Christian Mayer M.A.

Who am I?

I’m originally from the southeast Bavarian Chiemgau and first completed a bachelor’s degree in Pedagogy at the University of Salzburg. Languages always fascinated me, therefore I also chose to study Linguistics, which I finished with a Master of Arts degree at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, and now I’m part of the subproject F03 as a research assistant and PhD candidate. Also, I’m interested in the interaction of language with culture and society, which is the reason that I also took a minor in Indology and a second master’s degree in educational science.

Polynesian languages: Far away and only small islands?

The project F03 „ Linguistic status differentiation in Polynesian societies” focuses on the linguistic representation of social structures in Polynesian communities. The corresponding languages cover a large part of the pacific ocean, with Hawaii, New Zealand and the Easter Islands as its corner points. My subproject will concentrate on the Māori language, which will include collecting language data in New Zealand. That is also a big personal pleasure for myself because I already spend a high school year abroad there and returned a few times to visited friends. The project presents the opportunity to get to know the country, the culture and the people from a different perspective.

Human differentiation and Language

Communication is an essential part of human life and enables a collaborative living together. At the same time language is used to differentiate everyone and everything. Names, attributes and actions describe looks, behaviours, value and other characteristics, which are used to distinguish humans from each other and from non-humans. Social relations, like status or kinship, are often subject to a social guidebook, which for example can include ways of speaking, vocabulary, politeness or taboos when talking to certain people.