Under the motto "It's on the tip of my tongue", the Institute of Germanic Linguistics invites you on an interactive journey. We want to immerse ourselves in the fascinating world of language with guests of all ages. Our program offers opportunities to discover new depths and heights of our language in a playful and scientific way.
Speech art performance - joint choral piece
Let's experience the power of spoken words together! We develop a choral piece every hour on the hour and put you in the limelight.
Palatography for children
For our youngest visitors, we offer the opportunity to take part in an exciting palatography. Children can visualize their tongue movements and playfully discover how different sounds are formed in the mouth.
Ultrasound device for the oral cavity
Experience live how your mouth moves when you speak! With a modern ultrasound device, you can observe in real time how the fascinating and complex movements take place. Be amazed by the precision and beauty of speech production.
Game to interpret field names
Whether it's Hundsbeil, Vogelherd or Puddingsbucht - immerse yourself in the world of field names! In an interactive, child-friendly game, you will not only learn the meaning and origin of various field names, but also a lot about the historical and dialectal characteristics of our language.
Transcription quiz
With over 150,000 records, the Thuringian field name archive at the University of Jena is the largest of its kind in the Free State of Thuringia. Many of these valuable documents are written in the old Kurrent script. Here you have the opportunity to learn the art of reading this now almost forgotten handwriting for yourself. An exciting insight into the world of bygone times awaits you - perfect for anyone who wants to experience history and language together.
Dialect quiz
Test your knowledge of German dialects and regional languages in our exciting quiz! Tricky questions about grammar, vocabulary and language history await you. Compete against other language enthusiasts and show how well you know the depths of our regional language.
Reading: Little Red Riding Hood and the Thuringian wolf
Listen to what it would sound like if Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf came from different regions of the German-speaking world! Are there language barriers due to their different dialects and regional accents or does the wolf manage to answer Little Red Riding Hood's questions about his big teeth in an understandable way?
Old High German (writing) workshop
How was German spoken in Jena and the surrounding area 1100 years ago?
Read and listen to an Old High German text and write in medieval script - with pen and ink!
Memory with terms from the Thuringian language
The popular family game with a difference: assign terms from the Thuringian dialects to pictures and train not only your memory, but also your knowledge of Thuringian dialects!
Interactive quiz on the topic of "little words"
Learn more about the exciting mechanisms of everyday speech. Do you think that small words have no meaning in everyday speech? Our interactive quiz will convince you otherwise. You can also expect exciting insights into multimodality research, where you can explore the role of gestures and facial expressions in conversation in short video sequences.
We look forward to welcoming you to the Long Night of Science and discovering the fascinating facets of our language together with you. Whether you come alone, with friends or the whole family - we have something for everyone!
