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Hadfield to headline Calgary Alumni & Friends Dinner

trevor.kenney — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 22:24:02 +0000

Canada’s most famous astronaut, Colonel Chris Hadfield, will serve as the guest speaker at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s 2014 Calgary Alumni & Friends Dinner, Thursday, March 27, 2014 at The Westin in Calgary. And for the first time, U of L students have the opportunity to win tickets to the event by participating in a unique video contest.

Colonel Chris Hadfield is the first Canadian to have commanded the International Space Station.

Hadfield, the first Canadian to command the International Space Station, became a worldwide sensation over his five month mission in space. Harnessing the power of social media, he made outer space accessible to millions by sharing his experience in real-time and helping infuse a sense of wonder into the collective consciousness not felt since man first walked on the moon.

“Colonel Hadfield epitomizes the fundamental ideals of teaching and research that the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ embraces,” says U of L President, Dr. Mike Mahon. “From his inspirational story of first becoming an astronaut to the way in which he brought scientific study into the mainstream, he reaffirms the values of pursuing education and bettering society.”

Students will have the opportunity to attend the Alumni & Friends Dinner by virtue of a unique video contest.

The Calgary Alumni & Friends Dinner was established in 2010 with the goal of bringing alumni together in fellowship and offering attendees a compelling and engaging speaker who reflects the values and goals of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

A very limited number of tickets are still available for the March 27, 2014 dinner, priced at $175 each or $1,400 for a table of eight. Tickets are available online at www.uleth.ca/conreg/calgarydinner.

While tickets are scarce, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students have the opportunity to win their way in to hear Hadfield speak by participating in the Out of this World video contest. Participants are tasked with creating a 30-second video that displays an out-of-this-world experience that was influential in their lives. For more information, visit www.uleth.ca/campaigns/out-of-this-world.

Rosen explores the language of the Canadian Shift

trevor.kenney — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 16:30:40 +0000

The easy way to pick a Canadian out of a crowd is to ask them to say "out and about" – a phrase that stereotypically 'outs' a Canuck 'about' as quickly as astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield could tweet from the International Space Station.

Because of our unique way of speaking, and no matter how hard we try to hide it, experts and non-experts alike hear the inflections: Out becomes 'oot' and 'about' becomes 'aboot' – the vowels are changed to alter the sound of the word.

Linguists call this 'raising', and it means that these particular vowels are pronounced higher in the mouth than in other dialects of English.

But there's also a lesser-known way to tell a Canadian apart from other English-speaking people, and it is an important process to take note of because it may fundamentally change how words are pronounced over the next 50 years.

The process, called 'vowel shift' in linguistics, happens all over the world in a variety of ways, but it is named the "Canadian Shift" for the uniquely Canadian direction of the vowel changes.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge linguistics expert Dr. Nicole Rosen describes it as the way that people shift vowel sounds in words that cause them to be altered ever so slightly.

"For example, 'milk' becomes 'melk'; 'bag' might sound like 'beg,'" says Rosen.

"Other words can change as well – 'pit' starts to sound like 'pet'; 'pet' sounds like 'pat', and 'pat' starts to resemble 'pot'. The change in pronunciation can actually cause communications challenges, in particular within different generations of people who may feel they know how to pronounce words 'properly' based on how they learned them 50 years ago. It is definitely a generational evolution which we have to keep up with."

Rosen, a member of the U of L's Language, Identity and Assessment research group, studies endangered languages such as the Manitoba Metis' Michif language, the differences in speakers of western Canadian English, and the differences in speech patterns between members of the Latter Day Saint churches (Mormons) and non-Mormons.

She says the shift in vowel pronunciation isn't a dramatic event, but a gradual and barely perceptible change that happens over generations.

"We no longer speak Old English, which has become a completely separate language," says Rosen, a fluently bilingual (French) former Manitoba resident. "Parents or grandparents today might give their kids and grandkids a hard time for their so-called 'sloppy pronunciation,' when in fact they are changing the language by using it – it is inevitable, and not something you can 'fix' or 'undo'."

Rosen will be presenting her work at a conference in Paris, France, later this summer. The Language, Identity and Assessment research group recently hosted a conference at the U of L on language and gender.

Sighting schedule for space shuttle

trevor.kenney — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:25:17 +0000

The current NASA Space Shuttle Mission (STS-127), carrying Canadian astronaut and 2005 U of L Honorary Degree recipient Dr. Julie Payette, will be visible in the night sky at specific times during July and parts of August.

The Space Shuttle is delivering people, supplies and lab components to the International Space Station.

View the sighting calendar for Lethbridge at this website:
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=Canada&region=Alberta&city=Lethbridge

Payette joins fellow astronaut Robert Thirsk in space, marking the first time two Canadians have been in space at the same time. Thirsk is currently on board the International Space Station. A video featuring the docking process, hatch opening and welcome ceremony is available at this NASA website: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Breaking.html.

Payette is a professional engineer with a BSc in Electrical engineering and a MSc in Computer engineering. Among many awards and honours, she is a Member of the Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec and an appointed member of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC). An accomplished musician, she plays piano, sang with the Montreal orchestra Chamber Choir and speaks several languages.

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Hadfield to headline Calgary Alumni & Friends Dinner

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