We also speak Russian in Moldova, but don't want to have anything to do with the so-called Russian World”, says Moldovan writer Iulian Ciocan
Moldovan writer Iulian Ciocan explains how his country continues to negotiate its linguistic and literary identity between its neighbors Russia and Romania, as the war in Ukraine intensifies.
Twitter Space: The Ukrainian language and its global significance
Read excerpts from our Twitter space on the Ukrainian language, the best tools for learning Ukrainian, parallels between Ukrainian refugees and other displaced peoples, and more. Find the full audio here.
My journey to learning Ukrainian and the online language tools that took me there
"For me, languages are an important way of making sense of the world and creating connections."
Gender equality in Ukrainian language: Feminine forms of professions now given full recognition
Ukrainian feminitives appeared in dictionaries about two centuries ago, acknowledging the growing social equality of women. Today they have been sanctioned by Ukrainian authorities and are widely used.
As Jamaica celebrates her birthday, Google captures cultural icon Miss Lou’s spirit in a Doodle
'The beloved Jamaican poet, performer and activist empowered her country to take pride in its unique language.'
Meet Ganesh Birua, a champion who is bringing the indigenous Ho language online
Ganesh Birua is a young activist from the Indian state of Odisha. Rising Voices talked with Birua to learn about his efforts to bring his mother tongue to the internet.
Alhassan Alidu is uplifting the Moore language by bringing it online
As the executive director of the Moore Wikimedia Community, Alhassan is providing Moore with a digital platform that exists in the face of dominating Western media and languages.
Uzbekistan’s cancelled Silk Road Literary Festival reveals leftover Karimov mindset
The Uzbek Union of Writers' grievances against the Silk Road Festival Committee speak to the institution's continuing need to exercise a monopoly on the definition of Uzbek literature.
Why has Swahili not become Africa’s unifying language?
Despite all of these countries' strong intentions to make Kiswahili their motherland's lingua franca, geo-political differences and foreign influence remain as some of the obstacles that jeopardize its success.
Activist Emre Pshigusa talks about his work revitalizing the Circassian-Kabardian language
Through his research of the Circassian-Kabardian language at Ohio State University, Emre has been motivated to promote the language in digital spaces for its preservation.
Transposing satire: Two literary translators of Slovak share how they find inspiration
Two literary translators take on a book of Slovak satire, Daniel Majling's collection of short stories "Roosyan Klassiks," and reinterpret their work in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine
“Roosyan Klassiks”: An interview with Slovak writer Daniel Majling on Russia's cult authors and the current cancel culture
Slovakian writer Daniel Majling unpacks the notion of cancel culture in regard to Russian literature, and shares his views on the danger of ethnocentrism in this debate in this interview.
Amanat anthology: Women writers from Kazakhstan make their voices heard in English
Women writers from Kazakhstan seldom get their voices heard in English, but a new anthology in translation, called Amanat, opens the door for anglophone readers to an often ignored literature.
Decoding Chinese online lexicon: How Jade came to represent the Chinese President Xi Jinping
Overseas Chinese dissidents have successfully reinterpreted the term “Fei Cui” (jade) to mean “negating Xi” and “Xi dies.”
Please don't call the Myanmar military ‘Tatmadaw’
"I humbly ask international readers to make an effort to understand the current situation. And the first step in doing that is to use the correct terms for the military."
St. Lucia plans to implement the teaching of Kwéyòl in schools — but is it enough to revitalise the language?
"National identity [...] is a lived identity. Using an endangered language in school is only useful as part of a series of other national measures to support the language."
