Linguistics is trench warfare
All this frivolous debate underscores the ouroborosian nature of web discourse in 2016. Because who cares, really? How often do you even need to say “read receipts” aloud?
Adrienne LaFrance on the state of language and pronunciation on the internet.
↩︎ The Atlantic, posted Nov. 8, 2016
How do you translate “quidditch” into Dutch? Tight deadlines and many, many pages meant the Harry Potter books were a translator’s nightmare.
↩︎ posted Oct. 26, 2016
The ins and outs of phono-semantic matching
When American companies try to rebrand overseas, what’s the best way to translate their names? Jane C. Hu explains how and why phono-semantic matching works, i.e., finding something that matches both the sound and the meaning.
↩︎ posted Oct. 26, 2016
Foreign reporters can’t translate Trump
So, how do you translate “bigly” and “I moved on her like a bitch” in other languages? In Chinese, apparently it’s “I pursued her like a harlot, but I could not succeed.” Some of Trump’s strange vocal tics are making linguists very frustrated.
Also, Talking Points Memo discovered a formula in Trump’s Twitter takedowns: three-sentence insult haikus. “Single clause declarative sentence, single clause declarative sentence, primary adjective/term of derision.”
↩︎ posted Oct. 25, 2016
Mighty bigly of him
It’s settled, then: Transcription companies and professional linguists suspected that Trump was saying “big league,” not “bigly” this whole time. His spokesperson says they’re right.
↩︎ posted Oct. 25, 2016
Chinese people rarely talk about renminbi or yuan. The word they use is “kuai”, which literally means “piece”, and is the word used historically for coins made of silver or copper.
The Chinese currency is called both “yuan” and “renminbi.” Which one should you use, if either? Turns out, there are political reasons behind your choice.
↩︎ Marginal Revolution, posted Oct. 25, 2016
Canadian Raising
As it turns out, Canadians do not say “aboot.” What they do say is actually much weirder.
↩︎ posted Oct. 3, 2016
The Zamenhof Legacy
Most of us know about Esperanto, the world’s most famous (and widely spread) constructed language. Lesser-known is the fact that its inventor was a renowned Yiddish scholar persecuted by Hitler, and that the language he envisioned as helping to foster global communication was “viewed with deep suspicion by totalitarian states.”
↩︎ posted Oct. 3, 2016
“You’re always going to blow it”
Let’s say that aliens do manage to make contact. How would we figure out how to communicate with them, and is that even possible? Linguists and sci-fi authors weigh in.
↩︎ posted Oct. 3, 2016
The Inuktitut language doesn’t have an alphabet. Instead, its writing system is an abugida, where each symbol represents both a consonant and a vowel.
↩︎ posted Sept. 28, 2016
New York City as Representatives of all American Jewdom
Yes, there is an American Jewish accent and no, it’s not just a New York accent. Linguists explain why the study of “Jewish English” is so complicated and the nuances of this distinctive strain of speech.
↩︎ posted Sept. 27, 2016
Yahoo Serious, Seriously
Why does Australia have one of the largest language families in the world? Two new genomics studies and biology give us a glimpse into the evolutionary tree of the continent, and lend some credence to one of Australia’s old myths.
↩︎ posted Sept. 26, 2016
Is it possible that, along with these differences, my moral compass also points in somewhat different directions depending on the language I’m using at the time?
Why our memories and moralities are deeply entwined with the languages we speak.
↩︎ Scientific American, posted Sept. 16, 2016
Can Japanese read Chinese?
As any speaker (or reader) of the two languages know, Chinese and one form of written Japanese use the same alphabet despite not being able to understand each other’s spoken language. Since this form isn’t phonetic anyway—meaning that instead of using letters they use pictograms that have no connection to how the word sounds—does that mean that Chinese and Japanese readers can “read” the other language? Can a Japanese speaker be literate in Chinese, even if they can’t speak it? Mark Schreiber addresses this persistent claim.
↩︎ posted Sept. 15, 2016
But Do We Have a Timestamp for the Inaugural “Shit”
When did “fuck” go mainstream? The time was the morning of March 3, 1965. The place was Berkeley, Calif. Here’s the story about the moment when our favorite curse word really entered the lexicon.
↩︎ posted Sept. 11, 2016
Her Láadan lexicon includes an elaborate vocabulary for specifically female bodily experiences: for instance, there’s a set of structurally
related verbs with meanings like ‘to menstruate joyfully’, ‘to menstruate painfully’, ‘to menstruate early’ and ‘to menstruate for the first time.’
With all the debate around gendered language and terms, a linguist dives into the history of one of the original women-made languages.
↩︎ Language: A Feminist Guide, posted Sept. 11, 2016
It’s more correct to say, for instance, that people living in England developed a new accent than that Americans “lost” their British way of speaking.
Where did the American-British divides originate when it comes to how we speak English?
↩︎ Atlas Obscura, posted Sept. 11, 2016
Linguist Discusses how Technology Shapes Culture and Culture Shapes Words
Why do some languages die while other adapt, and what is the pattern to how they adapt? Is it possible to change the rules of a language just because you’re determined to? How do we revive dead languages?
A fascinating interview with linguist Sarah Thomason on these questions and more.
↩︎ posted Sept. 11, 2016