Dear Friends,
We are excited to share with you the winter/spring 2021 issue of our Center for Language Science/Bilingualism Matters at Penn State newsletter. As with our previous issues, this issue aims to translate language science research on a particular topic for general audiences. The topic of the current issue is language preservation. You are probably aware that there are languages that were spoken long ago, like Sanskrit and Latin, which have not been “preserved”, in that there are no longer communities that speak them. The research summary in this issue of our newsletter delves into the ways in which languages that are in fact still alive and well in other countries, like German and Spanish, have been preserved right here in the US by communities that brought them here, in some cases up to hundreds of years ago! In our interview with featured partner Dr. Mike Putnam, you can learn about a language called “Pennsylvania Dutch”–you may be surprised to learn that it’s actually not a version of Dutch, and not all of its speakers live in Pennsylvania. And check out our fun language quiz to learn more about what can happen when languages come into contact with one another in a community. We hope you’ll enjoy this issue, and as always, we welcome your questions, comments, and ideas!
Sincerely,
Frances Blanchette, Cole Callen, Valérie Keppenne, Maike Rocker, Javier López Seoane, and Catherine Pham