The Linguist’s Calendar: December 31

President Quezon

December 31
 
1937: President Quezon proclaims Tagalog the official language of the not yet independent Philippines.
 
1975: France passes a new language law, the Loi du 31 décembre 1975 relative à l’emploi de la langue française.
 
1997: The United Bible Societies report, that “at least a Portion of the Bible” has now been translated into 2,197 languages.
 
2000: SIL International President Emeritus Kenneth Lee Pike dies in Dallas.

The Linguist’s Calendar: December 30

December 30

1997: Yugoslav riot police are called upon to disperse students demanding Albanian language rights in Kosovo.
 
2001: The peace treaty in Afghanistan after the fall of the Talibans is delayed because of problems with translating it into Persian, the second biggest language of the country.

The Linguist’s Calendar: December 29

Guatemala City

December 29  
1975: In Britain, Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay acts are passed. Their consequences include the replacement of “firemen” by “fire fighters”.
 
1995: Within two years of its introduction, the Karakalpak alphabet is revised.
 
1996: The civil war in Guatemala ends with a peace treaty which specifies, among other things, that 23 different indigenous languages be used in education along with Spanish.

The Linguist’s Calendar: December 28

December 28

1989: Publication of Colin Renfrew’s Archaeology and Language in paperback.

The Linguist’s Calendar: December 27

Demonstrating for independence, Catalonia

December 27

1942: Cognitive grammarian Ron Langacker is born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
 
1945: A couple of months after the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, spelling reform advocate George Bernard Shaw writes to the Times claiming that the omission of the final, silent <b> in bomb, and similar reforms, would save a lot of time and bring major economical benefits.
 
1996: The Catalan government decides to support the use of Catalan in communities outside of Catalonia.

The Linguist’s Calendar: December 26

December 26

1992: Niger’s new constitution declares French the country’s official language.
 
2001: The web site yourdictionary.com publishes its word-of-the-year list, including the first ever ”suffix of the year”, -stan (as in Afghanistan).

The Linguist’s Calendar: December 25

Willard Van Orman Quine

December 25 
 
1932: Ken Pike applies to the China Inland Mission, but is turned down.
 
2000: Death of Willard Van Orman Quine.