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Monkey Lip-Smacking Is Like A Language
The lip-smacking vocalizations gelada monkeys make are surprisingly similar to human speech, a new study finds.Many nonhuman primates demonstrate lip-smacking behavior, but geladas are the only ones...
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Linguists Make Explosive Claim About An Ancient Proto-Language
THE Washington Postreports today that linguists have discovered a handful of "ultraconserved" words, some 15,000 years old.These are said to include "hand", "give", "bark" and "ash". The paper is...
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The 5 Ways We Learn Languages — And Which Is Best For You
Have you ever been to a place where you didn’t know the language? Have you ever wanted to learn a language, but thought the process is too difficult, or takes too long?Sometimes it seems as if there...
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Why We 'Grasp' The Truth, 'Dodge' Questions, And 'Fall' In Love
Jon Hamilton has a very interesting segment on NPR about how the brain interprets language:“Just a few decades ago, many linguists thought the human brain had evolved a special module for language. It...
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The Crazy Difficult Linguistics Question That 13-Year Olds Are Asked When...
Eton is one of the oldest and most prestigious schools in the world. Started in 1440, it has educated everybody from current Prime Minister David Cameron to Princes William and Harry. It's also...
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Germany Drops 63-Letter-Long Word From Official Usage
Germany's longest official word — Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz — has been dropped from usage, Der Spiegel reports.The 63-letter-long word, which refers to the "law...
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22 Maps That Show How Americans Speak English Totally Differently From Each...
Everyone knows that Americans don't exactly agree on pronunciations. Regional accents are a major part of what makes American English so interesting as a dialect.Joshua Katz, a Ph. D student in...
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9 Hindi Words That You Should Learn And Immediately Start Using
It's common to hear English language users say words like schadenfreude in the absence on an English equivalent of the German word that means pleasure at the misfortune of others.Of course, German...
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Study Reveals That Every Dolphin Has A Unique Whistled Name
Dolphins call to each other using distinctive whistles that serve as names, new research suggests.Each dolphin makes its own unique whistle, and close friends or family will reply with the same...
View ArticleWhat English Sounds Like To Someone Who Doesn't Speak It
Brian Fairbairn and Karl Eccleston, a Sydney-based film-making duo, made this short film "Skwerl" in a fake language that is supposed to imitate what English sounds like to foreigners.Check it out,...
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Netflix Temporarily Yanks 'Star Trek' Movie For The Funniest Reason
Star Trek features fictional alien races known as Klingons and Vulcans. But, believe it or not, the languages they speak have become real languages. So real that there are institutes and dictionaries...
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The Evolution Of The Word 'Engine' — From Weaving Women To Googling
Engines may be a relatively recent invention, but "engine" the word has been around for quite some time.Here, for example, is the poet John Gower using the word to describe women in the 14th century...
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10 Languages On The Brink Of Extinction
Languages are dying quicker than they ever have before.By 2100, UNESCO estimates that half of the ~6,700 languages in the world may have disappeared.Every two weeks, a language is lost after its final...
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18 Obsolete Words That Should Never Have Gone Out Of Style
Just like facts and flies, English words have life-spans. Some are thousands of years old, from before English officially existed, others change, or are replaced or get ditched entirely.Here are 18...
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Here's The Full Definition Of The Most Complex Word In The English Language
One of many interesting facts about words we learned in "The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary" by Simon Winchester (2003) is that the most complex word in the language...
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The 11 Most Common Grammatical Mistakes And How To Avoid Them
You might consider grammar an annoying technicality, a minuscule detail of speech and writing not worth much effort.But a study last year from the Society for Human Resources and Management shows that...
View ArticleMiami Speaks Completely Differently From The Rest Of The Country
For decades, Florida's most well-known dialect was the one made famous by author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Called "Florida Cracker" by white natives, it's now spoken mostly in the Panhandle and a few...
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THE TRUTH ABOUT SEMICOLONS: How To Use The World's Most Controversial...
Happy National Punctuation Day, Internet!To celebrate, we've prepared a guide to the most hated punctuation mark of all: the semicolon. Although you won't need it often, it can add essential clarity...
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13 Everyday Phrases That Actually Came From Shakespeare
Just the mention of William Shakespeare makes some people cringe. Even I'll admit his writing seems daunting at times.Whether a fan or not though, you probably use many of Shakespeare's phrases on a...
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The Heartbreaking Story Of Genie, A Feral Child Who Will Never Learn To...
Throughout history, several cases of "feral children," deprived of human interaction in their early lives, have crept into scientific consciousness.There was Victor, a boy found naked and filthy in...
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