Four questions in that headline—and it isn’t even Passover. You may or may not know that the distinguished linguist John McWhorter’s wonderful podcast Lexicon Valley recently moved from Slate to BookSmart. Not that you care. But what you do (or… Read More ›
Linguistics
עס און עס
No, that’s not Hebrew in the title of this post. Yes, it is written in the Hebrew alphabet. The alphabet is Hebrew, but the language is not—it’s Yiddish. You can’t tell it from the name of the restaurant as shown… Read More ›
“They Might be Linguists.” Linguists—not giants???
You all do know the band They Might Be Giants (TMBG), don’t you? But you might not know my personal connection with them. The connection is that John Flansburgh and John Linnell, founders of TMBG from Lincoln, MA, were students… Read More ›
What language do they speak in Scotland?
Scottish, you say? English? Gaelic? Scots? All of the above? Sounds like a simple question…but it isn’t. In the newly elected Scottish Parliament, where members were allowed to take their oaths in the language of their choice, the following languages… Read More ›
The “Ich bin ein Berliner” myth. Admit it, you’ve always believed this urban legend, haven’t you?
You know JFK’s famous speech in 1963, where he said “Ich bin ein Berliner,” where the American pedants and English-language German books all claim that it really means “I am a jelly donut,” not “I am a Berliner” as Kennedy… Read More ›
Avoid a risk in eleven languages!
Look at the image below. How many of these eleven languages can you identify? No fair asking Dr. Google! And I don’t think we can count English, since if you’re reading this blog you obviously can identify English. So how… Read More ›
Vichit-Vadakan
When you watched the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions last week, you noticed the outstanding performance of finalist Veronica Vichit-Vadakan. And you probably wondered about her last name. You figured that there were several possibilities: perhaps she has a parent named… Read More ›
Nine Nasty Words
John McWhorter is a well-known (at least in certain circles) public intellectual, mostly because of his first-rate podcast, Lexicon Valley. His latest book, Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever, is a lively but scholarly account… Read More ›
The First King: Birth of an Empire
The spoken dialog is entirely in Old Latin! Well, yes; it’s a movie, after all, so what do you expect? There surely are many movies in Old Latin, a.k.a. Archaic Latin, right? Well, maybe not. At least this one has… Read More ›
Following directions, a.k.a. lather-rinse-repeat
If you’ve ever built a model railroad structure (or a model airplane or whatever), you either build it from scratch, build it from a kit, or do some combination of the two. I am definitely not a scratch builder, so… Read More ›
Calendrical linguistics: What a wonderfully nerdy combination!
You’ve wondered, I’m sure, about some of our names for the months. Perhaps you are puzzled about why October is the tenth month when the name clearly suggests that it should be the eighth. Similarly for September, November, and December…. Read More ›
What’s in a (color) name?
Who cares what names Crayola chooses to use for the colors of its crayons? Do you? Do I? There was only one color name that used to bother me when I was a kid: “flesh.” Even then, I guess, I… Read More ›
Hwæt?Beowulf? newly translated for your enjoyment
The world is atwitter at the arrival of a new translation of Beowulf by Maria Dahvana Headley. Well, a certain segment of the world, anyway. And you may well wonder why. The idea of reading this epic poem has never appealed to… Read More ›
“Guess the Language”: quite a challenge!
If you heard a short sample of a language that you didn’t know, could you still guess which language it is? Quite a challenge, no? Well, in this video, you have the opportunity to see Latvian linguist Julie Maksimova face… Read More ›
A really important dispute about “OK boomer”
According to a post the other day in All Things Linguistic, it is widely believed that the correct translation of “OK boomer” into Middle Egyptian is whereas they point out that a more accurate translation would of course be Perhaps… Read More ›
The Font of the Baskervilles
The Hound Font of the Baskervilles? We’ve all learned, particularly in the last few years, to be cautious about believing what we read. Some people (though not nearly enough of us) have even learned to be cautious about what we see… Read More ›
O chess pieces, what are your names (in 79 languages)? And what did my dad have to do with it?
Chess, of course, is endlessly fascinating. For some reason, however, I no longer play chess. I never became good at it, even though my dad started me on it at an early age. Chess meant a lot to him because… Read More ›
So, Classics, which is it? Are you Latin + Greek? Or are you Racism + White Supremacy?
I started thinking about college, as one does in certain families, when I was in eighth grade. I had no idea where I wanted to go, but I was pretty sure that I would want to major in Classics. What… Read More ›
Do you speak Abruzzese? What is that? Can I understand any of it if you say something in Abruzzese? Is it a language? a dialect of Italian? a dialect of Neapolitan? Or have you never even heard of it?
This great video will repay your close attention! And it does demand close attention. Also, you should definitely turn on closed captioning, unless you happen to be fluent in Catalan, French, Latin, and Spanish. And of course you’ll be listening… Read More ›
FUE (Frequently Used Emojis)
Apparently I am the only person in the world who has trouble with emojis. I find, at least as they are usually used, that they are too small for me to pick out the details. Most of the facial expressions… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 