“I’m starving! I haven’t been fed in days!” says William. “Just look at that face!” That’s a typical cat lie. But is it a bald-faced lie? Or even a bold-faced lie? When I was a kid, interested in both language… Read More ›
Linguistics
Tones, Hmong, sounds, and spelling
The Hmong are a well-known ethnic group, right? Well, not exactly. They’re probably not well-known to you, unless you are particularly interested in southeast Asia or happen to live in Minneapolis or Fresno, even though there are about 15 million… Read More ›
We all love long words.
We all love impressively long words, don’t we? We especially love words from languages like German and Turkish, which are known for harboring such beasts —like Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän and muvaffakiyetsizleştiricileştiriveremeyebileceklerimizdenmişsinizcesine. But those are not particularly natural words in German and Turkish respectively,… Read More ›
Why do Americans think that Asians mix up R and L?
Speaking of Asia, why do so many Americans think that Asians mix up R and L? (Asians? East Asians? Chinese and Japanese? How far does this stereotype go?) Before we answer this question, I need to point out a more… Read More ›
Linguistics podcasts updated
A year and a half ago — forever, in tech terms — I reviewed four linguistics podcasts: Lingthusiasm, The World in Words, Very Bad Words, and Lexicon Valley. Since then, the second and third of these have unfortunately ceased to… Read More ›
A 5% discount (or is it a five percent discount? or a 5 percent discount? or a five % discount?)
Like many of you, I grew up learning the traditional rules about when to write out numbers in words and when to use numerals. Most professionals continue to use these rules today, as in the following awkward paragraph from Talking… Read More ›
Friends of Dorothy
In my naive youth, I had no idea what a “friend of Dorothy” was; in-group descriptors, after all, are always known to members of the in group (and allies) long before they are known to the general public. “Friend of… Read More ›
The top universities for linguistics?
Are these really the top universities for linguistics? That’s what the QS World University Rankings by Subject says. I’ve been skeptical of lists like this as I watched high-school ratings over two decades from publications like Boston Magazine and U.S. News, paying special attention… Read More ›
Bay State Model Railroad Museum Spring Model Train Show
Wow! Look at that title: a noun phrase consisting of nine consecutive nouns! Maybe the show should be called Buchtstaatsmodelleisenbahnmuseumsfrühlingsmodellzugshow. On second thought, maybe not. OK, enough fooling around with German. Let’s get back to the show itself, which was… Read More ›
Happy Exelauno Day!
Schools in this entire area (not just Roxbury Latin!) are closed today in honor of Ἐξελαύνω (Exelauno) Day. Or maybe there’s some other reason.
I found the missing R!
I found the missing R! Remember my recent post about my neighborhood barber shop with the missing R? (In case you missed it, here is the photo again of the storefront, showing that it’s a Baber Shop, not a Barber… Read More ›
Crime & Punctuation (and a cat)
Crime & Punctuation. No, not the novel by Dostoevsky that just happens to have a somewhat similar title — that one that only English majors and Russian lit students have actually read, although everyone else claims to. (Confession: at least… Read More ›
“Does verbing impact the language?” he asks.
I’m just starting to scenic my model railroad. Yeah, I know, using the adjective “scenic” as a verb is startling at first. I still don’t like it, though it has become standard. But let’s look at it in context. My… Read More ›
Five-Minute Linguist Competition
You may well wonder what a five-minute linguist might be. I’ll leave you to ponder that question. Before you do that, here are some of John McWhorter’s opening remarks to the third annual five-minute linguist competition: You try to explain… Read More ›
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
Neal Stephenson is the best. As a long-time fan, I can assure you that this conclusion is an objective fact, not a matter of personal opinion. Your mileage may vary, but I doubt it. Up to this point I have reviewed… Read More ›
Happy New Year!
How many of these languages can you identify?
Should you pay attention to what your English teacher says?
I could answer by saying “no, you shouldn’t” — but my colleagues and friends who teach English would be up in arms. Instead, I can say “yes, but question authority” — i.e., ask for evidence, not just rules that are… Read More ›
A Quaker Christmas Carol
I can’t resist reposting this Quaker Christmas Carol:
There are only 500 people here — yet they speak 9 different languages!
Let’s follow up my post of November 25 about hyperpolyglots and the book Babel No More by taking a look at a small island where 500 people speak nine different languages, as described in an article in The Atlantic by Michael Erard, author of Babel… Read More ›
Lexicographers: Fact or Fiction?
Do lexicographers really exist? Or are they like unicorns? Or perhaps they’re like mailmen. Lexicographers are unlikely protagonists of a novel — though of course they might not exist and could still be protagonists of a novel, as hobbits are. You… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 