By Denise C. Jones

Over our lifetimes, we visit museums and catch glimpses of the collective pieces that make up our varied cultural histories. Language, one way of telling these stories, opens the door to a plethora of different cultures.

“Everybody has some interest in language. How do you make the dictionaries that we use? How do you teach a person Braille or sign language?” asks Amelia C. Murdoch, president and board chair of the National Museum of Language, which opened in May with help from university professors and students. It is located in the Executive Building, 1700 Baltimore Ave., in College Park.

Unlike most of the half dozen language museums in the United States, “We’re talking about language acquisition,” says Murdoch, who holds a doctorate in medieval French literature and has studied 10 languages. “We would like to show what happens in the brain when the voice comes from my mouth to your ear.” She wants to explore something computational linguists have been trying to figure out for years—why an infant can distinguish its mother’s voice at three months old.

Janet Chernela, professor of anthropology at Maryland and an associate at the museum, is acting curator of one of the museum’s first exhibits on alphabetic systems, including Sumerian, Phoenician, Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Arabic. She invited her students to prepare activities for museum visitors including videos and teaching materials. This summer, she is initiating a museum presenter series that is supported by the university’s Center for Heritage Resources Studies. Presenters will include Arabic calligraphers, Torah scribes and Ethiopian ecclesiastical chanters.

The museum examines a wide range of languages and their scripts including Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese and Japanese. Future exhibits will not be limited to spoken language, but will include Braille and sign language.

Chernela is among a group of community educators who curate and play other vital roles at the museum. “Our future goal is to work with spoken languages and the many creative ways in which people use language,” she says, adding that she sees the community as much a resource for the museum as the museum is for the public. “The two work synergistically to enhance the wealth of resources that comprise our community,” she adds.

While a handful of politicians are pushing English-only requirements in public schools, Murdoch strongly advocates foreign language studies in elementary school. “Linguistically speaking, your language learning ability begins to decline at age 9 and it plateaus at age 13. We believe that exposing people to the joys of language will make some kid want to learn another language.” One of her big ambitions is to create an organization of “young linguists of America” similar to the Boy and Girl Scouts.

For now, she focuses on expanding the museum while still remaining independent of the university. Murdoch hopes the museum becomes a permanent museum complex near the College Park Aviation Museum, not far from the university’s Center for the Advanced Study of Language. With the museum’s proximity to Washington, D.C., Murdoch says, “We are very rich in this area. Because of the many, many cultures here, you can access any language that you want.”