Posts Tagged 'language'
Saving Languages From Extinction [video]
Published April 23, 2019 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Daniel Bögre Udell, history, language, Linguistics, video
A Brief History of OK [video]
Published September 20, 2018 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: history, language, lexicology, OK, okay, Old Kinderhook, oll korrect, vernacular, video
10 Letters Dropped From The Alphabet [video]
Published January 24, 2018 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Ampersand, Ash, Eng, English, Eth, language, lexicography, Long S, Thorn, video, Wynn, Yogh
Talk To The Animals [video]
Published August 5, 2016 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: African Grey Parrot, animal intelligence, communication, Dr. Doolittle, Harvard, Irene Pepperberg, language, National Science Foundation, video, wildlife
8 Ancient Writing Systems That Haven’t Been Deciphered
Published November 4, 2015 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Cretan Hieroglyphics, Decipher, language, lexicography, Linear A, Linguistics, Olmec writing, Proto-Elamite, Rongorongo, Singapore stone, Sitovo inscription, Wadi el-Hol script
Mental_floss published a list of 8 writing systems that haven’t been deciphered.
The Last Speakers of the Lost Whistling Language, Sylbo [video]
Published July 28, 2015 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Canary Islands, La Gomera, language, Sylbo, video, Whistling Language
The Real Origin of OK [video]
Published July 10, 2015 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Dictionary, language, lexicography, OK, okay, video, word origin
Words That Aren’t What You Think They Are [video]
Published May 6, 2015 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: bombast, Dictionary, eke out, just deserts, language, left in the lurch, lexicon, one fell swoop, sleight of hand, video, whet your appetite, words
The Ampersand – All You Need To Know
Published May 1, 2015 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Ampersand, Dictionary, grammar Nazi, language, lexicography, punctuation, text design, typography
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:
Mr. Cat Poop – Strange Titles For Well Known Movies In Foreign Countries
Published December 26, 2014 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: cinema, Hollywood, language, lost in translation, movie, translate, translation
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:
The Last Person Who Speaks Wukchumni [video]
Published August 29, 2014 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: American Indian, dead language, Dictionary, history, language, lexicography, lexicon, Marie Wilcox, Native American language, video, Wukchumni, Yokuts
Sapwuahfik – Where Men Have Their Own Language
Published July 8, 2013 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Darrell Tryon, Lambton, language, Linguistics, Micronesia, Ngatik, Ngatikese Men's Language, Ngatikese Pidgin, Paddy Gorman, Ponapean, Sapwuahfik
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.