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Signor Domani Mattina (Excerpt from La Bella Lingua)When I arrived in Italy for the first time in 1983 I knew only one Italian sentence: “Mi dispiace, ma non parlo italiano” (“I’m sorry, but I don’t speak Italian”). In my first minutes in the country, I repeated it half a dozen times, with ever-mounting panic in my voice, interspersed with pleas of “Stop this train!” Other passengers responded with concerned looks and torrents of incomprehensible Italian. Only the weary conductor followed my gaze as I pointed to my forlorn black suitcase, which the porter had left behind on the platform in Domodossola.... More Tags: book excerpt, Dianne Hales, Italian, La Bella Lingua, newsletter, travel story
GadgetryBy now you probably know that you can get little doses of a language you’re studying through online services like Twitter. For example, as you saw in last month’s newsletter, Living Language does two Twitter feeds, Spanish and French, with more languages likely to follow.... More Tags: calendar, Google, language learning, newsletter, Twitter, Yahoo
When a French word isn’t quite what it seems …In the April newsletter, you saw that many, many French terms pop up on American English menus. However, sometimes they can be deceptive—just because the terms come from French doesn’t mean they also have the same meaning in the modern French language.... More Tags: dining, food, French, newsletter
Bilingualism and Tip-Of-The-Tongue ExperiencesAn article at The New Scientist discusses an experiment on the relationship between speaking more than one language and not being able to remember the word for something. To provoke tip-of-the-tongue moments, the researchers showed the bilinguals, as well as a control group of 22 English monolinguals, pictures of dozens of different objects and challenged the volunteers to name them in 30 seconds. The viewed objects - which included axes, weathervanes, gyroscopes, nooses and metronomes - were obscure enough to elicit tip-of-the-tongue experiences in all but one participant. As with previous experiments, monolinguals had fewer tip-of-the-tongue experiences than bilinguals, about 7 words versus 12, out of a total of 52 - though Pyers’ team counted only instances where the volunteer knew the word. Tags: bilingualism
Does English Have an Infinite Number of Words?Following up on yesterday’s post about the size of the English lexicon, we think that an argument could be made that English has an infinite number of words. ... More Tags: English, Global Language Monitor, meaning, recursion, words
One Million Words? Really?The idea behind The Global Language Monitor’s Million Word March is certainly compelling, especially if you happen to be a proud native speaker of English. The English lexicon, it claims, has just grown to over 1,000,000 words, far surpassing other languages. ... More Tags: English, Global Language Monitor, lexicon, Million Word March, word
Essential Greek PhrasesThis is the next installment of essential phrases from the newest additions to our Spoken World series. (Previously: Essential Dutch Phrases, Essential Irish Phrases, Essential Polish Phrases, Essential Croatian Phrases) Finally, let’s round out our essential phrases from the Spoken World series with some essential Greek. Click on the play button below to hear each essential Greek word or phrase.... More Tags: Greek, Spoken World
Star Trek and XenolinguisticsWARNING: We’re about to get really, really nerdy. Anyone with a passion for languages knows that it’s nearly impossible to leave that passion at home. You hear a language on the street, you try to discern what it could be. You hear a word that might be derived from a language you know, and spend a few minutes tracing the route it might have taken to get there. Even sitting in a movie theater with an overpriced bucket of popcorn in your lap watching the most recent Star Trek film will give you something to ponder about language, as I discovered this past Sunday.... More Tags: Romulan, Star Trek, Swahili, xenolinguistics
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