Watch Your Language Blog

Arabic and its many variations

Even for native speakers, Arabic is a complex language. The intricate and extensive grammar and pronunciation can be daunting for beginners, but all Arabic speakers also face the difficult task of understanding someone who speaks a different regional dialect.... More

Tags: Arabic, colloquial, dialects, language, Modern Standard, newsletter
June 5, 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

 

Chinese characters

In last month’s Did you know?, you learned that Chinese is not quite as difficult as it might seem at first. After all, it doesn’t use plurals, articles, gender, or even verb conjugation. Of course, even with that in mind, Chinese can still be pretty intimidating, especially when dealing with the writing system.... More

Tags: characters, Chinese, language, newsletter, radicals
April 25, 2008

 

The hardest language

It’s common to hear people arguing over which language is “the hardest” to learn. The answer is: all of them - and none of them. People are often scared to learn a language that is vastly different from their own, and this makes certain languages seem more difficult than others. You may fear learning Chinese simply because it has few sounds similar to our own, and because it has such a different writing system to the English alphabet. But did you know that, in Chinese, you don’t have to worry about plurals or verb conjugation?... More

Tags: Chinese, grammar, newsletter
March 24, 2008

 

Do you know all the colors of the rainbow?

Of course, in order to answer that, you first need to know how many colors there are. Believe it or not, that information varies from language to language.... More

Tags: colors, language, newsletter, Russian, Vietnamese
February 22, 2008

 

Make Mine a Quaranta

Have you ever thought about what it means to order a venti coffee? Or a grande supremo? A few years back, comedian Dave Barry looked into the language of coffee, and his findings were dissected at Language Log. (SUZANNE)

Tags: Italian
February 4, 2008

 

Speaking “Indian”

“Do you speak Indian?” is an inevitable question for many people of South Asian descent. Even though ‘Indian’ isn’t really a language, it’s understandable why people prefer that term. With 22 national languages in India, and many more non-national ones, not even those who ask “Do you speak Hindi, Malayalam, or Telugu?” cover all the bases.... More

Tags: Hindi, Hinglish, India, language, newsletter
January 22, 2008

 

When babies get “habituated”

Like the rest of us, babies get bored when they hear things over and over. The pervasive feeling that overwhelmes them when they are repeatedly exposed to the same stimulus is technically called habituation.... More

Tags: bilingual, Hindi, newsletter
December 14, 2007

 

Language coincidences: when “dog” means “dog”

A list of words that happen to be the same — or have polar opposite meanings — in two completely unrelated languages. (via kottke) Not sure I’d go so far as to call them “amazing,” but certainly “interesting.” (SUZANNE)


December 4, 2007

 

Mr. King of the Wolves

The New York Times published an article recently about exporting hockey to China. Of course, translating sports terms (icing, power play, etc.) is a huge issue when trying to telecast in Mandarin. The Islanders might find it useful to take some tips from the NBA, who also expanded their program in China. My favorite bit is the translation of player names into Mandarin: Kevin Garnett in Mandarin is “Lang Wang,” which means “King of the Wolves.” There’s also Dirk Nowitzki who’s “German Racecar,” and Kobe Bryant, who’s “Little Flying Warrior.” Pretty cool, don’t you think? (ELHAM)

Tags: language, Mandarin, translation
December 3, 2007

 

Pain au chocolat

It’s no secret that pastry is one of France’s most popular cultural ambassadors. In fact, it’s hard to pass by a coffee shop, bakery or any sort of store that sells baked goods in the United States without encountering that crucial French pastry: the chocolate croissant. However, don’t start practicing your pronunciation of chocolat croissant just yet. The actual phrase for a chocolate croissant in French doesn’t use the word croissant at all. ... More

Tags: food, French, newsletter
November 26, 2007

 

Bamboozle the buffalo

Turns out, “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo” is a grammatically correct sentence. This baffled me at first, but the linguists at Language Log have some explanatory paraphrases that clear things out:... More


October 4, 2007

 

Wikipedia Monchak

Here’s a chance for somebody to start an entry on the language Monchak, which as of now, does not appear in Wikipedia’s admirably large database. The New York Times has a little feature on it: “If you want to tell someone where to “go” in the dying language of the Monchak, you’d better have an intimate knowledge of the river currents in Mongolia, because that’s how the verb “go” is expressed in Monchak: upstream or downstream a bit or a bunch, never mind that there’s no stream in sight, or maybe there are a lot of streams going every which way.” ... More


September 25, 2007

 

Ahoy, me hearties!

‘Tis Talk Like A Pirate Day. Take out your pirate thesARRRus and start talking like one! You could even learn pirate-speak in German, Chinese, or Swedish. (Scroll down to “Further Study.”) What will ye be doin today, matey? I’ll be wondering if pirates really said “arrr” or owned treasure maps. (ELHAM)


September 19, 2007

 

The Great American Vowel Shift

To follow up from Elham’s post yesterday, I can attest first hand to Ohio’s affection for naming cities after international places then proceeding to mispronounce them. Honestly, though, I think it’s out of politeness.... More


August 31, 2007

 

Kai-roh or Kei-rou?

More Wikipedia goodness: here’s a list of English names with non-intuitive pronunciations (via Language Hat). I sure wish this existed when I visited Berkeley of Gloucestershire, where I proceeded to ask directions for the town of “berk-lee” rather than “bark-ly.” Well, at least I pronounced Gloucestershire right.... More


August 30, 2007

 

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Maybe universal understanding is the reason Spoon (the band) labeled their new album “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.” Research suggests that “baby talk” is recognizable to almost everyone, regardless of their native language. Even monkeys use it. ... More


August 27, 2007

 

Not spam? It might be “bacn.”

Since we’re on the subject of spam, here’s something to add to the mix. The use of the term “bacn” (pronounced “bacon”) seems to be spreading throughout the internet: Bacn describes the things you signed up for but that still feel like clutter in your inbox: Email lists, Facebook notifications, Google alerts. (Via Buzzword)... More


August 23, 2007

 

New coinage alert: “Ding Chong Jiating”

And it’s just another name for “dinks” (dual income, no kids couples) who prefer pets, rather than children. Chinese officials recently accepted new phrases such as the one above into the National Language Registry. Other adapted phrases include: “gray skills,” “house slaves,” and something most of us tech folks suffer from: the “three-hand illness,” which is for “people fatigued by overuse of their hand to play with gaming machines, click on their computer mouse or to send messages via their mobile phone.” We need to add that one to the English language.... More


August 21, 2007

 

Birds “stand,” they don’t “fly”

It’s believed that only one fluent speaker of Mandan is left in the world: Edwin Benson, a rancher from North Dakota. Sara Techtor (a linguist) is working with Mr. Benson to preserve the language. Their most recent effort entailed transcribing Mandan folk stories:... More


August 8, 2007

 

“Jowling” might just save your life

In Pitmatic, a dialect of the north-east miners in England, “jowling” is a term that signifies different ways of communicating through a mine, especially after the roof falls. ... More


July 31, 2007

 

Vorsprung durch Technik

Of the many things the internet is good for, listing German expressions used in English is not the first thing we’d think of, but, well, wow. See also: List of Spanish words of Germanic origin. (SUZANNE)


June 20, 2007

 

Nahuatl, avocado, and Chinese script

The 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


May 18, 2007

 

Keeping Michif and Hawaiian alive

Keeping languages alive : Hawaiian now boasts approximately 2000 speakers, when it was almost extinct in 1983! Métis educators received federal funds to revive Michif, an endangered language. Michif speakers primarily reside in North Dakota, and some parts of Canada. Click here and here to learn more about Michif. (ELHAM)


April 18, 2007