*** Yasser S. Khan and Rizwan Ahmad *** The offending dress (Image credit: BBC) Recently, a woman in Lahore was accused of blasphemy for wearing a dress printed with Arabic calligraphy. The crowd had assumed that the sartorial motifs must be verses from the Qur’an. In reality, the words on the dress were hayah and hulwah meaning ‘life’ and ‘sweet’ respectively. Islamic scholars had to be called in to verify this to eventually disband the crowd. How did the misunderstanding come about? The calligraphic style of the print on the dress loosely resembles the Thuluth style of writing. Thuluth lit ..read more

Flag for autism rights (Image credit: Deviantart) In this post written for autism acceptance month, autistic anthropologist Gerald Roche discusses connections between the communication styles and life expectancy of autistic people, and encourages sociolinguists, linguistic anthropologists, and applied linguists to help work towards a better life for autistic people.  Content warning: This post discusses suicide, sexual and physical violence, discrimination, and negative attitudes about autistic people. If you are in Australia and find this post distressing, you can call Lifeline on 13 1 ..read more

In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Brynn Quick speaks with Dr Elizabeth Peterson about language ideologies and what we think when we hear different varieties of English. This episode’s conversation centers around Dr Peterson’s 2020 book Making Sense of “Bad English,” which is available open access. The book discusses how the notions of “good” versus “bad” English came about, and some of the consequences of these views of language. The book is a must-use for teachers and professors who introduce their students to sociolinguistics as it contains discussion questions at the end ..read more

In Episode 12 of the Language on the Move Podcast, I speak with James McElvenny about his new book History of Modern Linguistics. This book offers a highly readable, concise history of modern linguistics from its emergence in the early nineteenth century up to the end of World War II. Written as a collective biography of the field, it concentrates on the interaction between the leading figures of linguistics, their controversies, and the role of the social and political context in shaping their ideas and methods. In the conversation we focus on the national aspects of the story of modern lingu ..read more

In this latest episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, I spoke with Jasna Novak Milić, the director of the Croatian Studies Center at Macquarie University. The Croatian Studies program at Macquarie University celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. One of a very small number of Croatian Studies programs at university level outside Croatia, Jasna and I took this opportunity to chat about Croatian language learning in Australia, Croatian migrations to Australia, languages in higher education, and heritage language learning. Broadly speaking, Croatian Studies in Australia attracts three ..read more

Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (1940-2023) The Global Coalition for Language Rights is pleased to announce the first annual Language Rights Defenders Award. This award aims to recognize and honor individuals who demonstrate outstanding commitment to language rights.  This year, the award is dedicated to the memory of Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, a world-renowned language rights advocate and scholar who passed away in 2023. Tove’s life demonstrates the sort of attributes, efforts, and passion we are hoping to inspire and recognize through this award. You can read more about Tove’s life and work here.&nbs ..read more

  Hospital corridor, by Sadami Konchi © In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Brynn Quick speaks with Erin Mulpur about how hospitals can provide linguistic minority patients with access to interpreting services. Erin holds a Master of Public Health and is the System Director at Houston Methodist Global Health Care Services in Houston, Texas, United States. The conversation addresses the potential barriers to both communication and healthcare that linguistic minority patients may face in hospitals, as well as Erin’s 2021 paper Reducing Barriers to Language Assistance Duri ..read more

In this new episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, I spoke with Dr Jim Hlavac about interpreting in Australia. Dr Hlavac is a senior lecturer in the Monash Intercultural Lab in the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics. He is a NAATI-certified and practicing professional interpreter and translator. NAATI is Australia’s National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters. Dr Hlavac’ research interests relate to interpreting in healthcare settings, interprofessional practice with trainee professionals with whom interpreters commonly work, and the incidenc ..read more

One of the Nowruz traditions involves leaping over bonfires to rid oneself of pain and sorrow (Image credit: Borna News) As people in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan prepare to celebrate Nowruz, there is a palpable sense of excitement and anticipation in the air. Nowruz, which literally means “new day” in Persian, marks the beginning of spring and the start of the new year for many peoples across the Middle East and Central Asia. Nowruz is celebrated on the vernal equinox, typically falling on Marc ..read more

Ramadan Lights on Coventry Street Ramadan in London is exceptional in many ways. As the centre of a former Empire which still exerts a global pull on its former subjects and their descendants, London has been at the heart of a wave of migrations since the times of the British Raj. Initiatives inclusive of Muslims have normalised the Muslim presence. While there is no doubt that islamophobia and anti-Muslim hate is on the rise in Britain, too, the relative ease and acceptance of being a Muslim in the public space is manifested here in pragmatic ways, such as the widespread availability of hal ..read more