Saving Languages From Extinction [video]

A Brief History of OK [video]

10 Letters Dropped From The Alphabet [video]

Talk To The Animals [video]

8 Ancient Writing Systems That Haven’t Been Deciphered

Mental_floss published a list of 8 writing systems that haven’t been deciphered.

Read about them HERE.

 

The Last Speakers of the Lost Whistling Language, Sylbo [video]

The Real Origin of OK [video]

Words That Aren’t What You Think They Are [video]

The Ampersand – All You Need To Know

From sitepoint –

We see the symbol all of the time. Elegant, curved, infinitely malleable. But what’s the origin of the mysterious and ubiquitous ampersand? How can you choose which one is the best version to use? Read on to uncover all you wanted to know about this ancient tool of text:

Continue reading HERE.

 

Mr. Cat Poop – Strange Titles For Well Known Movies In Foreign Countries

Cracked found 9 bizarrely retitled movies –

Some filmmakers spend literally years trying to think of a movie title that will strike the right balance between “this doesn’t sound completely stupid” and “this will make me filthy rich.” It may not always look like it, but there’s a lot of effort, a lot of money, and a lot of hard drinking behind even the simplest of movie titles … all of which goes out the window once that movie ships overseas and needs to make sense in another language.

As we’ve shown you before, translating titles isn’t as easy as it looks, since they so often contain some idiom or pun that would be complete nonsense directly translated in another language (and, as you’ll see, this works both ways). It forces distributors to get creative, and sometimes the results are amazing:

See all 9 movies HERE.

 

The Last Person Who Speaks Wukchumni [video]

Sapwuahfik – Where Men Have Their Own Language

According to Mental_floss –

In 1837, the British cutter Lambton sailed from Sydney to Ngatik (now Sapwuahfik, above), a tiny island in Micronesia. On orders from Captain Charles “Bloody” Hart, who hoped to take control of the valuable supply of tortoise shells there, the crew massacred all the men on the island. They left behind some European and Ponapean crew members, installing an Irishman named Paddy Gorman as a “chief,” and the sailors claimed the widowed island women as their wives. Today, the islanders speak a dialect of the Ponapean language of the region. But there is another language spoken on the island, called Ngatikese Men’s Language or Ngatikese Pidgin, that is spoken only by men. It was described by the late well-known linguist of Austronesian languages, Darrell Tryon. The women and children on the island can understand it, but it is primarily used among men engaged in male domain activities like fishing and boat-building.

Continue reading HERE