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The effects of shona language change on monolingual lexicography: the need for a revised alphabet, the compilation of a shona children's dictionary: challenges and solutions, the taxonomy of writing systems: how to measure how logographic a system is, challenges encountered on the rekete chindau—leave a legacy facebook page, multilingual broadcasting in post-2000 zimbabwe: design, implementation and language parity, lexikos 19 supplement, the unification of the shona dialects, 21 references, early missionaries and the ethnolinguistic factor during the ‘invention of tribalism’ in zimbabwe, standard shona dictionary, the problem of word-division in bantu with special reference to the languages of mashonaland, the vernacularization of african languages after independence, the rise of the shona novel: a study in development, 1890-1984, a description of shona spelling, 75 years of writing in shona, related papers.
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2002, Zambezia: The Journal of Humanities of the University of Zimbabwe.
Linguistica Uralica
Olga Ivanishcheva
Shumirai Nyota
IOSR Journals
Roger Blench
The paper provides a basic phonology of Tawra [=Taraon] and suggestions for an orthography
Cadernos de Etnolingüística (ISSN 1946-7095)
Elena Mihas
Abstract: This paper proposes a practical orthography for Ashéninka Perené (Arawak) by looking at the existing orthographies of the language. Focusing on the SIL-recommended linguistic orthography, native language consultants' ad hoc writing samples, and the ...
Reconstructing a Constructed Writing System: The impact of acculturation and language politics on the development of the Sirijunga script's typographic representation in eastern Nepal and Sikkim.
Ryan Williamson
The Sirijunga script is an important cultural artefact of indigenous identity for the Yakthung community living in the south eastern Himalayan belt. It is a script that has been overlooked by conventional printing practices, instead developing alongside language politics imposed by their acculturating nations, Nepal and Sikkim. This dissertation provides an original contribution in the understanding of the Sirijunga script's development. There is little existing literature on the Sirijunga script and its development, with the subject often treated as a side note in a larger discussion on the Yakthung language or culture. This dissertation first establishes a history of the Yakthung people, focusing on language politics which limited the space for typographic development and forced the script to fall out of use two times. Then, through a comparative analysis of document marks from the script's three centuries of use, this dissertation analyses the reconstruction of the Sirijunga script through three defined periods. The dissertation concludes with a comprehensive account of the modern Sirijunga script, discussing typographic practice, as well as a review of all current digital Sirijunga typefaces to highlight the need for more and higher quality typefaces in the script. This dissertation is based on sound research and is beneficial to academics studying Himalayan languages and to type designers wanting to cover the Sirijunga script.
Kman [=Geman, Kaman, Miju] is an endangered languagespoken in the Tezu area, Arunachal Pradesh, NE India. Kman may be Tibeto-Burman or a language isolate. Although attempts have been made to develop an orthography, none have had any success. The present paper presents the phonology of Kman in IPA format, and then makes a series of suggestions as to possible orthographic solutions.
Journal of Languages and Culture
hirut teketel
Edinburgh Working Papers in Applied Linguistics
Oliver Stegen
In this paper, the results of an investigation into the status quo of writing in Rangi society, a vernacular language group in Northern Central Tanzania, are reported. This investigation includes a sociolinguistic questionnaire in which respondents comment on their use of different genres, and a study of both official and personal letters. The main findings emphasize the importance of personal letters in Rangi society, mainly written in Swahili, Tanzania’s national language, but also a surprising number reported as written in Rangi. Writing styles and conventions are primarily shaped by those of Swahili, given that this is the language in which all Rangi writers have learned to write. As literature production both in Swahili and Rangi is a desired outcome of the Rangi language development project, further research is suggested into what the Rangi consider ‘good style’ for each relevant genre as well as whether and how vernacular writing skills should be taught.
Opinion Tannia Mutsvanga
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Prof Temitope Olumuyiwa
Catharina Williams-van Klinken
albunzawi albunzawi
COMPTES RENDUS / BOOK REVIEWS
Kevin Tuite
Francisco Miguel Valada
In: Peter K. Austin & Stuart McGill (eds.) Language Documentation and Description, 11: 90-135. London: SOAS.
Reports of the Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies
Atsuhiko Kato
David Roberts
Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru
Aleendra Brahma , Bridul Basumatary
published in Lafiya Journal of Arts (LJA)), vol. 5, no. 1, a publication of Faculty of Arts, Federal University of Lafia, Nasarawa State); August 2020, pp. 36-54.
Muhammad Mustapha , Salisu M. Raj
Journal of Education and Practice
Isaac Mhute
Orthography Wars. In Cahill, Michael and Rice, Keren, eds. Developing Orthographies for Unwritten Languages. SIL International.
Leanne Hinton
Vak Manthan
Bishakha Das
LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas
Ana Carla Bruno
Chapane Mutiua
Catherine Easton
Kibiwott P Kurgatt
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This site is designed to teach you and help you learn Shona for free through vocabulary , phrases , grammar and flashcards (vocabulary trainer). Here is how you can start:
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You can actually learn Shona very quickly and easily through our lessons because we teach you only what you need to learn. We think that people can learn better when they're presented with simple words that they're likely to use daily.
An average native person who speaks Shona uses only a very small number of vocabulary on a daily basis. This means that you can actually speak the language to a certain acceptable level simply by visiting the above pages. |
Shona is an official language of Zimbabwe , along with Ndebele and English . English is used as a lingua franca by those who speak mutually unintelligible languages. It is the de facto national working language of the country. Although Shona is taught in schools, it is generally not the medium of instruction beyond the primary level which is English. There are many newspapers in Shona, and it is also used on the radio.
There are three main dialects of Shona. There is a considerable degree of variation within each dialect involving pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. Most dialects are partially intelligible and share most of their vocabulary.
Modern Shona is based on the Karanga dialect of Masvingo Province and the Zezuru dialect of central and northern Zimbabwe.
Shona has a simple vocalic and a complex system of consonants that includes sounds rarely found in other languages. All Shona syllables end in a vowel.
Shona has five vowels.
xxx | |||
xxxx | |||
xxx |
Shona’s consonant system is characterized by the presence of breathy and whistled sounds.
voiced | ||||||||
voiceless | ||||||||
breathy-voiced | ||||||||
whistled voiceless | x | |||||||
whistled voiced | x | |||||||
voiceless | x | |||||||
voiced | x | |||||||
whistled voiceless | x | |||||||
voiced | x | |||||||
plain | ||||||||
breathy | nʱ | |||||||
/ | plain | |||||||
breathy | ||||||||
x |
Tone is important in Shona since it is used to distinguish between otherwise identical words and to mark grammatical functions.
A major feature of Shona is classification of nouns into various classes and an elaborate verb system.
Shona nouns belong to different classes. This is typical of all Bantu languages.
As is common in Bantu languages, Shona verbs are highly agglutinating . Below are some of their main features:
The basic word order in Shona is Subject-Verb-Object. Modifiers follow the nouns they modify.
Shona has borrowed many words from English, Afrikaans, and neighboring languages, e.g., mufarinya ‘cassava’ from Portuguese farinha ‘flour’, yunivhesiti from English ‘university’.
Below are a few words and phrases in Shona.
Hello. | |
Good bye | |
Thank you | |
Excuse me | |
Sorry | |
Man | |
Mother |
Below are Shona numerals 1-10.
Shona is an established written language with a highly developed literature. It has a standardized orthography based on the Latin script which was adopted in 1967 after years of negotiation. The script contains 35 symbols. The sound values of the letters depend on the dialect. The alphabet does not represent some sounds that occur in some of the dialects, e.g., there is no symbol for the sounds /l/ and /x/ that are found in some dialects. There is no symbol for breathy /g/ and /r/. Tones are usually not represented in writing.
Take a look at Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Shona.
Vanhu vese vanoberekwa vakasununguka uyewo vakaenzana pahunhu nekodzero dzavo. Vanhu vese vanechipo chokufunga nekuziva chakaipa nechakanaka saka vanofanira kubatana nomweya wohusahwira. |
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. |
Use of hands in Shona
Shona, also known as Chishona, is one of the official languages in Zimbabwe. It is also spoken in Malawi, Zambia and Botswana.
The Shona language has two tones: High tone marked by (á) and low tone marked by
(à).
Shona has five vowels.
a (ah) - like in g a ng
e (ey) - like in h ay
i (ee) - like in s ee
o (o) - like in s o
u (oo) - like in br oo m
Shona does not have silent letters of diphthongs. When two vowels appear side by side in a word, each is pronounced separately. For example, the word Urikuteerera(listening) is pronounced Urikutay-ay-ra.
The consonant system of Shona is characterized by breathy and whistled sounds.
The breathy consonants are represented by “h” after the initial consonant and are pronounced by vibrating the vocals. For example, bh, ch,dh, mh,nh,rh and vh.
The whistled sounds are pronounced by rounding the lip. For example, sv, dz, tsv, ty, ng.
Good evening. | manheru akanaka |
Good morning. | mangwani akanaka |
Good afternoon. | masikati akanaka |
How are you? | makadi |
How are you today? | uri sei nhasi |
I am fine. | ndirinani |
Have a good day. | iva nezuva rakanaka |
I am doing great. | ndiri kuita zvakanaka |
Hi/Hello. | mhoro |
Nice to meet you. | zvakanaka kuzivana nemi |
See you soon. | ndinokuwona manje manje |
See you later. | ndichakuwona gare gare |
I love you. | ndinokuda |
I miss you. | ndakusuwa |
Love you so much | ndinokuda zvikuru |
I want to see you. | ndoda kukuwona |
I love you with all my heart. | Ndinokuda nemoyo wangu wese. |
I love you too. | Ndokudawo |
I want to see you. | Ndoda kukuwona |
I like you. | ndinokufarira |
You are beautiful. | wakanaka |
My love. | mudiwa |
You look beautiful. | wakanaka |
My beautiful wife. | mukadzi wangu akanaka |
I miss you so much, darling. | Ndakusuwa zvakanyanya, mudiwa. |
I need you. | ndinokuda |
You will miss me. | uchandisuwa |
Goodbye, my love. | sara mshue, mudiwa |
See you tomorrow. | tozoonana mangwana |
I will marry you. | ndichakuroora |
I want some space. | ndinoda nzvimbo |
I need your love. | ndinoda rudo rwako |
You are mine. | uriwangu |
Where are you? | urikupi |
Where did you go? | waenda kupi |
Where do you live? | unogara kupi |
Where are you going? | urikuebda kupi |
Where were you? | wanga urikupi |
How much? | zvingani |
How are you feeling? | urikunzwa sei |
How have you been? | wanga uri sei |
What is your name? | nguabni ibizo lakho |
What are you doing? | urikuitei |
What are you cooking/eating? | urikibikei/urikudyei |
Are you okay, dear? | uri kunzwa mushe here |
When are you coming? | unouya rinhi |
How was your night/day? | Husiku/masikati wange wakadii? |
How are you doing? | Wakadii hako |
How is your family? | Makadii mhuri yenyu |
How was your day? | Zuva rako ranga rakadii |
What is wrong? | chii chakaipa |
What do you mean? | unorevei |
How's the weather over there? | Mamiriro ekunze ari sei ikoko? |
Have you gone to church? | Waenda kukereke here? |
What is this? | Ichi chii? |
What's going on? | Chii chirikuitika? |
Are you listening? | Urikuteerera here? |
Have you heard? | Wakambonzwa here? |
Can I go home? | Ndingaenda kumba here? |
Can I ask something? | Ndingabvunza chimwe chinhu? |
How is everything? | Zvinhu zvese zviri sei? |
What’s your phone number? | Nhamba yako yefoni ndeipi? |
Happy birthday | zuva rakanaka rokuberekwa |
Thank you | ndinotenda |
I am sorry | ndiregere |
You are welcome. | tinokugamuchira |
Me too! | neni |
God bless you. | mwari vakukomborere |
May god protect you. | mwari vakuchengete |
She is happy. | anofara |
Please help me. | ndibatsire |
I don't know. | andizive |
I will come tomorrow. | ndinouya mangwana |
Come here! | wuya kuno |
Feel at home. | uzizwe usekhaya |
Be blessed. | mwari vakukomborere |
I am coming soon. | ndinouya izozo |
Excuse me. | ruregerero |
Leave me alone. | siyana neni |
It is okay. | kwakanaka |
I am going home. | ndirikuenda kumba |
I don't want. | andidi |
Love is a beautiful thing. | rudo chinhu chakanaka |
Let me try. | ndinoda kuyedza |
Welcome home. | tinokugamuchira kumusha |
I reached home safely. | ndaswika kumusha |
God is good. | mwari vakanaka |
I don't understand. | andinzwisisi |
We are happy to see you. | tinofara kukuwonai |
I have it. | ndinacho/ndinayo |
Rest in peace. | urare murunyararo |
I don't have money. | andina mari |
I am done. | ndapedza |
I am going to the shop. | ndirikuyenda kuzwitoro |
Happy new year. | gore ritswa rakanaka |
Bad manners. | mayitiro akaipa |
Stop using your phone. | siyana nefoni |
I need a favour, please. | ndinoda rupatsiro |
Haven’t seen you for ages. | nguva yakarepa ndisingakuone |
Great to see you again. | tafara kukuona |
I really appreciate it. | ndinotenda |
You made my day. | wandifadza nhasi |
No problem. | zvakanaka |
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Kamala Harris ’s first few weeks as the Democrats’ 2024 godsend have been fun, but the drumbeat to get serious is growing louder. The New York Times: “Trump’s tax plan could add trillions to the national debt. Harris’s is a mystery.” The New Yorker: “Harris’s campaign Web site, meanwhile, does not even have a policy section, or an articulation of beliefs.” The Washington Post: “If she hopes to prevail, Ms. Harris needs to present her ideas.”
Well, as luck would have it, there’s a perfect opportunity just around the corner to satisfy those demands for specifics at an event in which Harris will have the stage to herself and tens of millions of people will be listening to her every word. She is, of course, the star and the closing speaker of the Democratic National Convention and can use the spotlight to explain all the policy details she’d pursue if she were elected president of the United States…
On Friday, before the convention, Harris will lay out a bit of economic policy substance during a speech in Raleigh, North Carolina. But she is unlikely to use the podium in Chicago next week to roll out proposals for changes to marginal tax rates or suggestions for how to end the carnage in Gaza. She will want to come across as serious, but she doesn’t want to puncture the joy balloon that has been energizing Democratic crowds and lifting her up in the polls.
Harris’s main goals next Thursday night will be to introduce herself to that large cross section of Americans who are not obsessive politicos but are just starting to pay attention to the race for the White House, and to sell herself to anyone unsure of her ability to lead the country. She will cite facts and examples from her record in public office to illustrate accomplishments. But Harris will probably lean most heavily on broad themes and visions while trying to forge a personal connection with voters by talking about her own compelling rise from humble roots: the child who grew up in a working-class Berkeley neighborhood as the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants to become California state attorney general, US senator, and vice president. “Telling her story as part of the larger American story and as an example of what is possible in this country is going to be inspiring,” says Jon Favreau, the former top speechwriter for Barack Obama who went on to cofound Crooked Media and cohost Pod Save America. “It’s also going to help inoculate her from the darker charges by Trump and JD Vance that she is other, that she is not like us.”
Retailing her biography for political purposes has not always come easily to Harris. “Men have no problem talking about how great they are,” says Ashley Etienne, who was a senior aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and to Vice President Harris. “Women want to talk about you. She had to get comfortable talking about herself. It’s very different than Barack Obama. I mean, he ran a whole tour talking about himself for two years before he ran for president.” An Obama speechwriting alumnus, Adam Frankel , is leading the drafting of Harris’s convention speech as the Democratic nominee for president. Frankel had already been crafting a convention speech for Harris as the vice presidential nominee. “He’s very good at uplift,” says Favreau, who hired Frankel to work for Obama’s 2008 campaign. “He was close for a long time with Ted Sorensen, so Adam has a lot of JFK, RFK kind of style.” Another Obama veteran, Megan Rooney , who had been on President Joe Biden ’s White House team, was recently hired as the Harris campaign’s director of speech writing. “Megan is, I think, the best in the business at bringing somebody’s humanity through in a speech,” says Dan Schwerin, who was director of speechwriting for Hillary Clinton ’s 2016 run, with Rooney as his deputy. “And having written for Hillary and for Michelle Obama, she knows as much as anyone about how to write for a strong woman leader.”
One tricky choice for Harris will be how much to go after the eminently mockable Donald Trump. Most attacks on the Republican nominee will likely come from the convention’s opening acts, including vice presidential nominee Tim Walz , creator of the Democrats’ “big weirdo” strategy. Yet Harris can’t entirely skip drawing a sharp contrast. “You don’t ever want to look like you’re afraid of taking on your opponent,” says Cody Keenan, Obama’s director of speech writing from 2013 to 2017. “And with somebody like Trump, who is abnormal, basically an overgrown bully, taking him on directly is the most important thing you can do.”
Another challenge is covering a lot of ground without putting everyone to sleep. It’s no accident that the most memorable Democratic convention speeches tend to be delivered by someone other than the presidential candidate. Ted Kennedy’s “the dream shall never die” in 1980, Mario Cuomo’s “a tale of two cities” in 1984, Jim Hightower ’s “born on third base” in 1988, and Obama’s career-making 2004 stem-winder were all part of the undercard, because the lesser figures can stick to a narrower narrative.
Harris doesn’t write out her own first draft or outlines for speeches, Etienne says, but instead prefers to brainstorm with her writers and aides and then edit and revise what her staff puts on the page. The basic framework, which Harris has been workshopping in her speeches at enormous rallies around the country, is already fairly clear: a choice between a prosecutor and a felon, between going backward and going forward, between retribution and hope. “I was dreading having to write a speech or read anyone’s drafts trying to advocate for Joe Biden,” a top Democratic speechwriter says. “This will be a lot more fun.” Which doesn’t mean the end result will be lightweight. Schwerin says Harris will probably lead with her values and use policy as proof points. “So, for example, I am virtually certain that she will talk about signing a law to bring back Roe v. Wade as the law of the land,” he says. “That’s policy. But you don’t need to add 10 footnotes.” Harris always emphasizes that her speeches need to provide context and foundation, Etienne says. Her speech can’t just be about Trump. “She’s going to wrap it in a bow, asking this question about who we are as a nation and who we want to be.” The messy details, about exactly how Harris proposes to take us there, may need to wait until at least September’s debate.
This story has been updated.
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Contributing editor.
This isn’t going to be last year’s Jackrabbits.
South Dakota State's head football coach Jimmy Rogers made that abundantly clear during his speech in front of program boosters, athletes, and media Wednesday.
“2023 was unbelievable," he said. "Everything we set out to accomplish, we accomplished."
The second-year head coach took a poignant pause before making his next statement.
“That was last year," Rogers said. “I’ll state this as clearly as I can: Our focus as a program is not about what we’ve done, it's about where we’re going.”
SDSU is in a bit of a transition period. The Jackrabbits are in the process of replacing players who were program cornerstones for the past six years. There are Mason McCormick and Garret Greenfield-sized holes in the offensive line, Isaiah Davis will no longer be lining up in the backfield, and last year’s Walter Payton Award Winner Mark Gronowski no longer has his two favorite targets in the Janke twins.
The Jackrabbits have added 36 new players, 31 of which are freshmen and five are transfers.
But even without those key players, SDSU was still voted to finish first in the Missouri Valley Football Conference in the preseason poll, and for good reason. They're still extremely talented and now players, who have been itching for a larger role on the team, are going to get more opportunities.
Amar Johnson is a player who has waited years behind Davis and now will be theNo. 1 running back on the team. Grahm Goering is another player who has quite a bit of experience under his belt and is now primed to be one of the two main receivers alongside Griffin Wilde.
“A lot of people outside of this building have not seen the guys that have really been putting in the work that are going to end up being great starters for us,” Gronowski said. “And I'm really excited for those guys to step up to the challenge.”
If there were any doubts about his team’s experience, Rogers stressed there shouldn’t be. After South Dakota State finished practice Wednesday morning, Rogers reminded his team they actually have more combined reps together than the Jackrabbits team that made it to the 2021 FCS National Championship game.
“It gives us confidence,” offensive lineman Gus Miller said. “I think a lot of those guys see the past team and think about how amazing and great they are, but they kind of get intimidated by that. So just making them feel comfortable and showing them how much progress that we've made from that season helps.”
Since the spring, the team has focused on separating itself from the program’s recent success, leaving it in the past and focusing on what it can do to put itself in position to win this year. With the amount of new players looking to integrate themselves in new roles, Wilde said the team has talked a lot about writing their own story.
“I'm excited that that was one of the things that they wanted to create on their own, because it goes back to eliminating the outside distraction,” Rogers said. “Just compete for your role, and then it's really their job to write the narrative of how their story ends this season.”
Although the cornerstones who helped build this program are gone, Rogers said his team will continue to play with the same focus, dedication and commitment to each other.
"This is a special group," Rogers said. "And we have many more players coming into this program that are bought in to carry the standard going forward."
South Dakota State will take on Oklahoma State in their season opener Aug. 31 in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Jonathan Fernandez covers high school and college sports for the Argus Leader. Contact him at [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter at @JFERN31
Senior Advisor to the Chancellor, Head of Vanderbilt's Project on Unity and American Democracy, and Co-Director of Vanderbilt Poll, Vanderbilt University
Research Professor of Political Science and Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech, Vanderbilt University
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Vanderbilt University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation US.
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Americans’ views on free speech change directions every so often. One of those times was during the protests at U.S. universities about the Israel-Hamas war. As scholars of free speech and public opinion , we set out to find out what happened and why.
The Supreme Court itself, as recently as 1989, has declared that the “bedrock principle” of the First Amendment is that “ the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”
For years, conservative politicians and commentators have warned that college campuses are not strong enough protectors of free speech. But as demonstrations erupted, these same people complained that the protests were filled with antisemitic hate speech . Leading conservatives declared the demonstrations should be banned and halted, by force if necessary.
Liberals executed a similar reversal. Many of them have supported increased regulation of hate speech against minority groups. But during the campus protests, liberals cautioned that crackdowns by university administrators, state officials and the police violated protestors’ free speech rights.
As researchers at Vanderbilt University’s Project on Unity and American Democracy and The Future of Free Speech , respectively, we sought to determine where Americans stand. We drew inspiration from a poll done in November 1939 in which 3,500 Americans answered questions about free speech. In June 2024, we asked 1,000 Americans the identical questions.
We found that the vast majority of Americans – both then and now – agree that democracy requires freedom of speech. That’s in the abstract.
When the questions get more concrete, though, their support wanes.
Only about half of the respondents in both the 1939 and 2024 polls agreed that anybody in America should be allowed to speak on any subject at any time. The rest believed some speech – or certain subjects or speakers – should be prohibited.
This pattern is not unique to Americans. A 2021 survey in 33 countries by The Future of Free Speech , a nonpartisan think tank based at Vanderbilt, similarly found high levels of support for free speech in the abstract across all countries but lower support across the board for specific speech that was offensive to minority groups or religious beliefs.
We dug deeper in surveys in March and June 2024, asking which subjects or speakers should be banned. We thought the public’s appetite for free speech might have weakened amid the campus turmoil. We found the opposite.
When asked whether seven people with widely varied viewpoints should be allowed to speak, the share of people who said “Yes” rose for each one between March and June. Some of the differences were within the surveys’ margins of error, but it’s nevertheless noteworthy that all of them shifted in the same direction.
While showing a slightly increased appetite for free speech, these polls still fit with the overall contradiction: Large majorities of Americans passionately uphold free speech as a cornerstone of democracy. But fewer of them are supportive of free speech when faced with specific controversial speakers or topics.
Our surveys found that the public has a nuanced view of free speech. For instance, in our June 2024 survey we added some additional categories of potential speakers to the list we had asked about in March. More respondents were comfortable with a pro-Palestinian speaker than a leader of Hamas and with a scientist who believes that IQ varies by race rather than an outright white supremacist.
This pattern suggests that the public distinguishes between extreme and more moderate positions and is less tolerant of the rights of those with more extreme views.
This shift runs against the purpose of the First Amendment, which was intended to protect unpopular speech . The amendment very specifically was not intended to apply only to certain speakers or viewpoints.
Ours is not the only survey to find that many people don’t fully appreciate the logic and principles behind free speech.
In 2020, a Knight Foundation poll found that members of both political parties oppose speech that goes against their values or beliefs .
Later polls, including those conducted by other organizations, found more specifics: For instance, Democrats were more likely to support censorship of racist hate speech or vaccine misinformation.
And Republicans opposed drag shows and kneeling during the playing of the national anthem .
A February 2022 national poll commissioned by The New York Times and Siena College found that 30% of Americans believed that “ sometimes you have to shut down speech that is anti-democratic, bigoted, or simply untrue.”
With the 2024 election looming and polarization increasing among Americans, some people may want only those who agree with them to be allowed to speak.
But a true commitment to the fundamental principles of free speech requires people to allow space for controversial and even offensive viewpoints to be aired.
History reveals that censorship of hateful ideas is often a cure that is worse than the disease , deepening social divides. James Madison, a key drafter of both the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment, wrote in 1800:
“ Some degree of abuse is inseparable from the proper use of every thing … it is better to leave a few of its noxious branches, to their luxuriant growth, than by pruning them away, to injure the vigor of those yielding the proper fruits.”
As the founders knew, a respect for diverse viewpoints and the ability to express those views – good, bad and harmful alike – in the public sphere are essential to a healthy democracy.
Now, more than ever, we must renew our collective commitment to amplifying voices outside institutions of power, write attorneys with the chicago council of lawyers. also, a reader from rosemoor makes a pitch for free college..
Members of the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine gather for a protest in front of the Chicago Hilton on the day Donald Trump held a Q&A during the National Association of Black Journalists convention. The group also plans to protest at the DNC.
Manuel Martinez/WBEZ
Chicago will be hosting the Democratic National Convention next week. Many media outlets are already predicting major disruptions and unrest. Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling says CPD is training roughly 2,500 officers to respond to potential protests and projected civil unrest. And in a warning to protesters, the top cop also recently said, “ We’re not going to allow you to riot .”
Casting the convention as a looming threat with potential danger assumes the worst of our residents and those visiting the city. Raising fear and focusing on a possibility of violent disruption diminishes the right to peacefully assemble and breeds suspicion of citizens organizing lawfully to support their beliefs. Logistical preparation is the business of city management; stoking fear hinders those efforts. It diminishes both the intent of protest organizers and seeds mistrust of protesters and city services.
The foundation of democracy is citizens’ participation in its processes. Peaceful protest has been and remains a meaningful means of participation. Peaceful protest manifests dissent and concentrates the voices of those without direct political power. It motivates policy change in a way voting alone cannot.
SEND LETTERS TO: [email protected]. To be considered for publication, letters must include your full name, your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be a maximum of approximately 375 words.
The city and its residents must approach the coming convention with support for the peaceful public expression of dissent, not with fear.
Our democracy and free elections are experiencing a moment of unique vulnerability. We must embrace and support the right of peaceful assembly and participation in the political process through organized protest. Now, more than ever, we must renew our collective commitment to amplifying voices outside institutions of power.
The Chicago Council of Lawyers was born during a similarly fraught moment, emerging from the violence that accompanied the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The council’s values remain rooted in support for dissent and the role of lawyers in enabling people to enjoy this fruit of our democracy — without fear of violence or retribution. Our membership has close ties to the legal aid, public interest law and civil rights communities in Chicago’s legal profession, and we are committed to seeking and obtaining reforms in the public interest to ensure necessary participation by all.
We are not naïve about the fraught reality of our times. But the media ought not focus so overwhelmingly on stoking fear of what might be and instead devote time to what exists— the cherished rights of Americans to peacefully express dissent and organize to do so.
Stephanie Agnew and Naomi Johnson, co-executive directors, Chicago Council of Lawyers
CORRECTION: Authors’ names have been corrected by the organization.
The outrage expressed by some over the decision of the Schuler family to terminate scholarship payments to needy students under its Schuler Scholar Program is understandable but unwarranted. The real outrage is that the richest country in the world doesn’t provide free college to its citizenry.
Public education has long been a bulwark of the American way of life, not a whim or favor that is granted or withheld by some group or individual. To a large extent,at least until the spread of Reaganomics, public colleges and universities were relatively affordable. Now, higher education is an extremely difficult endeavor for many aspiring students, and like it or not,they are often at the mercy of “the kindness of strangers.”
But it shouldn’t be this way. The pathway to higher education should be a birthright of every law-abiding American citizen. It shouldn’t depend on the largesse of some wealthy benefactors who may decide to end their support at any given point for any given reason. And make no mistake about it, providing public education beyond high school is one of the best investments the nation can make, one that would pay dividends for countless generations to come.
Samuel C. Small, Rosemoor
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In an hourlong exchange with reporters, the former president criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for not doing the same, insulted her intelligence and boasted about the size of his rallies.
By Maggie Haberman Shane Goldmacher and Jonathan Swan
Reporting from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla.
Follow live updates on the 2024 election .
Former President Donald J. Trump tried on Thursday to shoehorn himself back into a national conversation that Vice President Kamala Harris has dominated for more than two weeks, holding an hourlong news conference in which he assailed Ms. Harris’s intelligence and taunted her for failing to field questions similarly from journalists.
Throughout the event, held in the main room at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and home in Palm Beach, Fla., Mr. Trump assailed the state of the U.S. economy, described the country as in mortal danger if he did not win the presidential election and falsely described his departure from the White House — which was preceded by his refusal to concede his election loss in November 2020 and the violent attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by a mob of his supporters — as a “peaceful” transfer of power.
Mr. Trump also flashed frustration when asked about the size of Ms. Harris’s crowds while boasting about the attendance at his own rally on Jan. 6, 2021, and insisted that the group of hundreds that stormed the Capitol was relatively small. But he fixated on the size of the crowd that he initially gathered on the national mall, making comparisons to — and declaring it was larger than — the one drawn by Martin Luther King Jr. for his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
“Nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me,” Mr. Trump said. “If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours — same real estate, same everything, same number of people, if not — we had more.”
The Trump team has been looking for ways to interrupt Ms. Harris’s momentum as she has quickly consolidated the Democratic Party behind her and risen in the polls. The goal of Mr. Trump’s news conference, which he announced on Thursday morning on his social media site, was to highlight that Ms. Harris has yet to hold a news conference of her own or to give an unscripted interview to the news media.
It was a point he made during his event, arguing that she had avoided doing so because “she’s not smart enough.”
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Practice your Shona by writing emails . Practice written conversation using text chat. Practice speaking using voice chat. We provide free, helpful guidelines and tips on how to do a language exchange, as well as free lesson plans designed by an expert in language exchange learning. The activities are fun so you can easily "break the ice" with ...
#speakshona #vocabulary #tauraichishona #shonawithtsitsi #learnshona #grammarIn today's Speak Shona lesson we delve into how to make sentences in Shona. the ...
Write the Shona word on a sticky note and attach it to the item. Each time you pass the item, say the Shona word aloud. [13] With this method, you'll come to think of the labeled items by their Shona word after a while. Once you've committed one group of items to memory, move on to another group.
Jamali. Peter, et al. Shona Learners' Reference Grammar. National African Languages Resource Center, 2005. This grammar book is a supplement when the learner needs more material about the structure of the language, mainly on parts of speech and a bit about syntax. Mawadza, Aquilina. Shona-English English-Shona (chiShona) Dictionary and ...
The Shona alphabet reflects the cultural heritage and history of the Shona people. The letters "C," "J," "R," and "V" were introduced to the Shona alphabet by European missionaries during the colonial era. These letters were incorporated to represent specific sounds in the Shona language that were not present in the English alphabet.
In today's Speak Shona lesson we introduce the beginner series of quick 3 to 5 minutes lessons that will get you proficient and speaking in Shona in no time!...
Since however there exist several important varieties of the language, with clear standardization only in regard to orthography, it is strictly speaking impossible to write a course in 'Shona'. This book is based on the speech of two individuals, representing Manyika varieties of Shona, but with certain systematic emendations in the direction ...
Shona is a tonal language with two tones: high and low. These are not indicated in writing. Shona alphabet and pronunciation. Notes. Some sounds were written differently in the version of the Shona alphabet used between 1931 and 1955: b = ɓ, d = ɗ, ng = ŋ, sv = ȿ, v = ʋ, zv = ɀ. Download an alphabet chart for Shona(Excel) Sample text in ...
In this video you will learn the most important shona phrases that will help you quickly know how to speak shona.Checkout this article where we compiled more...
Introduction: Shona or chiShona is the most widely spoken language in Zimbabwe after English. It is also generally understood by most people living in parts of western Mozampique (Tawara & Tewe dialects), northern South Africa and eastern Botswana (Kalanga & Venda dialects), and southern Zambia (Tonga dialect). The standard or mostly spoken Shona dialect is the Karanga, but each Zimbabwean ...
The lessons are intended to give the student an illustration of Shona culture and language with a set of conversations between native speakers of Shona. The synchronized presentation of the three significant multimedia components of audio, video and text illustrate each of these speech contexts in a very comprehensive manner possible. Exercises:
Useful Shona phrases. A collection of useful phrases in Shona, a Bantu language spoken mainly in Zimbabwe. Jump to phrases. See these phrases in any combination of two languages in the Phrase Finder.If you can provide recordings, corrections or additional translations, please contact me.. Key to abbreviations: sg = singular (said to one person), pl = plural (said to more than one person).
This article critically examines the Shona writing system, starting with an evaluation of the early efforts by the missionaries, Doke and the Shona Language Committee to establish a common writing system. The article seeks to identify weaknesses in Shona orthography and suggests ways of improving it. It concludes that the present writing system needs to be revised in order for it to be a tool ...
THE SHONA WRITING SYSTEM: AN ANALYSIS OF ITS PROBLEMS AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS WISEMAN MAGWA Midlands State University Abstract This article critically examines the Shona writing system, starting with an evaluation of the early efforts by the missionaries, Doke and the Shona Language Committee to establish a common writing system.
This site is designed to teach you and help you learn Shona for free through vocabulary, phrases, grammar and flashcards (vocabulary trainer). Here is how you can start: Letters: Learn how to write and read the letters. You can actually learn Shona very quickly and easily through our lessons because we teach you only what you need to learn.
Mamuka sei. You start with Ma when you are greeting an elderly person, senior or someone of importance.The opening is used to show respect. morning greeting. Wamuka sei. You start with Wa when you are greeting a youth, friend, sibling or somebody at your level. morning greeting. Mangwánaní. General term for greeting anybody in the morning.
In writing, the high tone is marked with an acute accent (á) and the low tone is marked with a grave accent (à). An interesting feature of Shona phonology is tonal retraction. For example if a word with two high tones is followed by a word beginning with a high tone, the high tone of the final syllable of the first word becomes a low tone, e ...
The Shona language has two tones: High tone marked by (á) and low tone marked by (à). Vowels. Shona has five vowels. a (ah) - like in g a ng. e (ey) - like in h ay. i (ee) - like in s ee. o (o) - like in s o. u (oo) - like in br oo m. Shona does not have silent letters of diphthongs. When two vowels appear side by side in a word, each is ...
European Commissioner Thierry Breton warned X owner Elon Musk the company may face penalties if it doesn't address the spread of illegal and dangerous content.
In small groups, discuss the importance of greetings in your culture compared to Shona culture. Share your thoughts with the class afterward. Exercise 8: Writing Exercise [edit | edit source] Write a paragraph introducing yourself in Shona, including your name, where you are from, and how you feel today. Example:
Harris doesn't write out her own first draft or outlines for speeches, Etienne says, but instead prefers to brainstorm with her writers and aides and then edit and revise what her staff puts on ...
This isn't going to be last year's Jackrabbits. South Dakota State football coach Jimmy Rogers made that abundantly clear during his speech in front of program boosters, athletes, and media ...
The former president, in a series of social media posts, said that Vice President Kamala Harris had used A.I. technology to create images of fake crowds at her events. By Shane Goldmacher Former ...
During his speech at the Republican National Convention, he talked about his personal record of starting businesses "to create jobs in the kinds of places that I grew up in" and what he called ...
Americans agree that democracy requires freedom of speech. But a large minority also thinks it's acceptable to bar certain subjects or speakers from public debate. ... Write an article and join ...
Members of the Chicago Coalition for Justice in Palestine gather for a protest in front of the Chicago Hilton on the day Donald Trump held a Q&A during the National Association of Black ...
PEN America, a free speech organization that has been tracking efforts to restrict books for several years, said this is the first time it has seen a state require all of its schools to remove a ...
Around 1 percent of those arrested at the southern border have criminal convictions, federal data shows. There is little evidence that undocumented immigrants commit more crime than U.S. citizens ...
Mr. Trump instead resorted to his go-to evasion, saying he would be holding a news conference at a later date to announce his position. When asked if he would direct the Food and Drug ...
The Shona spelling system restricts variations in speech and supplementary rules have been put forward to restrict a speaker-writer's options. ... All these problems point to the fact that the Shona writing system is far from adequate and that there is a need to cater for dialectal variations in the orthography if the language is to be written ...