This year’s Festival of Libraries is headlined by Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Poet Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who will be joined by a host of authors, poets, historians, performers and more.

After winning Best Event at the Manchester Culture Awards in 2024, this will be the Festival’s fifth year.

Creative Manchester has curated a series of six free events for the Festival programme, showcasing our research, in partnership with the Centre for New Writing, Linguistic Diversity Collective and Manchester Histories.

Writing for Wellbeing workshops will see poets from the Centre for New Writing run three sessions at Middleton, Oldham and Walkden libraries, exploring how creative writing can positively impact wellbeing.

At Bolton Central Library, Manchester Histories and Creative Manchester will unveil their new Heritage for Wellbeing Toolkit, sharing insights into the toolkit’s development and inviting attendees to participate in one of the activities firsthand.

The Linguistic Diversity Collective have two workshops on offer. ‘What’s in a word, and what’s in a dictionary?’ will look at how dictionaries define words, and will take place at new Festival partner Manchester Cathedral Library.

‘Blackout the Jargon’ is a session of blackout poetry at Cheadle Library, inviting attendees to find art and meaning in scientific texts.

Find out more about the University’s Festival of Libraries workshops and book your free places by visiting Eventbrite.

This year will be the 9th International Mother Language Day observed in Greater Manchester, a celebration of the cultural diversity and vast number of languages spoken across the city region.

Creative Manchester, one of the University’s research platforms, will offer a series of events to mark the occasion in collaboration with partners and colleagues. All events are free to book and all are welcome.

• 19 February 2025 – The power of language: Creating Manchester memories - Hear from researchers, poets and collaborators about how they came together in the aftermath of the pandemic to create a book capturing local communities' experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic. This event will be held at Contact Theatre at 12pm.
• 21 February 2025 – Not all accents are created equal – A talk by the Linguistic Diversity Collective's Dr Alex Baratta on accentism within British teacher training, held at Manchester Museum at 12pm.
• 21 February 2025 – Looking for languages - A language themed trail around Manchester Museum offering visitors of all ages a chance to learn about and celebrate languages and multilingualism. The trail is held in partnership with the Linguistic Diversity Collective and Manchester Museum and takes place from 1pm.

To find out more about International Mother Language Day and the city’s celebrations, visit the Manchester City of Literature website.

Creative Manchester – the University’s creativity-championing research platform – hosted five workshop sessions in partnership with the Centre for New Writing, Programme in American Studies, and Linguistic Diversity Collective.

‘Writing for Wellbeing’ took place at Tameside, Rochdale and Bury Libraries on 13 - 15 June. Facilitators Rebecca Hurst, Tessa Harris and John McAuliffe worked with participants to explore the benefits of creative writing on personal wellbeing. 

One attendee commented:

‘Tasting Children’s Literature – An Edible Readathon’ returned on Friday, 14 June with two sessions: a private workshop for Reception children at St. Andrew’s C of E Primary School Levenshulme, held at Arcadia Library, and a public session at Manchester Central Library. Children enjoyed a storytime session with play food, colouring activities, and fruits to eat.

The Linguistic Diversity Collective held two well-attended workshops at The Portico Library on 12 and 14 June. The first, ‘What’s in a word and what’s in a dictionary?’ saw attendees take part in activities looking at how dictionaries define words and phrases. 

‘Blackout the jargon’ then invited participants to engage with scientific literature in a unique way through blackout poetry. 

Supported by Arts Council England, the Festival of Libraries 2024 was a testament to Manchester’s enduring commitment to literacy, learning, and inclusivity. 

Find out more about the Festival of Libraries here.

From 12-16 June 2024, Greater Manchester will once again celebrate the Manchester City of Literature Festival of Libraries – which promises a rich tapestry of vibrant events for all ages and interests.

Authors, poets, performers, artists and historians will share their love for libraries and literature across the region’s libraries. The Festival of Libraries programme is brimming with imagination and attendees can expect exhibitions, author talks, performances, installations, live music, workshops, and international collaborations. 

These free events highlight the diverse offerings of libraries, showcasing their role as service, learning and creativity hubs which are open to all.

Creative Manchester is delighted to be offering a series of workshops for the Festival of Libraries celebrations, partnering with the Centre for New Writing, Linguistic Diversity Collective and Programme in American Studies.

All workshops are free to attend but booking is required due to limited spaces.

What’s in a Word, and What’s in a Dictionary?: 

This session delves into the meanings of everyday words and idiomatic phrases, offering insights into how dictionaries define words and how language learners acquire vocabulary. Run by the Linguistic Diversity Collective. 

• Wednesday, 12 June 2024, 3pm - Portico Library

Writing for Wellbeing Workshops: 

Facilitated by professional writers from the Centre for New Writing, these workshops explore the positive effects of creative writing on mental health and wellbeing. 

• Thursday, 13 June 2024, 6pm - Ashton Library 
• Friday, 14 June 2024, 1pm – Heywood Library
• Saturday, 15 June 2024 – Ramsbottom Library

Blackout the Jargon: 

Participants will engage in blackout poetry, finding meaning in scientific texts by selecting certain words and redacting the rest to create literary and visual works of art. Run by the Linguistic Diversity Collective. 

• Friday, 14 June 2024, 3pm - Portico Library

Tasting Children’s Literature – An Edible Readathon: 

An immersive experience and read-a-thon of classic and contemporary children’s literature aimed at young children aged 0-8. Run by the Programme in American Studies staff and students. 

• Sunday, 16 June 2024, 1pm - Central Library

One in Ten: 

An immersive audio experience allowing listeners to walk in the footsteps of those with the misunderstood condition of chronic cough. Run by the ‘Let’s Talk About Cough’ project. 

• Wednesday, 12 June 2024, 12pm, 2pm and 6pm – Longsight Library
• Thursday, 13 June 2024, 12pm and 2pm – Longsight Library

More information on the Festival of Libraries 2024, including the full programme, can be found on the Manchester City of Literature website. 

This year was the 8th International Mother Language Day observed in Manchester, a celebration of the cultural diversity and the near 200 languages spoken across the city.

Creative Manchester collaborated with partners and colleagues to present a series of events to mark the occasion.

In partnership with the Linguistic Diversity Collective and Manchester Museum, a workshop and language themed trail offered visitors of all ages a chance to learn about and celebrate languages and multilingualism. The ‘Language of Life’ workshop, led by Dr Nick Weise and Dr Tine Breban, explored the origins of scientific vocabulary and where the terms we use for chemicals in the body come from. 

The ‘Looking for Languages’ trail gave families the chance to explore Manchester Museum’s exhibits while thinking about languages along the way. Children who took part commented, ‘I enjoyed it because I learned so many different things,’ ‘It was so good,’ and ‘It was fun exploring.’

In partnership with The University of Manchester and Lakes International Comic Arts Festival colleagues at Sheffield Hallam University hosted the annual ‘Comics Up Close’ conference, this year with the theme ‘Origin Stories’ and featuring keynote speakers Dave Gibbons, Steven Appleby and Karrie Fransman. An exhibition, ‘Collectives for Change’, featuring comics from the Arab world, ran alongside the conference. 

This exhibition is also currently hosted at The University of Manchester, in the Samuel Alexander Building’s glass corridor exhibition space, until Friday, 15 March 2024.

To find out more about International Mother Language day and the local celebrations, visit the Manchester City of Literature website.

This year will be the 8th International Mother Language Day observed in Manchester, a celebration of the cultural diversity and the near 200 languages spoken across the city.

Creative Manchester has coordinated with partners and colleagues from the Linguistic Diversity Collective, Manchester Museum, Sheffield Hallam University and the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival to present events including:

• Wednesday 21 February, all day - Comics Up Close conference - Origin Stories at Sheffield Hallam University
• Wednesday 21 February, 1pm-2pm – The Language of Life – Biochemical Etymology workshop at Manchester Museum
• Wednesday 21 February, 1pm-4pm - Looking for Languages: Half-term family trail around Manchester Museum

Running alongside the Comics Up Close conference at Sheffield Hallam University is the ‘Collectives for Change’ exhibition, showcasing the thriving new comic movement across the Arab world. 

We are delighted to also be hosting this exhibition here at The University of Manchester. 

You can view the exhibition in the Samuel Alexander Building glass corridor exhibition space, between 19 February-18 March 2024.

The full programme of IMLD 2024 events can be found on the Manchester City of Literature website.

Creative Manchester – the University’s creativity-championing research platform – offered five workshop sessions in partnership with the Centre for New Writing, Programme in American Studies and Linguistic Diversity Collective.

‘Writing for Wellbeing’ took place at Marple and Chetham Libraries on 7 and 8 June. Facilitators from the Centre for New Writing, Dr Rebecca Hurst and Tessa Harris, worked with participants to explore the benefits of creative writing on personal wellbeing.

Also at Chetham’s Library, ‘What’s in a word, and what’s in a dictionary?’ saw the workshop group work with staff from the Department of Linguistics and English Language to look at how we define the meanings of words.

‘Tasting Children’s Literature – An edible readathon’ ran for two sessions: a private session for EYFS children at St Andrew’s C of E Primary School Levenshulme, at Arcadia Library, and a session open to the public, at Manchester Central Library. Children enjoyed a story time session with play food, colouring activities and fruits to eat.

The Manchester City of Literature Schools Writing Trail, overseen by Creative Manchester research fellow, Dr Chad Campbell, is also currently being hosted on campus and can be found in the glass corridor exhibition space in Samuel Alexander Building.

This year’s Festival of Libraries was a huge success and has been nominated for a Saboteur Award in the category of Best Literary Festival.

Find out more about the Festival of Libraries.

Following the success of the past two years of celebrations, the 2023 festival showcases a vibrant programme of events in libraries across all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester.

Creative Manchester – the University’s creativity-championing research platform - is delighted to be offering several workshop sessions in partnership with the Centre for New Writing, Linguistic Diversity Collective and Programme in American Studies.

Writers from the Centre for New Writing will be facilitating a ‘Writing for Wellbeing’ workshop which explores how creative writing can have positive effects on mental health and wellbeing. ‘What’s in a word, and what’s in a dictionary?’ is a session run by the Linguistic Diversity Collective exploring the meanings of everyday words and idiomatic phrases. ‘Tasting children’s literature – An edible readathon’ is presented by academics and students in the Programme in American Studies and offers an immersive experience and readathon of classic children’s literature aimed at young children and their parents.

All workshops are free to attend but booking is required due to very limited spaces.

Writing for Wellbeing

• 7 June 2023 – Marple Library – 12pm-2pm
• 8 June 2023 – Chetham’s Library – 12pm-2pm

What’s in a word, and what’s in a dictionary?

• 9 June 2023 – Chetham’s Library – 11am-12pm

Tasting children’s literature – an edible readathon

• 11 June 2023 – Manchester Central Library – 12.30pm-1.30pm

Festival of Libraries is funded by Arts Council England and enjoys the support and collaboration of authors, artists and creatives, who all believe in the vital community and cultural role of libraries.

Find out more, including the full Festival of Libraries programme.

Families were invited to collect their ‘Looking for Languages’ trail sheets from members of the Linguistic Diversity Collective, find the language-related items and take part in associated activities - including writing your name in hieroglyphs, learning about palindromes and roaring like a dinosaur. Children received a ‘language detective’ badge after completing the trail.

The Linguistic Diversity Collective designed the trail, in partnership with Research Platform Creative Manchester and Manchester Museum, to encourage children to think about their own language and explore areas of linguistics in a fun and engaging way.

“We loved hunting the artifacts, thank you,” wrote Noah, who followed the trail with his brother Elias.

Parents who visited commented, “It’s guided very well, kids were engaged,” and “My 6-year-old daughter learnt a lot through the activity sheet and was interested in how to say a word in different languages.”

To keep up to date with activities run by the Linguistic Diversity Collective, which is part of the Department of Linguistics and English Language, you can sign up to their mailing list.

A new video podcast exploring multilingualism and linguistic diversity across the globe has launched, as part of Manchester City of Literature’s International Mother Language Day 2023 celebrations.

The podcast is hosted by Lecturer in Linguistics at The University of Manchester and current lead of the Linguistic Diversity Collective, Dr Serge Sagna. Dr Sagna has been active in contributing to, initiating and spearheading language revitalisation activities by using audio-visual media and producing literacy materials. He has previously organised and hosted a radio show in endangered language Eegimaa, and now brings his media skills to the ‘Multilingual World’ series.

‘Multilingual World’ features Dr Sagna in conversation with leading academics, and in future, multilingual speakers living in Manchester will also be invited to discuss their relationship with their languages, their sense of identity and their experience learning, transmitting, and using languages in their life in the city of Manchester.

On why he started the podcast, Dr Sagna says: “We all have one or more languages, spoken or signed, and everyone has an opinion about language. There is no education without language; no socio-economic development without language; no meaningful political stability without good language management.”

Two episodes are currently available:

• Episode 1 - Multilingualism in Manchester, with Dr Leonie Gaiser
• Episode 2 – Indigenous languages and revitalization, with Prof Gabriela Peréz Baéz (including a discussion on International Mother Language Day)

The podcast production is supported by the Creative Manchester Research Platform.

You can visit and subscribe to the Multilingual World YouTube channel here.

This year will be the 7th International Mother Language Day observed in Manchester, a celebration of the cultural diversity and the near 200 languages spoken across the city.

Creative Manchester has coordinated with partners and colleagues from the Linguistic Diversity Collective, Manchester Museum, Sheffield Hallam University and the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival to present the following events:

• 21 February, 10am-5pm - Comics Up Close conference: New perspectives in Comics 2023
• 12 April, 1pm-5pm - Looking for Languages: Half-term family trail around Manchester Museum

The full programme of IMLD 2023 events can be found on the Manchester City of Literature website.

‘Supporting Manchester’s language communities: Language endangerment and maintenance’ included a cross-disciplinary panel and marked the official launch of the Linguistic Diversity Collective. The event was well attended by University staff, students and members of the public both in-person and via Zoom.

The panel discussed key themes relating to the endangerment and maintenance of languages from a range of perspectives.

Panellists included:

• Chair: Dr Serge Sagna, Lecturer in Linguistics at The University of Manchester
• Julia Sallabank, Professor of Language Policy and Revival at SOAS
• John Claughton of the World of Languages, Languages of the World initiative
• John Wilson of World of Languages, Languages of the World and Head of Modern Languages at Cheadle Hulme School
• Munira Alsusa, headteacher of Manchester Arabic School

The Linguistic Diversity Collective (LDC) is a group of academics in the Departments of Linguistics and English Language and Modern Languages and Cultures who research and champion linguistic diversity both locally and globally.

Find out more about the Linguistic Diversity Collective here.

The Linguistic Diversity Collective and Creative Manchester present a free event taking place on 19 October at 5.30pm in the University of Manchester’s Alliance Manchester Business School penthouse event space.

‘Supporting Manchester’s language communities: Language endangerment and maintenance’ includes a cross-disciplinary panel and Q&A session, language activity stands and a drinks reception. The event is open to all University staff, students and members of the public.

This is a hybrid event and can be attended in person or via Zoom. In-person attendees will be welcomed with a wine/beer/soft drink reception, a goodie bag and the opportunity to take part in language activity stalls.

The panel will explore key themes relating to the endangerment and maintenance of languages from a range of perspectives, will discuss the importance of multilingualism and intergenerational transmission among different communities in Manchester and will address questions including the following:

• How do languages die?
• What is lost when a language dies and why should we care?
• How can languages be maintained in traditional and in urban contexts such as Manchester?
• What is the impact of multilingualism on language endangerment and language maintenance?

Panellists include:

• Chair: Dr Serge Sagna, Lecturer in Linguistics at The University of Manchester
• Julia Sallabank, Professor of Language Policy and Revival at SOAS
• John Claughton of the World of Languages, Languages of the World initiative
• John Wilson of World of Languages, Languages of the World and Head of Modern Languages at Cheadle Hulme School
• Munira Alsusa, headteacher of Manchester Arabic School

Places are free and can be booked here via Eventbrite.

The UK’s regional final of the 21^st international Chinese language competition took place in London last Monday, 27th June 2022. After two years of online broadcasts, Mandarin learners from universities across the UK took turns to impress the judges in person again. The competitors demonstrated their talents in two rounds, firstly their Mandarin speaking skills through speeches and secondly their cultural knowledge and creativity through a variety of performances.

William Hart (Chinese name 威廉) is the first Manchester student to win the UK Grand Prize. He, along with three other competitors, will now go on to represent the UK in the global finals that can hopefully take place in China. William’s excellent Chinese language skills, humorous conversations and charm won the judges and online/offline audiences over at once. The focus of his speech was his understanding of a healthy lifestyle and concern for environmental conservation. He then went on to stage a talk show in order to share valuable tips for learning Chinese.

At the start of lockdown, the medical student was looking for a challenge, and in just two years taught himself Mandarin Chinese to a really high level. This has not only helped him to stay focused during challenging times, but it has also allowed him to become more confident and make new like-minded friends. Watch him share his personal experience learning Mandarin!

Manchester’s second candidate, Aude Rajaona (Chinese name 湖妮), who is a final year student of Chinese and Business Management won the Excellence Award. She has been studying Mandarin for four years and wowed the judges with a singing and dancing performance of the Chinese folk song Jasmin Flower 茉莉.

Congratulations to both contestants – they are truly an inspiration for other learners!

Taking part in Chinese Bridge is a great way for non-Chinese university students to develop their language and presentation skills with a lot of fun in the process. Each year, Manchester Confucius Institute and Chinese Studies Department select students to represent The University of Manchester at the UK finals in London. The candidates receive coaching and support from CI staff to help prepare them for the competition. In recent years, Manchester’s students have achieved great successes with Gabriel Marriage winning 3rd price in 2020, Orla Fawcett being awarded the Best Talent Prize and Julia Makosa winning 2^nd Prize overall, representing the UK in the global finals in 2021.

Watch the UK Regional Final of the 21st 'Chinese Bridge' Competition 2022 back here.

The Department of Linguistics and English Language are hosting a special conference next week: a joint event combining the 29th annual meeting of the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA) and the ninth edition of the TripleA workshop for semantic fieldworkers. This TripleAFLA virtual conference will take place from the 28th of June to the 1st of July 2022.

The Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA) dates back to an initial meeting at the University of Toronto in 1994. Since then, the association has promoted the formal study of Austronesian languages, including, but not limited to, their phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. 

The TripleA workshop series for semantic fieldworkers was founded in 2014 by linguists from Potsdam and Tübingen with the aim of providing a platform for researchers who conduct theoretically-informed linguistic fieldwork that investigates meaning. Its focus is particularly on languages that are under-represented in the current research landscape.

You can find out more and register for free on the TripleAFLA website.

A new initiative in the Department of Linguistics and English Language has recently launched.

 The Linguistic Diversity Collective (LDC) comprises several academics in the department and aims to research and champion linguistic diversity locally and globally through research and public engagement activities.

The LDC will be taking part in two engagement activities in June, both of which are free to attend and open to the public.

Wednesday, 15 June sees a special event for multilingual parents and their young children take place as part of Manchester City of Literature’s Festival of Libraries 2022. ‘Have you seen my duckling? – Storytime in mother languages’ is an interactive session which introduces ways to help parents of minority languages make the most of their local libraries.

 These sessions can be booked online or at the host library:

Wednesday, 15 June 2022 - Storytime in Mother Languages – Leigh Library – 10am

Wednesday, 15 June 2022 - Storytime in Mother Languages – Pendleton Library – 1.30pm

  On Saturday, 25 June, the LDC joins the University’s Community Festival 2022, where participants can interact with activities and explore how they use their own languages and dialects.

 To find out more about the ldc, visit our website.

 You can also follow the LDC on Twitter and Facebook.

UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day is a worldwide annual observance held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism.

2022 is the fifth year that Manchester has celebrated International Mother Language Day. The events taking place this year involve libraries, cultural venues, community groups, universities, schools, poets and writers, collaborating and presenting language-focused events for communities across the city.

Civic Engagement is one of the University’s key strategic themes and our creativity-championing research platform Creative Manchester is delighted to be coordinating a number of online events with colleagues from HCRI and the Linguistic Diversity Collective, including:

• 22 February 2-4pm: Mother language(s) from my field site
  Staff and student fieldworkers will present video recordings and photos from their field sites; followed by a discussion of the sociolinguistic setting in which children learn to speak their mother language(s). 
   
• 22 February 7-8.30pm: (Heritage) language learning during and after a global pandemic: a virtual roundtable discussion
  A virtual roundtable discussion on the challenges and opportunities of (heritage) language learning during a global pandemic.
   
• 23 February 3.30-5pm: Kathputli Utsav
  Join us for Kathputli Utsav - A Festival of Traditional Indian Arts. Celebrate cultural and linguistic diversity with the Kathputli Colony, a colony of street performers in Delhi, India.
   
• 24 February 4pm: Explore your own Language – talking about time and space
  This online activity will actively involve speakers of different ages and proficiencies of languages spoken in Manchester - the intended audience are teachers and students at supplementary schools, those attending community centres, and anybody interested in exploring their own language. 

Find out more about International Mother Language Day 2022, including the full programme of events:

• www.manchestercityofliterature.com/project/international-mother-language-day/

Thomas returns to The University of Manchester, where he spent five years as Professor of Musicology and Head of the Division of Art History, Drama and Music. He has also held posts at Bangor University, the University of Frankfurt and the University of Huddersfield.

The role formally began on 1 July and is dedicated to developing and driving strategic decision-making across the School.

Professor Keith Brown, Vice-President and Dean of Humanities has said on the appointment: “I look forward to working with Thomas as he returns to Manchester in this new role. I am confident he will build on Alessandro’s many achievements and will lead the School from strength to strength." 

Prior to joining the University for his appointment as Head of School, Schmidt was Visiting Professor at the University of Frankfurt, before moving to the UK in 2005 as Professor and Chair of Music at Bangor University. From 2012, he was Professor of Music at The University of Manchester (later also leading the Division of Art History, Drama and Music), and from 2017 he was Dean of Music, Humanities and Media at the University of Huddersfield.

Thomas studied at the University of Heidelberg and as a Fulbright Scholar in Chapel Hill. His key research interests are in music of the 15th/16th and the 18th/19th centuries.

On his appointment, Professor Schmidt said: "I am delighted to have been appointed as Vice-Dean and Head of School of Arts, Languages and Cultures. I enormously look forward to returning to the institution where I previously spent some of the most fulfilling years of my career; I am honoured and excited to be working with a dedicated team of staff in one of the leading Arts and Humanities schools in the UK, and with the outstanding students it recruits.”

Due to popular demand, the deadline for entries for The University of Manchester Making a Difference Awards has been extended.

The new closing date is midnight on 24 January 2021. It is hoped the extension will help anyone struggling to meet the deadline due to the current challenging times.

The Making a Difference Awards provides the opportunity for staff, students, alumni and external partners to highlight the great work that goes on at The University and the huge difference they are making to the lives of others.

The Awards are open to all staff, students, alumni and external partners at The University. Individuals or teams can submit an entry for themselves, or be nominated by a third party. The Awards aim to celebrate, raise awareness and provide valuable recognition of how individuals and teams across The University are making a difference to the social and environmental wellbeing of our communities and wider society.

The award categories include the following:

• Outstanding benefit to society through research
• Outstanding teaching innovation in social responsibility
• Outstanding contribution to social innovation and environmental impact through enterprise
• Outstanding public and community engagement initiative
• Outstanding contribution to equality, diversity and inclusion
• Outstanding Professional Services for social responsibility
• Outstanding contribution to environmental sustainability
• Outstanding contribution to widening participation
• Volunteer of the Year Award

Further information, award criteria and the entry form can be found on the social responsibility website.

The University of Manchester’s School of Arts, Languages and Cultures (SALC) will be hosting a celebration to mark the strength and resilience of its students in a virtual event.

The celebration will take place at 3pm on Wednesday 16 December 2020, and will be available to view and return to on the SALC YouTube channel.

These celebrations are an opportunity to recognise the accomplishments of students throughout their studies, particularly acknowledging the resilience and strength they have shown over the course of a challenging year.

After the celebration, students will have the opportunity to attend a live, virtual event with staff and classmates from their Department.

Links for the celebrations will be sent out to students via email and are intended to complement the winter graduation ceremonies.

SALC encourages students to follow the SALC Twitter and Facebook accounts @UoMSALC to share positive memories and experiences of their time at The University of Manchester, using the hashtags #SALCGrad and #UoMGraduation and to direct any questions to salcstudents@manchester.ac.uk.

Time and date information

SALC Virtual Celebration

3pm on Wednesday 16 December

Department-specific live events (links to follow)

Art History and Cultural Practices: 4.30pm, Wednesday 16 December

Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology and Egyptology: 5pm, Wednesday 16 December

Drama and Film: 4pm, Friday 18 December

English & American Studies and Centre for New Writing: 5.30pm, Wednesday 16 December

History: 10am, Thursday 17 December

Humanitarian Conflict Response Institute: 4pm, Wednesday 16 December

Linguistics and English Language: 5.30pm, Wednesday 16 December

Modern Languages and Cultures: 4pm Wednesday 16 December

Music: 4pm, Wednesday 16 December

Religions & Theology: 1pm, Thursday 17 December

An Emeritus Professor from The University of Manchester has won the prestigious Yasnaya Polyana Literary Prize 2020 for her outstanding work in the foreign fiction category, the Russian translation of her novel, James Miranda Barry.

Patricia Duncker taught in the Department of English, American Studies and Creative Writing at The University of Manchester from 2007-2015, then became an Emeritus Professor for the department. She gave her acceptance speech from a windswept castle in Aberystwyth, West Wales, which was streamed from the Russian-hosted awards ceremony.

One of Russia’s most prestigious Literature Awards, the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Prize is presented by the Leo Tolstoy Museum Estate with Samsung Electronics. The judges of the Yasnaya Polyana Prize include famous Russian writers, critics and public figures, including Tolstoy’s great-great-grandson, Vladimir Ilyich Tolstoy as Chair of Judges. Tolstoy also advises President Putin on matters of culture and arts.

Watch Patricia’s inspiring acceptance speech here.

These celebrations are an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the accomplishments of students throughout their studies, particularly acknowledging the resilience and strength they have shown in unprecedented, challenging times.

At the celebrations, students will have the chance to enjoy recognition and tributes from their classmates, as well as messages from lecturers and staff across The University.

We encourage students to follow the SALC Twitter and Facebook accounts @UoMSALC to share positive memories and experiences of their time at The University of Manchester, using the hashtags #SALCGrad and #UoMGraduation.

The University came ahead of the universities of Liverpool, Edge Hill (Brighton), King’s College London and Leicester on the list on the basis of its strong British Council inspection reports.

EL Gazette reports that English language study is best pursued at British universities, as these institutions offer superior teaching, learning resources and course design.

Among Manchester’s strengths as a languages centre were staff management, student administration, facilities, learning resources, teaching, student care and leisure opportunities.

Language study at The University of Manchester is being opened up to wider audiences thanks to a generous scholarship from RWS.

The RWS Brode Scholarship is open to students from lower-income households and will support 50 students studying languages at Manchester between 2019 and 2021.

The RWS Brode Scholarship Programme has been set up by RWS, one of the world’s leading language and intellectual property support service providers. Named after RWS’ Chairman Andrew Brode, the fund will support 50 undergraduate students joining the University between 2019 and 2021 from a state school.

The scholarship programme includes mentoring from RWS staff, many of whom are linguists, offering support to students and careers advice. RWS will also be offering students the chance to enrol in summer internships and work experience schemes, with the potential to take on full-time graduate positions upon completion of their course.

“As one of the world’s largest language services providers, we see the growing demand for translation and interpreting services required to support our clients’ global business goals,” said Chairman of RWS Andrew Brode. “As a large employer of language graduates, we believe we have a role to play in encouraging the next generation to consider a degree in languages and support those who may not have the financial means to complete their studies.”

Professor of Latin American Studies, Head of Modern Languages and Cultures and Deputy Head of the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Karl Posso added: “Beyond the financial contribution, the opportunity for students to gain first-hand work experience through this programme will be invaluable as they consider future career opportunities. We are all very excited for the programme to start and to welcome our first cohort of students.”

Dr Morley’s popular online phraseology resource tool, the Academic Phrasebank, was created originally to assist non-native researchers to improve their academic writing.

Increasingly, the Academic Phrasebank is used by both non-native and native speakers to improve their writing from various subject areas. Another innovative characteristic is that the Phrasebank is not discipline-specific, ensuring inclusivity for all specialisms.

The Director of the Centre said:

"This is great news and recognition for John but also for the Centre. Coming on top of the British Council visit (the Centre was ranked the #1 University Language Centre in the country), it means that the ULC has real impetus at the moment".

We continue to congratulate Dr John Morley and the rest of the fantastic winners within the University.

• Find out more about the University Language Centre
• Visit The University of Manchester Intellectual Property (UMIP) website

The novel, which is based on a widower returning to his native India, was described by the University’s online arts journal, the Manchester Review, as "a compelling page-turner".

Dr Kalayil was born in Zambia in 1970 where her parents were teachers seconded from Kerala, India. She arrived in the UK aged eighteen and, after graduating, worked all over the world. She now teaches at The University of Manchester's University Language Centre and is currently completing a doctorate in Linguistics.

She lives near Manchester with her husband and two daughters.

The Writers' Guild Award ceremony took place at the College of Physicians in central London, on Monday, 15 January 2018. Amongst the presenters were Paul Merton, Daisy Goodwin, April De Angelis, Helen Lederer, Mata Haggis, Howard Read, Charlie Hardwick, Tony Grisoni, Lisa Evans, Natalie Cutler, Jack Docherty, Brenda Gilhooly and Stefan Booth.

More information:

• Writers Guild Awards

However, our research suggests that the perception of truth is slippery when viewed through the prism of different languages and cultures. So much so that people who speak two languages can accept a fact in one of their languages, while denying it in the other.

Bilingual people often report that they feel different when switching from one language to another. Take Karin, a fictitious bilingual, for example. She might use German informally at home with family, in the pub, and while watching football. But she uses English for more structured, professional aspects of her life as an international lawyer.

This contextual change of language is not simply superficial, it goes hand-in-hand with a host of perceptual, cognitive and emotional trends. Research shows that language linked to experiences shapes the way we process information. So if someone was to utter the words “Ich liebe dich” to Karin, she might well blush, but by the same token, “I love you” might not alter her cheek colour at all. It’s not a matter of proficiency: Karin is equally fluent in German and English, but her emotional experiences are bound more strongly to her mother tongue, simply because she experienced more fundamental, defining emotions as a child.

A substantial number of psychology experiments have shown that languages shape aspects of our visual perception, the way we categorise objects in our environment, and even the way we perceive events. In other words, our very sense of reality is constructed by the confines of the language we speak.

Less is known of whether language also shapes our higher-level knowledge, relating to concepts and facts. Until recently, it was commonly assumed that one’s understanding of meaning is shared across all the languages one speaks. However, we have been able to observe that this is not the case. Bilinguals actually interpret facts differently depending on the language they are presented with, and depending on whether the fact makes them feel good or bad about their native culture.

Understanding the truth relies on more than just understanding words spoken. pathdoc/Shutterstock

During one such study from our group, we asked Welsh-English bilinguals – who had spoken Welsh from birth and considered themselves culturally Welsh – to rate sentences as true or false. The sentences had either a positive or negative cultural connotation, and were factually either true or false. For example, “mining was celebrated as a core and fruitful industry in our country” has a positive connotation and is a true statement. Another similar yet subtly different example is “Wales exports prime quality slate to every single country”, which is a positive yet false statement. The statement “historians have shown that miners were heavily exploited in our country” is negative and true. And finally, “the poor work ethic of miners ruined the mining industry in our country” is negative and false.

Our bilingual participants read these sentences in both English and Welsh, and as they categorised each one, we used electrodes attached to their scalps to record the implicit interpretation of each sentence.

We found that when sentences were positive, bilinguals showed a bias towards categorising them as true – even when they were false – and that they did this in both languages. So far, no surprise. But when sentences were negative, bilinguals responded to them differently depending on whether they were presented in Welsh or in English, even though the exact same information was presented in both of the languages.

In Welsh they tended to be less biased and more truthful, and so they often correctly identified some unpleasant statements as true. But in English, their bias resulted in a surprisingly defensive reaction: they denied the truth of unpleasant statements, and so tended to categorise them as a false, even though they were true.

This research shows the way in which language interacts with emotions to trigger asymmetric effects on our interpretation of facts. While participants’ native language is closely tied to our emotions – which perhaps comes with greater honesty and vulnerability – their second language is associated with more distant, rational thinking.

Make no mistake, our bilingual participants knew what was factually true and what was factually false – as revealed by the brain activity measures – but functioning in the second language appeared to protect them against unpalatable truths, and deal with them more strategically.

Manon Jones, Senior Lecturer of Psychology, Bangor University and Ceri Ellis, Research Associate, University of Manchester

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The Language Forum, which is being launched this week, will work to ensure all communities in Manchester get equal access to services. 

The initiative, led by The University of Manchester’s Multilingual Manchester project, will support the language needs of residents in the city, which is thought to have the densest multilingual population for its size in the UK.

The Forum is being co-convened by the NHS Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups, The Big Life Group, and Manchester College and is the first programme of its kind in the UK. It will link up key sectors in the city and invite participation from interested stakeholders.

The Forum will focus on the advantages of maintaining community languages, on innovative ways of meeting interpretation and translation needs, and on ways to provide support for people to learn English. Another key driver is to harness Manchester’s language diversity and use this asset to benefit the city and its people in the future. 

Professor Yaron Matras directs the University of Manchester’s Multilingual Manchester project. He said: “In Manchester the community languages with the largest number of speakers are Urdu, Arabic, Chinese, Bengali, Polish, Panjabi, and Somali. This city can boast an estimated 200 different languages spoken by its long-term residents.”

Matras continued: “I can confidently say that our numerous languages are not a barrier, but a rich resource which holds powerful potential on a local and global scale. We hope the Language Forum will benefit schoolchildren, their careers and their communities in the near future, and push Manchester ahead in global commerce.”

Notes for editors

Professor Matras is available for comment via the Media Relations Office.

Media enquiries to:
Kath Paddison
Media Relations Officer
The University of Manchester
Tel: 0161 275 0790
Mob: 07990 550050
Email: kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk

This Is (Not) A Love Poem is the result of a Twitter-led project to create a new chaotic poem inspired by The University of Manchester Library’s Special Collections. From 26 January to 6 February, followers were asked to tweet a line of poetry in response to 12 collection images, keeping within Twitter’s 140 character limit.

The project hashtag #jrlpoem15 received over 1.3 million timeline deliveries, reaching over 400,000 accounts.  It received support and retweets from poetry associations across the UK, regional poets and writers, other North-West cultural assets and art movements such as Manchester International Festival. Over 200 tweets were considered for the final poem, which was constructed in a public-led poetry workshop held at the Library on Saturday 7 February.

The project is part of a wider initiative to explore how social media can help to open up the Library’s collections for new interpretations and the new audiences. The chosen images were created during The University’s digitisation programme, which is aimed at increasing accessibility to over one million rare and precious books, maps, manuscripts and visual materials. Featured images included carbonised Greek papyri, William Blake artwork, an illustrated Latin anatomy text and even a cartoon from Punch magazine.

Head of Special Collections at The University of Manchester Library, Rachel Beckett said: “We really want to open up our Special Collections to new media formats and encourage our social media followers to interpret items in a new way. I’m delighted with what they have given us”.

Project Manager, Gwen Riley-Jones said: “It’s been exciting to work on a project that created something virtual and then made it a physical part of the Library. The poetry workshop was immense fun - some people taking part said this was their first attempt at poetry since school”.

This Is (Not) A Love Poem is on display in the main atrium at The John Rylands Library along with a sound recording in the Chamber Gallery. A special poetry corner has also been installed in the Historic Reading Room, where visitors inspired by the poem can leave their love declarations.

The poem is currently being translated into other languages, including Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, Mandarin and Braille, to reflect the broad appeal of The John Rylands Library, Manchester’s #1 rated visitor attraction on Trip Advisor.
 

Notes for editors

Images of the Greek Papyri and the poem on display as well as a copy of the final poem are available upon request.

The John Rylands Library located in central Manchester is acknowledged to be one of the great libraries of the world and one of the finest examples of neo-Gothic architecture in Europe. The Library was founded by Mrs Enriqueta Rylands as both a tribute to her late husband John and as a gift to the people of Manchester. Since its opening in 1900, the Library has held rare and precious maps, books, manuscripts and visual materials spanning over 5000 years. Now part of The University of Manchester Library, it houses over 1.4 million items from The University’s Special Collections. Today, the Library is open to the general public and its growing archive is used extensively by The John Rylands Research Institute and visiting academics from across the world.

Press enquiries:

Kath Paddison
Media Relations Officer
The University of Manchester
Mob: 0161 275 0790
Email: kath.paddison@manchester.ac.uk

The BSL/English bilingual team has been awarded £200,000 for a unique project to investigate the cultural and social impact of translation on Deaf people who rely on sign language interpreters to be understood and participate in hearing society.

The award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) will assist two deaf and two hearing researchers to take a novel approach in combining Translation and Interpreting Studies, Deaf Studies and Social Research.

They will look at how translation shapes and projects Deaf culture and what impact it has on Deaf people’s own identity, achievement and well-being.

Professor Jemina Napier, from the Centre for Translation & Interpreting Studies Scotland (CTISS) at Heriot-Watt University, explained, “The majority of people rarely, if ever, have the experience of being interpreted or translated. If they do it is usually confined to occasional social, business or official situations, not a permanent, everyday experience.

“However, for Deaf British Sign Language (BSL) users, interpretation is normally a part of everyday life. They understand people’s perceptions of who they are through their sign language interpreter. Other people’s experience of Deaf people is also largely formed indirectly through the use of interpreters.

“To date analyses of translation and identity have focussed on the identity of the translator, but not on the user, and particularly not on the user who is in a permanent state of being translated.”

The project is one of only eight Research Innovation Grants funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council under the Translating Cultures Theme. It is being jointly led by Professor Jemina Napier at Heriot-Watt University and Professor Alys Young, alongside Co-Investigator Rosemary Oram, at The University of Manchester, in collaboration with the Deaf community organisation Action Deafness, and the Deaf-led video production company AC2.Com.

Professor Alys Young, from the Social Research with Deaf People (SORD) programme at The University of Manchester, said, “The results of this unique study will inform theories on translation, identity and well-being, and will trial a new methodology for conducting research with visual languages. The results will benefit  parents of deaf children, sign language interpreters, and hearing people who work with Deaf sign language users, as well as Deaf people themselves.”

Craig Crowley, Chief Executive Officer at Action Deafness, added, “Action Deafness is proud to be among the community partners assisting with the 'Translating the Deaf Self' project. We are delighted with this funding from AHRC as this will help pave the way forward for recognising the cultural identity of Deaf people through sign language."

Notes for editors

This project is specifically about people who are Deaf and use British Sign Language (BSL). Deaf with a capital ‘D’ usually refers to that group of people who use BSL, while deaf with a lower-case ‘d’ is used to refer to the many people who experience a deterioration in their hearing as they become older.

British Sign Language provides Deaf people with a way of fully communicating, receiving information and participating in all aspects of life. About 50-60,000 people use BSL as their preferred or only way of communicating. BSL is not a set of gestures or a visual way to represent English. It is an independent language, developed in the Deaf community centuries ago, that is unrelated to English.

There is a strong community of Deaf people united by a common language and way of life – this is usually called Deaf culture. Deaf people access information through sign language interpreters in education, at work, to see the doctor, and to attend conferences. Interpreters are typically paid for by the Government’s Access to Work scheme, or through disability student support or healthcare or legal interpreting provisions.

For further information contact

Giselle Dye or Barbara Fraser
Pagoda PR for Heriot-Watt University

Tel: 0131 556 0770
Mob (out of hours only): 07739 085023
Email: Giselle.dye@pagodapr.com or Barbara.fraser@pagodapr.com

or

Aeron Haworth
Senior Media Relations Officer
The University of Manchester

Tel: 0161 275 8387
Mob: 07717 881563
Email: aeron.haworth@manchester.ac.uk

Some Brits with regional accents see themselves as frauds when they change their accent to cope with social situations, according to a University of Manchester linguist.

Though accent modification is common, Dr Alex Baratta says it can threaten the way we feel about our personal identity, often causing anger and frustration.

Workplace meetings with ‘posh’ sounding senior managers, he says, can be especially stressful for an individual with a more pronounced regional accent.

Job interviews, speaking to lecturers and even speaking on the phone are other areas of concern, he says.

Dr Baratta’s research is based on an ongoing survey of children, students and staff from different institutions and schools, involving 98 people so far.

It reveals that while most accept the practice, a third of respondents say they feel like a fraud when they consciously modify their accent.

Though accent modification and the relationship between accent and identity are well researched, it is the first time anyone has attempted to investigate how accent modification in Britain affects the way we feel about ourselves.

The researcher, based at The University’s Manchester Institute of Education said: “Many Brits consciously modify their accent in social situations as a means to create a better impression.

“While this is a common practice, we should not assume that it is accepted by all speakers without issue.

“As part of my ongoing research, many participants see accent modification as synonymous with selling out and a clear threat to their sense of self.

“This is why ‘accentism’ should be taken seriously as a problem which affects many of us.

“Clearly, most people modify their accent not because they lack pride in it, quite the opposite in fact. It’s actually because they fear the negative perceptions others might have of them if they don’t, especially in work-related contexts.”

Dr Baratta argues that potential employers should state in writing that applicants’ accents will not be used against them.

He also says application forms should request applicants to ‘state their accent’, perhaps the last taboo, alongside other identities such as gender, sexual orientation, religion, age and race.

He added: “We should acknowledge that any form of workplace discrimination, to include accentism, should not be tolerated in a society which seeks to be more inclusive.

“This is especially true in education, where teachers in particular may feel pressure to modify their regional accent in order to be perceived in a more positive light by students and fellow staff alike."

Examples revealed by Dr Baratta’s research include:

• A teacher from Rossendale “felt disgusted” with himself for modifying his accent at a job interview.
• A Mancunian woman feels “fake, angry and upset” for modifying her accent with her lecturers, and believes she is “betraying” who she really is.
• A Liverpudlian stated that accent modification, mostly practiced in business contexts, leaves him feeling “whipped.”

Notes for editors

Dr Baratta’s scheme is funded by The Research Councils UK (RCUK) funded School-University Partnership Initiative (SUPI) which is a three-year catalyst scheme providing opportunities for schools and universities to bring contemporary research to life for young people. For more details visit: http://www.supi.manchester.ac.uk/

Dr Baratta is available for comment

For media interviews contact:
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567

An academic who fled from the horrors of Nazi Germany in 1939 as an 11-year-old child has bequeathed over £1.5 million to The University of Manchester.

Professor Fanni Bogdanow, who died in July 2013 aged 86, was one of the 10,000 Jewish children rescued by the UK in a mission known as the Kindertransport.

Her legacy will fund a series of lectures which will take place around Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January starting from next year, prizes for high performing students and includes a significant gift to provide flexible support for the University’s strategic priorities.

Professor Bogdanow, an only child with no surviving close relatives, was taken in by a Quaker family in Denton.

She was one of the few Kindertransport children whose parents survived, between them, the appalling concentration camps of Dachau, Wulzberg and Bergen-Belsen. She was reunited with her mother in Manchester during the 1950s.

After receiving distinctions in seven out of eight subjects at Fairfield High School for Girls, she was awarded three entrance scholarships to the University in 1945 where she studied French.

She went on to spend much of her career at the University as postgraduate student, lecturer, reader and professor, to become one of the world’s foremost scholars in her field - King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester, said: “Professor Bogdanow was a remarkable scholar with a remarkable story. She was able to conquer extreme adversity to become one of the leading scholars in her field and a valued member of the University community.

“We are delighted she left this sum to the University. This will be used in a manner which will serve as a fitting tribute to her memory.”

Dr Matthew Philpotts, took his undergraduate degree at Manchester in French and German between 1991 and 1996.

He is now head of Languages and Intercultural Studies and a former student of Professor Bogdanow.

He said: “I was fortunate enough to have classes with Fanni when I was a student here in the early 1990s. She made no secret of her background and often mentioned it in class, but I don’t think any of us realised quite how remarkable her personal history was. Like so many of the best academics, she had a considerable presence and gave us a rare insight into the importance of her subject.”

Notes for editors

Dr Philpotts is available for interview

An image is available

For media enquires contact:
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

Whereas ‘pants’-wearing Northerners enjoy a ‘bap’, ‘bun’ or ‘barm’ for their ’tea’, Southerners in ‘trousers’ are more likely to tuck into a ‘roll’ for their ‘dinner’, find language researchers at The University of Manchester.

A survey of 1400 English speakers by linguist Dr Laurel MacKenzie and her students reveals a North-South divide on how we describe everyday items such as bread, trousers, footwear and evening meals.

They also show how Northerners and Southerners can pronounce the same words in completely different ways.

In an example, ‘one’ and ‘gone’ typically rhyme when spoken by Northerners, but not Southerners. In addition, ‘give it me’ is more acceptable in the North whereas they’re more likely to use ‘give it to me’ in the South.

Also according to the survey, Brummies can’t make up their mind if they’re Northern or Southern: like their Northern neighbours, they rhyme ‘one’ and ‘gone’, but they mirror the South in calling the evening meal ‘dinner’ and fail to rhyme the words ‘foot’ and ‘strut’.

The way we describe soft round bread is also subdivided into smaller regions: ‘bun’ is common in Tyneside, ‘barm’ and ‘muffin’ in the North West, ‘teacake’ North of Manchester and ‘cob’ in the Midlands. Southerners stick to the less exotic ‘rolls’.

And only Scousers rhyme the words ‘fur’ and ‘bear’ along with the nearby residents of Merseyside, St. Helens and Wigan.

People between the ages of 10 and 87, spanning a geographical region from Moray in Scotland to Cornwall responded to the survey by the students, now in their third year.

One of the students, George Bailey, compiled the results into a series of interactive Google maps that show the regional patterns, hosted on the University’s Multilingual Manchester website http://mlm.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/maps.html 

Dr MacKenzie said: “This research shows a clear North-South divide in many of the words we choose to use when describing everyday items, and the way we pronounce them.

“Variation is pervasive in language, and often correlates with social factors, like age, socioeconomic status and a person’s place of origin.

“But it’s not completely clear why different words are used to describe the same thing in different parts of the country. There are sometimes anecdotal explanations -- for instance, daps, the South West’s word for sports shoes, is said to be an abbreviation of Dunlop Athletic Plimsolls -- but they’re often hard to verify.”

She added: “The source of regional differences in pronunciation is often more clearly understood. Changes in pronunciation may start in a particular area and spread outward, but be stopped or slowed down by political or geographical barriers.

“The Northern way of rhyming the words ‘put’ and ‘cut’, for example, is faithful to how these words were pronounced centuries ago.

“Speakers in the South of England moved away from this pronunciation in the 1500s, but their way of saying these words didn’t make it to the North.

“However, we’ve compared our maps to those put together a few decades ago, and it looks like the Southern pronunciation is slowly creeping northward.”

George Bailey, from Whitefield in Greater Manchester said: "I suppose the posh image of Southerners is a bit of a stereotype. But, as a Mancunian, there is a real sense of Northern identity here. The North-South divide is talked about so much, but it's nice that we can now clearly see evidence that the language is different too.

"I know I'd get some funny looks from my family and friends if I started using 'dinner' for the evening meal. I'd feel like I was betraying my Northern roots!"

Fellow student who took part in the survey, Southerner Jessica Fox, from Southampton, has lived in Manchester for two-and-a-half years.

She said: “It’s certainly different living in the North and as it was my first time here it took some getting used to. For example, I never say ‘tea’ for ‘dinner’, because to me it sounds as if I’m offering somebody a hot drink!

“Sometimes it’s very awkward and the locals see you as posh. My boyfriend’s parents are very Mancunian, so I’m conscious of how I sound to them.

“Having said that, I’ve been here for a while now and seeing myself staying on after I graduate - so I have taken on the lingo a bit by now.”

Notes for editors

Images are available

To see the maps visit http://mlm.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/maps.html

Dr MacKenzie, George Bailey and Jessica Fox are available for interview

For media enquires contact:

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk

A University of Manchester lecturer has discovered that the famous first line of English language’s oldest epic poem has been misinterpreted, ever since it was popularised almost 200 years ago.

Dr George Walkden, who is a historical linguist, says because translators of the iconic Beowulf have relied on a faulty interpretation of its first word, the meaning of its first sentence must be understood differently.

The poem, in Old English and believed to be written between 1,200 and 1,300 years ago, has captivated poetry lovers ever since it was first published in 1815 by the Scandinavian scholar Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin.

However, according to Dr Walkden in a new paper published this month, the first word hwæt penned by an unknown poet, is not a stand-alone sentence meaning “listen up!” as previously thought.

Other interpretations such as ‘What ho!’ (Earle 1892), ‘Hear me!’ (Raffel 1963), ‘Attend!’ (Alexander 1973), ‘Indeed!’ (Jack 1994), and ‘So!’ (Heaney 2000) are all incorrect, he says.

Dr Walkden says the mistake dates back to Jakob Grimm, of Grimm Brothers fame, who wrote in 1837 that hwæt was a ‘pure interjection’.

Beowulf’s first line: ‘Listen! we have heard of the might of the kings’ should in fact, says Dr Walkden, be read as ‘How we have heard of the might of the kings’.

“Though we are just talking about one word, the true meaning of this iconic line of poetry now has a biographical feel, giving us a sense of how the writer attaches importance to his community’s history,” said Dr Walkden.

“The whole sentence becomes an exclamation – rather than just the first word.

“But fascinatingly, there’s no record of the Anglo-Saxons using exclamation marks, or any other form of punctuation, besides the full stop (or ‘point’) and the occasional semicolon.”

The academic, based in the University’s School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, looked at 141 instances of hwæt, comparing them to sentences without the word.

He discovered that in clauses beginning with hwæt , the verb is usually at the end – something which had not been observed before.
In the context of Old English word order in general, this means that these clauses are more likely to have been intended as exclamatives, rather than simple assertions.

Beowulf, set in Scandinavia, is commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.

It is an epic tale of war, monsters and heroism, in an early coming together of Anglo-Saxon and Christian traditions.

Dr Walkden added: “Even Seamus Heaney’s rendering of the first line in 2000, though a substantial achievement, is ultimately misleading.

“Like the others, he had no reason to doubt the accepted scholarship on the meaning of the word, so he translated it – brilliantly – with “So.”. But that translation now has to be rethought.

“Our understanding of Beowulf and its language is hugely important: it tells us where we come from and how much we’ve changed.

“Maybe now future editions may take this into account. After all, the text is regarded as the first line of English poetry in the most important piece of Anglo-Saxon literature ever written.”

Notes for editors

Dr Walkden is available for comment

The paper ‘The status of hwæt in Old English’ published in English Language and Linguistics is available.

For media enquiries contact:

Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
 

Notes for editors

For further information, please contact the ESRC Press Office:

Manchester is the UK’s language capital, according to researchers at The University of Manchester.

The team based at the University’s Multilingual Manchester project say there could be up to 200 languages spoken by long-term residents in the Greater Manchester area – far higher than their previous figure of 153.

Around 40 per cent of Manchester’s young people and close to 50 per cent of the city’s adult population are likely to be multilingual according to the researchers.

The city’s libraries hold 20,000 books and other media in languages other than English, which between 2012 to 2013 were issued more than 70,000 times, they say.

Also according to the team, 3000 pupils at Manchester state schools sat GCSE exams in foreign languages in 2012.

A digest complied by the team is to be published online and launched at a special event on August 15, attended by representatives of Manchester’s local agencies and public services, including Manchester City council, police, fire, local hospitals and school services.

Coordinated by Professor Yaron Matras, the team which includes undergraduate students, has been working closely with local authorities, the NHS and schools to advise on the language needs of the city.

Professor Matras said: “Multilingual Manchester is the only project of its type anywhere in the world, so comparisons are going to be hard with other cities and local authority areas.

“But we do know Manchester has the densest multilingual population for its size in the UK and the highest population growth rate in England over the past decade.

“Its local authority is responsible for 480,000 people, bigger than any London borough, so in combination with the data from our research - it’s fair to assume that Manchester has one of the world’s most diverse linguistic cultures.

“And it’s rare to find Mancunians who cannot speak English at all (3%). Just 17 %, most of them elderly, report that they cannot speak English well.

“A massive 80% of Manchester residents whose first language is not English report they speak English well or very well.”

The community languages with the largest number of speakers in Manchester are Urdu, Arabic, Chinese, Bengali, Polish, Panjabi, and Somali.

Urdu is the most popular community language: there are 10,005 Urdu books, and 6497 Urdu speaking pupils.

He added: “Manchester is very likely to be the most linguistically diverse city Europe, certainly when compared to other cities of its size, perhaps only outflanked by London and Paris.

“So Manchester’s language diversity is one of its greatest strengths. In fact language skills are often in demand, with online adverts in the first part of 2013 offering jobs in customer service, sales/marketing, management roles and teaching

“Jobs asking for knowledge of Arabic, Cantonese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Panjabi, and other languages were offered at a salary range of £16,000 to £35,000.”

Alex Robertson is a former linguistics student at the University and now a researcher on the project.

She said: Manchester’s language diversity is an incredible asset and I am delighted to have been part of a project which highlights this. After working closely with schoolchildren and services in the city, I can confidently say that our numerous languages are not a barrier, but a rich resource which holds powerful potential on a local and global scale.

“To have made the transition from undergraduate student to graduate researcher is an honour and a great pleasure for me. The practical experience has not only fuelled my academic interest in the topic, but granted me a unique opportunity to explore Manchester’s cultural fabric.”

Notes for editors

The Multilingual Manchester Digest and a 20 min video on languages in Manchester will available at http://mlm.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/ from 15 August. The web based Multilingual Manchester, an archive at http://mlm.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/ set up in 2010 to document, protect and support the languages spoken in Manchester, it is now the world’s largest project if its kind. Authored by linguistics students and available for free, it contains over 100 reports on multilingualism and language minorities in Manchester. If members of the public wish to contact Multilingual Manchester, email mlm@manchester.ac.uk.

For media enquiries contact:
Mike Addelman
Press Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881567
Michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
 

More than 20 European languages face digital extinction because of a lack of technological support, a study by Europe’s leading language technology experts has found.

Scientists from The University of Manchester were part of a European team of researchers who concluded that digital assistance for 21 of the 30 languages investigated is ‘non-existent’ or ‘weak’ at best.

The report coincides with the European Day of Languages [SEPTEMBER 26], a day which recognises the importance of fostering and developing the rich linguistic and cultural heritage of our continent.

Languages spoken by a small number of people could be at risk because they do not have technological support, the report by META-NET, a European network of excellence that consists of 60 research centres in 34 countries, including the University of Manchester’s National Centre for Text Mining (NaCTeM), found.

Icelandic, Latvian, Lithuanian and Maltese are at the highest risk of disappearing, while other languages such as Bulgarian, Greek, Hungarian and Polish are also at risk. The researchers claim that 21 out of 30 European languages could become extinct in the digital world.

The study, prepared by more than 200 experts and documented in 30 volumes of the META-NET White Paper Series, assessed language technology support for each language in four different areas: automatic translation, speech interaction, text analysis and the availability of language resources.

Several languages, for example Icelandic, Latvian, Lithuanian and Maltese, receive this lowest score in all four areas.

While English has the best language technology support amongst all European languages, it can still not be considered as “excellent support”, but rather only “good support”, the University of Manchester researchers found in the White Paper for English.

Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish are considered to have “moderate support”. Languages such as Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Greek, Hungarian and Polish exhibit “fragmentary support”, which also places them in the set of high-risk languages.

Language technology software is used to process spoken or written human language. Well-known examples include spelling and grammar checkers, interactive personal assistants on smartphones (such as Siri on the iPhone), dialogue systems that work over the phone, automatic translation systems and web search engines.

The lack of available software for the high-risk languages means that without drastic action, they will be unable to survive in today’s digital world. 

Language technology systems primarily rely on statistical methods that require incredibly large amounts of written or spoken data - difficult to acquire for languages with relatively few speakers.

Furthermore, statistical language technology systems have inherent limits on their quality, as can be seen, for example, in the often amusing incorrect translations produced by online machine translation systems.

The report concludes that a coordinated, large-scale effort has to be made in Europe to create the missing technologies and transfer this technology to the languages faced with digital extinction .

Professor Sophia Ananiadou, director of NaCTeM, said: “In the UK, most of us use software that incorporates language technology without even realising it.

“Language technology already makes our lives easier and has huge potential to help us in many different ways. As digital information and communication is becoming increasingly dominant, it is vital that sophisticated language technology support is available for a wider range of languages, otherwise collaboration with our European neighbours will become more difficult.” 

Professor Hans Uszkoreit, coordinator of META-NET, said: “The results of our study are most alarming. The majority of European languages are severely under-resourced and some are almost completely neglected. In this sense, many of our languages are not yet future-proof.
 

Notes for editors

META-NET, a Network of Excellence consisting of 60 research centres from 34 countries, is dedicated to building the technological foundations of a multilingual European information society. META-NET is co-funded by the European Commission through a total of four projects.

META-NET is forging META, the Multilingual Europe Technology Alliance. More than 600 organisations from 55 countries, including research centres, universities, small and medium companies as well as several big enterprises, have already joined this open technology alliance.

Dr Ananiadou is available for interview on request.

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