Searching

So over the last few months, I have been trying to do research and also to find some certain items that seem rare (read: Mandarin audiobooks; Chinese-English bilingual texts). I've struggled with the crap that Google has picked up over time as SEO folks have figured out how to exploit it. An acquaintance sent me a link to Searchlores.org which has proved itself to be a very useful information database on how to find information on the internet. There are tons of documents there, but I will point out a few of the more general interest ones.

• Tips - General short term search strategies for finding something quickly.



• Long Term Searching - Ideas for research over a longer period of time.



• How to find books and texts - I've found this very useful for reading and looking at books online. Amazon & google are making this so much easier these days.
  
  
• Exploiting the shallow deep web - This article discusses non-indexed (by search engines) databases of information.

I think this search engine is very peculiar: Kartoo. I would recommend that you check it out sometime.

News

So recent news:

I am hoping for the FLAS to get back to China this summer. We will see in the next week or two if that pulls through. If not, I may work for the summer, then try to head out somewhere to study either Mandarin or Japanese. As long as I can pull myself together financially.


This semester has been good. Slowly learning about the Quechua language we are documenting in field methods. I am focusing on causatives and topic/ focus in the language. It seems like there are a lot of similar structures to Uyghur. I dropped my sitting in on the Japanese class because I think I can progress further on my own. It was a good boost to get me back to where I was before.

I feel that Uyghur is getting better. I have been making a lot of improvement, but all the time, I just run into the wall of how much vocabulary I don't know! Frustrating, but hopefully it will get better over time. Listening to Uyghur about 20 minutes a day helps a lot.

I am starting to listen read the bible in mandarin to finally do my experiment to see if this works. I won't be able to devote 8 hours a day to it, but if I can do one or two, I should make some progress. If I can find some other bilingual mandarin books with the audiobooks, that would be great. It's just too hard. I've been searching so long. Maybe by the time I'm done "reading the bible in chinese" I can find some other bilingual books that are matching audio.

2 terrorists killed, 15 arrested in raid

Todays news from Xinjiang, as reported in the China Daily:

Two members of a terrorist gang were killed and 15 others were arrested during a raid last month by police in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the Beijing-based Global Times reported Monday.

It is the largest terrorist group to be broken by police for over a year, the paper said.

Five policemen were injured during the raid on Jan 27 when three homemade grenades were thrown at them, the newspaper reported. The terrorists had been undertaking training exercises and assembling explosives at a rented house in the city, it said.

Guns, homemade explosives and training materials were discovered in the house following the raid. Police said they also found evidence linking the gang to terrorist groups abroad.

The arrested members have all pleaded guilty to the charges, the newspaper reported.

The raid was the latest in a series of efforts by the local government to crack down on violent activities by Uygur separatists who have carried out several terrorist acts since the 1990s.

In January last year, police killed 18 terrorists in a gun battle in Xinjiang. One officer was also killed and another wounded in the raid in the mountains of the Pamirs plateau in the southern region.

Thank you!

Thank you everyone who has been supportive over the last few days after my grandfather passed away (and months before). There will not be a funeral, per his request, but a kind of party. We will probably have that over the period of spring break, when people are able to come in again. It's been kind of sad, but it is good to be able to spend time with my family.

Languages spoken over time in Xinjiang

I am doing some research on the groups and languages spoken in the Xinjiang and surrounding areas over the course of history, so I was just going to make some notes here. This is part of my desire to have a complete language summary of what is necessary to be able to read any documents pertaining to the history. Which is most likely ridiculous, but I am curious. Most of this is compiled from Starr's book on Xinjiang. With some random wikipedia schenanigins in there too (yay for questionable reliability, but I have not the time to do much research quite yet).

Prehistory

Old guys - early 2nd millennium BCE "Beauty of Loulan" found in Qewrighul. It is suggested that they spoke a form of Indo-European language.

Saka (塞) - Nomadic Indo-European people group with Iranian type language. Sites in Xinjiang found from around 650 BCE in Tashkughan, Ili, Toksun.

Yuezhi (月氏 also 月支) - Indo-Europeans who most likely spoke Tokharian. Formed the Kushan empire.

The Classical Period

Xiongnu (匈奴) - A confederation of Altaic tribes. Spoke a Yeniseian or Turkic language. Only 20 words inscribed on objects and one sentence transliterated into Chinese (yuck!) are known.

Han Dynasty (漢朝) - had some limited control in the Tarim basin area battling it out with the Xiongnu. Spoke some funny old chinese most likely.

Yuzhi (月氏 also 月支) - same as above.

Wusun (烏孫) - living in Zhungaria with Xiongnu; nomads. Maybe Turkic / Iranian / Tocharian language.

The Middle Period

first part is "Poorly documented" -- Starr

Ruanruan (柔然) - mongolian empire. Mid 4th century to late 6th century.

Northern Wei Dynasty (北魏) - were at least attacking the Ruanruan, but didn't have control of parts of Xinjiang

Hephathalites - remnants of Xiongnu & Persians in the area

Kok Turks - Mid 6th century. Overthrew Ruanruan. Divided into western (Zhungaria, Tarim) and eastern knanates. Eastern was involved with Sui and Tang dynasties

Tang dynasty - Spoke turkic in preference to Chinese, ruled indirectly over Xinjiang by creating an alliance with Western khanates. The Tang dynasty began the Turkicization of southern Xinjiang.

Tibetan empire

Uyghurs and the Karakhanids

Uyghurs Were part of the Turk empire. Established in 744; Destroyed in 840 by the Kyrgyz. Not muslims. Bogu, their khan, converted to Manichaeanism and later they embraced Buddhism and tolerated Christianity, and opposed Islam. Maintained ties with Soghdia, India, and China.