25 replies to this topic

[busbus]

While we wait for more grad schools to hear back from - here's a question.. What languages have you studied, specialize in, or worked on? Or even speak (I was avoiding that question.. but there it is!). lol

I'm into Western Austronesian languages, Romance languages, some other Indo-European ones here and there, and just getting into Semitic ones (I took Modern Hebrew and now I have my eyes on Arabic). Plus East Asian languages.

You?

[ladyling]

I work primarily on Kyrgyz and related Turkic languages. Give me a good suffix and some vowel harmony and I'm set.

[Bumblebee]

I work with Spanish but I will be working with some Basque as well (I would like to do research on phonological consequences of the contact between Spanish and Basque in the Basque country)

[Triple Tall Cappuccino]

I work mostly with Romance languages (Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese). However, I've worked with Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Swahili, German, and Ladino.

Great topic! I'm really interested in what my future colleagues are working on!

[Robertpt]

My native is Mandarin Chinese, but I have worked on Hong Kong Cantonese for some time now. I would like to look at more varieties of Cantonese and Min/Taiwanese in the future. I plan to work on some minority languages in Southwestern China (fieldwork!) that are related to Thai and Vietnamese, which I also have tremendous interests in. Other than that, I know a little HKSL, and would like to look into sign languages to enrich my understanding of languages.

Besides, as a research assistant, I am working on some new varieties of English, and also a little bit with Korean and Spanish.

[Marina]

Russian and English. I'm a native Russian speaker

[Canadianlinguist]

I am a French/English speaker, and have worked mainly with germanic languages, spanish, german, italian, but am very interested in doing a phonologic investigation of Samali vowel sounds.

[busbus]

I am a French/English speaker, and have worked mainly with germanic languages, spanish, german, italian, but am very interested in doing a phonologic investigation of Samali vowel sounds.

Es-tu Québécois(e) ?

[Canadianlinguist]

Non, je suis de l'Ontario, mais je vennais d'une petite village d'acoute de Quebec...and props on using the accents I am so lazy I never do unless i have too!

[busbus]

I am anal about accents in any language. hahaha. :-)

Pretty cool! I studied Quebec French. I speak (or at least, I think!) French in a Quebec accent.

[antecedent]

I am anal about accents in any language. hahaha. :-)

Pretty cool! I studied Quebec French. I speak (or at least, I think!) French in a Quebec accent.

My French teacher in high school was German, but I did my French minor at UBC, where all the profs (save 2 or 3) are European, and all the students have Canadian French accents (though not necessarily Quebecois accents). Needless to say, my accent is very confused.

[busbus]

My French teacher in high school was German, but I did my French minor at UBC, where all the profs (save 2 or 3) are European, and all the students have Canadian French accents (though not necessarily Quebecois accents). Needless to say, my accent is very confused.

My Spanish accent is similar haha.. While I was focused on learning a particular variety of French, I had no such focus with Spanish and I was exposed to a variety of Latin American accents (though primarily exposed to Mexican & Puerto Rican). Spanish speakers remark I sound pretty close to native but they can't put their finger on where I am from - somewhere in Latin America, just not their country lol

[Canadianlinguist]

My Spanish accent is similar haha.. While I was focused on learning a particular variety of French, I had no such focus with Spanish and I was exposed to a variety of Latin American accents (though primarily exposed to Mexican & Puerto Rican). Spanish speakers remark I sound pretty close to native but they can't put their finger on where I am from - somewhere in Latin America, just not their country lol

My accent is soooo confused. Like I am still a french as a second language learner, but am orlaly close to bilingual. Clearly, growing up and in school I spoke Quebec French, but when I want to college in the U.S I did my French major and was taught by Europeans, and I studied abroad in Southern France, so yeah I am all mixed up too

[busbus]

My accent is soooo confused. Like I am still a french as a second language learner, but am orlaly close to bilingual. Clearly, growing up and in school I spoke Quebec French, but when I want to college in the U.S I did my French major and was taught by Europeans, and I studied abroad in Southern France, so yeah I am all mixed up too

I have a complicated relationship with English, and I'm a native. I think this is why we want to become linguists, to find out what the hell's wrong with us... ;-P

[Canadianlinguist]

I have a complicated relationship with English, and I'm a native. I think this is why we want to become linguists, to find out what the hell's wrong with us... ;-P

Lol very true, atually I am doing a really interesting phonology project right now, on that very idea!

[GeoLing]

I'm a native English speaker, and I studied French and German in high school. I lived in Hungary as an exchange student, so Hungarian is my best second language. I've also studied a little Turkish and Nepali, but just a couple months each. I'm really interested in the language situation in southeastern Europe, but I'm going for my PhD in Hawaii, so I have no idea what my next language will be!

[zahava]

I grew up speaking English, Spanish, Thai, and Isaan (Northeastern Thai). Lived in Italy and Japan for some time, so have some experience with those languages. Took three years of Mandarin during undergrad. Have worked on Hawaiian, Maori, Tahitian, Pidgin (= Hawaiʻi Creole, note the capital 'p'), Modern Hebrew, Yiddish, and Welsh. Haven't really worked on anything endangered, but would like to. 

 

 

When a linguist asks what language(s) I've worked on, I'm okay with it and perfectly open to discussing it. It just seems like a professional/academic curiosity. But when a non-linguist asks.. boy, cue the sighing and the "well..."s.  I'm sure you can all relate. 

 

@ GeoLing -- I'm at UH Mānoa! See you in the Fall! (I'll be the weird girl that always brings up Welsh examples in class   )

Edited by zahava, 17 April 2013 - 06:16 AM.

[GeoLing]

Hey, zahava, great to hear from you! You've got a great repertoire of languages to draw from. Can't wait to pick your brain in Honolulu!

[JoeyBoy718]

English monolingual here, like Chomsky. 

[goldheartmountaintop]

I speak English and Mandarin (and some German), but I mostly work on Inuktitut (the language/dialect continuum spoken by the Inuit in Northern Canada). I've also worked on Dinka (Nilo-Saharan) while during my undergrad. I'm hoping to continue working on both, but I'm also hoping to start looking at other languages too! I've also been sort of casually interested in Khmer for some time (for non-academic reasons), so I hope to be able to formally get into that during my PhD.