08/12/2017–15/12/2017 Headlines In spite of great logistical and manpower challenges, the Canadian federal government is aiming to introduce simultaneous translation of the House of Commons proceedings in indigenous languages, reports Radio Canada International. Proceedings are currently available for simultaneous translation in…

This week’s round up compiles language news from the last fortnight. 24/11/2017–08/12/2017 Headlines Great news! The US Senate has passed the Esther Martinez Native American Preservation Act (named in honour of storyteller and language advocate, Esther Martinez) on 29 November 2017,…

17/11/2017–24/11/2017 Headlines Learn introductory Gwich’in with this free course by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks! Gwich’in is the indigenous language of the Gwich’in people and is spoken in Alaska and Canada’s Yukon and Northwest Territories. The International Conference on Bilingualism: Language and…

10/11/2017–17/11/2017 Headlines This week marks the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Soviet Revolution, an event that had a striking effect on Russian orthography, grammar, and lexicon. Four “obsolete” letters were eliminated, feminine and neuter adjectives lost their distinct plural forms,…

This week’s round up compiles language news from the last fortnight. 27/10/2017–10/11/2017 Headlines The First Peoples Cultural Council of Canada has announced that its ground-breaking FirstVoices Dictionary Apps are now available for free download on all Android devices for the…

20/10/2017–27/10/2017 Headlines Popular language learning application Duolingo will soon be launching their new course for Mandarin Chinese! Get notified when it’s out here. Over in Spain, the restive region of Catalonia might soon see the takeover of their public broadcasters and prime…

13/10/2017–20/10/2017 Headlines The Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages announced the publication of materials from their efforts to document the Gta’ language, an endangered Munda language spoken in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh in India. Check out their audiovisual archive of words,…

06/10/2017–13/10/2017 Headlines For the first time in the history of Australia, the revival of indigenous languages of the land has been written into law. The New South Wales parliament ushered in the Aboriginal Languages Bill on Wednesday in recognition and…

29/09/2017–06/10/2017 Headlines The United Nations officially celebrated International Translation Day for the first time on 30 September! The newly-minted International Day pays tribute to “the work of language professionals who play a vital role in facilitating dialogue and understanding among…

22/09/2017–29/09/2017 Headlines Just in time for the Polyglot Conference happening 27–29 October in Reykjavík, language learning app Memrise‘s has a new Icelandic language course in the works! It will include 100 lexical items, audio, and “Meet The Natives” videos. Check it out…

15/09/2017–22/09/2017 Headlines In an effort to increase its presence in Africa, the BBC will be launching radio shows and three news websites in Ethiopia and Eritrea. These services will include news in Amharic (the official language of Ethiopia), Afaan Omoro (the…

08/09/2017–15/09/2017 Headlines A new law passed in Ukraine mandates that all public education beyond grade 4 be conducted in the Ukrainian language, a move denounced by the country’s minority Hungarian, Polish, and Romanian communities, reports the Budapest Beacon. Amidst the negative…