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Interview with Keith Cunningham, PhD Candidate at Georgetown University

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As the UNESCO Year of Indigenous Languages continues, we at the Museum want to highlight work being done to make the year a success and preserve and study lesser-known indigenous languages further. I had the opportunity to interview Keith Cunningham at Georgetown University, who is currently working on a doctoral dissertation in linguistics, who is […]

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Interview with Lynne Murphy, Author of “The Prodigal Tongue”

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On August 24th, 2019 we featured our latest speaker in our Speaker Series, Lynne Murphy, discussing “The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between British and American English.”  I had the opportunity to ask Lynne a few questions about her background and British and American English. Here’s what she had to say… Tell me about your

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Speaker Series: The Prodigal Tongue, The Love-Hate Relationship between American and British English

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THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF LANGUAGE                PROUDLY PRESENTS  The Prodigal Tongue: The love-hate relationship between American and British English SATURDAY 24 AUGUST 2019, 2-4 PM COLLEGE PARK COUNCIL CHAMBERS 4500 KNOX ROAD, COLLEGE PARK, MD, 20740 Lynne Murphy is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex. Born and raised in New York State, she has lived

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Interview with Joseph Rhyne and Ryan Hearn, Creators of Torfan for Marvel’s Captain Marvel

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Many of you have may have seen Marvel Studio’s Captain Marvel in theaters (and you would not be alone, with over a billion dollars in worldwide grosses), chronicling the adentures of Captain Carol Danvers as she goes from Kree Starforce member to one of Earth’s heroes, but did you notice that the Torfans in one

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Fanni is Radnóti's wife
Located near the Tang capital city of Chang’an, site of the modern city of Xi’an in Shaanxi province, in central China.
Soldiers of that time commonly wore a white head cloth, similar to what is still worn by some peasants in China today.  The implication is that the conscripts were so young that they didn’t know how to wrap their head cloths, and needed help from elders.
Before China’s unification under the Qin dynasty in 221 B.C. there were several competing smaller kingdoms.  Han and Qin were two of these kingdoms. Han was located east of famous mountain passes that separated that area from the power base of the Qin dynasty, with its capital in Chang’an. The Qin dynasty itself only lasted about 15 years after unification due to its draconian rule, but soldiers under Qin rule retained a reputation as strong fighters.
The area of Guanxi, meaning “west of the passes”, refers to the area around the capital city of Chang’an.
This is an alternative name for a province in western China, now known as Qinghai, which literally means “blue sea”.  Kokonor Lake, located in Qinghai, is the largest saline lake in China.  
Before China’s unification under the Qin dynasty in 221 B.C. there were several competing smaller kingdoms.  Han and Qin were two of these kingdoms. Han was located east of famous mountain passes that separated that area from the power base of the Qin dynasty, with its capital in Chang’an. The Qin dynasty itself only lasted about 15 years after unification due to its draconian rule, but soldiers under Qin rule retained a reputation as strong fighters.
Oulart Hollow was the site of a famous victory of the Irish rebels over British troops, which took place on May 27, 1798. The rebels killed nearly all the British attackers in this battle. (Source: Maxwell, W. H. History of the Irish Rebellion in 1798. H. H. Bohn, London 1854, pp 92-93, at archive.org)
The phrase "United Men" is elaborated upon in the Notes section below.

Ghetto

An Italian word meaning “foundry.” It originally referred to a part of the city of Venice where the Jews of that city were forced to live; the area was called “the ghetto” because there was a foundry nearby. The term eventually came to refer to any part of a city in which a minority group is forced to live as a result of social, legal, or economic pressure. Because of the restrictions placed upon them, ghetto residents are often impoverished.

"You’re five nine, I am do-uble two"

A reference to the year 1959 and the year 2020.

"The Currency"

Meaning US dollars - this is drawing attention to the fact that Cuba is effectively dollarized.

"Sixty years with the dom-ino stuck"

This sentence is a reference to the Cold War notion that countries would turn Communist one after the other - like dominos. Cuba was the first domino, but it got stuck - no one else followed through into communism.

رحلنا

رحلنا, or "rahalna," means "we have left."

Habibi

Habibi means "my love."

Ra7eel

Ra7eel, or "raheel," means "departure."

3awda

3awda, or "awda," means "returning."

أهلاً

أهلاً, or "ahalan," means "welcome."

a5 ya baba

a5 ya baba, pronounced "akh ya baba," means "Oh my father."

golpe

Treece translates "golpe" as "beating", which is correct, however misses the secondary meaning of the word: "coup".

Carlos

The “Carlos” referred to in the poem is most likely Carlos Bolsonaro, a politician from Rio de Janeiro and the second son of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s current president. His and his father’s involvement in Marielle’s murder has been questioned and investigated.