Elisabeth est interprète en français et langue des signes française. D’un rendez-vous à l’autre, elle accompagne la vie des gens, traduisant les grands et les petits moments : rendez-vous chez le médecin, le juge, le banquier, entretien d’embauche, visite de musée, mariage, accouchement, enterrement… Entre deux mondes, elle permet la communication entre sourds et entendants prêtant sa voix aux uns et ses mains aux autres.
Njattyela Sreedharan, qui a abandonné ses études en quatrième année, élabore un dictionnaire reliant les quatre principales langues dravidiennes. Il a passé vingt-cinq ans à parcourir quatre États et à effectuer des recherches approfondies pour réaliser ce dictionnaire multilingue. Ce dictionnaire unique propose une étude comparative du malayalam, du kannada, du tamoul et du télougou. Dreaming of Words” retrace la vie de Sreedharan, son travail, son amour pour les langues et les luttes qu’il a menées pour faire publier le dictionnaire. Le film explore également la diversité linguistique et culturelle de l’Inde.
Dans les années 1950, l’artiste ivoirien Frédéric Bruly Bouabré invente une écriture à partir de l’une des langues les plus parlées en Côte d’Ivoire, le bété. Un moyen ingénieux pour sauvegarder la riche culture de ce peuple.
Nicole Vallet, correctrice de langue française, entretien enregistré par Mundolingua.
Des artistes francophones du monde entier sont allés à la rencontre des habitants de leur territoire, pour leur faire découvrir une pratique artisique et les inviter à s’exprimer sur dix mots de la langue française. Les films des Caravanes des dix mots font émerger la parole, interrogent le francophone qui est en chacun de nous et mettent en évidence la polysémie des mots, le beauté des imaginaires et la diversité des cultures !
In the 1940s, twenty-nine young men from government-run Navajo reservations bravely heeded the call of a nation, which once nearly wiped out their ancestors and the memory of their culture completely. During the second world war, the United States and its allies were struggling to find a code by which to communicate across the Pacific Ocean – one that could not be broken by the Japanese enemy. The solution came in the form of the Navajo people, whose language was as elusive as it was complex. Through their incredible linguistic skills, the Allied forces were able to convey life-or-death information to one another – information that, in some cases, altered the very courses of the war. In this eye-opening documentary, renowned historians and several Navajo veterans relate how a mere handful of WWII marines devised the only unbreakable code in modern military history.
This film is the story of the 200-year struggle to unlock the secrets of the hieroglyphs of the ancient Mayans. Based on archaeologist Michael Coe’s book, and filmed in 9 countries, this amazing detective story is filled with false leads and rivalries.
ESPACE PROJECTIONS
Scientists estimate that of 7,000 languages in the world, half will be gone by the end of this century. THE LINGUISTS joins David Harrison and Gregory Anderson, scientists racing to document languages on the verge of extinction. In the rugged landscapes of Siberia, India, and Bolivia, the linguists’ resolve is tested by the very forces stifling languages: institutionalized racism and violent economic unrest. David and Greg’s journey takes them deep into the heart of the cultures, knowledge, and communities at stake.
Presenting complex social and biological concepts in a logical and accessible format, The Birth of Language explains the mystery that sets the human race apart from all other animals: the ability to think and translate our abstract ideas into concrete realities.
Au cœur de la forêt amazonienne existe un mystérieux langage qu’aucun étranger n’a jamais appris. Jusqu’à aujourd’hui. Après trente ans de recherches, en vivant avec les Piraha, un homme a finalement déchiffré le code. La mission de Daniel Everett était d’évangéliser l’Amazonie. Au lieu de cela, le missionnaire a découvert un peuple exceptionnel, qui n’a pas de mots pour les chiffres et les couleurs, ne se préoccupe ni du lointain passé ni du futur, et n’a aucun besoin de son Dieu. La découverte de cette nouvelle langue remet ainsi en cause quelques théories admises sur le langage humain.
Based on their own stories, nine poets, writers and singers describe their particular experiences of the transition from one language to another. Le fiIm décrit ce lien intime, souvent ambivalent et conflictuel, tissé entre l’hébreu, langue apprise et adoptée, et la langue de l’enfance, celle qui est «comme du lait maternel». Le fiIm describes the intimate, often ambivalent and conflictual bond forged between Hebrew, the language learned and adopted, and the language of childhood, which is “like mother’s milk”.
In Words That Remain, six people recall the languages that cradled their childhoods: Judeo-Spanish or Judeo Arabic, or Judeo-Persian.
These languages, while quite different from one another, have a common Hebrew component, and—especially—a common feature: all of them are written in Hebrew letters. These letters have, with the passage of time, lost their use and their force.
Today, the languages themselves are becoming extinct. The resonance of their words, however, of melodies, rhythms, and accents, have left traces that still work on in those who heard them as children.
In the 1970s Genie was found at age 12 strapped to a chair, with virtually no language abilities. Numerous ambitious people got involved, in particular, Susan Curtiss, doctorate student at the time, who worked closely with Genie to help her communicate, and at the same time investigate the hypothesis that there is a specific window of time within which language skills can be acquired, generally up to puberty. This interview follows the film Mockingbird Don’t Sing (available online). Dr Curtiss talks about the successes and failures 30 years later.
Jeremy Brown the hapless teacher for an evening class of foreign students who are hoping to become more proficient in the English language. With his students running the full spectrum of age and race, situations are ripe for misunderstandings in the classic sit-com style!
December 16, 2004: for an hour, linguist Claude Hagège answers François Lo Jacomo’s questions on Esperanto and linguistic diversity.
Between the domination of Anglo-American and the acceptance of Esperanto, what other options are open to us?
