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In China, watch how you say “ma”In Mandarin, the syllable “ma” infused with different tones can result in different meanings, from horse to mother to a question mark. We blogged about Pirahã (another tonal language) earlier, and talking about tones; the internet is buzzing today with new research findings about the relationship between genetics and tonal / nontonal languages. According to two linguists from the University of Edinburgh, “people who carry particular variants of two genes involved in brain development tend to speak nontonal languages such as English, while those with a different genetic profile are more likely to speak tonal languages such as Chinese.” ... More
Smart babiesA feature in MSNBC explores recent research surrounding infants’ ability to discern details and sounds in foreign languages: ... More
House of LanguageA language museum might open in London during the 2012 Olympics:... More
In English, it’s “beauty” before “age”The Christian Science Monitor looks at something we native English speakers often take for granted: the order of modifiers in English.... More
Nahuatl, avocado, and Chinese scriptThe language of the Aztec Empire, Nahuatl, is now being made a compulsory part of the curriculum in Mexico City. Did you know tequila, chocolate, and avocado are loanwords from the Nahuatl language?... More
LinguavisionEvery May, an event occurs that restores my faith in language, humanity, and sequins. That event is Eurovision. I was first introduced to Eurovision while living in London ten years ago. I had, of course, heard of Eurovision’s most famous success stories—ABBA and Celine Dion—but even my exposure to ABBA’s greatest hits hadn’t quite prepared me for the spectacle that was the costumes, the over-the-top europop, the melodramatic ballads, and the idiosyncratic and unilateral voting process (the Scandinavians always vote for each other, as do the Balkans, and the Baltics). ... More
Teaching a robot to talkWired ran a story a few months back, detailing MIT researcher Deb Roy’s experiments to catalogue language acquisition, by videotaping the first three years of his son’s life. His goal is to teach his robot “Toco” to talk; he hopes recreating stimuli similar to his son’s environment and experiences will allow Toco to develop linguistic ability.... More
Emoticons in translation?Masaki Yuki, a behavioral scientist from Japan explores how the use of emoticons differs across cultures : “In Japan, emoticons tend to emphasize the eyes, such as the happy face (^_^) and the sad face (;_;).” Notice how the emphasis shifts to the mouth in the other happy “:)” or sad “:(” faces.... More
Translation ex machinaThere’s a lot of hullabaloo surrounding the topic of machine translation. A few months ago, Wired ran a feature on the challenge of translation (for the machine as well as the human mind), highlighting some of the advancements currently being made in machine translation. The jury is still out on whether machines will ever be able to match the human ability to translate languages, but it seems that they’re certainly getting closer. ... More
Sont des langues qui vont très bien ensembleThe Guardian Arts Blog asks readers for their favorite multi-lingual songs. We did a quick poll around the office, and came up with a list of our own (mostly French-English) favorites:... More
Renewed interest in heritage languagesThe New York Times reports on the availability of language classes in Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Arabic, and Mandarin for “heritage speakers.”... More
More world leaders speaking in tonguesBloomberg isn’t the only one trying to impress with his foreign language proficiency. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair congratulated the winner of the French presidential election, Nicolas Sarkozy, in a recent televised address in Sarkozy’s native tongue. ... More
Makad Manav 3Dubbed versions of Spider-Man 3 were released in four Indian languages: Tamil, Telugu, Bhojpuri, and Hindi. To be honest, “Makdi-Man” sounds better; it’s a nice mix in Hinglish. (ELHAM)
Talk to the handA study of chimpanzees and bonobos brings us closer to understanding how language may have begun to develop: gestures, apparently, came first.... More
Yo soy un MexicanerNew York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg visits Mexico and surprises everyone by answering reporters’ questions en español.... More
Sworn In On A DictionaryJurors in a California court room are being asked to discern the difference between two Chinese expressions in order to decide the fate of a man accused of being associated with a spy ring called “red flower of North America.”... More
Living Language Live!The new, redesigned site has finally gone live, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. ... More
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