Watch Your Language Blog

Hey, At Least We Try!

A burst of post-July 4th patriotism here: a recent survey of more than 4,000 hotel employees worldwide found that we Americans top the list of tourists most willing to speak the local language. It’s gratifying to me, personally, that for all the times I’ve embarrassed myself in other languages, at least the effort is recognized. USA! (TOM)


July 7, 2008

 

May I translate your order?

Reuters reports on more linguistic changes being made in China in preparation for the Olympics.

If officials have their way, local newspapers reported on Wednesday, English-speaking visitors will be able to order “beef and ox tripe in chili sauce,” an appetizer, rather than “husband and wife’s lung slice.”
(SUZANNE)

Tags: China, Chinese, food, Olympic Games, Olympics
June 19, 2008

 

Multilingual Dream Team?

The Los Angeles Lakers may be down 2 - 0 in their NBA Finals series against the Boston Celtics, but perhaps their fans can take comfort in the fact that this year’s team is probably one of the most impressively multilingual editions in league history. It’s fairly well documented that Kobe Bryant speaks fluent Italian, but perhaps less well knows is that Ronny Turiaf speaks five languages - English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Creole (plus, the hair). And if that isn’t enough, the Lakers also feature international standouts like Pau Gasol, Vladimir Radmanovic, and Sasha Vujacic. Just think about all of the linguistic options they can employ to complain about the officiating!

Tags: multilingual athletes
June 9, 2008

 

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

 

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

 

The Attraction and Compulsion of Language in Schools

Voice of America checks in with American public schools and their foreign language programs, and finds that they’re growing in popularity. Great Britain, meanwhile, is in the midst of large-scale language reform in their educational system, which, starting in 2010, will make foreign language study compulsory for all children aged 7 to 14, as The Guardian reports. (SUZANNE)

Tags: foreign language education
March 21, 2008

 

Monkey Syntax

Scientists have discovered that monkeys have a richer vocabulary than previously thought. “Hack hack hack pyow hack hack” might not mean much to human ears, but to a putty-nosed monkey it means, “I’m adult male X; I have just seen an eagle; I will now move away,” according to a new study showing that primates can combine individual calls to express different meanings. So there’s monkey syntax; does this means that there are also monkey misunderstandings and simian slips? (SUZANNE)


March 11, 2008

 

‘Obama’ and its variations

The latest word to enter the English language, according to the Global Language Monitor, is ‘obama’ and its different variations:

“Obama is used as a ‘root’ for an ever-expanding number of words, including: obamamentum, obamacize, obamarama, obamaNation, obamanomics, obamican, obamafy, obamamania, and obamacam.

To enter the English language, a word has to meet certain criteria, including frequency of appearance in the written and spoken language, in the media, have a large geographic footprint, and to stand the test of time,” he points out. “In the past, this process would unfold over many years, even decades or centuries. However, the Internet, with instant global communication to billions of people has radically accelerated the cycle.”

 (ELHAM)

Tags: coinage, English
February 22, 2008

 

International Mother Language Day

Today is UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day. (We first read about this over at Out of the Woods Now, where a recent talk given by David Crystal on endangered languages — entitled “The Future of Languages” — was being recapped.) The year 2008 was also proclaimed by the United Nations to be the Year of International Languages, with the slogan “Language Matters!” and an aim to educate about and protect endangered languages. (SUZANNE)

Tags: endangered languages
February 21, 2008

 

Old age is more like a semicolon

The New York Times analyzes semicolon sightings in NYC:

It was nearly hidden on a New York City Transit public service placard exhorting subway riders not to leave their newspaper behind when they get off the train.

“Please put it in a trash can,” riders are reminded. After which Neil Neches, an erudite writer in the transit agency’s marketing and service information department, inserted a semicolon. The rest of the sentence reads, “that’s good news for everyone.” (ELHAM)

Tags: English, punctuation, semicolon
February 20, 2008

 

Celtic: a minority language?

Aberystwyth University’s department of Welsh recently received significant funding to investigate the roots of Celtic, and challenge the presumption that Celtic languages are minority languages:

“Professor Patrick Sims-Williams, who is leading the project, said the grant would enable Dr Alexander Falileyev, a scholar from St Petersburg working in Aberystwyth, to investigate Celtic in southern Romania and as far east as Galatia in Turkey.

Prof Sims-Williams said: “We know that these areas were colonized from the 3rd Century BC onwards by peoples who spoke Celtic languages.

“It’s becoming clear that Celtic was one of the major languages of ancient Europe, alongside Greek and Latin.”

The real question is though, are you pronouncing Aberystwyth correctly? (ELHAM)


February 14, 2008

 

Are you a jerk, or just a creep?

Seems that linguistic evolution can work people up into a name-calling frenzy the same way biological evolution does. Dr. Mark Pagel of Reading University recently published a study arguing that new languages are formed not by the gradual drifting apart of groups who no longer need to communicate, but rather by sudden, possibly violent, disruptions. We guess that makes him a jerk. (TOM)


February 8, 2008

 

Punctuational bursts of language change

According to research findings released today, the evolution of language parallels evolution of species:... More

Tags: evolution, language
February 1, 2008

 

The Quotative Like

Discovery News looks at a study of the construction “to be + like” in instant messaging to indicate quoted speech, as in “He was like, did you see what she was wearing?”... More

Tags: English
January 23, 2008

 

Yo : a gender-neutral pronoun?

According to recent research, yo has emerged as the new gender-neutral pronoun in Baltimore. Linguists and teachers have found that their students are using yo in place of he or she, along with its common usage as a substitute for ‘you’ or ‘your’. Apparently this usage is almost entirely local to Baltimore. (ELHAM)

Tags: dialect, English, language
January 7, 2008

 

New Year’s Eve around the world

As the clocks turned to midnight in each time zone across the globe, “Happy New Year!” was shouted out in many different languages. Whether it was Saehae bok mani baduseyo! (Korean) or Gelukkig nieuwjaar! (Dutch), here’s just some of what you might have heard. Take the rest of the week to wish your friend a próspero año nuevo (Spanish). And in case you missed it on television: from Amsterdam to Zermatt, New Year’s Eve panoramas from around the world. (via Wired) (SUZANNE)


January 2, 2008

 

Belgian Beauty Queen Booed

A Belgian beauty queen becomes the face of the current political tensions in Belgium by admitting on stage that she doesn’t speak Dutch. (SUZANNE)

Tags: Belgium, Dutch, French
December 18, 2007

 

Feud endangers language

The language of Zoque may die because two men in the Tabasco region of Mexico refuse to speak to each other.

In 1960, according to a Mexican Government survey, there were 367 speakers of Zoque from Tabasco. In the early 1970s, linguists could only find 40 people who spoke the language. And now there are apparently only two: grumpy old men.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports on a team of scientists traveling the world to document endangered languages. (SUZANNE)

Tags: endangered languages, language, mexico
December 14, 2007

 

Growth in Mandarin Chinese immersion

USA Today adds to the conversation on the rising popularity of studying Mandarin Chinese as a second language with a look at the growth in immersion programs in the United States.... More


November 20, 2007

 

STOP…right there, pilgrim

You would think STOP on a bright red octagonal sign is imperative enough, but obviously not if we have to resort to these innovative measures: ... More


November 15, 2007

 

What dude, punk, hokum, and twerp have in common

The New York Times explores Daniel Cassidy’s project of tracing the Irish origins of New York City slang: ... More


November 12, 2007

 

From banlieue to bestseller

The Guardian and The Times examine Le Lexik des cités, a new book on French street slang sweeping the bestseller list in France, and discover the large influences of immigration, poetry, and music on the new French lexicon.... More


November 8, 2007

 

German language not under threat from English

As English increasingly becomes the the international language of the internet, many European countries fear that the influence of English could be detrimental to the integrity of their language. But how great is the threat? Apparently, the German language is not at risk, according to a study. ... More


November 7, 2007

 

Complex words in other languages

Translation is about nuance; there’s often meaning embedded in a word that is difficult to convey in another language using the same succinct package. Adam Jacot de Boinod has collected some of the more nuanced words from languages other than English in a new book, and The Times has a review. ... More


November 5, 2007

 

The Spanish language will be televised

As the number of Latino characters on television increases, so does airtime for the Spanish language.... More


November 2, 2007

 

“Wedded” Under Pressure

Two Harvard scientists predict that irregular verbs that do not take the -ed ending in the past tense are prone to “regularization”:

Lieberman and Michel’s group computed the “half-lives” of the surviving irregular verbs to predict how long they will take to regularize. The most common ones, such as “be” and “think,” have such long half-lives (38,800 years and 14,400 years, respectively) that they will effectively never become regular. Irregular verbs with lower frequencies of use — such as “shrive” and “smite,” with half-lives of 300 and 700 years, respectively — are much more likely to succumb to regularization.... More


October 17, 2007

 

To hyphenate, or not to hyphenate?

Ah, the English language, that tricky orthographic beast. Even our punctuation is troublesome. Apparently, the hyphen is losing its place in dictionaries.... More


October 11, 2007

 

But is it still legal to parse?

Apparently, the local government in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, has outlawed the use of the gerúndio because of its apparent tie to inefficiency, indicating that something is in the process of being done, but has yet to be finished. (Technically, the gerúndio is translated as the “gerund,” but its grammatical function is closer to that of the English present participle.)... More


October 9, 2007

 

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

As far as good suggestions for language learning go, it seems that all that’s changed in 100+ years is the tone. ... More


September 26, 2007

 

A language dies every two weeks.

The New York Times ran a story about how nearly half of the languages spoken today are in danger of extinction. National Geographic has a great interactive feature on endangered languages; be sure to explore the language hotspots map, and the handy list of internet resources for endangered languages.


September 18, 2007

 

R.I.P. Alex, the talking parrot

The New York Times reports on the death of the famous talking parrot Alex, who knew more than a hundred English words, could count, and recognize colors and shapes:... More


September 12, 2007

 

“KVNV of Sheba” isn’t as catchy

Is KVNV, a Borean word meaning “woman” (the “V” indicates an unknown vowel) the root word for “queen”? Among much controversy, linguists working for the Evolution of Human Languages (EHL) project are trying to trace the common root of all human languages: ... More


July 19, 2007

 

A Bostonian Grammar Vandal

Watch your grammar, advertisers! The Boston Globe recently profiled Kate McCulley, who has been fixing bad grammar on business signs around Boston. One wonders what she thinks of the LOLcode phenomenon. Or what her next stop will be. New York, maybe?... More


July 17, 2007

 

Ni hao, Khartoum

Sudanese students are increasingly choosing Chinese as their preferred second language. (via The Morning News)... More


June 19, 2007

 

Newsy Links

There’s a lot of buzz in the news today about endangered languages, online language learning and what not, so we thought compiling a short post of “LLinks” would be appropriate:... More


June 18, 2007

 

Spelling Bees in Japan?

Slate published an article about how Spelling Bees are a distinctly American and British phenomenon, and other countries with nonalphabetic languages seem to lay more emphasis on recognizing and identifying characters and their meanings. If the idea of a Spelling Bee in Japan brings up images of interesting Japanese game shows, never fear, Kanken promises to be a fascinating (and pretty difficult) version of the Spelling Bee:... More


June 9, 2007

 

Wir Sind Helden covers “When Your Heart Stops Beating” in German

iTunes Store is introducing the new “Foreign Exchange” program, where bands can translate, cover, and sell songs from different countries in their native languages. +44 will also be covering Wir Sind Helden’s “Guten Tag”. More importantly, this should lead to all sorts of interesting musicians covering each other’s songs. Like Melt Banana covering Jennifer Lopez. (On second thought, probably not a good idea.) (ELHAM)


June 4, 2007

 

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


May 30, 2007

 

Smart babies

A feature in MSNBC explores recent research surrounding infants’ ability to discern details and sounds in foreign languages: ... More


May 25, 2007

 

House of Language

A language museum might open in London during the 2012 Olympics:... More


May 24, 2007

 

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


May 21, 2007

 

Teaching a robot to talk

Wired 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


May 15, 2007

 

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


May 15, 2007

 

Translation ex machina

There’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


May 11, 2007

 

Renewed interest in heritage languages

The New York Times reports on the availability of language classes in Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Arabic, and Mandarin for “heritage speakers.”... More


May 9, 2007

 

More world leaders speaking in tongues

Bloomberg 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


May 8, 2007

 

Makad Manav 3

Dubbed 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)


May 7, 2007

 

Talk to the hand

A study of chimpanzees and bonobos brings us closer to understanding how language may have begun to develop: gestures, apparently, came first.... More


May 4, 2007

 

Yo soy un Mexicaner

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg visits Mexico and surprises everyone by answering reporters’ questions en español.... More


May 3, 2007

 

Sworn In On A Dictionary

Jurors 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


May 2, 2007

 

Living Language Live!

The new, redesigned site has finally gone live, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. ... More


May 1, 2007

 

Learning a native language could possibly stop extinction of species…

This fascinating article explores how native and indigenous cultures identify and classify species yet to be discovered by scientists.... More


April 30, 2007

 

Know your grammar

Thinking about teaching English abroad? You should be able to tell the difference between the present simple, past simple, and past difficult, claims John Hughes at the Guardian. (Via Link) (ELHAM)


April 26, 2007

 

BBC builds “Dictionary of Man”

Aims to provide the most complete picture of humankind. People working on the project were driven to catalogue human history, after realizing “that 300 African languages had already vanished”. (ELHAM)


April 26, 2007

 

We’re staying out of this one

There’s a bit of a linguistic smackdown going on over an article published in The New Yorker about Dan Everett and his research with the Pirahã Indians, and Everett’s theory that the language of the Pirahã may challenge the concept of Universal Grammar. ... More


April 25, 2007

 

Language of the Blogosphere

The language of the Blogosphere is not English, but Japanese! Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere report finds Japanese as the number one blogging language. Maybe we should blog in Japanese instead. (ELHAM)


April 18, 2007

 

Writers in Translation Awards

PEN announces Writers in Translation awards : Albanian, Chechnyan, Algerian, and Turkish authors are the lucky recipients. (Via The Guardian) (ELHAM)


April 18, 2007

 

“That girls if iffy.”

Avril Lavigne releases her new single “Girlfriend” in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Japanese, and Mandarin to mixed reviews over at MTV.com. Apparently, she rocks the Chinese version. (SUZANNE)


April 17, 2007

 

China cleans up its language

We could all use a little mouth soap: In preparation for the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games, China is trying to clean up its language. ... More


April 17, 2007

 

Ni Hao, Kai-Lan

Nickelodeon branches into the world of Chinese language with its new children’s program, in the vein of Dora the Explorer. The New York Times interviews the creator. (SUZANNE)


April 16, 2007

 

Saving Oneida

The Gazette Xtra reports on a website trying to preserve the Oneida language.... More


April 16, 2007

 

Sign language for toddlers

Speaking before you’re spoken to: Using sign language to communicate with toddlers.


April 15, 2007