Axel Jagau
@yraneac.bsky.social
Läbides inimkeelte metsi // Po puću přez lěsy rěčow // Kynii kelenii oi modoor ajalakani // בדרכי ביערות השפה 🇪🇪
Father of #Mongolia Literature, D Natsagdorj, born 120 years ago, travelled to Germany 100 years. @ananddairtan.bsky.social & I spoke to S Wickham-Smith about the revolution, Natsagdorj and early modern Mongolian literature. youtu.be/IMUMW3R3FpA?...
Remembering Natsagdorj, father of Modern Mongolian Literature
YouTube video by Agula Media
youtu.be
This new Syriac language learning platform was launched yesterday by @gkiraz.bsky.social with free open access content to get you started! learnsyriac.com #LearnSyriac #languagelearning #startnow
Es gibt eine Neuauflage (Fifth Edition) des großartigen Electronic Beowulf. Bin sehr gespannt, wie es jetzt geworden ist. #Beowulf #OldEnglish #Altenglisch
Electronic Beowulf - Fifth Edition
ebeowulf.uky.edu
"Authorities also began a region-wide censorship campaign, shutting down Mongolian WeChat groups and removing Mongolian-language books from the shelves of retail outlets. ... if you lose your language, you lose everything," Mr Togochog, director of SMHRC said." www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08...
'Cultural genocide': China's new laws set to wipe out 55 ethnic groups
China's new ethnic unity law is threatening to make the languages and culture of 55 different ethnic groups extinct.
abc.net.au
Let me get this straight: From Sweden, via Finnic, come words for the Rus and Russia. The Mongols turn the Russian term into Oros, to avoid initial /r/. Mandarin Chinese gains this as 俄羅斯 (Éluósī), 俄 for short. Then, due to the Vietnamese reading of the character 俄, 'Russia' in Vietnamese is Nga.
‘The law does not prohibit diversity, and officials are likely to welcome ethnic costumes, food, and music—at least where they can be packaged and commercialized as colorful performances for Han tourists and party officials, or displayed as evidence of China’s supposedly harmonious pluralism.’
The Next Phase of China’s Minority Crackdown
Forced assimilation is now the law.
foreignaffairs.com
The Tale of the Heike, but as a multi-season, Game of Thrones epic series so all the minor characters can get their star turns. I would get an HBO subscription just for that.
Just saw someone post re: Emily Wilson "is this the most discourse ever caused by a translator?", and felt the misty ghost of James "Ossian" Macpherson rise enraged from a pool in Morvern
Der neue #CrossAsia Newsletter ist online! Darin finden Sie Infos zur aktuellen Umfrage (noch offen bis 10.8.) und neuen Datenbanken sowie unsere Halbjahres-Highlights, ein Ausblick auf das Veranstaltungsprogramm im Herbst u.v.m. @stabiberlin.bsky.social Viel Spaß beim Lesen! 👉 sbb.berlin/8hv9g
Newsletter 37 – CrossAsia Sommernews: Halbjahres-Highlights und Ausblick auf einen spannenden Herbst - CrossAsia
Liebe CrossAsia Nutzer:innen, mit einem Highlight sind wir in den Sommer gestartet: Seit Juni ist der Newspaper Research Companion (NRC) als ganz neuer Service von CrossAsia im Early Access verfügbar....
sbb.berlin
Climate change is making eastern Inner #Mongolia wetter, reversing some of the land degradation along the Gobi that I discuss in #territorialnatures It is also accelerating and intensifying industrial agriculture: hybridizing native breeds, raising cattle numbers, consolidating herds onto feedlots
How Climate Change and Tariffs Help China Raise More Cattle (Gift Article)
As increased rain makes grasslands and cornfields possible in areas that once were deserts, the world’s largest beef importer is becoming more self-reliant by expanding domestic herds.
nytimes.com
I'm really grateful for this generous review of my book, The Politics of Language Oppression in Tibet, from Samar Sinha from Sikkim University. Link to follow below for anyone who would like to read the full review, which includes some good critical engagement with my arguments.
Half the planet is having a massive fight about how to correctly interpret an Ancient Greek poem but go ahead, close some more humanities departments.
A rather infuriating read, and there are many reasons why that could be the case. Still a very worthwhile and informative piece on the former police officer who was knots and bolts of the genocide in Xinjiang but now wants to be counted as a "victim". www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/b...
He Served China’s Police State of Xinjiang. He Says It Imprisoned Him, Too. (Gift Article)
After nearly 10 years carrying out Chinese government repression in Xinjiang, a former police officer is now seeking asylum in Germany.
nytimes.com
There are over 90 issues of 新民叢報, 1902-6 on Internet Archive to read or download as PDFs. Only some issues have dates in the metadata. archive.org/search?query...
Get excited :) PhyloSpec is coming! A shared standard + modelling language for phylogenetic models. Write a model once, run it across engines like BEAST X, BEAST 2.8 & RevBayes. Easy and reproducible. Built by @tochsner.bsky.social & collaborators (ETH Zürich, Auckland, LMU). phylospec.com
PhyloSpec
A standardized way to describe phylogenetic model components, common assumptions, and best practices in the field of phylogenetics.
phylospec.com
First, popularizing publication of our @unileiden.bsky.social project 'From 𐤀 to Α'. Co-written by the whole team, we introduce some of the questions surrounding the birth and spread of the early alphabet that the project tackles. Get the whole issue at www.karwansaraypublishers.com/products/anc...
A revolution in writing: the spread of the alphabet
A paper surveying the spread of alphabetic writing throughout the ancient Mediterranean, the possible genealogy of the various alphabets, and the mechanisms behind and dates of their dispersal.
academia.edu
Finally, the new #Ge'ez grammar from Stefan Weninger is out! This should replace the old Dillmann grammar.
Jeffrey Weng - With One Voice Mandarin's Conquest of China À paraître en novembre aux Stanford UP
There are over 400 issues of the important Shanghai weekly 生活 (1925-33) on the Internet Archive for reading and PDF download. archive.org/search?query...
“Two /h/s. On debuccalisation in Ancient Greek” by Adèle Jatteau (July ’26) radical.cnrs.fr/jatteau-two-...
If you are curious about different paper wrappers as bindings, this catalogue has it all. Paste papers, Dutch gilt, marbled papers, a feast for the eyes. Truly an impressive collection. ilab.org/assets/catal...
Remember, both the Iliad and the Odyssey were originally audiobooks.
I bet Spain-Argentina Spanish swearing at each other is linguistically interesting
In East London, tagging gangs are organised around allegiances to academic publication repositories. Know your turf
Super interesting to find diagrams in this 19th century grammar of Classical Japanese. Author is Mozume Takayo, and it was possibly printed after 1868 with blocks used in an earlier 1858 edition. Thank you @schrift-sprache.bsky.social for helping me understand what I am looking at.
Fire in the sky, political fracturing, a reduction in naval trade, economic uncertainty, agriculture is suffering due to plague, and the Odyssey is premiering? Welcome back, Greek Dark Ages.
