OK, there are so many exciting things I need to tell you about Buru — the Austronesian language spoken on the island of Buru in Eastern Indonesia that I started learning two weeks ago — that I don’t even know where to start.
Yet again, I love reading about your adventures with languages and your reflections on your sleuthing. In this one, I especially love how you describe time telling in Buru, showing how deeply based our very concept of how time can be delineated is a historical-cultural form -- and one that we tend not to even recognize as a construct (for example, I believe we inherit the division of a day into 24 hours from ancient Egypt). I'm also left pondering the significance--the implications-- of losing languages as you mention we're doing at an incredible rate. This really got wheels spinning. Thanks for writing it!
Yes, it matters!
Your journey is so cool, Tanya. Looking forward to learning more. 🙃
Yet again, I love reading about your adventures with languages and your reflections on your sleuthing. In this one, I especially love how you describe time telling in Buru, showing how deeply based our very concept of how time can be delineated is a historical-cultural form -- and one that we tend not to even recognize as a construct (for example, I believe we inherit the division of a day into 24 hours from ancient Egypt). I'm also left pondering the significance--the implications-- of losing languages as you mention we're doing at an incredible rate. This really got wheels spinning. Thanks for writing it!