Zanzibar Tales by George W. BATEMAN ( - ) Genre(s): Children's Fiction, Myths, Legends & Fairy Tales Read by: Phil Chenevert, Sherri Vance, Kristel Tretter, kandice stehlik, Venita, Dee Wykoff, Crln Yldz Ksr in English Chapters: 00:00:00 - 00 - 00 To My Readers 00:04:31 - 01 - 01 The Monkey, the Shark, and the Washerman's Donkey 00:13:20 - 02 - 02 The Hare and the Lion 00:23:30 - 03 - 03 The Lion, the Hyena, and the Rabbit 00:29:18 - 04 - 04 The Kites and the Crows 00:36:19 - 05 - 05 Goso, the Teacher 00:43:46 - 06 - 06 The Ape, the Snake, and the Lion 00:55:11 - 07 - 07 Haamdaanee Part 1 01:11:47 - 08 - 08 Haamdaanee Part 2 01:31:53 - 09 - 09 Haamdaanee Part 3 01:45:42 - 10 - 10 Mkaaah Jeechonee, the Boy Hunter 02:05:17 - 11 - 11 The Magician and the Sultan's Son 02:15:05 - 12 - 12 The Physician's Son and the King of the Snakes If you have read any accounts of adventure in Africa, you will know that travelers never mention animals of any kind that are gifted with the faculty of speech, or gazelles that are overseers for native princes, or hares that eat flesh. No, indeed; only the native-born know of these; and, judging by the immense and rapid strides civilization is making in those parts, it will not be long before such wonderful specimens of zoölogy will be as extinct as the ichthyosaurus, dinornis, and other poor creatures who never dreamed of the awful names that would be applied to them when they were too long dead to show their resentment. As to the truth of these tales, I can only say that they were told to me, in Zanzibar, by negroes whose ancestors told them to them, who had received them from their ancestors, and so back; so that the praise for their accuracy, or the blame for their falsity, lies with the first ancestor who set them going. You may think uncivilized negroes are pretty ignorant people, but the white man who is supposed to have first told the story of 'The House that Jack Built' was a mighty poor genius compared with the unknown originator of 'Goso, the Teacher,' who found even inanimate things that were endowed with speech, which the pupils readily understood and were not astonished to hear; while 'Puss in Boots' was not one-half so clever as the gazelle that ran things for Haamdaanee. It would be a severe task to rattle off 'Goso' as you do 'The House that Jack Built.' (Summary by the author) More information: http://librivox.org/zanzibar-tales-by-george-w-bateman/ LibriVox - free public domain audiobooks (https://librivox.org/)

Dialogo delle lingue by Sperone SPERONI (1500 - 1588) Genre(s): Writing & Linguistics, Medieval Read by: Riccardo Fasol in Italian Chapters: 00:00:00 - 01 - Parte prima 00:39:54 - 02 - Parte seconda Pubblicato nel 1542, questo dialogo espone le teorie sulla lingua italiana che, già dal secolo precedente, presero forma, cercando di trasformare il volgare italiano, ancora instabile grammaticalmente, in una vera e propria lingua regolata da norme. I protagonisti del dialogo sono: Bembo (Pietro Bembo), sostenitore del volgare colto e che prende come modelli il Decameron del Boccaccio e il Canzoniere del Petrarca; Lazaro (Lazzaro Bonamico), cultore del latino e spregiatore dell'uso colto del volgare; un Cortegiano, portavoce della teoria di Baldassarre Castiglione, che propone di aprire il volgare di base toscana alle influenze di altre regioni e lingue; uno Scolare che riporta un dialogo tra Lascari (Giano Lascaris), professore di greco, sostenitore dell'indissolubilità tra concetto e parola, e Peretto (Pietro Pomponazzi - detto Peretto per la bassa statura), filosofo aristotelico, che auspica l'utilizzo del dialetto nell'esercizio dell'attività speculativa, per non perdere tempo inutile nello studio delle parole a scapito delle 'cose'.(Summary by Riccardo Fasol) More information: http://librivox.org/dialogo-delle-lingue-by-sperone-speroni/