According to Charlemagne, “To speak another language is to possess another soul.” How many of these souls do we have? How diverse is Sewanee? One way to measure that is to know how many languages are spoken by members of the Sewanee community. With support from the Center for Leadership, the E.L. Kellermann Language Resource Center issued an online survey to the entire campus: students, faculty, and staff. The survey was not only focused on which languages our community speaks, but on how knowing other languages has enriched their lives, both personally and intellectually.
The goal in undertaking this project was twofold: to raise awareness of and appreciation for the gift of multilingualism in ourselves and others and to highlight the diversity (often hidden) of Sewanee. Many polyglots don’t appreciate what a gift they have and are sometimes even ashamed of their language. Many students resent the language requirement. If people realize how culturally and cognitively enriching it is to have a second language, they may be more willing to learn and retain a second language and have a renewed respect for people who know multiple languages and recognize how that contributes to the richness of campus life.
The Language Diversity Survey at Sewanee was launched in the context of world-wide language extinctions, and the trend on many campuses, including Sewanee, to weaken the language requirement and to offer fewer languages. It was collected through a Google Form, which was posted all over campus.
With just under 300 respondents, a total of 91 languages are spoken/understood by the Sewanee Community! Classical languages are included because they are still highly relevant in shaping cognition and more practically in interpreting the nuances of historical texts, such as the Bible. Languages spoken on campus include African, indigenous North & South American, Asian, European, and a number of classical languages (listed below).
Numerous examples from the survey demonstrated ways in which knowledge of a second language helped the respondents and their colleagues/classmates better grasp concepts in areas as diverse as chemistry, philosophy, math, art history, literature, and of course, in learning other languages. A native speaker of Chinese was able to explain a mistranslation to his classmates, while a native Italian speaker was able to share the double-entendres in a text. The French concept of negation helped one student understand mathematic logic and proofs. Most respondents credited being able to more profoundly understand another culture by having learned its language. Sadly, others reported being mistreated for having a foreign accent.
The results of the survey were presented at a reception on April 10 at Naylor Auditorium and featured an address by linguistics professor, Mark Preslar, followed by a panel composed of a number of different language families: Richard Apgar (Germanic), David Colbert (Romance), Khush Dakwala (South Asian), Elle Goodrich (ASL), Kamilla Haidaienko (Slavic), Marcus Murphy (East Asian), Romulus Stefanaut (Classical).
The 5 most commonly spoken languages were Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Latin (in that order.) The polyglot awards go to Dr. Alex Bruce, who knows a total of 12 languages, Bishop James Tengatenga with 10, and Nevena Carter with 10!
This project was sponsored by the E.L. Kellermann Language Resource Center, The Office of Global Citizenship, The Office of Inclusive Excellence, Human Resources, The Center for Leadership, and Student Life.
Languages spoken by Sewanee Campus Members:
Afrikaans
Akkadian
Amharic
Arabic
Aramaic
ASL
Basque
Bengali
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Catalan
Chichewa
Chinese (Cantonese)
Chinese (Mandarin)
Chinese (Wu)
Coptic
Croatian
Dutch
English
Old/Middle English
Pidgin English
Flemish
Old Low Franconian
French
Cajun French
Old Frisian
Galician
Georgian
German
Old High German
Gothic
Greek
Koine/Ancient Greek
Guarani
Gujarati
Haitian Kreyol
Hebrew
ClassicalHebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Igbo
Italian
Japanese
Kankaney
Khmer
Korean
Latin
Macedonian
Marwari
Montenegrin
Napoletano
Ndebele
Nepali
Nyanja
Old Norse
Nyarwanda
Pashto
Polish
Portuguese
Pulaar
Punjabi
Quechua
Romanian
Russian
Sanskrit
Saraiki
Old Saxon
Serbian
Shona
Shoshone (Wyoming)
Spanish
Swahili
Swazi
Swedish
Tagalog
Thai
Thok Naath
Tibetan
Tigrinyia
Tonga
Tumbuka
Turkish
Twi
Ukrainian
Urdu
Vietnamese
Wemba
Wolof
Xhosa
Yao
Zulu
