Language diversity also entails the many ways in which we use, interpret, and make sense of language. This is what I would like you to write about. Weve touched on some issues, and there are still one or two more to cover in our last week. Think for example about what we said (or will say) about
Basque; the situation of language on Sri Lanka; language and its personal / cultural / political significance;
the short video on Badeshi; language death and revival; endangered languages;
our revised notion about what constitutes a language when we discussed Chinese;
how language(s) are used in the villages of Cameroon (Jeffs talk);
taboos and avoidance language;
the pros and cons of colonial languages and official languages; language as power;
the emergence, use, and development of contact languages and pidgins.
As a guide, pick four or five themes of what you learned, or what surprised you, about the socio-cultural aspects of language diversity — or simply what interested you the most.