languagingHR

Title: Languaging in Hampton Roads Episode 10: The Ebb and Flow of Coastal Carolina Languages Hosts: Prue Salasky and Jill Winkowski Date: Oct. 31, 2024 Length: 34.15 min Publication Frequency: Fourth Friday (approx) of each month Co-hosts Prue Salasky and Jill Winkowski delve into the history and language of Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands, part of the Outer Banks, OBX, of North Carolina, our neighbors to the south and part of our geographical culture in Hampton Roads. They interview two experts on the region. Scott Dawson, whose family traces its roots back to the 1600s on Hatteras, has devoted countless hours to researching the language and culture of the Croatoan people and their early encounters with English settlers. An amateur archaeologist and historian, he has identified artifacts and produced word lists of the Carolina Algonquian spoken on Hatteras Island when the first English settlers arrived in the 16th century. (https://www.coastalcarolinaindians.com/category/research-databases/blair-a-rudes-indigenous-language-collection/). He credits the efforts of English scientist and polymath Thomas Harriot (Hariot) working with Croatoans Manteo and Wanchese for much of what’s known today about the indigenous residents, their culture and language. We also learn more about Thomas Harriot and his scientific accomplishments, among the greatest of his generation. Dawson is a founder of the Croatoan Archaeological Society (http://www.cashatteras.com) and also opened a museum on Hatteras to tell a different version of the “lost colony” of Roanoke Island (https://www.lostcolonymuseum.com). . Linguistically, sociolinguist Prof. Walt Wolfram, William C. Friday Distinguished University Professor at N.C. State, places the dialects spoken on the Outer Banks islands as part of the Tidewater diaspora. For example, the brogue spoken on Ocracoke, he says, is closer to that of Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay than to that of nearby mainland communities. A scholar of language variation, Wolfram contrasts the vibrancy of the distinctive English dialect of the Lumbee in Robeson County with the rapidly declining use of Ocracoke’s traditional dialect. He is also the director of the North Carolina Language and Life Project which documents dialects and speech variations. Listeners can find speech samples for the Lumbee, Ocracoke Islanders and many more by searching for The North Carolina Language and Life Project on YouTube. The changes in language use and dialect over 400 years in these coastal communities first tells the story of English settlement and its impact on indigenous communities. Then ongoing changes reveal shifting demographics and how geography intersects with language and identity.

Title: Languaging in Hampton Roads Episode 9 : What It Takes to Raise Bilingual Children Hosts: Jill Winkowski and Prue Salasky Date: Oct. 2, 2024 Length: 38.08 min Publication Frequency: Fourth Friday (approx)  of each month   Co-hosts Jill Winkowski and Prue Salasky explore the topic of how best to raise bilingual children. It’s an endlessly complex topic with multiple angles. First, they share some of the changes in research that show the benefits of bilingualism and the study of languages on the physical structure of the brain. They also touch on the changes in attitude toward English variations fueled by demographics and a global economy and the subsequent status accorded to those proficient in more than one language.   To determine what it takes to raise children bilingual – and what fuels the drive on the part of parents – they talk to several foreign-born residents of Hampton Roads. These include university professor of language and art history, Rosa Motta, a native bilingual speaker of Italian and Sicilian; Silvina Bocca, a Spanish speaker from Argentina, an MD/PhD, an expert in infertility and in-vitro fertilization; Brenda Musto, a Spanish speaker from Argentina whose parents were native Italian speakers. She now runs a medical residency program at Eastern Virginia Medical School. They also talk to her daughter Bernie, a high school senior and dual bilingual in Spanish and English; to Yuliya Dobrednova and her husband Boris Dobrednov from Moscow, a microbiologist/biotechnologist and physicist respectively; and to Russian speakers Elena Chambers from Belarus and Natalya Peretyatko of Kazakhstan, founders of the Russian school in Newport News.   We learned how years of English study in their home countries prepared these parents to become bilingual but it wasn’t until they came to the U.S. and were immersed in an English-speaking environment that they reached fluency. They talk about their backgrounds and the intense efforts they put into raising their children as heritage speakers – and how success isn’t guaranteed. There’s ‘no recipe’ for success. The parents talk about the challenges and rewards of passing on their culture through language.   We end the show with reference to the huge growth of formal bilingual/foreign language education in Hampton Roads in the past decade: These include a Russian daycare in Virginia Beach; multiple preschools with  Spanish language options; dual immersion Spanish/English programs in the public schools in Virginia Beach and Newport News (the latter serves 600 students and has a waiting list);  weekend language enrichment programs in multiple languages; and the featured Russian school in Newport News. We also learned about the Seal of Biliteracy that high school students in Virginia can now earn as part of their high school diplomas for proficiency in a foreign language.   Send your questions and feedback to languaginghr@gmail com.

Title: Languaging in Hampton Roads Episode 8 : Road Trip in Hampton Roads: Uncovering the Origins of Geographical Names Hosts: Jill Winkowski and Prue Salasky Date: Sept. 5, 2024 Length: 31:45 min Publication Frequency: Fourth Friday (approx)  of each month Co-hosts Jill Winkowski and Prue Salasky take a road trip to the far corners of Hampton Roads in S.E. Va. They’re in search of the provenance of the names, Elephant’s Fork in Suffolk, Cuffeytown in Chesapeake, and Chic’s Beach in Virginia Beach, and what those names tell us about the history and culture of the region.  The duo talk about toponymy, or the study of place names, and semiotics, the study of signs, and how those disciplines apply to their discoveries.  They share the rules and regulations involved in the official naming process. At the state level there’s the Virginia Board on Geographic Names: Senior Map Archivist, Library of Virginia, 800 East Broad St. Richmond, Va. 23219; 804-692-3617; [email protected]. Nationally, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, BGN, was fully established in 1947; its naming conventions include allowing only 5 places nationwide to have names that include an apostrophe (Martha’s Vineyard is one of them). The BGN works closely with state, tribal and local governments, as well as the general public. At Elephant’s Fork the duo uncover a community recognition of the name but no understanding of how it came to be; subsequent research, including the use of the free digitized archive of Virginia newspapers, virginiachronicle.com, unearthed its origin in a giant tin elephant used to advertise the emporium of one H.J. Bowen in 1903.  Stories attached to the name included that of Mary Chapman, as recorded in Tidewater Voices,  https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/tidewatervoices, an ongoing digital archive project of Old Dominion University in Norfolk; and that of Angelo Scott, a current Suffolk resident, who recounted his perceived experience of abrupt integration as a 2nd-grader in 1971. At Cuffeytown, a historic community in Chesapeake founded by free blacks in the 1700 they recount their difficulties in finding the historic Cuffeytown cemetery, the final resting place for the Cuffeytown 13. These were Civil War veterans who fought for the Union. Crops at peak growth prevented their access. They did visit the AME Zion Church, founded in 1866, and learned there the identities of the 13 veterans, almost half of them Cuffeys. (See the below list)  5th USCT  Pvt. Walter Smith, Co. I 10th USCT Sgt. William Coffey, Co. G Pvt. Bluet Cuffey, Co. H Corp. Emerson Cuffey, Co. G Pvt. Lemuel Cuffey, Co. F Sgt. Wilson Cuffey, Co. H Sgt. William Cuffey, Co. F Corp. William Sevils, Co. H Pvtd. Cornelius Smith, Co. F Pvt. James W. Smith, Co. F Pvt. Samuel Smith, Co. H Pvt. John Whitehurst, Co. H 36th USCT Sgt. Thomas Van, Co. C From there the intrepid pair took the back roads to Chic’s Beach in Virginia Beach, whose recorded history dates back to Native Americans and then the earliest European settlers, but whose current nickname harks back to the mid-20th century. The bayfront neighborhood, officially called Chesapeake Beach, saw a flurry of real estate dealings in the early part of the 20th century and was built out by the 1960s. Local lore attributes the nickname that stuck, Chic’s Beach, to one Luther ‘Chic’ Ledington who operated a hot dog stand in a beachfront building until 1967.  There’s so much to learn from the names we see around us daily! Send feedback and questions to [email protected]. 

Languaging Episode #7 Notes: July doldrums https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/languaginghr Title: Languaging in Hampton Roads Episode 7 : July doldrums Hosts: Jill Winkowski and Prue Salasky Date: August 9, 2024 Length: 18:40 Publication Frequency: Fourth Friday of each month In this off-the-cuff mini-episode, hosts Jill Winkowski and Prue Salasky give listeners information on the name and whereabouts of Hampton Roads, Virginia, and its “rival” Tidewater. They also reveal that the podcast’s title, languaging, “is a word” and divulge its meaning - to solve complex problems through the use of language. In laid back summer mode, the duo reflect on their six prior episodes that started with a spotlight on Tidewater Voices in January 2024. The online archive, available at Tidewater Voices: Conversations in Southeastern Virginia | Old Dominion University Research is an ongoing 20-year ethnographic project by Old Dominion University linguistics students, under the supervision of Dr. Bridget Anderson. That first episode focused on identifying a Tidewater accent and the history of the region.  Jill and Prue go on to recount the scope of their episodes to date: an exploration of the roots of the word ‘menhaden’; learning about the work of a coalition of local tribes to revive the Algonquian language; raising awareness of research on patient/health provider interactions; a discussion of the development of sign language dialects; and, most recently, interviews with performers in the spoken word poetry scene in Hampton Roads.  Finally, Jill answers her question about the role of the present perfect, while Prue poses a new question for listeners – is it true that the labio-dental fricative [v] is the only letter in the English alphabet that is never ‘silent,’ as in ‘g[h]ost, thum[b], etc.? Send your answer and any feedback via email to [email protected]. Listeners can also visit their new website, www.languaginghr.wordpress.com, with access to all episodes of languaginghr as well as full interviews with those featured on the podcast.