David Crystal has posted about what sounds like a remarkable museum:
Last week I finally managed to get to see the amazing Mundolingua – the language museum in Paris founded by Mark Oremland a couple of years ago. I don’t use the adjective lightly. He has managed to pack into two floors of a small building a remarkable array of pictures, books, artefacts, and interactive facilities relating to language, languages, and linguistics, all presented in a user-friendly and multingual way. […]
The museum is open every day between 10:00 and 19:00, with a modest entrance fee of just a few euros. Don’t rush the visit. There is so much material that a language buff could spend a whole day here – or even two – exploring the collections in detail. The day I was there a group of visitors was sitting around a sociolinguistic exhibit with headphones, happily listening to usages in various languages. Another couple was by the phonetics chart copying the IPA sounds represented there.
I spent some time trying the braille quiz: a chart in front of you gives you all the braille letter codes, and then you place your hands under a cover and feel the message hidden there. I thought it would be easy and found it really challenging.
I hope it sticks around, and if I ever get to Paris again I will definitely pay it a visit.
It does sound great, and I’ll definitely visit if and when I get back to Paris. Someone from Mundolingua contacted me years ago to see if they could use something I wrote on Sentence first in the museum. I agreed in principle, they replied with enthusiasm, then I heard nothing more. So I don’t know if they used it or not; I’m guessing not, but I wish them every success.
Earlier this year I happened to do the same tour of the Marais district of Paris with a young British lady who was working at the Mundolingua, and was naturally intrigued when I found out about the museum from her, vowing to visit at some point. But I had completely forgotten about it since, so thank you for the reminder.
Thanks! Next time I’m in Paris I’ll surely look by. Looks like it’s rather small too, so I might even persuade my wife&kids that we won’t spend the whole day there.
A little confused. If you look at the map, it’s not in the Marais. Just so’s no one gets lost on a visit!
Sorry if I misled anyone. I only met the person who was working at Mundolingua on a tour of the Marais—the museum itself is not in the Marais.