Things have been quiet over at the Wu Desk here at Sinoglot HQ. But fear not, the Annals have not been concluded. However the desk may sit vacant for a few good weeks yet. Here’s what’s on the schedule for the next two months that would cause this absence:

First, I’m leaving Shanghai for a while. I’ll be heading west to present a paper on the written standardisation (or lack thereof) of the Wu dialects at a linguistics conference this July. Unfortunately I still have a bit of work to do on the paper itself and so that’s likely to take up a bit of my time.

Second, other papers. I am a graduate student after all. However, one is likely to surface in the next few weeks, over at Echoes of Manchu of all places.

In addition to all of this, my light summer reading this year will mostly be 钱乃荣’s《上海语言发展史》which I picked up not too long ago along with his grammar of Shanghainese. I’m planning on writing chapter reviews to give an idea of the contents for those not wanting (or able) to read through the Mandarin text. There’s plenty being said on Shanghainese, but not always in a way accessible to the English speaking world. So while I may not be in Shanghai to report on the language, I will still make an attempt to do so from overseas.

I’ll try to keep 星期沪 going but I can’t make any promises as I’ll likely be without internet for long stretches.

That’s the latest. Regularly scheduled programs to resume this autumn.