It was 1968. Fully automated translation was just around the corner. Or so I learned in a computer science class. Of course there was officially no such discipline at the time, so it was actually an applied math class, but… Read More ›
Linguistics
How do you spell царь in English? Czar, tsar, csar, or tzar?
Take a word that’s written in one alphabet (Cyrillic, say). Now spell it in another alphabet (Roman, say). Why? Well, Russian is written in Cyrillic, but it’s often necessary to write Russian words in English, using the familiar Roman alphabet…. Read More ›
English is weird.
No, I’m not talking about the notorious difficulties of English spelling. Nor am I talking about the oddities of English idioms and compound words, such as the all-too-well-known “Why do we drive on a parkway and park in a driveway?”… Read More ›
Linguists
Mouse-over text: “Do you feel like the answer depends on whether you’re currently in the hole, versus when you refer to the events later after you get out? Assuming you get out.”
Pronounce bruschetta, schism, and schedule. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
No, the “sch” in bruschetta is not pronounced like the English “sh”! It’s pronounced like the English “sk.” Bruschetta is an Italian word, not a German word, so don’t pronounce it as in Schadenfreude, to quote James Harbeck in the link below. Actually, the issue is slightly more… Read More ›
Not possible! What are emojis doing in 1807?
How much of this advertisement (from 1807!) can you figure out? Note that it says “hieroglyphical” where we would have said “rebus” when I was a kid or “emojis” today. You’ll probably do much better at reading it than I… Read More ›
The true name of the bear (in XKCD, not Vernor Vinge)
True names are important: if somebody knows your true name, they have power over you. I’m not talking about Vernor Vinge’s important novella, True Names, although there is definitely a strong connection with it. Many contributors to social media, as we know,… Read More ›
What’s wrong with spelling reform anyway? And what about the Shaw Alphabet?
I’ve heard that there are some people who think that English spelling is difficult. In fact, I think I know a couple of them. But nobody has to spend years learning how to spell Spanish words, so why do we… Read More ›
I am the very model of…
No, I’m not talking about Tom Lehrer’s famous song, “The Elements,” nor about n–2 others of the n parodies of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Major General’s song, where n must be a large number. I’m talking about “I Am the very Model of a Biblical… Read More ›
Who remembers diagramming sentences? And what does it have to do with Facebook? And the Supreme Court?
Who remembers diagramming sentences? I do, I do! If you’re my age, you never forget the experience of diagramming sentences. Love it or hate it (I was one of the few who loved it), you don’t forget it. Maybe you forget… Read More ›
