Linguistics

I am currently a graduate-research student of Linguistics at Trinity Western University, British Columbia, Canada. In this page, you will find some of my academic works, courses that I am taking and also a handy ready-reckoner with some useful phrases in 7 languages.

Courses taken: Articulatory Phonetics, Sociolinguistics, Phonology, Grammar, 'Syntax and Semantics' and Field Methods in Linguistics in which we documented Korean grammar.

Currently I am taking Anthropological Linguistics, Acoustic Phonetics and Advanced Phonology.I am also the TA for Sociolinguistics and I handle topics such as Diglossia, Code Switching and 'Language in Technology'

I am taking the Analytical Stream offered by the department, as it might greatly help me in my future career plans, including a proposed Ph.D., most likely in Sociolinguistic or Anthropological Linguistics, teaching and other research/academia related careers.

Academic assignments/works:

Artificial language project - Gibberese - Gibberese is an artificial language created as a part of 'Syntax and Semantics' by Sudharsan Seshadri-Nagarajan, Rebecca Siebert, Lesley Wieler and Alisha Mull. It features a comprehensive mini-language with all parts of speech and also a sound system. The language is written in International Phonetic Alphabet. Please download the story and the lexicon by clicking on the respective links as listed below:

Gibberese - The tortoise and the hare				Gibberese - Lexicon

Sociolinguistics - Multilingualism and India.pdf- An essay detailing the issues pertaining to Multilingualism and also a brief account of the Anti-Hindi-imposition riots that had it's roots in Tamil Nadu, India

Sociolinguistics - My Fair Lady.pdf - A detailed account of how one's language directly relates to one's social position, especially in the English society. The account revolves around one of my favorite movies "My Fair Lady".

Sociolinguistics - Observing cross-gender communication.pdf - A sociolinguistic analysis and critique of Robin Lakoff's observation of 'women's' language. Prof. Lakoff is a professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley

Note: If the download dialogue box does not appear, please right-click on the link and select 'Save link as..' option or, if you have DAP, please click on 'Download with DAP'. Sorry for the inconvenience, the PDF download option does not appear in all browsers.

Please also note that these academic works are copyrighted, under Canadian and Indian Intellectual Property laws.

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Linguistic background

I have been interested in Languages ever since I was a kid. Much alike everyone in the world, my first linguistics teacher was my Mother, who taught me my Mother Tongue Tamil and also another language in which I am equally proficient, Telugu. The Indian educational system, which strongly promotes English education, has made me equally proficient in English. I am Trilingual, with Mother-Tongue level proficiency in Tamil, English and Telugu. When it comes to articulating scientific and empirical concepts, I, like most other English-medium-educated-Indians, am stronger in English than in Tamil, which is my actual Mother-Tongue.

The career-shift from Engineering and programming to Linguistics has been quite smooth, at least till now. The transition has not been too hard, especially considering that I do not have a degree level background in Linguistics. My moderate proficiency in many other languages has helped me in this transition.

I am proficient in these languages:

Beginner	:	Thanjavur Marathi, French, Sanskrit
Intermediate	:	Kannada, Sinhala, German, Russian
Expert	:	Hindi,Urdu

Beginner	:	Japanese Hiragana/Katakana
Intermediate	:	Malayalam, Sinhala, German
Expert	:	Dravidian Abugida - Kannada, Telugu, Devanagari - Hindi, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Cyrillic - Russian, Roman script - English, German, French, Dravidian - Tamil, Grantha, Brahmic Abugida - Sinhala

I learnt most of the writing systems, in my 8th grade vacations. In 2006, I enrolled for short-term German and Russian courses. I did my German course in Max Mueller Bhavan and Russian, under the able guidance of Mr.Valdimir Potapov, in the Russian Cultural Center, Chennai.

I intend to pursue my Ph.D in Linguistics after the completion of my Masters degree, with career interests in lecturing, research and policy-making.

Brief history

It all started in my seventh standard summer vacations when I started learning Telugu from my mother. My parents used to live in Rajahmundry, A.P. and my Mother was as good as a Telugu Scholar though all of us were 'pachai' (pure) Tamilians. To impress one of my Telugu friend, I started to learn how to read/write Telugu from a book. When I wrote something and when to him his father said it was wrong. Only then did I realize that I had ended up learning to read/write Kannada. I also learnt Telugu. In this process, I found out that I had a flair for learning scripts. I understood/recollected phrases and words really fast. In that summer vacation, I ended up learning Kannada,Telugu,Grantham and Gujarathi - All of them to read/write.

I enhanced my flair for learning to read and write scripts, with more exposure to other languages. I had boarded the train to Ranipet,when I took the Sinhala book with me by Prof.J.B.Dissanayake. To my greatest amazement I realized that I could reproduce the entire Sinhala Vocabulary within 80 minutes. It took me 45 minutes to read/write the vocabulary and 35 minutes to stuff it into my memory and reproduce it with all the sounds. Now, I would be able to reproduce the writing system of most phonetic languages, very fast.

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Some useful phrases:

German	Good Day/Hallo = Guten tag How are you? = Wie geht es Ihnen? I am fine = Mir geht es sehr gut I wish to speak to you in German = Ich mochte mit Ihnen auf deutsch sprechen!! Please = Bitte Good = Gut Thank you = Danke Thank you very much = Vielen dank Goodbye = Auf wiedersehen
French	Hello(informal) = Salut How are you? = Ca va I am fine = Je vais bien Please = Sil vous plait Good = Bien Thank you = Merci Thank you very much = Merci beacoup Goodbye = Au revoir See you tomorrow = Au bientot
Tamil	Hello = Vanakkam How are you? = Nalla irukkeengala? I am fine, thank you = Nalam, nadri Please = Dhayavu seidhu Yes = Aamaam No = Illai Good = Nalladhu Thank you = Nandri Thank you very much = Mikka Nandri Goodbye = Sendru varugiraen See you tomorrow = Naalai paarkalaam Please talk to me in English, I don't know more Tamil = Ennidam Englishil pesungal, enakku idhukku mela Tamil theriyadhu
Kannada	Hello = Namaskara How are you? = Chenagidheera? I am fine = Naanu Chenagidhini Please = Dhayavittu Yes = Howdhu No = Illa Thank you very much = Thumba Dhanyavaadhagalu I don't know Kannada, pls speak in English = Nannagey Kannada gotthilla, English maathaadi!!
Telugu	Hello = Namaskaram How are you? = Ela unnaru? I am fine = Nenu Baga Unnanu Yes = Ownu No = Ledhu/Kadhu I don't know Telugu, pls speak in English =Naaku Telugu teliyudhu, Englishlo maatladandi Goodbye = Chooddhhaam(See you) See you tomorrow = Repu, kaludham
Thanjavur Marathi	Hello = Namasthe How are you? = Tumhi kasa ayes? I am fine = Mee bhesh aayo!! I don't know Marathi, pls speak in English =Mala Marathi kalna, English-aanth saanga!! What is your name? = Tumcha naav kaay? My name is Sudharsan = Maja naav sudharsan
Sinhala	Hello = Aibovan What is your name? - Oyagey Naama mokadha? My name is Sudharsan - Mage naama Sudharsan. I don't know Sinhala, pls speak in English - Mata Sinhala puluvenney, English-na kathakaranna Thank you = Bohoma Isthuthi Yes = How No = Ney I love you - Mama Hombatta Aadharey!!

Miscellaneous

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