Re-Branding Soviet-Jewish Nostalgia—Jewish Culture That Never Was

Dec 4, 2014 by

Re-Branding Soviet-Jewish Nostalgia—Jewish Culture That Never Was

A few weeks ago, I attended a most interesting talk by Prof. Anna Shternshis of University of Toronto, who presented her research on the ways that elements of Jewish culture are re-branded and marketed in today’s Russia. This post...

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Comments on “23 Maps and Charts on Language”

Nov 21, 2014 by

Recently, a reader drew my attention to a collection of 23 maps and charts on language, asking me to write a commentary on these materials. As I have already discussed many of these graphic materials in previous posts, here is a...

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A Striking New Map of Endangered Languages

Oct 26, 2014 by

A Striking New Map of Endangered Languages

[This post was originally published in April 2013] A striking map depicting endangered languages around the world can be found at the website of the Endangered Languages Project (ELP), the public portal of the Endangered Languages...

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Linguistic and Biological Diversity Overlap—But Why?

Oct 26, 2014 by

Linguistic and Biological Diversity Overlap—But Why?

[This post was originally published in May 2012] In the early 21st century biodiversity worldwide is sharply decreasing, with annual losses of plant and animal species estimated to be 1,000 times greater than historic rates. As the...

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Evidential markers in Yukaghir languages

Oct 10, 2014 by

Evidential markers in Yukaghir languages

[This post was originally published in April 2012] When a character in an English-language mystery novel says “The butler did it!”, we do not know if this person witnessed the crime, heard someone else make the accusation, or infers...

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Russification policies in Siberia

Oct 9, 2014 by

Russification policies in Siberia

[This post was originally published in March 2012] Siberia is a heavily Russified area – linguistically and culturally – of the Russian Federation. Not only do many ethnic Russians live there, but most members of the indigenous...

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