language

Malaysia’s ‘Allah’ controversy

Is limiting the use of the Arabic word for God a sign of growing intolerance towards minorities?

In Arabic, the word Allah means God. Christian Arabs refer to God as Allah and Arabic versions of the Bible reference Allah. As Arabic and Islam have diffused in interwoven patterns, the linguistic root and the theological meanings have became intertwined to some. BBC World and Al-Jazeera have reported on this issue as the Malaysian government has attempted to ban the use of the word Allah to any non-Muslim religious group. Language and religion just got very political.

Tags: language, religion, political, Malaysia, SouthEastAsia, culture, Islam.

June 24, 2014 0

African borders

“About the history of the creation of Africa borders and debates about African borders.”

Source: mycontinent.co

Disregard the rough English grammar; this is a nice article to show some of the historical, ethnic, linguistic and political complexities behind African borders. This would be a great supplemental article to help AP Human Geography students to prepare for Question 2 of the 2014 AP Human Geography Exam that focused on superimposed boundaries within an African context.

Tags: APHG, language, Africa, colonialism, borders, political.

June 22, 2014 0

Linguistic Geography: My Fair Lady

This is a most decidedly dated reference for pop culture, but a great movie for making explicit the idea that the way we speak is connected to where we’ve lived (also a good clip to show class differences as well as gender norms). The clip highlights many principles and patterns for understanding the geography of languages.

Tags: Language, class, gender, culture, historical, London, unit 3 culture and place.

See on www.youtube.com

September 4, 2012 0