Author Archive
Friday, April 16th, 2010
A quixotic debate
This week, an argument has been being waged in the Opinion section of the Sydney Morning Herald about the effect of the internet on language. It started with an article on Tuesday about Australian author Cate Kennedy, who fears literature is being threatened by the internet. She’s referring specifically to writers who become addicted to [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in English,Languages,Linguistics,Media,Technology,Writing by jangari
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
My new toy
On Sunday I went to the triannual1 Sydney Camera Market, which was basically a room full of old cameras, lenses, filters, as well as some new stuff. As an amateur photographer trying my hand at film photography, I found it very interesting. I’d never seen a Hasselblad in the flesh, and there was a huge [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Photography by jangari
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Rite of passage
I just arrived home after having my very first bicycle-vehicle collision, so I feel like I’ve had my initiation into cycling in Sydney (after cycling in and around Sydney for more than 18 months). I’m not injured – just a bruise on my thigh, a scratched arm, a sore hip and a tender shoulder (where [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Nothing in particular by jangari
Friday, November 27th, 2009
“The Greens won’t do anything about it”
As I was leaving the house the other morning, I took a quick look in the letterbox and found a small, fridge magnet-sized flyer1. I have to confess, I have no idea what the message in this is supposed to be. Why use the election cycle as the frame of reference? Is this an election [...]
15 Comments » - Posted in Politics by jangari
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
Maloo and Bathurst
Last night on SBS was the season final of Top Gear, one of my favourite shows. Ordinarily Top Gear and linguistics don’t mix particularly well, but last night’s installment had no less than two linguistically interesting bits, both in the same segment. The segment in question was the review of a couple of cars, both [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Indigenous,Languages by jangari
Monday, October 12th, 2009
The Wagiman Electronic Dictionary
Cross-posted at pfed.info. Last week, I undertook a brief fieldtrip to Pine Creek and Kybrook Farm, Northern Territory, to present the completed Wagiman Electronic Dictionary to the Wagiman community. It has been a long time coming as several of us have been working on this dictionary in our spare time for the last six months, [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Endangered Languages,Indigenous,Languages,Lexicography,Linguistics,Technology,Wagiman by jangari
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
The Outback in Sydney
This was what what Sydney looked like yesterday morning. A combination of severe drought in South Australia and strong westerly winds brought fine, iron-rich dust right to the coast. The air quality was 17 times worse (whatever that means) than usual, and several hundred people called for ambulances for respiratory problems. There’s also concern that [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Nothing in particular by jangari
Monday, September 14th, 2009
Bilingual education on Four Corners
In the last few weeks, the topic of bilingual education in Australia has been receiving a fair amount of coverage in the mainstream media. Last week, I happened upon an article in the Herald, echoing earlier reports in voicing the widespread opposition from educators and academics towards the Northern Territory government’s policy of English-only education [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Bilingualism,Education,Endangered Languages,Indigenous,Languages,Linguistics,Media,Wagiman by jangari
Monday, August 3rd, 2009
Dr Jangari
Nothing is official as yet, but I’m fairly confident that I can informally announce to the world that I will be commencing a Ph.D. next year. My topic will be Classical Tiwi, an Australian language that seems to have escaped the radar for serious documentary research of late. This is especially odd, given that Tiwi1 [...]
6 Comments » - Posted in Endangered Languages,Indigenous,Languages,Linguistics,Syntax,Tiwi,University by jangari
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Bilingual education back in spotlight
As Jane announced last week at Elac, a Research Symposium on Bilingual Education was held on Friday at AIATSIS, at which their 24th discussion paper was launched by Mick Dodson. Ordinarily, such an event wouldn’t even enter the consciousness of the population, and would soon slip into the æther. This symposium, however, and the discussion [...]
