Linguistics
Welsh schools: an approach to bilingualism that can help overcome division
Being a Welsh-English bilingual isn’t easy. For one thing, you hear that encouraging others to learn your language is detrimental both to their …
Language63 differences between British and American English [INFOGRAPHIC]
We all know British and American English are different. We understand each other, but there are certain words and expressions that are written or …
LanguageHow Italian became the language of love
Writers and poets shaped its style and vocabulary over centuries, with beauty and sound as some of their primary considerations.<p>It happened again the other day. I was walking down the street in my home city in the US when I heard it; a couple speaking Italian. I hurried to catch up with them, …
LanguageLiterary Notes: Some loanwords of European origin in pre-1857 Urdu poetry
IT is generally assumed that words borrowed from the English language or other European languages entered the Urdu language post-1857, the year in …
LanguageCan you speak any of the Russian language’s hybrid 'children'?
Many young people today know of the existence of popular hybrid languages, for instance, the African American Vernacular, thanks to popular culture.<p>"Take Black people from Africa, who were brought to America. They gradually learned a language mixed with their native one. This is how a <i>pidgin</i> …
LanguageThe dwarfs of our vocabulary
I receive all kinds of questions about etymology. Unless they are responses to my posts, they usually concern slang and exotic words. No one seems to …
Language‘We’re told we’re anti-Welsh bigots and fascists’ – the storm over Welsh-first schooling
With a third of schools in Wales teaching pupils primarily in Welsh, debate rages over the ethics of using the classroom to bolster a minority language<p>“We’ve been told we are anti-Welsh bigots and even fascists,” says Alice Morgan in her soft Welsh accent. The comments she is talking about began …
EducationPutting the kibosh on bosh
In the “Cultural disappropriation” section of the current <i>The Economist</i>, there’s an entertaining and informative article on the latest attempt to …
LanguageWhy English spelling is a mess
You may have noticed that in English, most word spellings don’t correspond exactly to the way they are pronounced, which can be frustrating and make some people cry out for a spelling “update”—but doing that would not benefit anyone.<p>The main reason that spelling doesn’t match pronunciation very …
LanguageCantonese dialects | Learn Chinese | Chinese dialects culture
<b>·</b> <b>DEFINITION</b><p>Cantonese dialects is a kind of Han tone language belonged to Sino-Tibetan language family.It originated from ancient Chinese plains YaYan …
ChinaFamilies: Raising multilingual children in Luxembourg
What is the best way for kids to learn multiple languages and how do they cope with mother tongues that are different from the three national …
Language LearningThe Business Case For Customer Service Chatbots
HomeOpinion<p>By embracing messaging channels, companies will immediately benefit from an “eternal conversation thread” with their customers.<p>0<p>Chatbots …
Customer ServiceWe’d have a better chance of preserving Africa’s dying languages if we learned their history
In 2008, on his first visit to China and India after taking office as prime minister, Britain’s Gordon Brown announced a plan to promote the English language across the world. Brown said he launched a website that would develop the skills of 750,000 teachers, and help two billion people learn …
AfricaEnglish isn't uniquely expressive or fluid, but it is uniquely, dysfunctionally weird
Lots of languages are hybridized from multiple, overlapping waves of conquerers, "but English’s hybridity is high on the scale compared with most …
LanguageLanguage Policy and Oppression in South Africa
South Africa is a multi-lingual society that has some unique linguistic problems because of its policy of apartheid. On one level, there are tensions …
LanguageComputational linguistics in three acts
Towards the end of April, I gave a short presentation at the Penn Science Café in a session on “The past, present, and future of AI“. I mentioned …
Machine LearningOf little-known Indian languages and scripts
A story, probably apocryphal, talks of the Union Jack continuing to flutter over the lighthouse at Minicoy Island (part of Lakshadweep) even as late …
Tamil NaduYou're (Probably) Saying It Wrong
Photo: scanrail<p>English is hard to spell. Nevertheless, most of us get by with a combination of some basic phonetics, habits from school, and …
LanguageWhy Don’t Americans and Brits Have the Same Accents?
For two countries whose histories are so intertwined, America and England have some pretty notable distinctions. They use different currency. Their …
LanguageLetter A Worksheets : Alphabet A sound handwriting worksheets for preschool and kindergarten
Color Letter A<p>Color Letter A<p>Trace Letter A<p>Color Letter A<p>Color Letter A<p>Color Letter A<p>Trace Letter A<p>Color Letter A<p>Color Letter A<p>Color Letter A<p>Trace …
TypographyMind your language: Not bloody likely
It brought the house down in Pygmalion but the joke proved too controversial for Hollywood<p>In <i>My Fair Lady</i>, which came out as a film in 1964, 50 years after Shaw’s <i>Pygmalion</i>, they decided to update Eliza’s exclamation of ‘Walk! Not bloody likely. I am going in a taxi’, which, on the first night in …
Language2017 Deans' Award Winners
Jonathan Gauthier<p><b>Jonathan Gauthier</b> is a senior majoring in Symbolic Systems conducting research that focuses on Linguistics and Machine Learning. He …
Stanford UniversityIndian media's Anglo-Hindi inclination is leading to politico-cultural alienation of the poor, rooted
On 2 June, a journalist working with <i>Times Now</i> news channel accosted Vishwanath Mahadeshwar, the mayor of Mumbai. Mahadeshwar leads an elected body, …
India6 Interesting Facts You Should Know About Tamil, The Language Given A ‘Classical’ Status By UNESCO
The Tamil language is special, there's no denying that. But the reasons why are so many and so varied that it's better if we point a few out. From …
LanguageCulture affects how people deceive others, study shows: People's language changes when they lie depending on their cultural background.
People's language changes when they lie depending on their cultural background.<p>People's language changes when they lie depending on their cultural …
PsychologyWhat did Latin sound like in the time of Christ?
NativLang makes animated videos to explain linguistic history.<p>Have you ever wondered how we know the proper pronunciation of Latin words? Apparently, …
LanguageHere's What The First 'Harry Potter' Book Looks Like Around The World
The French and Japanese versions are simply beautiful.<p>In its 20 years on this planet Earth, <i>Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone</i> — or <i>Philosopher’s</i>, if you’re British — has been officially translated into 68 languages (and unofficially even more than that).<p>Naturally, some aspects of J.K. Rowling’s …
Harry PotterWorld of Better Learning
Experiences<p>Meet Claire & Laura, Cambridge’s Language and Pedagogy Researchers<p>Lottie Payne<p>Share on Facebook<p>Share on LinkedIn<p>Share on Twitter<p>Comment<p>Our …
Language LearningA study finds racial disparities in police officers' use of language
The first systematic analysis of police body camera footage shows that officers consistently use less respectful language with black community …
Stanford UniversityManchu, Once China’s Official Language, Could Lose Its Voice
Tao Qinglan can still speak her mother tongue, Manchu, but everything else has changed since she was born 72 years ago in Sanjiazi Village.<p>She now lives with her Manchu daughter and Han son-in-law in a modern brick house, and they speak Mandarin at home. None of the houses in the village have …
China