language

List

12 Horrible Gobbledygook Words We Reluctantly Accepted

Just as there is nothing certain in this world but death and taxes, there is nothing certain in language but that it will change, and that people will react badly. One of the changes people find most offensive is the spread of professional jargon that has been coined to replace simpler, clearer words we already have. Anyone up for some collaborative incentivizing going forward? No? Well, maybe one day your great-grandchildren will be. Here are 12 words that people once thought were horrible gobbledygook... READ ON

Article

8 Great Arguments from the Latke-Hamentash Debate

Every year, a few weeks before Hanukkah begins, eminent scholars don their formal academic robes and convene in one of the great Gothic halls at the University of Chicago to present their arguments on the most important question of our time: Latke or hamentash? The hamentash is a triangular pastry with a sweet filling served during the Jewish holiday of Purim. The latke, of course, is the fried potato pancake eaten during Hanukkah. The merits and drawbacks of each have been passionately expounded upon... READ ON

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5 Songs from the Eurovision for Endangered Languages, Liet International

English has taken over pop music to the point where many bands from other countries will write their songs in English in order to appeal to a wider audience. The Eurovision Song Contest provides one place where other languages can get a chance at a bigger stage, but there are smaller, more fragile languages that are threatened not only by English, but also by the robust European national languages that surround them. For them, there is the Liet International song contest, established in 2002. This is a... READ ON

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10 Language Mistakes Kids Make That Are Actually Pretty Smart

Little kids make such cute mistakes when they talk. We know they're still learning the language, so we tolerate their errors and chuckle at how funny they sound. Behind that chuckle is the assumption that the kids are getting it wrong because they just don't know the rules yet. In fact, kids' mistakes show they know a lot more about the rules than we think. The mistakes are evidence of very smart hypotheses the kids are forming from the limited data they've been given so far. Here are 10 really smart... READ ON

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How Do Computers Understand Speech?

More and more, we can get computers to do things for us by talking to them. A computer can call your mother when you tell it to, find you a pizza place when you ask for one, or write out an email that you dictate. Sometimes the computer gets it wrong, but a lot of the time it gets it right, which is amazing when you think about what a computer has to do to turn human speech into written words: turn tiny changes in air pressure into language. Computer speech recognition is very complicated and has a long... READ ON

Article

Why Do Sign Language Interpreters Look So Animated?

As New York City Mayor Bloomberg gave numerous televised addresses about the preparations the city was making for Hurricane Sandy, and then the storm’s aftermath, he was joined at the podium by a sign language interpreter, who immediately became a twitter darling. People watching the addresses tweeted that she was "amazing," "mesmerizing," "hypnotizing," and "AWESOME." Soon, her name was uncovered—Lydia Callis—and animated .gifs of her signing were posted. A couple of hours later, a tumblr was born.... READ ON

Article

The Meaning of the Word "Moot" is Moot

The adjective "moot" means "open to debate." Yes, really. This is a dramatic difference from its common usage (at least in America), which basically means "not worth debating." A famous example comes from Rick Springfield's lyrics in "Jessie's Girl": "I wanna tell her that I love her / But the point is probably moot," meaning that Springfield's love isn't worthy of mention, due to Jessie's girl's relationship with Jessie. (We can infer from this both that Jessie's girl is faithful to Jessie, and that... READ ON

Big Question

When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents?

Readers Nick and Riela have both written to ask how and when English colonists in America lost their British accents and how American accents came... READ ON

List

5 Really Bad Food Puns

I was in a silly mood one recent weekend and, er, cooked these up for you all. If you have others you'd like me to create images for, please leave them in the comments below and maybe I'll do another group of them in the near... READ ON

List

15 variations on the meaning of the word "dude"

I was sort of a linguistic snob in college. I preferred big words to small, little-known words to ubiquitous, and archaic to colloquial. The present-day me would have never hung out with the college version of me. For example, when I wanted to get dinner, I’d go down the hall to one of my friend’s rooms and say, “Jeremy, do you want to go get some supper now? They have pizza tonight.” Nearly 20 syllables! Meanwhile, Jeremy’s roommate, a thick-necked kid they called Alfie with a tattoo of a .22... READ ON