Arabic is one of the most ancient, varied, and beautifully scripted languages. It is spoken by nearly 400 million users, placing it among the most 5 spoken languages in the world. Its influence on Spanish since the time of the Moors is well known, but what’s less well known is how many commonly used English […]
Linguists, led by Chomsky, did a wonderful job in describing how language works. By thoroughly studying a handful of human languages, not including the Piraha language, they devised a theory, i.e. Universal Grammar, which could explain all possible human languages with all their hidden features and peculiarities. Every single language fits in there nicely. They could account
Piraha, The language That Disproves Universal Grammar. Read More »
If you are even slightly interested in language and linguistics, chances are you heard the term Universal Grammar a fair amount of times. It is a central concept in modern linguistics and the most controversial. It is a term that was born in the pursuit of trying to answer some very fundamental and old questions about language.
A tongue twister is a sequence of words or phrases that are designed to be difficult to articulate properly, even if the words and phrases are very familiar. Usually, tongue twisters are very rare in common speech. They are purposefully designed to be hard to pronounce for the purpose of humor or amusement. Sometimes, they
The Hardest Tongue Twisters That Almost No One Can Say Without Stumbling. Read More »
A wug is an imaginary cartoon creature created and first used by psycholinguist Jean Berko Gleason to test people’s ability to use the English plural morpheme*. The test usually involves two cartoon panels—one depicting one wug with the caption “This is a wug,” and the other depicting two wugs with the caption “Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are
Everyone has their own unique handwriting. Some are good, some are okay, and some are just so terrible that no one can read them. (doctors, ahem). Although nowadays people don’t feel the need to write down stuff, but instead type on their devices, some people still choose to handwrite their grocery lists and their to-do
40 Perfect Handwriting Examples That Will Leave You In Awe. Read More »
We know for a fact that language and culture are intricately intertwined that one influences the other in tremendous, and sometimes amazing, ways. It is this intertwining that makes translations from one language to another extremely difficult. You can only translate words and concepts that exist in both cultures. Cultural subtleties that are not shared
30 Untranslatable Words From Other Languages (Illustrated). Read More »
No language has all of the words, and English is no exception. While you can express the complex feeling of “insecurity, fear, concern, and envy over relative lack of possessions, status or something of great personal value, particularly in reference to a comparator, a rival, or a competitor.” with one word (i.e. jealousy), some other
15 Untranslatable Love Words That Simply Don’t Have English Equivalents. Read More »
Some names sound funny due to their unique combinations of sounds and syllables. Often, names that include unusual or unexpected phonetic elements can elicit laughter or amusement. Additionally, names that rhyme with common words or have humorous associations can also contribute to their comedic effect. Furthermore, names that are overly long or difficult to pronounce
Every language has a list of rarely used words that very few people know. They are not commonly known because they are rarely needed. Why bother learning something that you will not use..right? But for us, language nerds, that’s what gives meaning to our lives. Tracking down words and what they mean satisfies a curiosity
30 English Words That Are Rarely Known To Most People. Read More »
