In a recent issue of the Journal of Language Evolution, Syrjänen et al. (2021) investigate the suitability of computing Cummins and McInerney’s (2011) TIGER rates for estimating the tree-likeness of linguistic datasets compiled for phylogenetic reconstruction. The authors test the TIGER rates on a diverse sample of simulated data, which by and lar…[Read more]

This editorial discusses the articles published and the activities undertaken by The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship during 2021, and calls for research system-wide cultural changes and wider contextual awareness in order to make scholarly communication fairer and up to the challenges of our time.

Focusing on the work of John McWhorter and, to a lesser extent, Peter Trudgill, this paper critically examines some common themes in language complexity research from the perspective of intellectual history. The present-day conception that increase in language complexity is somehow a “natural” process which is disturbed under the “ab…[Read more]

While it has been known for a long time that human languages can change in various ways, it was only in the early 19th century that scholars realized that certain aspects of language change proceed in a surprisingly regular manner, allowing us to reconstruct historical stages of languages which have never been documented in written sources. The…[Read more]

In this article, we propose a model that combines digital storytelling with narrative practice to create a facilitated peer-to-peer experiential learning space for collective empowerment. This model was inspired by an educational intervention that utilized participatory digital comic strip making to raise students’ awareness of bullying and its c…[Read more]

Public talk for International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden University (February 24, 2021) https://youtu.be/77oz4tb8r0Y How did Hindu devotees come to worship an Indian goddess in the ‘Chinese Way?’ What was allegedly Chinese about these rituals and how is this related to the goddess’s Buddhist origins? When did Hindus start to think of Ch…[Read more]

What a charming smile 😉 * Artwork by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-ND

Der computergestützte Sprachvergleich (Wu et al. 2020) hat zum Ziel, Sprachvielfalt und Sprachgeschichte mit Hilfe einer Mischung aus computerbasierten und nicht-automatischen aber formalen Methoden zu untersuchen und dadurch grundlegende Fragen zur Entwicklung spezifischer Sprachfamilien (Sagart et al. 2019) oder zur Typologie von Sprachvielfalt…[Read more]

This is a reflection zine from a course I taught in Spring 2020, ENG 342: “Studies in Popular Culture,” which had a course topic of “Playful Literature and Literary Games.” My goal with this course was to teach students about the ways in which games and literature overlap, particularly through the frame of the zine — DIY print publications that…[Read more]

This is the zine-version of my syllabus from a course I taught in Spring 2020, ENG 342: “Studies in Popular Culture,” which had a course topic of “Playful Literature and Literary Games.” My goal with this course was to teach students about the ways in which games and literature overlap, particularly through the frame of the zine — DIY print…[Read more]

BIS REPETITA PLACENT! * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA

This file contains an overview of the early adopters of the Neo-Latin term dialectus, together with sample passages in which the term features as well as information on the publication data of the works in which the term appears. The overview also offers information on the social, geographical, and scholarly background of the early adopters.

Het Latijn heeft geen lidwoord zoals bijvoorbeeld het Nederlands (de, het) of het Oudgrieks (ho, hē, tó), en dat vond de 16de-eeuwse humanist Julius Caesar Scaliger prima. De grootse taal van Rome kon het makkelijk stellen zonder dat pietluttige woordje. Toegegeven, het kan soms nuttig zijn om aan te geven dat je een specifiek object op het oog h…[Read more]

Het Latijn, de taal van de Romeinen, heeft lange tijd zijn stempel gedrukt op de taalkunde en taalbeschrijving, niet alleen in de oudheid, maar ook in de middeleeuwen en de Renaissance, wanneer men de talige diversiteit van de wereld gestaag ontdekte. De meest uiteenlopende talen werden met wisselend succes gegoten in de mal van het Latijnse…[Read more]

1492 was a momentous year for Spain. The Genoese explorer Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas, leading to the continent’s largescale colonization by Europeans. Columbus did so by order of the so-called Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, while actually trying to discover a new travel r…[Read more]

In the new “Ad fontes” feature of Adendros, I want to offer English translations of short source texts or text excerpts from the history of (Greek) language studies which struck me as particularly interesting, enlightening, or enticing.

Today: part two of a grammar dispute between Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin and Martin Crusius, two six…[Read more]

Vandaag is het exact 500 jaar geleden dat Hadrianus Amerotius’ (ca. 1495-1560) Compendium Graecae grammatices te Leuven verscheen in het atelier van Dirk Martens.

This paper focuses on American superhero comics – i.e. superadventures and their likeness to mythology. Our goal is to understand how subtle changes in the characterization of a superhero may make them more congruent with the present day morality and ideals of the society, even if a given character is willing to directly challenge that morality. T…[Read more]

While analysing lexical data of Western Kho-Bwa languages of the Sino-Tibetan or Trans-
Himalayan family with the help of a computer-assisted approach for historical language
comparison, we observed gaps in the data where one or more varieties lacked forms for certain
concepts. We employed a new workflow, combining manual and automated steps,…[Read more]