Watch Your Language Blog

Language Revival: Cornish

It’s not easy to bring a language back to life. Just ask Cornish speakers, who, after years of division over standardization of the language, have finally agreed on how their language should be spoken.... More

Tags: Cornish, dying languages
May 29, 2008

 

Portugal changes its language

The “twin forces of globalization and Google” have convinced the Portuguese parliament to adopt the more popular Brazilian Portuguese as the national language.

…The standardisation of the Portuguese language was inevitable. Brazil is the world’s fifth most populous country and is a much more powerful cultural and economic force than its European cousin. There are nearly 190 million Brazilians, compared with about 10.5 million Portuguese, and on the web Brazilians outnumber Portuguese by six to one, a disparity that will only increase in the coming years.

This is important because the internet is now the medium of global intelligentsia and business. If you want to establish a worldwide influence, the net is your medium. And to be influential you must be able to communicate in the language that is most accessible and most comprehensible to your audience.

(ELHAM)

Tags: news, Portuguese
May 22, 2008

 

My Travel Words and Phrases: Paris and Money

With currencies the talk of the town lately (unfortunately so for many American travelers), what better French terms to discuss than those dealing with money? As a result, this installment of Paris Travel Words and Phrases covers some useful terms that will help you get by during those very frustrating times of unfavorable exchange rates.... More

Tags: French, language, Paris, tips, travel, vocabulary
May 21, 2008

 

Being bilingual

Did you know that, according the 2001 U.S. Census, almost 20% of Americans speak a second language in addition to English? And are you aware of the fact that there are around 300 different languages spoken in this country, placing the U.S.’s “language diversity index” well ahead of the majority of European countries, like France or Greece? ... More

Tags: bilingual, multilingual, newsletter, parenting
May 21, 2008

 

Reading foreign literature

Once you’ve reached a basic level of fluency in your chosen language and feel the need to challenge your comprehension and/or translation skills further, it’s a good idea to start exploring foreign literature.... More

Tags: bilingual books, foreign literature, language, newsletter
May 21, 2008

 

Don’t lose sight of the forest for the trees

Even in a place where there aren’t many trees, like Iceland. My boyfriend and I were visiting Reykjavik, and since I was studying Icelandic at the time, I made a point of asking people to speak to me in Icelandic, even though it would have been much simpler for everyone if I’d just let them speak English. But no, I was determined.... More

Tags: Iceland, Icelandic, language, newsletter
May 21, 2008

 

Guernésiais stamps

To honor the history of Guernsey’s native language, Guernésiais, stamps have been released featuring commonly used phrases such as “L’affaire va-t-alle?” and “À la perchôine.” Click here to read more about the language.(ELHAM)

Tags: language, stamps
May 16, 2008

 

Are babies language biased?

The world’s leading baby brain research lab has come out with some striking findings about language prejudice:

More fascinating still is that Spelke’s lab has revealed a deep-seated prejudice, present in infants, that trumps racial bias: language. Dr Katherine Kinzler, though based in Harvard, spends much time running parallel studies in France. ‘Five-month-old babies will look longer at somebody who spoke to them in their language. Older infants want to accept a toy from someone who has spoken their language,’ Dr Kinzler says.

... More

Tags: babies, language, language learning, linguistics
May 12, 2008

 

Ken Lee Tulibu Dibu Douchoo

We’ve all struggled with getting the song lyrics right before, and things are just so much harder when you’re trying to figure them out in a language that you don’t speak well. Remember the endless rewinding? And can you ever hit the right spot?! Teenage life became so much more bearable when cassettes were replaced by CDs, but any reason for drama positively disappeared with the internet and iPods. ... More

Tags: mariah carey, song lyrics
May 9, 2008

 

The difficulties of typesetting Arabic

Something we’re all too familiar with: The difficulties of typesetting Arabic. (via languagehat) The technical problem is this: Arabic letters are generally not written separately but joined to each other in groups or entire words, like a script typeface in English. And though the Arabic alphabet has only 28 letters, most letters have four forms, depending on whether they occur at the beginning of the word, in the middle of the word, at the end of the word, or stand alone. Furthermore, each combination of letters is unique, creating a typographic challenge greater than Chinese. Because all letters connect dynamically with the preceding one, and most also with the following one, the number of unique combinations is almost astronomical. (SUZANNE)

Tags: Arabic
May 2, 2008