Post by Hooligan on Sept 5, 2009 12:22:12 GMT -6
Azul means hello. Azul, and welcome to “Introduction to Talossan”.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:
I’m Baron Hooligan, your professor. As I indicated to you all in email, I will try to be responsive to all questions posted here in the class forum, and also those emailed directly to me.ABOUT THE CLASS:
My background in languages is as a native speaker of American English. I have a decent knowledge of Spanish (from having taken Spanish courses from fourth grade until my sophomore year of college), but would not call myself fluent in Spanish, although I can get by in very slow conversation. I also have varying degrees of knowledge about many other languages, mostly Romance and Germanic. My father taught me a few Japanese phrases, but otherwise, my knowledge of Asiatic languages is minimal. I know virtually nothing about African or American Indian languages.
I have been a Talossan citizen since 2005, and I’ve been interested in the Talossan language since roughly that time. King John, who is very knowledgeable about Romance languages, interested me in both Talossa and Talossan, and he has been instrumental in fueling my knowledge of the language.
Ever since my first introduction to Talossan, I have used Talossan in my posts on Wittenberg, and encouraged others to do so. I have participated in a number of threads meant to exercise people’s use of the language, such as translating movie and song titles and lines from English to Talossan. To help improve my skills in Talossan, I (with help from Sir Cresti Siervicül) wrote the libretto for a couple of comic operas (actually, extremely short operetta). These operas, “El Taloçait d’Isiviglha” (The Berber of Seville) and “El Mariatx da Cascourös” (The Marriage of Cascourös) explore some previously uninvented – er, I mean, unknown – aspects of Talossa’s mythical heritage.
During the writing of the first of those opera, and to assist me in that project, I created the online English-Talossan word translator known as the Översteir (which means "Translator") that you will use during this class.
In 2006 I became a member of the CÚG (which is the committee that studies the Talossan language). Using some of the more arcane features of the online translator, and other tools I put together to assist in research, I was a central character in the in-depth study of Talossan phonology and stress that was conducted in 2006 and 2007 and led to what is known as the “2007 Arestada”. I will say a little bit more about this Arestada in the first week's lecture.
After writing the 2007 Arestada, I decided that in order to become a more frequent and fluent user of Talossan, I would create for myself a “cheat-sheet” to which I could refer. The “cheat sheet” was initially meant to be only a page or two for my own personal use, covering some of the aspects of the language that I needed help remembering. Instead, this turned into a full book on the Talossan language, entitled (in English) A Complete Guide to the Grammar and Usage of the Talossan Language. The book can now be purchased online at Amazon.com and elsewhere. The writing of that book greatly increased my knowledge of Talossan, through the need to conduct even deeper research into the language and its features than I had done during the discussions and debates that led to the 2007 Arestada.
The writing of the book (which I will sometimes call "the Guizua" or the "GC") also fooled me into thinking I could share the knowledge I have about Talossan with students here in the University. I have never undertaken to teach a language course before, and so I ask for your patience with me. I have not done very much preparation for the class, in terms of studying any “proper” or “accepted” formula or lesson plan for teaching a language. Instead, I have a vague idea of the way in which I slowly became more adept in Talossan, and my plan is to work through the different aspects of the language in the sequence that I believe worked for me.
It is my fervent hope for this class that when it is over, the community of users of the language will have grown. I hope that we see a big increase in the number of conversations held in Talossan on Wittenberg and elsewhere. I hope that all of those taking this class will begin to use Talossan and to encourage others to use it.
The course will last a dozen weeks or more, and we will move fairly quickly.Welcome once again to the class, and I hope you enjoy it and find it educational. Let me know if you have any questions about the course or about me. The Week 1 Lecture and assignments will be posted soon.
This course is oriented to teach Talossan to an English-speaking community; the lessons are in English and illustrations and comparisons will be made using English. I know that some of the students in this class have a non-English language as their native language. While I will do my best to accommodate any special needs you may have, since I am not fluent in your native languages, I must ask that your materials be written in (and translated from) English.
The plan for what we’ll cover each of the weeks should only be considered tentative, but here is an overview of the subject matter I have in mind for each week.
1. Mythical History of Talossan; Modern History of Talossan
2. Pronunciation of Single Vowels; Pronunciation of Vowel Combinations
3. Consonant Pronunciation; Consonant Mutation
4. Stress; Syllabic Separation
5. Word Order; Articles and Grammatical Gender
6. Nouns; Pluralization
7. Pronouns; Prepositions
8. Adjectives and Adverbs; Genitive Indication
9. Infinitive Verbs; Participles
10. Verb Properties; The Present Tense
11. The Past Tense; The Future Tense
12. The Subjunctive Mood; The Imperative Mood
13. Auxiliary Aspects; The Passive Voice
14. Conjunctions and Interjections; Interrogatives
15. Prefixes; Suffixes
In each week, there will be instructive or informational lectures on the subjects for the week, followed by an assignment. The assignment will be due by the end of the weekend that follows the posting of the lecture, which means you will have at least a week to complete your assignment. Each week, the assignment will consist of a set of questions concerning the subject matter of the lecture, and a vocabulary assignment.
Additionally, one of your assignments in the first week will be to select a piece of existing English text, from a literary work or some other source material. Beginning with week 2, you will apply what was discussed in that week’s class to the text that you selected, so that by the time the course ends, your text will be fully and properly translated to Talossan. This complete translation will be due on the final week of class.
There will also be a Final Project, which will be assigned after the second-to-last lecture. This will not be due until the week following the final lecture, after which grades will be assigned and certificates of completion will be issued.
