It's been a good few months since the last time I picked up the pen (or computer keyboard) and typed away about sociolinguistics. So, so much has happened in these last few months, and I can't wait to share all the little linguistics nuances that I've learned during my time away from Wordy Wednesday writing. I have a little notebook where I've been jotting down notes and a "Sociolinguistics To-Do List" of topics I want to explore on here.

So, what exactly have I been up to?

For starters, I graduated high school! That was fun. I also scheduled my classes for next semester: I am taking two foreign language classes (Arabic and French) as well as an African American Linguistics class. Oh, and intro to bioengineering! I originally wanted to take a computer science class as well, but I couldn't squeeze it into my week and the class couldn't squeeze me into the attendance list--mutual un-squeeze-able-ness.

Anyway, I'm super stoked to be taking Arabic and French! It'll be pretty overwhelming to learn two new languages at once, but at least it'll give me all the more juice to write about on here, right?

I just got back from a three week trip in Australia, where we were constantly bouncing around from place to place. We spent three days in Sydney, flew to Alice Springs, camped in the Outback for six days and five nights, flew to Cairns for a hot second, snorkeled in the Great Barrier Reef at Port Douglas for two days, and spent the rest of our time in the Daintree Rainforest. I felt so blessed and lucky the entire time. I was thriving.

I can't even begin to describe just how much I learned out there. Australia is an extremely diverse country in terms of both people and wildlife: people from all ethnic groups coexist in the cities, while the wilderness consists of ecosystems ranging from deserts to rainforests to coral reefs. The next few installations of the Sociolinguistics Series are most likely going to touch on Australian linguistics (including Aboriginal languages and culture), so be ready for that!

Without spoiling the segments to come on this topic, I would love to point out that Aboriginal linguistics is one of the coolest topics ever. Their language is so interwoven with their culture, religion, and way of life. Not to mention, there are over three hundred Aboriginal languages (and over four hundred dialects) across Australia! Some are endangered languages, and I will be discussing one of the many ways artists and linguists have tried to preserve these dying tongues.

Beyond the Aboriginal languages, the European-Australian accent is also something of interest. Many words that exist in Standard American English also exist in Australian English, but they have different meanings. This leads to the phenomena of Australians and Americans being "divided by a common language," and in the next few parts of this series, I'll bring up some specific examples of this (also--Australian slang is incredibly interesting!!!).

After the many segments on Australia are written, I'm going to be delving into some other topics that have piqued my interest in the last few months, including (but not limited to) the sociolinguistics behind vocabulary in the advertisement industry, the Bangladesh Liberation War and the Bengali Language Movement Day, and the different dialects across North America.

I know this installation hasn't been quite as textbook-y and informative as most segments are, but I felt the need to write an entire "introduction" to the topic(s) of the next few weeks. It's just refreshing to sit back down, catch up, and anticipate all the great sociolinguistics topics to come. I can't wait, and I hope you can't either.