News: Sydney School Leads Efforts to Revive Lost Aboriginal Language

April 11, 2009 — lingoproz

Found on VOA News.com on 11 April 2009
By Phil Mercer

A project at school in Sydney is leading efforts to revive an extinct Aboriginal language that was lost after European colonization. Chifley College is teaching Dharug to not only its indigenous students but others from Africa and the Pacific Islands as well as non-indigenous Australians.

The sounds of a lost language echo across a packed classroom in suburban Sydney as secondary school students help to revive an ancient part of Australia’s indigenous culture.

Dharug was one of the dominant Aboriginal dialects in the Sydney region when British settlers arrived in 1788 but became extinct under the weight of colonization.

Students at Chifley College’s Dunheved campus are taught by Richard Green, who is on a mission to rekindle an ancient language.

“We’ve already reclaimed it, that’s why there is so much interest. People are already speaking it. They speak our language from here, so when you walk in the school of a morning you hear ‘warami’- hello, good to see you,” he said.

“But we’ve got some young boys here that are absolutely brilliant. No matter what I say, they say it with correct pronunciation. You know, they sit in class the whole lesson. They are changing their attitudes,” he continued.

About a fifth of the students here are Aborigines, who remain Australia’s most disadvantaged group. The language classes are open to non-indigenous pupils, giving them a greater understanding of their country’s rich history and culture.

Steven Dargin says the language classes give him more insight into his Aboriginal community.

“It’s good especially for the blackfellas. You get to talk about your own culture and all that. Learn more stuff, speak it out of school,” he said.

Dharug is firmly embedded in the school’s curriculum and Joyce Berry, the deputy principal, says the aim is to create a vibrant, living language.

“We are reclaiming the language. And with Richard’s help and with the elders’ help, they are reclaiming and actually going through the process of writing down the language for probably the first time it’s ever been written down. If this can work, it is something a school in western Sydney has been able to achieve with the support, so if we can do that it is going to be such a wonderful thing, not just for the school but for the Dharug community,” she said.

Other indigenous dialects in Australia have been revived but the process may require what experts describe as “language engineering” – the borrowing of phrases and words or the coining of new vocabulary.

John Hobson, a lecturer in indigenous dialects at Sydney University, says they can be hard to learn.

“For the benefit of English speakers, I often compare Aboriginal languages to something somewhere between Japanese and Latin, which, you know, surprises them because the, kind of, gut approach is to go for something primitive and simplistic, which are they definitely not. They are very complex languages,” he said.

When European settlers arrived in Australia, there were about 270 different Aboriginal languages. Today, only about 60 are spoken on a daily basis. Of these, roughly half a dozen are considered to be strong and are being passed from adults to their children.

Community leaders say these ancient dialects go to the heart of indigenous pride and identity.

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Book: Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler

April 7, 2009 — lingoproz

Found on Amazon.com

Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler

Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler

Paperback: 640 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (June 27, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060935723
ISBN-13: 978-0060935726

Product Description

Nicholas Ostler’s Empires of the Word is the first history of the world’s great tongues, gloriously celebrating the wonder of words that binds communities together and makes possible both the living of a common history and the telling of it. From the uncanny resilience of Chinese through twenty centuries of invasions to the engaging self-regard of Greek and to the struggles that gave birth to the languages of modern Europe, these epic achievements and more are brilliantly explored, as are the fascinating failures of once “universal” languages. A splendid, authoritative, and remarkable work, it demonstrates how the language history of the world eloquently reveals the real character of our planet’s diverse peoples and prepares us for a linguistic future full of surprises.

About the Author

A scholar with a working knowledge of twenty-six languages, Nicholas Ostler has degrees from Oxford University in Greek, Latin, philosophy, and economics, and a Ph.D. in linguistics from MIT, where he studied under Noam Chomsky. He lives in Bath, England.

From Publishers Weekly
Ostler’s ambitious and accessible book is not a technical linguistic study—i.e., it’s not concerned with language structure—but about the “growth, development and collapse of language communities” and their cultures. Chairman of the Foundation of Endangered Languages, Ostler’s as fascinated by extinction as he is by survival. He thus traces the fortunes of Sumerian, Akkadian and Aramaic in the flux of ancient Middle Eastern military empires. Ancient Egyptian’s three millennia of stability compares with the longevity of similarly pictographic Chinese—and provides a cautionary example: even a populous, well-defined linguistic community can vanish. In all cases, Ostler stresses the role of culture, commerce and conquest in the rise and fall of languages, whether Spanish, Portuguese and French in the Americas or Dutch in Asia and Africa. The rise of English to global status, Ostler argues, owes much to the economic prestige of the Industrial Revolution, but its future as a lingua franca may falter on demographic trends, such as booming birth rates in China. This stimulating book is a history of the world as seen through the spread and demise of languages. Maps.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Caesar led his legions into battle for the glory of Rome–and the immortality of Greek. In the curious spread of Greek through Roman conquest, Ostler recounts one of the many fascinating episodes in the complex history of languages. The resources of the cultural historian complement those of the comparative linguist in this capacious work, which sets the parameters for a new field of scholarship: “language dynamics.” By peering over Ostler’s shoulder into this new field, readers learn how languages ancient and modern (Sumerian and Egyptian; Spanish and English) spread and how they dwindle. The raw force of armies counts, of course, in determining language fortunes but for far less than the historically naive might suppose: military might failed to translate into lasting linguistic conquest for the Mongols, Turks, or Russians. Surprisingly, trade likewise proves weak in spreading a language–as the Phoenician and Dutch experiences both show. In contrast, immigration and fertility powerfully affect the fate of languages, as illustrated by the parallel histories of Egyptian and Chinese. Ostler explores the ways modern technologies of travel and communication shape language fortunes, but he also highlights the power of ancient faiths–Christian and Moslem, Buddhist and Hindu–to anchor language traditions against rapid change. Of particular interest will be Ostler’s provocative conjectures about a future in which Mandarin or Arabic take the lead or in which English fractures into several tongues. Few books bring more intellectual excitement to the study of language. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
‘Delicious! Few books on language answer the questions that people actually ask linguists, such as why some languages are spoken by millions and others by just a few hundred. Ostler’s book shows how certain lucky languages joined humankind in its spread across the world, many off them eventually vanishing without a trace, and one of them – guess which? – currently ruling the planet.’ – John McWhorter, author of THE POWER OF BABEL: THE NATURAL HISTORY OF LANGUAGE

A dense but enlightening account of how the world’s written languages were born, how they spread and changed, how some weakened and died, how others thrived. This heavy, sturdy text rests on a foundation of scholarship and erudition so broad and deep that it will elicit gasps of admiration from professional linguists and assorted logophiles, though its very complexity and comprehensiveness may overwhelm general readers. Even the epigraphs-and there are myriads-are demanding, even daunting. British scholar Ostler (chair of the Foundation for Endangered Languages) notes that there are as many as 7,000 language communities in the world, but many have relatively few speakers, and many have no written form. He proceeds to relate a history of the world as a linguist would see it. Accordingly, although the encounter, say, between Cortes and the Aztecs has interest for military and cultural historians, Ostler views it, as well, as a clash between languages, both of which had long traditions. He proceeds to look at languages in the Middle East (Sumerian, Akkadian, Aramaic, Phoenician, Arabic, Persian, etc.), then turns to consider Egyptian and Chinese and attributes their stability, in part, to high population density. He discusses Sanskrit (a “luxuriant” language with its “blending of sexual and mystical imagery”), then Greek, Celtic, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese and many, many others. His style is to raise questions and then answer them. Why didn’t Dutch linger in Indonesia? How did French become a prestige language? Why haven’t Russian and German and Japanese spread more than they have? How did English, with its multiple parents, spread so rapidly and pervasively? How did it standardize? What are the most dominant languages today? Why do people learn some languages more easily than others? What are the forces that might weaken the current hegemony of English around the world? Always challenging, always instructive-at times, even startling or revolutionary. The issues and concerns and discoveries here merit far wider attention than this sometimes turgid text will attract. (maps and charts throughout) (Kirkus Reviews) –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
“True scholarship. A marvelous book, learned and instructive.” (National Review )

“A story of dramatic reversals and puzzling paradoxes. A rich… text with many piercing observations and startling comparisons.” (Los Angeles Times Book Review )

“Revolutionary… Executed with a giddying depth of scholarship, yet the detail is never too thick to swamp the general reader.” (Boston magazine )

“[A] monumental new book… Ostler furnishes many fresh insights, useful historical anecdotes and charming linguistic oddities.” (Chicago Tribune )

“A work of immense erudition.” (Christian Science Monitor )

“Covers more rambunctious territory than any other single volume I’m aware of…A wonderful ear for the project’s poetry.” (John Leonard, Harper’s Magazine )

“Enlightening . . . Always challenging, always instructive–at times, even startling or revolutionary.” (Kirkus Reviews )

“Delicious! Ostler’s book shows how certain lucky languages joined humankind in its spread across the world.” (John McWhorter )

“[A] wide-ranging history of the world’s languages… [Ostler] brilliantly raises questions and supplies answers or theories.” (Washington Post )

“What an extraordinary odyssey the author of this superb work embarked upon.” (Literary Review )


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Top 10 languages on the Internet

April 1, 2009 — lingoproz

Found on Lexiophiles.com on 1 April 2009
By Erin

Languages of the World

Languages of the World

The Internet is one of the miracles of the modern world, and has completely revolutionized the way people access information.

People all over the globe are now using the Internet to buy everything from a bunch of flowers to a new car, their weekly groceries to their next beach holiday in the Maldives. Unfortunately though, as with many major resources in our world, the use of the Internet is not evenly spread and some countries and regions have far greater access to this amazing tool than others. As technology develops and countries are more and more able to make sue of it however, we are seeing countries that may have initially been slower to access the net suddenly show the biggest growth in Internet users.

For example, in Africa in 2000 the number of Internet users came to a total of just over 4.5 million people. Now in 2009, the number of users is over 54 million. This is growth of over 1000% and appears to be a huge number! However, when you compare it to the rest of the world, African Internet users make up only 3.4% of total global users… only a drop in the ocean! The Middle East market has also grown remarkably over the past 8 years, with user growth of almost 1300% yet this only makes up 2.9% of world users.

So… where are all these users if not in these two fastest growing regions?! You guessed it – Asia, Europe and North America take the first 3 places in this worldwide competition. Things start to get interesting though when you look at the most used language on the Internet. Given that Asia and Europe contain the most Internet users, you would expect the number 1 language used on the Internet to be from one of these regions, right? Wrong! Even though the USA is now only number 3 in terms of users, English still dominates the web in terms of being the most used language. Although the total number of native English speakers in the world is about 322 million, English is spoken as a second language by up to a further 1.2 billion people around the world. They make their contributions to the Internet in their own language as well as in English.

Chinese is the most common native language on Earth, and the second most-used language on the Internet. According to CNNIC, the number of Chinese Internet users increased by 42% in 2008 to a total of 298 million. This high rate of growth is expected to have a significant impact on the Internet in the near future.

After English (29% of Web visitors) the most requested languages on the World Wide Web are Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, French and German. So, this is where the plot thickens… When looking at the World Languages Map compiled by the research team at bab.la, the most spoken language in continental Europe is Russian, yet Russian only makes it to number 9 on the list of most used Internet languages. The same goes when you look at Asia, and although Chinese is the second most used language on the net (the most commonly spoken language in the region) the next most spoken language is Hindustani (taking in both Hindi and Urdu) and yet this language hardly features on the web at all. Let’s put this in perspective – Hindustani is spoken by more than 900 million people, more than the entire population of the European Union, and yet it has almost no Internet presence. Of the top 6 languages spoken on the African continent, only two make it into the top 10 Internet languages (Arabic and English). Swahili for example, is the second most spoken language on the continent and is spoken by 8% of people (the same percentage as people that speak English, French or Italian within Europe!) and yet like Hindustani, makes almost no impact on the web.

So, I have a couple of interesting questions… when will an African language make it into the top 5 languages on the net? Will Hindustani, Bengali or Indonesian ever make it into the top 10? Also, do you think that if there was more content in more African languages (after all, there are over 2000 languages spoken on the Continent!) would the number of users grow even faster? Is this an issue for Governments or perhaps technology companies, or a combination of both? Let’s hear your comments!

Sources:

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm
http://en.bab.la/news/world-languages.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_internet_usage

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Keeping Languages Alive – Interview with UCSD professor Ana Celia Zentella

March 29, 2009 — lingoproz

Found on VoiceOfSanDiego.org on 29 March 2009
Interview by EMILY ALPERT

UCSD professor Ana Celia Zentella is a recognized expert on how language shapes identity. Photo: Sam Hodgson

UCSD professor Ana Celia Zentella is a recognized expert on how language shapes identity. Photo: Sam Hodgson

To Ana Celia Zentella, you are what you speak. Zentella, a professor emerita of ethnic studies at the University of California, San Diego, has studied how languages shape our identities for decades, focusing on the role of language in Latino families.

She glories in bilingual wordplay, decries “Hispanophobia” and English-only laws, and sees saving languages and the cultures that come with them as a social justice issue.

Zentella recently edited “Multilingual San Diego: Portraits of Language Loss and Revitalization,” a volume that includes 12 chapters written by her students on the languages that make up San Diego, from Kumeyaay to Korean.

You quote a researcher who calls San Diego a graveyard for languages. Why? Is that worse in San Diego than in other cities that you’ve studied?
It’s actually not worse because of the proximity to the border, which helps keep Spanish alive a little longer — but not into the third generation. A lot of second generation members of families of Mexican origin do speak Spanish or can at least understand it, but the farther you get from the border, the more loss you find.

Even in San Diego, the great majority of the grandchildren of immigrants cannot speak to their grandparents in their immigrant language. And if the grandparents only speak that language because they haven’t been here that long or because their English is weak, then there is a real breakdown in a family when particular respect patterns or cultural norms are ignored or violated by the third generation.

How else are children affected, children who grow up in households not speaking English — how are they affected by the attitudes about Spanish and other languages?
It’s pretty devastating to grow up ashamed of your mother’s English and the accent that she has. And we see that is particularly leveled at certain groups. If your mother speaks with a French accent there may be some joking about it, but it doesn’t communicate the same lower class devaluation that speaking Spanish often does, and the same racial opprobrium. These young people are really faced with a diminished sense of self.

Not all of them. Some manage to overcome it. I was just talking to a young man an hour ago who said that he laughed at his parents’ English and then, because he was born himself in Mexico, he said, “I realize that I laugh at myself too. Because it’s my accent too.” But he has more of an advanced academic vocabulary than they do because he’s been through advanced classes in English. And so that makes somewhat of a difference.

But there’s a terrible pull. On the one hand I’ve met some Latino parents who say, “Look at my wonderful little daughter, she only speaks English, isn’t that wonderful?” There aren’t that many of them, but those folks have learned the power of English, and have decided that they didn’t want to hamstring their children with this language that they feel has kept them out of good jobs and out of good apartments. I think that’s a really unfortunate choice and those children learn that later on. But the parents think that’s what the larger Anglo society wants to see.

I think it’s an unfair and damaging exchange — give me your language and your culture and take only the English and the North American culture and that is what proves that you are a worthy citizen, a worthy resident. It is not a fair bargain and it doesn’t work. There are many African Americans and Native Americans in the United States who have no language other than English. … It hasn’t always meant that the doors of certain jobs and neighborhoods have been open to them.

You’ve been spending a lot of time with a group of teenagers who cross the border (frequently) and I was curious, what have you learned about them and the way they see their identities through the way they speak?
These are kids who no longer cross the border every day for the most part, but they go back and forth to visit family at least every week. I’ve learned that there are very many different groups, even in an area like the border region. You can’t paint the same picture for everybody.

It’s really striking. In the same family I interviewed one sister who is very adamant about the need to keep Spanish and English very separate, and yet was caught up in her own contradictions when she said that the best thing about going away to school was that she was going to meet a lot of new people from different backgrounds and she loved to see these mixes and couples and all of that. And I said, “You know, there are people who don’t like to see those mixes just like you don’t like to see the Spanish-English mix.” They see them as similar — crossing boundaries that are either racial or linguistic.

Her sister had a very different attitude in a separate interview. She said that she saw the alternation of Spanish and English as the reality of living on the border and a reflection of the duality of the cultures that these young people participate in — a more graphic representation of who they are, and not a deterioration of either Spanish or English, since most of these kids can speak English to a monolingual if they need to do that and Spanish to someone who only speaks Spanish if they need to do that.

Have you found that attitudes within the world of education have changed about bilingual teaching or bilingual classes?
I wish I could say that that were the case. Do you mean in San Diego?

Yeah — maybe over the past decade?
I have to say that I haven’t seen any movement to bring back bilingual education as there should be. I’m not seeing any grassroots movement. I do see people looking for play groups for their child in German or the Asian groups really trying to keep their kids in Saturday schools, but a public commitment to bilingualism for the masses is not around. I don’t see that flourishing. … It is not something that is considered part of a solid, basic education in the United States or San Diego. Nobody in Europe or Africa would consider you educated if you only spoke one language.

Your newest book expands from Spanish to a number of different languages. Were there things that surprised you or were lessons for you as you edited the book?
I was surprised to see that there were some communities, very large communities like the Tagalog community and the Vietnamese community, that I think most people know very little about, and the extent to which language is so linked to the transgenerational transmission of cultural values and the impact in families when those are lost, and how painful that is — and this is not something I’ve written about — but the implications for the suicide rates in the Filipino community, for example, are in part linked to this cultural and generational breakdown.

I’m also interested in the role of religious organizations and how they’ve been trying to fill a gap in a lot of these communities, whether it’s a Japanese temple or the Hebrew shuls and the Catholic churches. They’re all struggling with ways to help their members, the members of their congregations, really participate in the larger, wider community but also be able to practice their faith in the language that brings them closest to their God.

… But I think the other institutions really need to step up their commitment to this issue, particularly the public schools. There’s no substitute for that.

Where are some of the places that you see hope or possibly solutions to the problem of language loss?
You see it in the extent to which students — at least these students down here — are not as ashamed of speaking both languages. They all say that they want their children to be bilingual. I think they’re being unrealistic about it. I don’t think they understand how difficult that is and how many people thought they were going to raise bilingual children and didn’t realize what an uphill swim that is. How it’s going against the current. And what they would have to put in place to make that happen.

Especially because they have no restrictions on who they see as a possible partner in the future, as the mother or father of their children. They refuse to say, “No, I’ll only go out with someone who speaks Spanish.” They have this illusion that they’ll be able to teach that person Spanish so that spouse could talk to their family. Even the sense that that would be a problem doesn’t seem daunting to them. They’re very sure that that can happen. I haven’t seen it happen very often, so I’m much more pessimistic about that.

What do you think it does take to raise a genuinely bilingual child?
I know it takes at least 30 hours of input in that language a week to the child. And that means that you have to make sure that someone is speaking to them in that other language and they’re not just going to be hearing isolated words. I tell these young people, “I’ll check with you in five or 10 years and see if your child knows more than the word for juice and milk in the other language, or ‘give me this’ or ‘give me that.’”

Really being a speaker means being exposed to the language in different settings, taking them to a church that functions in that language so they hear a formal discourse from the pulpit, taking them to all kinds of family events. … That’s not easy to do. You have to have a really strong plan. It’s possible — but if you go into it thinking, “I speak Spanish, so my child will speak Spanish” that won’t happen.

What do you feel will ultimately be lost if these languages are completely lost?
Well, we all think it’s unlikely that Spanish will be lost in the Americas for a while, although it is being lost in the U.S.-born generations rapidly, or that Japanese or Korean are going to be lost. But we do know that Kumeyaay is a few deaths away from extinction. And we know that Mixtec and many other native languages in Mexico are near extinction. And we know that each one of these languages has a lot to contribute about seeing the world in a different way. The reality that they face may be the same, but speaking from different languages will interpret that reality in different ways.

And that tells us a lot about the way the human brain works. It tells us a lot about possible solutions to problems, be they social or even mathematical or scientific. We need all of those ways of thinking. So when you lose a language you lose another way of seeing the world and another interpretation of facts. We could put it in terms of biodiversity. … People say, “Well, why do you care about the gray-tailed cockatoo?” or whatever. And we know that the biodiversity of the planet is essential to its continued thriving. The linguistic diversity is also very important.

And on the local level for one family, for one person, it is devastating. I have tape recordings of my brother-in-law who died fairly young and his children cannot understand it. They knew him and loved him in English. And they missed, I think, two thirds of the man, because he was born and raised in another country, spoke Spanish and they’re missing a lot of who their father was. And that to me is a personal tragedy.

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Exclusive Interview: Jill Scott Talks ‘The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency’

March 25, 2009 — lingoproz

Found on BlackVoices.com on 25 March 2009

Jill Scott talks about the new series, getting the role and … learning Southern African languages!

jill-scott-wireimage

Jill Scott

Who knew that when she won appraised for her performance in Tyler Perry’s ‘Why Did I Get Married?’ that she would follow that up by working with an Oscar winning director? On Sunday, March 29, Jill Scott will be playing the role of Precious Ramotswe in ‘The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency,’ when the series premieres on HBO. The pilot episode was directed by the late Anthony Minghella (‘The English Patient’). Based on a series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, Scott plays a Botswanan woman who starts up the country’s first female-owned detective agency. Within the series, she is paired with a cast of talented actors, including Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose, Idris Elba, Colin Salmon, David Oyelowo, and Lucien Msamati. Taking the role was not as easy it seems. On route to Africa to shoot the series, the Grammy award singer learned she was pregnant. This came as a shock to her considering she had been told previously by her doctors that bearing children wasn’t in the cards. With her first child, with partner and drummer Lil’ John Roberts , due next month and with a blazing singing and film career, life is full of roses for the Philadelphia native.

In speaking with Black Voices, Ms. Scott talks about getting the role, working with the director Anthony Minghella, who died before the film had its BBC premiere last year, and working with Tyler Perry on the sequel to ‘Why Did I Get Married?’

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

How did the project come about for you?

Jill Scott: Well, I had heard through the grapevine. My agent called me and told me that Anthony Minghella was auditioning for a role; and I am a huge, huge fan of his work. I had seen ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ and thought that was amazing. The acting was fantastic and I knew the director had to be the bomb based on what he pulled out of those actors. I was told about the audition and I went and auditioned once by video. I went back to audition in New York by video. Then I got a call a couple of days later saying that Anthony Minghella flying in from London to Philadelphia to meet me, which was a huge deal. He came and we auditioned for about five hours. Every time I saw him after that, I think I auditioned two more times and it was five hours each time. He had been looking for his Precious Ramotswe for two years at this time.

Did you do anything special to help nail the part?

Jill Scott: No. I wish I could have thought of something to do, but I just did whatever he had asked me to do; like play the character with a cold or play the character with one leg. I’m a director’s actor in my opinion and when a director does their part, it thrills me to have that kind of guidance. I love it.

On your way to Botswana you get the news of your pregnancy. How did that work out?

Jill Scott: Well, it stopped things for a moment absolutely. I was told I was pregnant on Friday, and I was supposed to be leaving that day at noon. I found out at 10 a.m. It sort of throws you for a huge loop, especially since I was told could never be pregnant. This was a shock; a complete and utter shock to me. I just had to hold things for a day. I called my doctors and of course, I called my family to let everyone know and to find out if it was okay to travel for that long distance during my first trimester of pregnancy. I wanted to know that I was all right because I hadn’t had any shots. What were the possibilities? I wanted to know them all. Once I got the go-ahead from my doctors, I left the following day.

How was filming in Botswana?

Jill Scott: It was a challenge this time. The first time we shot there was in the summer of 2007. Our summer is their winter. When we got off the plane, we were surprised to find out how cold it was. You needed hats, scarves, gloves and all of that. It was cold. Nobody told me that Africa could be cold. I had no clue. This time around we went in our fall which is their summer and it was the exact opposite. It was 110, 112, 115 degrees for no reason; just because it’s Wednesday or Thursday. That was a challenge. Being pregnant and the heat were very difficult for me; but I had great doctors around me. The crew really paid attention. They didn’t seem to mind it so much. There was a deadline and I’m the lead. As far as I know, I’m the first African American woman to be the lead of an HBO series, so there was a lot of pressure to get the job done, even between morning sickness.

Had you read the books after you did the pilot episode?

Jill Scott: No, I read the books before I left for Botswana. Once I went out for the role, by the third audition is when I had all the books. I was busy touring and I had finished shooting ‘Why Did I Get Married?’ I didn’t know anything about the books. They just sent me the sides and told me to focus on them. I found out it was a series of books and decided to be fully aware of what’s going on here. Once I read the books, I thought this character is so sweet and so powerful and so endearing, and I wanted to be a part of that.

Did you get a chance to talk with the author Alexander McCall Smith about the character he created?

Jill Scott: Quite frankly, he stayed out of the way. Being a writer myself, something you have that urge to direct, but he had full faith in Anthony and in the production itself. When he met me, I remember him saying, ‘Oh my God, Precious, it’s really you. You’re exactly what I thought you would be.’ That was a wonderful feeling. It also made Anthony very happy as well.

Is there anything that you and Precious have in common?

Jill Scott: She’s more like my mother. Growing up in Philadelphia, my mother is very active in the community. If there was any kind of drama or trouble, my mother was in the thick of it, trying to make sure everybody was okay. If there was someone who was ill, my mother would try to take care of them. In the community, if someone was hungry, she would feed them. She’s very much like my mom.

Was it a challenge learning the South African language?

Jill Scott: Absolutely. People talk about speaking Japanese and how tough it is to learn and it’s also difficult to sing in that language, but Botswana is really hard. It’s not spelled the way that it sounds. Just to learn the alphabet is a challenge. The language is very difficult and it’s very precise. In English or Spanish, if you pronounce a word incorrectly, you can get away with it, but in Botswana, there is no leeway. You have to get it right.

How was working with Anika Noni Rose?

Jill Scott: That was cool. She really embodied that character. When we got there, Anika and myself, and Lucien (Msamati), who Mr. JLB Matekoni, proprietor of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, we all had these ideas of what our characters were supposed to be like. Anthony (Minghella) completely flipped the script on us. I think it was because once we got to Botswana, you really get an opportunity to see the people and feel the energy and to get to know the country. Before that, we did everything by phone. We had studied with dialect coaches an hour a day for two months by phone. You don’t hear it all the time and so that changes things. You don’t see the clothing and how people behave until you get there. Once there, we had to revamp our characters and the dialect as well. We learned the wrong dialect. They were teaching us a Zimbabwe accent.

Since you’re the only who has a scene with all the men so far in the pilot and in the series, how was working with Idris (Elba), Colin (Salmon) and David Oyelowo and the rest of the guys?

Jill Scott: Fantastic. I enjoyed working with Idris so much on many levels. This is a person who is music lover and we got along in that aspect. He’s just a cool cat to be around. He likes to work fast and I’m not mad at that. That was cool. Colin is a great guy. Fantastic actor. He plays his part well. Overall, I enjoyed working with everyone, honestly. Lucien (Msamati) is a dear sweet man. He’s a wonderful Shakespearian actor and very popular in theater in London. That made me feel good working with him. There’s so much more to come. Patterson plays a terrible man in the series. He’s my arch nemesis. The casting was really well done. Also, working with John Kani was amazing. Sitting down with him and talking with him is an eye opener.

What did you learn from Anthony (Minghella) as a director?

Jill Scott: A lot. I’m glad I started with Tyler Perry. I’m glad I started with Anthony doing a bigger film. What I got from Tyler is a work ethic. What I got from Anthony is sort of a spirit ethic. When you come on the set, you acknowledge everyone. Not that I wouldn’t, but to see this Oscar award winning director and he is so respected and so nice. He’s immensely kind to others, it just lets you know for certain, that you can kind and that you don’t have to be rough around the edges and that you don’t have to yell and bark and all that other stuff. I have seen this behavior with directors in theater and in television as well. Being around him, I loved that he came prepared everyday. He knew exactly what he wanted to get from us. He made no bones about what he wanted to see and he didn’t leave until he got what he wanted. At that point, all I wanted to do, as an actress, is give him what he wanted, immediately. He would later say to me, ‘You are a proper actress.’ That’s one of the best compliments I received as an actress.

Tyler recently said that he’s looking to do a follow-up to ‘Why Did I Get Married?’ and if so, would you come back and where do you see your character in the sequel?

Jill Scott: I would love to come to the role. I’m eight months pregnant right now so I would love for my character to either be pregnant or want to have a child. There are a lot of difficulties with people trying to conceive. I would like to see that topic addressed. I would love for my character to have baggage from her last marriage; even though she has a good man. I have this philosophy that if you have had someone bad in your life, the hardest thing in life is to be with a good one. Those topics would be interesting to me.

Do you have a name picked out for your baby?

Jill Scott: I do, but I’m going to wait til I see his face.

So on Sunday March 29, why should anyone watch ‘The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency?’

Jill Scott: Because I’m in it. It’s a sweet film and it would nice to watch something with your children and your grandma. We don’t have television like that anymore. Everything is either really sexual or really violent; and the language is vulgar on some cable channels. It leaves very little for a family to watch together. There is also a stereotype of what Africa is and how African people and I think the series will broaden their horizons and minds about this fantastic continent and one particular country. This will blow the minds of those who think of Africa from the poverty they see on TV and the dialect they hear. It’s so far from the truth, it’s not even funny. Not funny at all.

Update: Found on Tampabay.com on 28 March 2009

‘No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency’ author Alexander McCall Smith says HBO series captures magic of Botswana

By Colette Bancroft, Times Book Editor
In Print: Sunday, March 29, 2009

Author Alexander McCall Smith praised Scott’s success in picking up the African language of Setswana.

“Most authors seem to moan about their books being made into films, but I’ve been very lucky,” says Alexander McCall Smith.

Legions of fans will get to make their own judgment when The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, the series based on McCall Smith’s internationally popular series of books about Botswanan sleuth Precious Ramotswe, premieres tonight on HBO.

“They’ve done a gorgeous job,” McCall Smith says. “They were very respectful of the ethos of the books. And with Botswana itself, they’ve done a lovely job. They’ve done us proud.”

The series’ two-hour first episode is the first feature-length film made entirely in Botswana, a place dear to McCall Smith, 60. His family is Scottish, but he was born in what is now Zimbabwe, the nation just to the north of Botswana in southern Africa. He has spent much time in Botswana over the years (he helped establish its first law school in the 1980s), and the No. 1 Ladies’ books have made the country and its people familiar and endearing to countless readers who otherwise might know nothing about them.

Fans know that one of the great charms of the books is their voice. “In Botswana they speak English very well,” McCall Smith says. “It’s common for them to switch between English and Setswana (the native language), and I’ve tried in the books to capture the cadences of African English. It’s very correct. There’s a slight air of formality, compared to how English is spoken in other countries, that I think is very attractive.”

McCall Smith says the series captures that well. He is particularly impressed with the performances of Jill Scott as Mma Ramotswe and Anika Noni Rose as her somewhat peculiar secretary, Mma Makutsi.

(That “Mma”? It’s a Setswana honorific for women, the equivalent of “Madam,” pronounced “mah,” with a slight hesitation on the “m.” Men are addressed as “Rra,” pronounced “rar.”)

Scott, a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, and Rose, who won a best featured actress Tony for Caroline, or Change, are African-American, and neither had been to Africa before.

“They did actually very well with the body language and with the accent. It’s very difficult to do credibly.” McCall Smith says Scott even impressed his Botswanan friends in a few scenes in which she speaks Setswana. “The dialect coach told me she has a very, very good ear, which you would expect from a musician.”

Playing Mma Ramotswe is a demanding task. Not only is she a smart, strong, independent, big-hearted woman, she has devoted fans all over the world — the books have sold 15 million copies in English and been translated into dozens of other languages. “I’ve just been to Australia” on book tour, McCall Smith says, “and the books have a big following in India. I’ve just spent a week at the big book fair there.”

Although they are mysteries, the novels don’t dwell on violence, instead focusing on human foibles and flaws that Mma Ramotswe sets straight with gentle wisdom and wry humor. Even their titles are charming, such as Morality for Beautiful Girls, Blue Shoes and Happiness and, coming in April, the 10th in the series: Tea Time for the Traditionally Built (that last phrase being Mma Ramotswe’s dignified way of describing her frame).

For many Americans, the only common images of sub-Saharan Africa are those in the news: war, disaster, famine and strife. The Botswana in McCall Smith’s books, and in the series, is warmly beautiful and boasts a rich traditional culture. “It’s not something I had set out to do, to write a contrary vision of Africa,” he says. “But in retrospect, yes, it’s what I’m in effect doing.”

Media coverage of problems there is necessary, he says, but can produce a one-sided picture. “Just like everyplace else, there are many people leading very good lives and doing a very good job of it. I think the film captures that generosity of spirit and dignity.”

He says he loves to hear from fans who have been inspired by his books to travel to Botswana and come back as fond of the place and people as he is. Tourism is vitally important to Botswana with the collapse of the diamond market, a major industry there. “They are suffering greatly, so when I hear from people who visit, it just makes me feel warm inside.”

The No.1 Ladies’ books are hardly McCall Smith’s only project. Asked how many books he has written, he says, “I think it’s about 60. I haven’t counted recently. I know that sounds like an affectation, but it’s true.”

He has indeed written more than 60, including three other fiction series in addition to No. 1 Ladies’, a shelf’s worth of children’s books and a dozen legal texts. McCall Smith retired as emeritus professor of medical law at the University of Edinburgh and has worked with many organizations as an expert on bioethics and medical law.

He and his wife have two daughters and live in Edinburgh in the same neighborhood as another bestselling mystery author, Ian Rankin, and Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling.

McCall Smith writes several books a year, and last year wrote an online serialized novel, Corduroy Mansions, published on the London Daily Telegraph‘s Web site five days a week, a chapter a day — with instant feedback from readers.

“It was great fun,” he says. “It meant I could respond to readers’ suggestions, and I did. They had lots of suggestions about characters they wanted to see more of and so forth. Quite interesting. I’ll probably be doing another.”

When he’s not writing, McCall Smith and his wife are enthusiastic participants in something called the Really Terrible Orchestra, which they founded about 10 years ago. “It’s for people who really can’t play an instrument at all well.” The orchestra has about 55 members, and there are three offshoots in U.S. cities.

“We have a concert in New York, at Town Hall no less, coming up April 1,” he says. “We make the most dreadful sound, but people love it.

“I’ll be playing the euphonium. Very badly.”

Once he has wrapped up touring for the HBO series, he’ll take a few days off and then hit the road for Tea Time for the Traditionally Built. Its title refers to one of Mma Ramotswe’s favorite rituals, her endless cups of redbush tea.

When McCall Smith began writing the books, bush tea was little known outside of Africa. Now you can buy redbush tea, also called rooibos, at many U.S. grocery stores. Is it the power of Precious?

“Bush tea was very much a minority taste,” McCall Smith says. “But Mma Ramotswe has succeeded in persuading people to drink it.”

Colette Bancroft can be reached at cbancroft@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8435.

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