Linguistics 211: Languages of the World

Writing Assignments

You are responsible for two short writing assignments.  These are
due Monday, February 5, and Monday, Feb. 26.  Each report should be
about 750-1500 words (about 1.5-3 pages, single spaced), and reference 
at least three different sources of information.  At least one should be
something in print which can be found in Knight Library.  Some useful
bibliography and a list of relevant Web sites can be found on the 211
Web page.

Here are a few suggested topics.  These all concern general issues
that will be discussed at one time or another in class, but you don't
need to coordinate your assigments with the syllabus; feel free to
choose any topic for any due date.  If you want to pursue something
not on this list, check with me first:

Report on a political issue somewhere in the world that primarily   
concerns language.  For example:

          Legal repression of or arguments about the legal status of
               minority languages: Basque or Catalan in Spain, Basque
               or Breton in France, Hungarian in Romania, Russian in
               Latvia, Welsh or Scots or Gaelic in the United Kingdom,
               Kurdish in Turkey, French in Canada, Newari in Nepal,
               etc.  (see the links list 
               for some starting places).
          Arguments about the distinctiveness of Serbian/Croatian,
               Hindi/Urdu, Dutch/Flemish, etc.
          The political issue between Greece and Macedonia concerning
               the name of the Macedonian language.
          Issues concerning choice of official language(s) in a
               multilingual nation (Singapore, India, Paraguay, many
               African nations such as Nigeria, Kenya, Zaire, South
               Africa, etc.) 

Report on a recently deceased or nearly deceased language.  There have
been stories in the popular press over the last 10 years concerning
Ubykh, Winnebago, Kickapoo, and several others; you can find other
language names in the articles in the Endangered Languages section of
the Web page.  Try a Web search or use the periodical indexes for one
of these language names.

Discuss theories of the prehistory--i.e. the geographical origin and
spread--of some language family.  You need to choose a family for
which there is accessible information.  Good starting references for
Indo-European and Austronesian are given in the bibliography on the
Web page. If you are ready to tackle some more difficult readings I
can suggest references for Algonquian, Penutian, Uto-Aztecan, and
Australian languages.  I think you could probably find information to
write about Bantu, Afro-Asiatic, or Dravidian, though offhand I
couldn't tell you exactly where.  

Report on a creole language which has been or is now used as a lingua
franca in some part of the world (e.g. Tok Pisin, West African Krio,
Bislama, Papiamentu).