Language Reform

Author : Geoffrey Lewis
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191583227
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Turkish Language Reform : A Catastrophic Success written by Geoffrey Lewis and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 1999-11-18 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first full account of the transformation of Ottoman Turkish into modern Turkish. It is based on the author's knowledge, experience and continuing study of the language, history, and people of Turkey. That transformation of the Turkish language is probably the most thorough-going piece of linguistics engineering in history. Its prelude came in 1928, when the Arabo-Persian alphabet was outlawed and replaced by the Latin alphabet. It began in earnest in 1930 when Ataturk declared: Turkish is one of the richest of languages. It needs only to be used with discrimination. The Turkish nation, which is well able to protect its territory and its sublime independence, must also liberate its language from the yoke of foreign languages. A government-sponsored campaign was waged to replace words of Arabic or Persian origin by words collected from popular speech, or resurrected from ancient texts, or coined from native roots and suffixes. The snag - identified by the author as one element in the catastrophic aspect of the reform - was that when these sources failed to provide the needed words, the reformers simply invented them. The reform was central to the young republic's aspiration to be western and secular, but it did not please those who remained wedded to their mother tongue or to the Islamic past. The controversy is by no means over, but Ottoman Turkish is dead. Professor Lewis both acquaints the general reader with the often bizarre, sometimes tragicomic but never dull story of the reform, and provides a lively and incisive account for students of Turkish and the relations between culture, politics and language with some stimulating reading. The author draws on his own wide experience of Turkey and his personal knowledge of many of the leading actors. The general reader will not be at a disadvantage, because no Turkish word or quotation has been left untranslated. This book is important for the light it throws on twentieth-century Turkish politics and society, as much as it is for the study of linguistic change. It is not only scholarly and accessible; it is also an extremely good read.

Author : Susan Richter
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000740528
Total Pages : 433 pages
Book Rating : 4.23/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Languages of Reform in the Eighteenth Century written by Susan Richter and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-10-18 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Societies perceive "Reform" or "Reforms" as substantial changes and significant breaks which must be well-justified. The Enlightenment brought forth the idea that the future was uncertain and could be shaped by human beings. This gave the concept of reform a new character and new fields of application. Those who sought support for their plans and actions needed to reflect, develop new arguments, and offer new reasons to address an anonymous public. This book aims to compile these changes under the heuristic term of "languages of reform." It analyzes the structures of communication regarding reforms in the 18th century through a wide variety of topics.

Author : William S.-Y. Wang
Publisher : Oxford Handbooks
ISBN 13 : 0199856338
Total Pages : 793 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Linguistics written by William S.-Y. Wang and published by Oxford Handbooks. This book was released on 2015 with total page 793 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Linguistics offers a broad and comprehensive coverage of the entire field from a multi-disciplinary perspective. All chapters are contributed by leading scholars in their respective areas. This Handbook contains eight sections: history, languages and dialects, language contact, morphology, syntax, phonetics and phonology, socio-cultural aspects and neuro-psychological aspects. It provides not only a diachronic view of how languages evolve, but also a synchronic view of how languages in contact enrich each other by borrowing new words, calquing loan translation and even developing new syntactic structures. It also accompanies traditional linguistic studies of grammar and phonology with empirical evidence from psychology and neurocognitive sciences. In addition to research on the Chinese language and its major dialect groups, this handbook covers studies on sign languages and non-Chinese languages, such as the Austronesian languages spoken in Taiwan.

Author : Atsuko Ueda
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520381718
Total Pages : 172 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Language, Nation, Race written by Atsuko Ueda and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2021-06 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Language, Nation, Race is an exceptional book. It not only provides a cogent interpretation of Meiji-era linguistic and literary reform movements, but it also productively challenges the current scholarly consensus regarding the meaning of these movements. On top of that, Ueda makes an entirely original and convincing argument about the relevance of 'whiteness' to the understanding of linguistic, aesthetic, and cultural values within these movements."––James Reichert, Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford University "A remarkable accomplishment, bound to have a lasting impact in the field of Japan Studies and beyond. Ueda’s compelling reading of Meiji period literary and linguistic debates opens new avenues for a philosophical questioning of phoneticism and its significance to the formation of the geopolitical categories of 'West' and 'non-West.'"––Pedro Erber, author of Breaching the Frame: The Rise of Contemporary Art in Brazil and Japan

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 500 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Language Reform written by and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : John DeFrancis
Publisher : New York : Octagon Books, 1972 [c1950]
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.65/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Nationalism and Language Reform in China written by John DeFrancis and published by New York : Octagon Books, 1972 [c1950]. This book was released on 1972 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Nanette Gottlieb
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429684630
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.30/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Language and the Modern State written by Nanette Gottlieb and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-11-05 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1991, this book examines the process whereby a modern colloquial style of written Japanese was developed in the context of the overall modernization of Japan. The book examines the process whereby this strategic simplification took place in Japan, beginning with a discussion of the background to the problem and the reasons why change was indicated. The history, characteristics and spheres of the four major styles found in documents of the modern period are examined, as are initial moves towards language reform in the fields of education and printed media. Separate illustrations in Japanese script are provided to give an idea of the changing visual complexity of texts; in-text references, however, are romanized except where the use of characters is essential. Wherever possible, English sources are cited in addition to Japanese; where published translations are available, these are cited in order to enable non-speakers of Japanese to follow up references if they so desire.

Author : Mont Follick
Publisher : Manchester University Press
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Case for Spelling Reform written by Mont Follick and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 1965 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Sally McConnell-Ginet
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108427219
Total Pages : 339 pages
Book Rating : 4.10/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Words Matter written by Sally McConnell-Ginet and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-27 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring current and historical concrete examples and minimising technical vocabulary, Words Matter is for all interested in examining ideas about language and its connections to social conflict and change. Accessible to general readers, the book will also be useful in linguistics, philosophy, anthropology, or other classes featuring language.

Author : Jing Tsu
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0735214735
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Kingdom of Characters (Pulitzer Prize Finalist) written by Jing Tsu and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-01-17 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST A New York Times Notable Book of 2022 What does it take to reinvent a language? After a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world’s most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to leave them behind. In Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu argues that China’s most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the formidable Chinese language accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology. Kingdom of Characters follows the bold innovators who reinvented the Chinese language, among them an exiled reformer who risked a death sentence to advocate for Mandarin as a national language, a Chinese-Muslim poet who laid the groundwork for Chairman Mao's phonetic writing system, and a computer engineer who devised input codes for Chinese characters on the lid of a teacup from the floor of a jail cell. Without their advances, China might never have become the dominating force we know today. With larger-than-life characters and an unexpected perspective on the major events of China’s tumultuous twentieth century, Tsu reveals how language is both a technology to be perfected and a subtle, yet potent, power to be exercised and expanded.