Linguae Europaeae

by Andrey Starostin In current events concerning Russia’s involvement with Ukraine, there is a lot to be said about the culture, specifically language(s), and their significance in influencing opinions and outcomes.  Crimea is today’s topic at hand, and in this blog I aim to address the elements making Crimea seem like a discrepancy in the first place. In reference to CNN’s article, “Ukraine cries 'robbery' as Russia annexes Crimea,” Matt Smith and Alla Eshchenko write about Russia’s claiming of Crimea.  They write, “Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called it ‘a robbery on an international scale,’ one that Kiev will never accept.” At the same time, they write of Putin’s exclaim, “’In our hearts, we know Crimea has always been an inalienable part of Russia.’” The way I view what I am labeling as “The Crimean Discrepancy” is a matter of perspective and opinions.  Perspective as a concept claims authenticity in terms of the “eye of the beholder.”  I woul...

by Kaitlyn K. Russell When we list reasons to go abroad, one of the most common is learning a foreign language. Attending the University of Bologna in Italy allowed me to become fluent in one of the world's most beautiful languages, but it also allowed me to access a lesser-known dialect: Bolognese (Bulgnaiś, to the speakers). The dialect did not make itself immediately known-- most of the inhabitants of the city are university students and professors, hailing from across the country and around the globe. We favored standard Italian in the classroom and on the streets. I was never asked out for a vén or a cafà but rather a bicchiere di vino (a glass of wine) or un caffè (a coffee). "Nutella" is also Bolognese for Nutella ☺ Most of my contact with Bolognese came from teaching English at the local middle school, Scuola Secondaria Gandino. Although at first I was caught off guard-- a child missing their mèder (mother) was strange to me-- I grew to love the ...

Zsuzsanna Fagyal  is an EUC-affiliated faculty member. This article was originally posted in the Spring 2014  School of Literatures, Cultures, and Linguistics Newsletter . Zsuzsanna Fagyal, associate professor of French Zsuzsanna Fagyal was used to teaching small seminars, so the first time she walked into the classroom for a newly revamped course called “Language and Minorities in Europe,” she couldn’t believe her eyes: “I almost fainted!” she remembers, laughing. As it turned out, 62 students had shown up on the first day of classes, interested in the content. That was in 2011. Today, “considerable” is how she describes interest in the course, which Fagyal, an associate professor of French, and Professor Doug Kibbee started at the U of I seven years ago. The course marked the first time an academic department (French) and the European Union Center (EUC) joined forces for course development. According to Fagyal, the course was based “on Doug’s vision,” pri...

by Amy Lundell The time to nominate yourself as Welsh Learner of the Year  for 2014 has just recently passed—the deadline was March 31st—but don’t lose hope, there’s always next year! Oh, you never even considered nominating yourself for this prestigious award? Why is that? As long as you (1) are at least eighteen years old, (2) started learning Welsh in the last ten years, and (3) speak Welsh quite fluently, you are eligible to apply! Oh I see, you don’t know any Welsh… yet. Welsh , a Celtic language, is one of two official languages in Wales, an autonomous community of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth on the west coast of the British Isles. English is the other official language of Wales, and a number of government policies assure that English and Welsh receive equal treatment: Welsh Language Act 1993, Government of Wales Act 1998, and The National Assembly for Wales Official Languages Act 2012. Although English and Welsh are considered equals, for exampl...

Dr. Zsuzsanna Fagyal , Associate Professor in French and a European Union Center-affiliated faculty member, was featured on WBEZ's program Worldwide. From the webpage: The European Union has 28 member states and 24 official languages. With a staff of 1,750 linguists it has one of the largest translation services in the world. In 2005 it set a goal to “increase individual multilingualism until every citizen has practical skills in at least two languages in addition to his or her mother tongue.” Some countries have done better than others in achieving that goal.  We’ll take a look at why some countries have succeeded while others lag behind with Zsuzsanna Fagyal, a professor of French at the University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign.   She’s working on a book "Languages and Minorities in Europe” She’s also affiliated with the European Union Center at the University of Illinois. If you wish to listen to the conversation, you can do so below or by visiting the WBEZ Worldvi...

Welcome to a new season on Linguis Europae ! No, this is not an April’s fool joke! We are delighted to announce the official opening of a new season of exciting blog entries on European languages and their relationship to political integration, identity, conflict, and migration in the twenty-eight member states of the European Union and beyond. In the great tradition of your favorite TV series, here are some of the highlights that you might find especially interesting to read on this site every other week. There is, first of all, the language and politics in Ukraine, the talk of the global village since Crimea became – yet again – officially Russian-speaking in March 2014. As you will find out from a series of blog entries featured on our site in the next few months, tensions over status-planning for Russian in the Ukraine have been building up for quite some time. In the summer of 2012 the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych wrote into law that Russian can become a regional mino...