Начнем с начала.

«В начале сотворил Бог небо и землю».

Как вы думаете, на каком языке это предложение представлено выше?

Шломо Изреэль о мифах, существующих вокруг иврита, его связи с идишем и о том, как дети учат ивриту своих родителей

Лингвист Алан Ченки о том, что такое когнитивная метафора, как она формирует новую реальность и почему мы говорим аналогиями

Лингвист Александр Пиперски о «хороших» и «плохих» слогах и о том, почему они существуют в языке

Лингвист Анатолий Баранов о том, в каких случаях назначается экспертиза текста и как устанавливается авторство

Как невербальные средства общения взаимодействуют с языком, какие функции выполняют жесты и чем различаются коммуникативные системы людей и животных

Екатерина Рахилинадоктор филологических наук, профессор, руководитель направления «Фундаментальная и прикладная лингвистика» факультета гуманитарных наук Высшей школы экономики, ведущий научный сотрудник Отдела лингвистического источниковедения ИРЯ РАН, член Экспертного совета ВАК РФ по филологии и искусствоведению

Что делает фантастику такой увлекательной, как устроены воображаемые миры Толкина и Роулинг и как создавались квенья и синдарин

Лингвист Борис Орехов о том, как установить авторство художественного текста, при чем здесь язык программирования и о загадке «Тихого Дона»

Лингвист Александр Пиперски о том, почему изменяются слова в речи из-за схожести звуков и как на это влияют физиологические особенности говорящего

Что читать о взаимоотношении звуков в языках мира, чередовании звуков и превращении глубинных структур мозга в произносимые цепочки звуков, рекомендует лингвист Александр Пиперски

И в самом деле, по словам Александра Маркова, некоторые лингвисты уже назвали выводы «бредом».

Значительная часть лингвистов вообще считает проблему языка ранних Homo sapiens ненаучной и не считает возможной реконструкцию языков дальше бронзового века.

1) показывает, что для Нового света данные языковых различий по «присваивающим» и по «производящим» хозяйствам отличаются незначительно.

Безусловно, серьезную практическую проблему составляет то, что для подавляющего большинства языков мира прошлые состояния неизвестны (на глубину более 200 лет).

Таким образом, полученные авторами данные являются умеренным аргументом в пользу того, что для предкового состояния человеческих языков (ранее эпохи…

В 1985 году американский лингвист Чарльз Хоккет (Charles F. Hockett) обратил внимание на почти полное отсутствие губно-зубных (лабиодентальных) согласных, таких как ф и в, в языках охотников-собирателей.

В большинстве современных человеческих популяций, питающихся в основном мягкой пищей, такое состояние («ортогнатический прикус») сохраняется и у взрослых людей.

Авторы перепробовали много разных статистических методов, моделей и поправок (включая «филогенетические» поправки на родство языков и «географические» на пространственную близость).

Своих исконных губно-зубных согласных в койсанских языках, по-видимому, не было, хотя в целом для этих языков характерно большое разнообразие согласных …

Вся эта информация была переработана в ходе колоссального статистического анализа, что позволило откартировать отображение значений слов в коре больших полушарий.

Самое важное, что семантические группы (группы слов с похожими значениями) оказались единообразно представлены у всех участников эксперимента.

В ней излагались результаты томографического исследования мозга испытуемых, которым читали слова с сильно различающимися или похожими значениями.

В журнале Nature обнародованы результаты команды специалистов из Калифорнийского университета в Беркли, которым удалось создать уже целый семантический атлас коры человеческого мозга.

Точнее, конечно, не участок, а участки, так как каждой семантич…

Самый важный вывод, к которому независимо пришли оба исследовательских коллектива, состоит в том, что в бронзовом веке происходили крупные миграции, которые во многом определили состав генофондов современных западноевразийских народов.

Это значит, что в бронзовом веке действительно произошла крупномасштабная миграция причерноморских степняков в Центральную Европу.

Новые данные пролили свет и на происхождение важнейших восточных культур бронзового века — синташтинской, андроновской и афанасьевской (рис.

Ранее было показано, что в генофонде современных европейцев присутствует «древний североазиатский компонент» (см.

В норме млекопитающие пьют молоко только в детстве, а у взрослых особей ферме…

Два первых метода связаны с анализом использования слов с различной эмоциональной нагрузкой — позитивной или негативной, а третий — с изучением искренности улыбок консерваторов или либералов.

Ученые отметили, что в большинстве прежних исследований был установлен более высокий уровень удовлетворенности жизнью для консерваторов по сравнению с либералами.

Чтобы выяснить, насколько склонны к самообману или переоценке собственного состояния консерваторы и либералы, ученые воспользовались специальным сайтом, предназначенным для различных психологических изысканий.

Например, если человек чувствует себя счастливым, то это должно проявляться в его мимике и в его речи.

Выборки и в том и в другом случ…

Слоги в этом ряду отличаются не только по частоте, с которой они встречаются, но и по легкости распознавания.

Почему существуют такие универсальные иерархии сочетаний звуков по их предпочтительности?

Но слоги могут реже встречаться в языке не только потому, что их сложнее произносить, но и потому, что их сложнее распознавать.

То же было верно для других рядов слогов (не встречающихся в английском), составленных так, что за губным согласным всегда следовал переднеязычный.

Получается, что существование универсальных рядов слогов с разной предпочтительностью объясняется не только различиями в сложности их произношения и в активности соответствующих областей мозга.

Эти вопросы решали, объединившись, специалисты из Института психологии РАН К. Р. Арутюнова, Ю. И. Александров и В. В. Знаков и Гарвардского университета (США) Марк Хаузер (Marc D. Hauser).

Авторы исследования решили сравнить, отличаются ли нравственные оценки русскоязычных опрошенных от их англоговорящих предшественников, и если да, то по каким параметрам.

Он еще жив, и, если останется неподвижным, то его могут безопасно эвакуировать медики.

Если Ваня не потянет за рычаг, вагон поедет дальше, собьет пять человек, а один человек на мосту останется в живых.

Во-вторых, они, если и были категоричны, то скорее запрещали (оценка “Forbidden”), чем требовали (оценка “Obligatory”); рис.

Эксперименты показали, что обезьяны способны отличать новые слова от неслов на основании приобретенного опыта.

Каждая 100‑разовая сессия состояла из 25 предъявлений нового слова для обучения, 25 предъявлений ранее выученных слов и 50 неслов.

Обезьяны отвечали, касаясь разных фигур на сенсорном экране — креста в случае слова и овала в случае неслова (рис.

Это само по себе можно считать примечательным результатом, учитывая степень сходства слов и неслов.

Результаты оказались еще более удивительными, когда авторы посчитали связь между точностью определения неслов и их орфографическим сходством со словами, которые обезьяны уже выучили (рис.

На основе этих данных ученые заключили, что именно мужчины играют ведущую роль в распространении и смене языков на новой территории.

Вариабельность Y-хромосомы увязывается с языком, а не с географическим расположением носителей языка (коэффициент корреляции 0,33 против –0,08).

Коэффициент корреляции мтДНК одинаков и в том и в другом случае — и в обоих случаях он низкий.

В патрилокальных обществах женщины приходят в семью мужчины, перенимают обычаи семьи и вместе с ними и язык.

Это означает, что и в этом случае в распространении и видоизменении языков основную роль играет мужская часть населения.

: Найдено новое подтверждение раннего выхода сапиенсов из Африки «южным путем», «Элементы», 02.02.2011), сопровождалось множеством «бутылочных горлышек численности».

: Расселяясь из Африки, наши предки теряли гены и становились более похожими, «Элементы», 09.08.2007).

Генофонд внеафриканского человечества, помимо генов вышедших из Африки сапиенсов, содержит небольшую примесь генов неандертальцев и других древних обитателей Евразии (см.

Среднее фонетическое разнообразие языков (и языковых семей) достоверно снижается по мере удаления от Африки — и только от нее.

также:1) Расселяясь из Африки, наши предки теряли гены и становились более похожими, «Элементы», 09.08.2007.

В сильной форме эта гипотеза гласит, что язык мог возникнуть и приобрести свои основные свойства уже в отсутствие биологической эволюции.

Они моделируют процесс превращения гипотетического протоязыка в язык современного типа, обладающий привычными нам свойствами.

Особенно хорошо это видно в случае итеративного обучения: чем больше номер поколения, тем меньше разница между языком на входе и на выходе.

Важнейшее свойство, которое приобретает язык в ходе эволюции и которое и делает его изучение более простым, — это регулярность.

Тем не менее обнаруженные эффекты указывают на то, что это вполне может быть так и что, увеличив количество испытуемых, можно надеяться получить более ясный ответ.

Стандартные мелодические контуры в этих языках устроены именно так: во французском высота тона к концу интонационной единицы поднимается, в немецком — падает.

Сегментными фонетическими свойствами называются свойства отдельных звуков речи, а просодическими (или супрасегментными) — такие свойства, которые имеются только у более крупных единиц (слогов, слов, целых высказываний), а к отдельным звукам неприменимы.

От высоты тона (и, следовательно, от частоты) зависит и такой сложный параметр, как интонация.

У частоты основного тона и интенсивности есть не только перцептивные, но и артикуляционные корреляты: параметры, описывающие процесс порождения звука.

По мнению авторов, данное исследование п…

22 ноября в Москве состоится юбилейная, XL Традиционная олимпиада по лингвистике для школьников 8–11 классов, открытая для всех желающих.

Первая традиционная олимпиада по языковедению и математике, на которой школьники получили возможность попробовать свои силы в решении таких задач, прошла в Москве в 1965 году.

Можно классифицировать их и на другом основании и выделить слова с увеличительным и уменьшительным значением, а также нейтральные слова.

Сделать это нетрудно, и в результате мы получаем ответ:m- — нейтральное, ji- — увеличительное, ki- — уменьшительное значение; -buzi — коза, -geni — гость, -to — река, -tu — человек.

Но, конечно, самые свежие задачи ожидают тех, кто 22 ноября придет…

Американо-германская группа когнитивистов показала, что грамматики, построенные на использовании конкретного лексического материала, лучше моделируют детскую речь, чем полностью абстрактные грамматики.

Эти грамматики похожи на нашу КСГ-1: слова в них содержатся только в словаре, и в правилах порождения не фигурируют.

Что касается различий между детьми, то видно, что грамматики Брайана хуже справляются с данными Анни, чем грамматики Анни, а грамматики Анни хуже справляются с данными Брайана, чем грамматики Брайана.

В более ранних работах Томазелло доказывал, что в 23 месяца дети уже владеют категорией существительного, а в 25 еще не владеют категорией глагола.

Эти результаты в целом соответс…

Человеческие языки содержат гораздо больше слов, чем необходимо для полноценного общения.

Эксперименты, проведенные специалистами по эволюционной психологии, показали, что мужчины при виде красивых девушек начинают чаще использовать редкие слова.

Специальные исследования показали, что для полноценного понимания художественной литературы нужно знать 9000 слов, а для поддержания практически любой беседы достаточно 6000–7000 слов (Nation I.S.P.

Между тем среднестатистический образованный англичанин свободно владеет 20 000 слов, и совсем не редки люди со словарным запасом в 100 000 и более слов.

Для каждого сочинения была подсчитана средняя частота встречаемости использованных в нём слов (чем м…

Среди всех языков мира самым популярным и широко распространённым является английский — именно по этой причине желающих записаться на языковые курсы по этому языку больше всего.

Но чтобы изучить английский, вовсе не обязательно тратиться на дорогие языковые школы и репетиторов — иногда достаточно обзавестись парой хороших обучающих книг.

Регулярные практики аудирования и устной речиСамым эффективным в изучении английского языка можно назвать комплексный подход, сочетающий в себе теорию и практику в правильных сбалансированных пропорциях.

Можно использовать для этого как англоязычные не дублированные фильмы и музыку, так и специальные обучающие материалы.

Устную речь можно оттачивать не толь…

Регистрация на фестиваль языков в Санкт-Петербурге будет открыта до 9:00 утра (и потом закроется навсегда).

В программу добавились польский и японский язык, изменений уже не должно быть.

В субботу будет опубликована программа с местом и точным временем проведения каждого события фестиваля.

Подробнее о формате и истории фестиваля можно, например, тут почитать.

В Москве такой фестиваль будет 1 декабря, мы расскажем.

В Северной Осетии в конце лета пройдут месячные курсы переподготовки для госслужащих.

Учащиеся будут повышать уровень владения осетинским языком.

Особое внимание будет уделено деловому языку, — об этом рассказал заместитель министра по вопросам национальных отношений Алан Багиев.

Такие курсы уже проходили в прошлом году, но по сравнению с прошлым годом кратно увеличился охват — с 20 до 50 человек.

На курсы привлекут работников местных администраций, министерств и ведомств, уже владеющих осетинским языком, но «на бытовом уровне».

5 июня в Европейском университете Санкт-Петербурга состоится семинар „Низовые практики сохранения титульного языка в Карелии“.

Речь в докладе пойдет о языковой ситуации и местных инициативах по сохранению титульного языка в Пряжинском национальном районе республики Карелия.

В этом районе в последние годы широко развивается „низовой активизм“: жители объединяются в НКО и решают разнообразные проблемы местного уровня, от благоустройства до сохранения языка и культуры.

Поскольку вопрос сохранения языка всегда так или иначе упирается в желание (или нежелание) носителей общаться на нем и передавать его следующим поколениям, активность именно местных жителей, а не местной или региональной власти,…

Согласно договору, беглецы будут возвращены на свою Родину, (таким образом это и старейший договор об экстрадиции).

Таким образом опытные юристы пытаются предусмотреть все подводные камни и, в случае возникновения спорных моментов, иметь хорошую доказательную базу.

Самое старое изображение сексаЕсть известный комментарий о человеческой сексуальности, что «каждое поколение думает, что это они изобрели секс».

Это массовое заблуждение, возможно, возникает, чтобы избежать травмы и не думать о своих родителях или бабушках и дедушках, занимающихся этим.

Кажется, за последние несколько тысяч лет качество наших признаний в любви пошло не в том направлении.

Сколько мегабайт занимает язык в мозгу?

Например, на все фонемы английского языка у авторов работы ушло 750 бит (по 15 на фонему).

При оценке объёма под хранение лексики учитывался запас в 40 тысяч слов, причём помимо значений этих слов (12 млн бит) заложена информация о частотности (80 тыс.

Меньше всего информации занял в оценке учёных из Рочестера синтаксис — всего 700 бит (что, видимо, объясняется аналитизмом английской грамматики).

Ознакомиться с работой в оригинале можно по ссылке:Humans store about 1.5 megabytes of information during language acquisition (2019).

Председатель комитета Госдумы по делам национальностей Ильдар Гильмутдинов считает, что государство тоже ответственно за сохранение разнообразия языков:Эффективность работы по сохранению родных языков зависит от роли и участия государства, общества в целом и каждой семьи в отдельности.

А это значит, поддержка родных языков должна осуществляться в образовательной, научной, общекультурной, информационной сферах.

У нас в настоящее время нет специальности по подготовке воспитателей детских садов, которые работают с двуязычным ребенком.

Ни в одном субъекте мы не наберем семи докторов по данной специальности.

Надо понимать, что не будет таких специалистов — не будут и развиваться языки.

У берегов Шотландии обнаружили дельфина, который «выучил язык» морских свиней (чем-то похожие на дельфинов китообразные, однако не дельфины).

Дельфин отбился от своих и в конечном итоге сдружился с местной группой морских свиней.

Чтобы общаться с ними, он изменяет характер и высоту своих сигналов (а у тех, в свою очередь, изменений в звуковом репертуаре не отмечено).

Китообразные и раньше были замечены в изменении «речи» под проживающие с ними виды (например, косатки подстраивались под дельфинов), но эти случаи происходили в неволе при смешанном содержании.

Шотландский случай считается первым зарегистрированным «на воле» — учёные ожидают новых записей, чтобы подробнее исследовать происходящ…

Госдума на заседании в среду приняла в третьем, окончательном чтении законопроект о родных языках.

В школах, программа которых включает предмет «Родной язык», его изучение остается обязательным, при этом можно будет выбрать конкретный язык, в том числе русский как родной, — сообщает ТАСС.

По сути это означает отмену обязательного преподавания государственных языков республик там, где это практиковалось.

В документе прописано, что федеральные образовательные стандарты обеспечивают «возможность получения образования на родных языках из числа языков народов РФ, изучения государственных языков республик РФ, родных языков из числа языков народов РФ, в том числе русского языка как родного языка».…

Правительство Мозамбика реформирует начальное образование в стране, переводя его с португальского на местные языки.

Дети лучше учатся, когда в школе им объясняют материал и разрешают отвечать на привычном языке бытового общения.

Билингвальная система преподавания предполагает постепенный переход на португальский, на котором дальше ведётся преподавание вплоть до окончания учёбы.

Оставшийся в наследие от колониальной империи португальский язык сохраняет свой статус государственного и объединяющего языка в Мозамбике.

В сюжете Африканьюс можно посмотреть репортаж из сельской школы, где младшие школьники уже занимаются на языке тсонга (он же шангаан и шангана) — fr.africanews.com/2018/07/18/au-m…

Возможно, впервые в нормальном русском переводе грамматика знаменитого лингвопроекта сольресоль доступна в нашем сообществе ВК.

В проекте сольресоль вместо набора фонем всего семь знаков, в роли которых могут выступать в том числе ноты (и тогда фразы на языке можно играть на инструментах, петь или насвистывать).

Это заметная веха в истории лингвоконструирования, без её упоминания не обходится ни одна книга по теме.

Информация по сольресолю есть и у Свадоста (Как возникнет всеобщий язык, 1968), и у Пиперски (Конструирование языков.

От эсперанто до дотракийского, 2017).

Во Владикавказе вышел первый номер глянца на осетинском языке.

Новый журнал „Нырыккон Дзæуджыхъæу“ (Современный Владикавказ) готовит редакция МВ (Модного Владикавказа), журнала, давно известного в республике.

„Пусть пока блок на осетинском языке не такой большой, как на русском.

В начале зимы [частично] на осетинском языке начал вещать новый телеканал „Осетия-Ирыстон“ (доступный в местных кабельных сетях, в интернете и по спутнику).

Появление нового современного контента на языках, отнесённых к „уязвимым“, — несомненно хорошая новость.

При освещении выборов алгоритмы позволяют сводить вместе множество данных и эффективно выявлять отклонения и нарушения на отдельных участках.

СШААвтоматические алгоритмы освещения новостей о выборах впервые применили в издании Washington Post во время президентской кампании 2016 года.

Пример сгенерированной статьи на сайте Washington PostЛюбой желающий может посмотреть информацию о том, как проходит праймериз на выборах в США в его избирательном округе.

[2]ВеликобританияВВС использовало автоматизированную журналистику для освещения выборов в парламент в 2019 году.

Сразу после появления результатов выборов с помощью автоматизации было написано 649 статей на английском и 40 на валлийском язык…

Сегодня Фейсбук, Вконтакте, Твиттер, Инстаграм не просто площадки для размещения фото, но и публичная арена для дискуссий, выражения и формирования мнений.

Один клик — и ты активистПо мнению сторонника кибероптимизма Клэя Ширки, интернет значительно упростил организацию протестов и повысил уровень политического участия населения.

Информация о предстоящих митингах теперь доступна каждому, кто есть в сети.

Как пишет Ширки, социальные сети не только позволяют обычному обывателю мгновенно стать частью оппозиционного движения, но и могут удержать власть от прямого насилия.

Фото, видео, прямые трансляции с митингов доступны не только с экрана телевизора и на сайтах СМИ, но и в личных аккаунтах гр…

При этом он выделил 8 основных цветов и 55 дополнительных оттенков.

Эту идею систематизации было логично применить и для художественных целей и по аналогии с каталогом минералов создать каталог цветов.

Тем не менее каталог Вернера по-прежнему представляет интерес и как объект изучения историков, и как полезный справочник для художников.

Новая жизнь каталогаНиколас Руже — веб-дизайнер, который специализируется на художественной обработке данных и их представлении в необычном и красивом виде.

Схема смешивания цветов каталога ВернераПосмотреть итоговую версию каталога, потыкать по разным цветам и осознать цветовое многообразие природы можно здесь.

Работы Роде теперь можно посмотреть, не вставая с диванаЖивший в 15 веке немецкий художник Герман Роде наверняка бы удивился узнав, что его работы можно увидеть через небольшой экран телефона.

Николая и св.

Реальные алтари находятся в разных странах, но теперь не обязательно ехать в Германию или Эстонию, чтобы их увидеть.

Николая в ТаллинеО самом Роде мало что известно, однако его работы определенно можно назвать достоянием мировой культуры.

Рассмотреть алтари ближе можно кликнув по ссылке «Что на картине?» или «Что в картине?».

Соавтор исследования Джозеф Макин заявил The Guardian, что в будущем это может стать основой для речевого протеза.

Добровольцам дали 50 предложений, в которых использовалось только 250 слов.

Искусственный интеллект постоянно демонстрирует свой потенциалЭксперт Кристиан Херфф заявил, что новый алгоритм имеет «уровень точности, который ранее был недоступен».

Исследование пока ограничено из-за небольшого количества обрабатываемых предложений и слов и других особенностей.

Они ожидают, что в будущем система будет способна переводить активность мозга в текст.

В 1990 году, спустя сто лет после смерти художника, музей Ван Гога в Голландии представил новое собрание писем.

Музей Ван Гога в Амстердаме в окружении подсолнуховПервые шесть месяцев исследователи обрабатывали источники и вспомогательную литературу и разрабатывали сам проект.

В 2004 году руководящий комитет решил опубликовать издание писем Ван Гога в электронном виде.

Изображения проецировались не только на стены, но и на пол и на экраны.

Живое знакомство с творчеством Ван ГогаПосетители музея Ван Гога в Амстердаме получают ещё один способ знакомства с творчеством художника.

Все это еще не значит, что нейросети умнее нас.

Так что вполне возможно, что с дальнейшим ростом доступных вычислительных мощностей и объемов разнообразных данных алгоритмы смогут справиться и с мгновенным опознанием ромашки…Роботы отберут у меня работу?

Самый простой пример — чат-боты банков или нейросети, пишущие простые новостные заметки, экономические сводки, прогнозы погоды (о роботах-журналистах можно подробнее почитать в статье «Системного Блока»).

Обучать всему этому нейросеть не только почти невозможно, но и не нужно — такие материалы читают ради авторского видения.

И не только потому, что пока это самое коммерчески успешное использование визуального искусства нейросетей (если, кон…

Мы уже упоминали о Project Gutenberg в нашем материале «Вся классика в один клик».

Project Gutenberg — это собрание из более 60 000 бесплатных электронных книг с пополнением примерно на 340 единиц ежемесячно.

Файл скачало 6 человек, и Project Gutenberg «родился».

С 2003 года с Project Gutenberg связаны публичная библиотека iBiblio с веб-страницами и Консорциумный центр (PGCC).

Компакт-диск «Best of Gutenberg» от августа 2003 года содержал более 600 книг, а в декабре вышел первый DVD «Project Gutenberg» с 9,4 тыс.

Объяснять процесс развития литературы с помощью околобиологических и естественнонаучных концепций предложила еще русская формальная школа, однако, ее объяснение эволюции литературы может показаться странным для сторонников классической дарвиновской теории эволюции.

Но места всем не хватит — кому-то придется покинуть центр и уйти на обочину, на периферию.

Моретти сравнивает процесс эволюции литературы с бойней, где мясниками оказываются «сами читатели, которые читают роман, А, (но не В, С, D, E, F, G, H…) и так поддерживают жизнь, А в следующем поколении».

По мнению Моретти, именно читатели, а не ученые, канонизируют те или иные тексты.

Другие становятся более тонкими — это рассказы с присут…

Луч света в царстве фейковМетод обнаружения фейков, который выявили ученые, заключается в вычислении разнородности тем с помощью подхода «микро-кластеризации».

В данном случае в микрокластеры объединяются ключевые слова из твитов о взрыве на нефтехимическом комплексе.

Объясняют это тем, что люди, которые пишут правдивые твиты, могут менять свое мнение и содержание постов, получив новую информацию.

Рисунок 4: Смена тем в обсуждении «Cosmo Oil»На рисунке 4 показано развитие обсуждения «Cosmo Oil».

Рисунок 4 © показывает период «поправки», когда правительство опровергло дезинформацию и это повлияло на распространение слухов.

Ввоз африканских рабов в США был официально запрещен в 1807, но, несмотря на это, вплоть до второй половины XIX века в южные Штаты продолжалась поставка рабов из Африки.

Штат Техас, получивший независимость от Мексики в 1836 и вошедший в состав США в 1845 году, также не торопился отказываться от дешевого рабского труда.

В нем содержатся данные о численности населения (рабов и рабовладельцев) в каждом округе штата Техас и дошедшие до наших дней налоговые декларации.

Сравнение населения рабов и рабовладельцевГрафик сравнения населения рабов и рабовладельцев между 1873 и 1845 годами.

Сравнение рабовладельцев по количеству удерживаемых рабовГрафик сравнения рабовладельцев по количеству по удерж…

Главная страница сайта«Весь Толстой в один клик»«Первопроходцами в переводе писателя в электронный формат стали инициаторы проекта «Весь Толстой в один клик».

Произведения Толстого были опубликованы в виде PDF с текстовым слоем и в форматы.fb2, .mobi и html и ePub.

Затем в ресурс добавили книги из личной библиотеки писателя, письма и дневники членов его семьи и корреспондентов и работы исследователей.

Проект реализовали на на платформе Izi.travel.

Прочитать подробно о творчестве и жизни Толстого и проектах о нем можно тут.

Система анализирует активность с помощью почты и запросов в браузере и высылает уведомления в случае долгого бездействия пользователя.

Дополнительно можно собрать памятный плейлист, подборку любимых фильмов или даже записать рассказы из жизни для близких людей.

Приложение LivesOn должно было анализировать построение предложений, часто повторяющиеся слова, фразы и темы, которые человек использует в Twitter, и на основе этого комбинировать новые сообщения.

Но сервис так и не запустили.

Интернет сделал их более доступными и быстрыми — с помощью лент событий из жизни и самих аккаунтов.

Появились такие структуры, как нейронные сети со скрытым слоем и с условными обозначениями, CNN и глубокое обучение (deep learning).

При этом учитываются перемещение, масштаб и вращение в плоскости и в глубину.

В первом подходе для каждого обнаружения запускается оценка позы и несколько проверок для определения человека в пространстве.

Использование полей сходства деталей (с) как один из этаповЧтобы собрать позу, нужна «мера доверия», под чем подразумевается ассоциация частей тела с друг другом и с объектом.

Объединение оцениваний позы в 2D и 3DТрёхмерную модель можно создать как с некалиброванной, так и с калиброванной 2D камерой.

И он не отрывался от книги.

Огонь полыхал весь вечер, языки пламени разрывали ночное небо» В. В. Дрибущак.

Он мягко и ласково усмехнулся — ведь и он не искал этой встречи, это моя судьба сильно играла мной на шахматной доске Лужина.

Таким образом, надо было торопиться, и в конце концов мы обосновались в Мануар-де-Бан, в селении Корсье, чуть выше Веве.

Та предлагала поэту помирить его с женой и тем уладить скандал, но примирение так и не состоялось.

Первое полное их собрание вышло в 1962 году, позднее многие из них были переведены на русский язык и не раз переиздавались.

В феврале 1896 года Констанс специально приехала из Италии и отправилась в тюрьму, чтобы сообщить мужу о смерти матери.

Думаю, я скорее уж умер бы за то, во что я не верю, чем за то, что считаю истиной.

Предположительно, апрель 1891 годаПровозглашая, согласно канонам эстетизма, бесполезность искусства, Уайльд при этом привнес немало искусства и в обстановку своего дома на Тайт-стрит, откуда было отправлено это письмо, и в свою одежду и внешность.

28 февраля 1895 годаКарикатура на Оскара Уайльда и Альфреда Дугласа «Мечты о декадансе на Черуэлле».

Игра: зашифруйте послание и отправьте другуДневник пациента сумасшедшего дома, старшеклассника, жившего в сталинскую эпоху, и школьника из 1970-х — выберите один из трех шифров и напишите письмоПодготовили Соня Ступенькова, Михаил МельниченкоИдея Сергей БурухинБольшинство дневников хранятся в секрете и не рассчитаны на читателей.

В конце октября обычные записи сменяются зашифро­ванными: Николаев переходит на азбуку Морзе и до середины ноября ведет дневник на морзянке.

Страница из дневника Ивана Николаева© Прожито Закрыть Олег Черневский Школьник, 16 летВ 1937 году Олег Черневский жил в Москве, в Потаповском переулке, и учился в девятом классе.

16 ноября по обвинению в участии в военном заго…

История, Искусство9 эротических фресок из ПомпейОгромные фаллосы, секс во время пикника, эротические сцены на стенах борделя.

Эротическими сценами украшали либо публичные дома (хотя они встречаются и в одной из помпейских бань), либо приватные комнаты дома, где бывали только хозяева.

Сатиры, божества леса, изображались как с хвостами и копы­тами, так и в виде обыкновенных юношей, одетых в козлиные шкуры.

1–50 годы нашей эры Museo Archeologico Nazionale di NapoliСатиры часто становились героями эротических сюжетов.

Эта написанная незадолго до гибели Помпей картина располагалась прямо возле дверей в дом братьев Веттиев.

Радио ArzamasЭдуард Мане и «Завтрак на траве» на «Салоне отверженных» Эдуард Мане и «Завтрак на траве» на «Салоне отверженных»В новом выпуске подкаста «Зачем я это увидел?» обсуждаем, кто придумал сделать выставку «плохих» картин — и как на ней оказался Мане

ИскусствоЧтение на 15 минут: «Дневники Ивана Ювачева»В издательстве «Галеев-Галерея» выходит девятый том дневниковых записей отца Даниила Хармса — Ивана Павловича Ювачева.

Фотоателье А. А. Оцупа.

И. Хармс», и в пятнах разных цветов.

<…>Сегодня же гадкий сон: я на спине лежу, на мне спиною Пелагея Прежняя помощница по дому., и я стал руками трогать ее половую особенность.

Вчера Эстер сказала ей страшную дерзость, и, несмотря на это, Эстер и Лиза долго ночью навзрыд хохотали и не давали спать.

ИскусствоИнгмар Бергман: как начать смотреть его фильмыПочему фильмы Бергмана неправильно называть депрессивными?

Как и должно быть в драме, обе стороны в чем-то правы и в чем-то вино­ваты.

Микеланджело Антониони: как начать смотреть его фильмы Почему фильмы Антониони кажутся такими сложными и можно ли их понять?

8 июня 2008 года..Андрей ТарковскийАндрей Тарковский: как начать смотреть его фильмы Почему Андрея Тарковского называют и самым перехваленным, и самым недооцененным русским режиссером?

Бергман, с его способ­ностью к вопросам и ожиданию ответа, с его как бы „хождением под Богом“ всегда, представлялся мне художником глубоко религиозным.

Существует и третья история авторства, но в этом случае речь идет не о тексте, а о замысле.

Но ее, кроме наших, никто не знает, что мне, о ней написать, что ли?“ И тут меня осенило.

Что в тюрьме сидел, то все забудешь,Быстро схватишь карты в руки,Полчаса — не носишь брюки,Если не везет, что делать будешь?

Смысл в том, что не азарт губит бродягу и не стрем­ление проиграть последнее, а невезуха и попадалово».

Контекст скуп и работает главным образом на анту­раж, а не на сюжет, не уточняет ситуацию, а, наобо­рот, размывает фокус.

ИскусствоКинотеатр Arzamas: «Москва слезам не верит»Первый выпуск второго сезона передачи «Кинотеатр Arzamas» на телеканале ТВ-3 посвящен одному из самых известных советских фильмов.

Главный редактор Arzamas Филипп Дзядко и журналист Роман Супер обсуждают, как «Москва слезам не верит» изменила реальность.

Все выпуски можно посмотреть здесь

История, Искусство7 домов-коммунУдивительные архитектурные опыты начала 1930-х годов: дом-башня в Смоленске, круглый дом в Таганроге, город-сад в Иванове, дом Наркомфина в Москве.

2015 год © Николай Васильев / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 13 / 16 Рабочий поселок Шатурской ГРЭС.

2015 год © Николай Васильев / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 14 / 16 Рабочий поселок Шатурской ГРЭС.

2015 год © Николай Васильев / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 15 / 16 Рабочий поселок Шатурской ГРЭС.

2015 год © Николай Васильев / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0Шатурская электростанция — одна из первых реализованных по плану ГОЭЛРО Государственная комиссия по электрифи­кации России.

Колокола оттуда привозили не только в другие католические земли, но и в Россию.. Почти 500 лет они принадлежали местным сестрам-августинкам и стояли в их монас­тыре-госпитале, посвященном Деве Марии (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe Gasthuis).

В тот момент она правила в Священной Римской импе­рии, а в 1516 году приобрела престол Испании и ее колонии в Новом Свете.

В 1572 году он был взят и разорен испанцами, в 1580 го­ду им овладели кальвинисты, а в 1585-м — снова испанцы.

Около 1580–1582 годов Разорение Мехелена, который тогда был под контролем прокатолической партии, кальвинистами из Брюсселя и их союзниками-англичанами.

Их чаще всего отлива­ли из олова и свинца, то есть доступ­ных и дешевых материалов,…

Искусство12 цитат из автобиографии Игоря СтравинскогоСкандалы и кражи, сосиски и папиросы, апология порядка и музыка, которая ничего не выражает.

Вещь эта произвела сильное впечатление как на публику, так и на меня самого.

Таким образом, болезнь проложила символическую границу между русской весной Стравин­ского и его европейским летом.

На что Малларме кротко отвечал: „Идеи — не то, из чего делают сонеты, их делают из слов“».

Я проснулся с уверенностью, что мой интервал был правильным» Стравинский И. Ф. Из диалогов с Р. Крафтом // Музыка и современность.

Общественное мнение в значительной мере регулирует поведение человека, и в повседневной жизни турки добрую половину вещей делают из соображений айип.

Поэтому мужчина всегда должен быть начеку и в случае, если его репутация под угрозой, немедленно проявить агрессию.

Примеча­тельно, что среди сокамерников герой фильма пользуется безусловным уваже­нием: никто и не думает осуждать его, наоборот, все стараются подбодрить и утешить.

SaygıУважение, почтение, почитаниеТурецкая традиция целования руки FineArtAmerica.comСайгы призвано регулировать соотношение авторитетов в обществе и в семье.

Фаталистическое inşallah оправдывает и халатность, и небрежность, и необязательность.

Как вести дневник: 10 советовНе переживайте из-за ошибок, пишите когда хочется, шифруйте тайны, носите с собой блокнот — и другие ценные рекомендацииАвтор Илья Венявкин1.

Чтобы вести дневник, не нужно обладать ни литературным талантом, ни любовью к подробным описаниям или интроспекции — даже отрывочные записи могут представлять ценность.

В это время многие авторы замечают, что интересным собеседником, заслуживающим доверия, может быть не только друг по переписке, но и дневник.

По сути это архив ваших впечатлений, в который вы, как в гербарий, вклеиваете все, что не хотите забыть.

Плейлист для вечеринок футбольных фанатов и не только Песни, которые слушают и поют фанаты «Зенита», дальнобойщи…

Merriam-Webster has weighed in on the debate over the word “irregardless”, confirming that it is a proper, dictionary-verified word.

Caitlin Curran, production editor“Is irregardless even a word?” is a question many have asked and yet somehow there is still disagreement.

But clearly anyone who uses the word irregardless is an idiot.

Poppy Noor, features writerIrregardless of what Merriam-Webster says, I am wondering, what could the word irregardless possibly convey that the word regardless does not?

Having said all of that, I just can’t abide the word irregardless, I’m sorry.

Senior politicians in Scotland’s Gaelic-speaking areas have called for the language to be given much greater priority in civil and public life to stop it dying out.

Kate Forbes, the Scottish justice secretary, and Alasdair Allan, a former minister, said Gaelic had to be given precedence or parity in all areas of public life and the economy across Gaelic areas of the Highlands and islands.

These are mainly elderly Gaels living in the Western Isles.

Gaelic revival campaigners said Western Isles council had become much more active in protecting the language.

However, its Gaelic committee, formed in February to lead on that work, had not yet met due to the coronavirus outbreak.

If this plan had serious intentions, it would also insist that the only academic qualifications acceptable as university entrance qualifications were A-levels, the exams described by Ofqual as “national qualifications based on content set by the government”.

What was the point of reforming A-levels and ensuring a high level of regulation if private schools are able to avoid them, and get their pupils into university via different means?

More lightly regulated exams such as Cambridge Assessment’s Pre-U have a higher proportion of A*/A grades than A-levels, and are mostly set and marked by private-sector teachers.

Bernie EvansLiverpool• Debate about university admissions timing is perennial; …

Phrase-books in English and German have been issued by the German Army to their troops in anticipation of their entry into Great Britain.

The books contain questions which German troops would be likely to put to English citizens if they succeeded in achieving their desire to overrun the country.

Throughout there is a warning that if you fail to tell their soldiers the truth you will be shot.

A whole section is devoted to questions which are intended to enable the German troops to find their way about the country.

The booklet is similar to those which Germany has produced in the Czech, Polish, and Russian languages.

Alhallak teaches Arabic for NaTakallam, a language service that offers people the chance to learn Arabic, Spanish, Persian and French.

What is unique is that all languages are taught by refugees.

The service also circumvents restrictions on work for refugees and asylum seekers in their new countries of residence, which means they can earn money.

“Refugees need access to an income, but with no work permit they’re often stuck in limbo.

Through their classes, Alhallak and Waugh, who briefly met in Beirut before he left for Italy, have become friends.

“Students will not pick up a natural fluency staying in the UK – the most anti-learning-a-language country there is,” he says.

“A lot of us chose to study a language because of the year abroad.”Forget freshers' week: universities prepare to teach new first years online Read moreThe third year spent overseas doing courses or working is famously the time when language students become fluent.

He spent the beginning of the year bringing back around 200 students from abroad, some from areas such as China and northern Italy.

Partner universities abroad are offering online courses, and some work placements are going ahead online, where employees may be working from home.

The university has also ca…

Sources told the Guardian that most universities are planning for new students from China to delay entry until January next year, with online teaching offered.

Exams, including English language tests required for visas and university admissions, have been cancelled in China, where 80,000 people have caught coronavirus.

British universities increasingly rely on revenue from international tuition fees, with students from China providing the vast majority of growth.

British universities already face uncertainty over links with the EU after Brexit, including continued membership of the mammoth Horizon Europe science funding programme and the Erasmus+ student exchange programme.

Higson said the …

Albert Costa (a Catalan-Spanish bilingual) died in 2018, and this book is a great testimony to his lifetime of research into the subject.

Costa quotes Goethe’s famous line that “he who does not know foreign languages knows nothing about his own”.

But the advantages aren’t only cultural breadth or depth, but also better decision-making: we’re less instinctive and kneejerk in a foreign language, more able to be utilitarian and cold-headed.

But he leaves you in little doubt that the brain of bilinguals is, in tiny but important ways, provably different.

• The Bilingual Brain: And What it Tells Us About the Science of Language by Albert Costa, translated by John W Schwieter, is published by All…

I was therefore extremely disappointed to see her speaking of “how hard and existentially pointless it is to run on the spot.

All that energy spent, no distance covered: it’s like eating cottage cheese or learning Welsh” (Retro and noisy: Canada’s Air Force fitness drills are a 60s tonic, Weekend, 1 February).

Learning Welsh is a challenge, but it most certainly is not existentially pointless.

I give thanks to dedicated Welsh language tutors and to those in communities throughout Wales who have supported me on this decades-long journey.

This stands in contrast to Zoe Williams’ attitude in citing Welsh language learning in a discussion of “existentially pointless” tasks.

It’s the description of Twi – the Akan language spoken by my family – as “the vernacular”, a term which implicitly compares it with the colonial language, English, and somehow finds it wanting.

It’s a term more befitting of a regional dialect than a nation’s language, with its own history, politics and literature.

Nigerian pre-eminence in the English language is nothing new.

But Nigeria’s relationship to the English language, like that of all English-speaking African nations, is a complicated one.

As the great African-American writer James Baldwin once wrote, “my quarrel with the English language has been that the language reflected none of my experience”.

Last year Rodríguez had to choose eight European universities where she would like to do her Erasmus+ exchange.

“UK students will continue to be able to enjoy the benefits of exchanges with our European friends and partners,” he told MPs.

Erasmus+ sends around 16,000 UK students to more than 30 countries each year.

Those who study abroad outperform their peers in both the classroom and the job market, according to research by Universities UK.

“Taking part in Erasmus gives students new skills that are valuable to employers and that boosts our economy.”

Although this happened decades ago, we haven’t forgotten the look of total incredulity on the face of an American fellow student whom our son brought home for the weekend (Letters, 18 January).

I quickly learned this was not an appropriate offer (he seemed to think it likely though).

Theresa GrahamClevedon, North Somerset• Marika Sherwood (Letters, 14 January) is correct that Peter Fryer’s book Staying Power should be available in all school libraries.

Val HarrisonBirmingham• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com• Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters• Do you have a photo you’d like to share with Guardian readers?

Click here to upload it and we’l…

Learning a new language should be compulsory for pupils up to the age of 16, according to a new report highlighting the UK’s recent abysmal record in encouraging young people to study languages other than English.

“It was a big mistake to scrap compulsory foreign languages at GCSE,” said Megan Bowler, the report’s author.

Nick Hillman, Hepi’s director, said making foreign languages optional at GCSE was one of the worst education policy blunders in recent memory, and that reinstating them was a “no-brainer”.

“In terms of speaking foreign languages [the British] have never been good.

The report notes that the devolved school systems in Wales and Scotland have had more success in encouraging t…

‘No other subject,” says my language teacher, “is the cause of so much shame.

There we go; it’s that word shame again.

And there’s that feeling of self-loathing you get when you know that, at some point, you knew the German word for exhaust pipe but suddenly can’t remember it.

My Croatian teacher thinks it is a peculiarly British thing.

She says you never hear French, German or Spanish speakers berating themselves about how poor their English is.

The French literary colossus Marguerite Yourcenar once said that she loved ancient Greek for the richness of its vocabulary and its infinite flexibility, which was “like that of a supple, perfect body”.

Marcolongo, an Italian writer and classics scholar, agrees.

She has written a delightfully spirited yet succinct apologia for “the magnificent and elegant ancient Greek language” (translated by Will Schutt).

She argues that ancient Greek offers us uniquely “concise, explosive, ironic, open-ended modes of expression”.

Although we have no way of knowing what ancient Greek would have sounded like, it still speaks to us today.

Over this long and colourful history, one idea has proven particularly resilient: the notion that language began as gesture.

In the 20th century, scholars held on to these intuitive arguments for gestural theories, while also introducing new sources of evidence.

Another couple carried out a similar home-rearing experiment with a different chimpanzee, Washoe, but used manual signs borrowed from American Sign Language instead of English words.

It’s that, compared with the mouth, the hands seem to be better soil for the seeds of language.

She reasons that if language had first built a home in the hands, it would have had no compelling reason to leave.

Gibberish – language that cannot be understood – is not quite the same as nonsense.

Gibberish, on the other hand, makes indecipherable words out of the sounds and letters of language.

Yet while they evade familiar spellings, they lean on our intuitive knowledge of how the English language works.

The language of Utopia is an esoteric gibberish, but there are more everyday examples of unintelligible language.

Babies chatter gibberish to us, and we talk back to them as if they had said something utterly astoundingIn the following centuries, English gibberish grows relatively dormant.

Tahitians, in their reckoning of love and loss, and their wrestling with death and darkness, suffered not from grief but a hypocognition of grief.

In my research with the psychologist David Dunning at the University of Michigan, we asked American participants: have you ever heard of the concept benevolent sexism?

A frequently overlooked part of Levy’s treatise on Tahitians is why they suffered from a hypocognition of grief.

In 2010, the Chinese rebel writer Han Han told CNN that any of his writings containing the words ‘government’ or ‘communist’ would be censored by the Chinese internet police.

They simply pretend nothing happened… That’s their goal,’ Han Han said.

J L Austin, a British philosopher working around the mid-20th century, made important progress in trying to classify the linguistic things we do as acts of speech or speech acts.

His thought was that we perform illocutionary acts in uttering meaningful sentences (hence the Latin il); and we perform perlocutionary acts by performing illocutionary acts (hence the Latin per).

We perform locutionary acts in order to perform illocutionary acts; and we perform illocutionary acts in order to perform perlocutionary acts.

If the argument that pornography can undermine women’s freedom of speech is successful, then it presents a challenge to the free-speech-based defence of pornography.

Deciding wheth…

Including our mother tongues.

I keep my eyes on the procession of English letters on my keyboard.

Mother tongues, like any other first love, are very hard to forget.

Even when our native letters appear foreign and our native sounds ring forsaken.

After all, our mother tongues raised us.

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But as the debate over trigger warnings has raged, advocates for them have made strong psychological claims.

Trigger warnings increased participants’ negative feelings prior to the photo presentation, presumably as they anticipated what was to come.

It wasn’t about trigger warnings per se, but investigated a cognitive principle central to the trigger-warnings debate.

It’s important not to overstate the scientific case against trigger warnings.

Yet already the results are surprisingly consistent in undermining the specific claim that trigger warnings allow people to marshal some kind of mental defence mechanism.

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As I become more fluent in French, however, the word’s meaning becomes sedimented in it.

Meaning is more sunken into words than the practice of replacing one term with another suggests.

But even if the connection between ‘glow’ and glowing were not based on any verifiable affinity, the word’s meaning is still accompanied by its sound.

For the dog, words have meaning the same way that the sound of my car pulling into the driveway has meaning.

Does this new kind of interchangeable expression constitute a different way of meaning from the kind of meaning that ‘tells me itself’?

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When you receive the information, if you think any of it is wrong or out of date, you can ask us…

Finally, some brave soul will say something, always the same thing: Well, we break the text down.

Metaphor is the knot between language and image, between language and sensory experience, and between language and narrative.

In the process, Pomiankowski reveals that metaphors not only shape the way we see things, but also carry story.

One of his propositions was that ‘even the future has to have a metaphoric quality for us to imagine it’.

If Nehamas is correct, then we need to grow our capacity for metaphor as surely as we need to grow our empathy for the planet.

He believed that increasing immigration, the multiplication of unique American words, the new meanings attaching to English words and the proliferation of slang – or, as the English saw it, vulgar and undisciplined language – made an American dictionary essential to American life.

But then there was the question of whose American dictionary would provide such an authority – which consideration instigated the ‘American dictionary wars’.

It was also partly an ideological war, pitting various sectors of society – political, social, educational, religious – against each other over the direction that American English should take.

Ultimately, the Merriams were the real winners in the American dic…

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So when did the cliché become such a sin of human communication, a mark of simple minds and mediocre artists?

The French theorist Roland Barthes, a follower of Flaubert, was also preoccupied with the political effect of clichés.

In his essay ‘Politics and the English Language’ (1946), he condemns journalistic clichés as dangerous constructs that mask political reality with empty language.

Think, for example, of the common statement ‘it is a cliché, but…’; or of the use of clichés ironically.

So, before you pull out the next ‘It’s a cliché!’ allegation, think about some of the clichés you commonly use.

Countries can take many steps that could act as apologies for historical wrongs—so is an official apology ever needed?

Before Obama, Bill Clinton reportedly did not offer an official apology due to the objections of the white majority.

This can be even more involved when it comes to official apologies, which can have a ceremonial aspect of performance to convey the gravity of the matter.

Perhaps the spectrum over which apologies range, from inconsequential politeness to deep remorse expressed formally, drives some members of the public to distrust official apologies as insincere or unnecessary, while others demand them to redress wrongs.

Apologies that look and sound and speak clearly like …

So how does a phrase that doesn’t actually mean what it says still manage to be so usefully informative?

Arbiters of linguistic style often assume that idioms are a kind of “exhausted speech” that once meant something but has become a set of lazy linguistic shortcuts to predigested ideas.

With language full of idioms, should well-worn expressions like “kick the bucket” kick the bucket in favor of more direct ways of speaking?

On the other hand, older idioms, such as getting “the short end of the stick,” are even more frozen in place.

We might wonder what all the fuss is about a stick, much less the short (or shitty) end of it.

Why are these children’s rhymes so much dark nonsense, and what could it all mean?

In a kid’s world, cooties and other similar contagions may not be real—but they’re deadly serious.

Though it may have a real impact on children’s social distancing, it’s hard to pin down what cooties is exactly, because conceptually, it needs to be many things.

But it’s true that many nursery rhymes are often so dark, so strange, so…nonsensical.

It’s hard to believe the cooties and nursery rhymes of your childhood can reveal so much about the world.

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As with many other recent global crises, there has been a flood of dangerous misinformation, and with it, the insidious “viral” spread of toxic speech through social media.

As Lawrence Besserman notes, being ill in the English language is no fun.

But when we think of weaponized language, often it’s a pretty blunt instrument.

Tirrell considers the idea of an epidemiology of toxic language, conceptualizing language as something that can have the power to cause harm, by degrees, just like a poison or a disease.

For the grace of being another language, Black English speech might have been considered as linguistically civilized as a classical Greek or Latin, or as linguistically chic as French or Italian.

Instead it resulted in intense public backlash and derision due to the still widespread, incorrect belief that Black English was an inferior, uneducated form of English associated with illiteracy, poverty, and crime.

But Black English is not just one monolithic dialect spanning the many millions of speakers across the country.

All along, while standard American English was busy convincing everyone that it was a superior dialect, it’s Black English that’s been a true cultural and linguistic force in…

Different vested interests have manipulated language to downplay, deflect, and shift public attention away from blaming political leaders for ignoring the clear scientific consensus behind the climate emergency.

Morrison’s astonishingly clumsy spinning of the crisis has, in fact, ignited a political firestorm and led to a public and international outpouring of blame.

Sten Hansson’s linguistic case study on blame avoidance in government lays out the many ways that political leaders have sought to reframe scandals and political firestorms to escape accountability.

Political leaders can use a “discursive power abuse” through language to manipulate communication and public perception.

It has ta…

And the tendency toward this kind of behavior is called “cancel culture.”Is the destructive power of cancel culture too much?

Cancel culture is, on the one hand, less severe than these acts of public shaming, because it is mostly linguistic and communicative.

This could explain why cancel culture seems so widespread, so virulently uncontrollable, and so dangerously unstable.

It’s this that makes cancel culture very much a part of modern life.

As language can be dangerous, and as crowd movements can be destructive, so can the cancel culture of “internet mobs” be damaging in the wrong contexts.

Keeping the news in a state of good health, in the age of social media, has become more urgent than ever.

By now, we may think we know fake headlines well enough not to fall into the trap.

It was, incredibly, literally true, yet because it didn’t accurately describe the context, wasn’t it also a kind of fake news?

In identifying misinformation, we often focus too closely on the superficial and obvious aspects of this shiny new concept of fake news—a fake clickbait headline accompanying a fake news article of actual falsehoods.

In one study on subtly misleading headlines, researchers found that headlines can affect how readers remember information and make inferences about the news.

There’s hardly an indigenous culture surviving that does not struggle to preserve their traditional language and knowledge against the overwhelming homogenizing influences of Western colonialism.

In many places, scientists are finding, to their surprise, that traditional knowledge is on a par with many scientific discoveries.

But what does it mean when we accept traditional knowledge as a kind of science only after it’s been compared with contemporary scientific knowledge and processes, and shown to be similar?

Traditional knowledge often values a more nuanced, contextual, and holistic view of information from observation and thought, not just piecemeal experimentation of discrete, individu…

He promptly, but naively, sent it all to Nigerian scammers, who had promised him a cool $50 million in return.

The stories are colorful variations of each other, but the language used to tell them are key to capturing a potential mark’s (greedy) imagination.

Nigerian 419 cons (the number refers to the fraud section of the Nigerian Criminal Code) are practically the oldest scams on the internet.

In the updated 419 Nigerian scam, the potential mark is asked to pay a small advance fee, or asked to send their bank information or personal details to help move funds that have been locked up, perhaps in a foreign country, or somewhere plausibly difficult.

The language scammers use to impress and f…

In Ancient Greek, there was a word σαίνειν sainein, meaning ‘wag the tail’ or, figuratively, ‘fawn [over someone]’.

That Latin noun then got converted to the verb subsannare, ‘sneer, mock, deride’.

And from that came a whole set of English words: not just subsannate but subsannation, subsannator, and – in at least one text – a more lace-at-the-throat version of the verb: subsanne.

And, yes, subsannate means ‘mock, deride’ – in particular with an implication of a mean face: as Thomas Blount’s 1656 dictionary Glossographia puts it, “to scorn or mock with bending the Brows, or snuffing up the nose.”Oh, with BeNdiNg oF tHe bRoWs or snUfFinG uP tHe NoSe.

And to all the other Dumpty Pumpkins out …

A muskellunge walks into a bar.

Some people have heard of a muskellunge, or at least have heard of it by the name muskie.

Or more likely read a story about someone who had a muskellunge lunge at them.

Muskellunge do lunge muscularly!

Apparently the dark bodies with light markings that real northern pike have are prettier than the silver, brown, or green bodies with stripes and spots that muskellunge present.

I am surrounded by fulsome wholesome advice, and I am feeling much more partial to something on the middling side.

It’s not that I’m interested in hopping on the helter-skelter to hell – I’ll seek the endorphin high of exercise on my own time and terms, don’t you worry – but let me have something halfsome.

That’s some word, halfsome, but for some reason we don’t see it much.

I’m partial to it.

Every now and then, have something halfsome.

The word cancel can make people cross – or at least crabby.

Our English verb cancel comes from Anglo-Norman canceler, ‘cross out’, ultimately from Latin cancellus ‘railing or lattice’, because at first cancel referred to crossing something out by drawing not just one line or a scribble on it but a whole lattice of lines.

If you are the official gatekeeper, you can cancel: if you are the postmaster, you can cancel a stamp; if you are the TV network boss, you can cancel a show; if you are the owner of a newspaper (or someone with similar power over it), you can cancel an edition or even the whole newspaper.

That said, if you and a lot of other people cancel your subscriptions, the people who …

And I’m the kind of editor working on the kind of stuff where having and/or is sometimes very useful.

Yes, it’s this: where we say “Do you want food or drink” and mean “but not both,” it uses vai: “Haluatko ruokaa vai juomaa?”; where we say it and mean “Do you want food andor drink,” it uses tai: “Haluatko ruokaa tai juomaa?”Isn’t that handy?

So take your pick: do you want andor or tai?

Or… do you want andor andor tai?

(Or do you want andor tai tai?)

You reach up behind your ear and hook your finger into the loop and strip that mask off and your face is free.

You are, at last, maximally relaxed: you are at the moment of maxillaxation.

Not that maxillaxation comes from maximally relaxed.

Plus, if anyone wants to say “mask” and turns this word into maskillaxation, well, that works too.

A Greek-derived word for ‘lip stripping’ would be something like cheiloecdysis, which, um, I like maxillaxation, don’t you?

Even the shadows of trees unwelcome you as though you had filled out paperwork in the wrong order.

Never mind how north you may be; your skin is in not the south but the sud, and it is torrific, horrific… sudorific.

Which can readily be anglicized as antisudorific, telling us that sudorific must mean perspirant and, from that, that sudor would seem to have to do with… sweat.

This is the weather where we’re all shvitzers waiting for waiters to bring us spritzers (“sudo bring me a spritzer”).

It’s not so terrific; it’s sudorific.

There must be a lustration.

Lustration is a word not often seen or heard, though it’s certainly not without occasion for use.

But while something that has had a lustration may seem sparkling clean and picture-perfect under illumination, that’s not what lustration means.

A lustration is, in the old and original sense, a rite of purification, especially of washing.

The evident fact that illustro (‘I elucidate’ or ‘I illuminate’ or ‘I make illustrious’) is formed from the same lustro as lustration gives some weight to this derivation.

We all do it, from time to time, given the chance: we sit and watch the waves come in.

This is kymoskepsis.

But when you watch the waves come towards you from the horizon, do you doubt them?

All your life of watching yourself is so much more kymoskepsis: waves watching waves watching waves.

And now we can see κῦμα and σκέψις come together in this word to roll forward: this article that you are reading is the first time of use of kymoskepsis, the new old word.

There are times when things just don’t look right, don’t sound right, don’t match what you expect, and it seems to come out of nowhere; you can’t see clearly, like you’re in a mist, and you’re full of… kauch.

Which might be, for instance, how you get to that pronunciation from the spelling kauch.

But you can write it kauch and pronounce it /kjɑx/, or you can write it kiaugh and pronounce it /kɔk/.

But that’s not where kauch comes from either.

Just like how sometimes when you dive into anxiety, worry, trouble, kauch, kiaugh, whatever, you just get more of it.

Which is the same, at root, as in gelatin and congeal and assorted other words tracing back to coldness or freezing?

Then geloscopy would be, what, a cold glance?

Or just looking cold?

It traces to a Proto-Indo-European root that also descended to Greek γελανδρόν gelandron, ‘cold, chill, frost’, but that Greek root isn’t the source of this gel-.

No, the Greek root that this word draws on is γελάω gelaō (Modern Greek γελώ), verb, ‘laugh’.

The smew come over from Siberia and spend the winter in England, some of them right by where he grew up.

For those who can’t or don’t want to watch the video: a smew is a kind of little diving duck.

And why, of all the things smew could be a name for, does it refer to these little ducks?

There’s another word, smee, that is used for several ducks, including the wigeon and the smew, and smew may be related to that, though they showed up at about the same time; smee in its turn is probably related to smeath, which is another word for the same thing and has been around about as long.

Smew and smee may also be related to Dutch smient (which means ‘wigeon’) and German Schmeiente or Schmünte (whic…

Why is it so much scarier to receive a text saying “ok.” than “ok”?

In online messaging, we tend to use line or message breaks, rather than full stops, to convey the end of an utterance.

One that has is the sarcasm tilde (~), which McCulloch argues derives from the mid-2000s days of MySpace ‘sparkle punctuation’, where users used punctuation marks for aesthetic purposes.

McCulloch calls this lack of punctuation ‘minimalist typography’ and discusses how this is used to convey tone of voice, particularly in the current era of smartphones.

These are just some of the ways in which we reflect our tone in typed speech, from caps lock, to passive aggressive punctuation.

(a) wen mi ier di bap bap, mi drap a groun an denwhen I heard the bap bap [the shots], I fell to the ground and thenmi staat ron.

(b) When I heard the shot (bap, bap), I drop the gun, and then I run.

AAVE has been studied extensively by linguists, who have shown that it is a systematic and rule-governed dialect of English like any other.

They start by closely analysing over 15 hours of Jeantel’s recorded speech, to see how it compares to that of other AAVE speakers.

In the Zimmerman case, Rickford and King show that Jeantel used several preverbal tense-aspect markers in her speech, such as stressed BIN, completive, and habitual.

Through this research, we can see that thanks responses in English are not very frequent on the whole.

This is in contrast to some other languages.

In addition, the sensitivity of thanks responses to socio-economic setting suggest that they are a subtle form of cultural encoding, with common responses in LARC-up and LARC-mid restaurants possibly signalling formality.

Furthermore, thanks responses do not appear to be very standardized, with a wide range of forms being used, especially in LARC-mid and LARC-low.

The fact that the type of service performed elicits differing thanks responses across the different socio-economic settings reinforces the sense that these small linguistic acts are ac…

This is a question that some recent research has addressed.In their recent research report, Elminger, Schwade and Goldstein examined the function of babbling in infants’ language development.

Previous research has suggested that parents’ speech will match the child’s current age, changing as the child grows.

So, in general, it seems that parents may simplify the whole structure of their speech in response to their child’s babble, suggesting that infant babbling really does influence the adult response.

It may be that this immature, pre-speech babble is actually engineered by the child to create language learning opportunities through eliciting simplified, easy-to-learn responses from their …

In other words, would a candidate with, say a Multicultural London English accent, be perceived as less professional or competent as their Received Pronunciation speaking peers?

To create the mock interviews, we had 10 speakers (2 of each accent) record 10 good and 10 poor interview responses.

They were then asked to evaluate whether they thought the answer was a 'good' answer or a 'poor' answer.

The high quality answers are in yellow and the lower quality answers are in green.

So, it's possible that accent bias might influence the candidate's progression later on down the line.

The second part of our study, detailed here, investigated how people responded to recordings of speakers with different accents to see if the same accent bias exists in speech.

To examine these questions, we recorded 10 speakers of 5 different accents (2 speakers each).

Younger participants, however, did not show this pattern.

On the right are the older participants and on the left, the younger participants.

We proposed that the more prejudiced people were, the lower their ratings of the different accents would be.

We've developed a series of Language Investigations and Teaching Units that helps students and teachers develop a research project of their own!

It's therefore possible that people view these accents much more positively than they did 50 years ago.However, this study examines only responses to 'accent labels'.

What would we find if we played actual audio recordings of these accents to participants?

In the next blog post, we introduce the findings from the second part of our study.

In the meantime, you can find our more about the project by visiting the project website.

Did you know that as well as the 'Research Digest', we also maintain the 'Teach Real English!'

Our site is an archive of spoken English Language Teaching resources that have been developed by Linguists at Queen Mary University of London.

Our website includes:A database of spoken English (containing sound clips and transcripts)Language Investigations for exploring the English language in every day situationsA range of Teaching Units designed to offer secondary school teachers of English language up-to-date examples of English language useGlossaries and descriptions of spoken English featuresThe materials have been designed for teachers of GCSE and GCEA-Level English Language, but they may be…

In their 2007 study, they report on a BBC survey that collected 5010 respondents’ evaluations of 34 different accents.

The researchers also asked a series of questions about whether the respondent liked hearing different accents to test whether their attitudes towards accents and dialects influenced their ratings of the different accent labels.

Coupland and Bishop find that, for social attractiveness, accents such as, andare generally positively evaluated, whilst accents such as, andwere typically down-rated – that is, they score much lower.

Interestingly, accents such asandare rated far higher for attractiveness than for prestige, whereasandare all ranked higher for prestige than for attra…

African American women have frequently been depicted as ‘fierce’ or ‘sassy’, even in very old media representations of this community.

These representations are obviously very problematic since they are based on racialised and essentialised ideas about the personal qualities of African American women.

Returning to the Twitter data, Ilbury argues that these representations are helpful in explaining why the men are using features of AAVE.

He suggests that it is exactly that this ‘sassy’ meaning that the men are ‘activating’ by using components of AAVE.

Ilbury, Christian (Online First/2019) “Sassy Queens”: Stylistic orthographic variation in Twitter and the enregisterment of AAVE.

Rather, they can extract massive datasets of social media data to examine where in the country these words are used most.

This finding is shown in the graphic below, where for all of the 8 words, the Twitter maps look comparable to those created for the BBC Voices project.

For instance, consider the maps for the word ‘bairn’ – a word that means ‘child’ is typically heard in northern UK dialects (second row, right).

Nevertheless, with these issues aside, Grieve and colleagues’ analysis suggests that the findings observed in large-scale dialectal surveys are largely mirrored in the Twitter data.

As such, we can expect more and more sociolinguistic research to examine data from social media si…

But, what if I told you that the Queen’s speech isn’t the same as it was in more recent decades than, say, in the 1950’s.

By examining the Queen’s Christmas address across three different time periods (1950’s, late 1960/ early 70’s, 1980’s), Harrington and his colleagues examined how the changing social landscape related to the Queen’s English.

They also compared the Queen’s pronunciation of these vowels with data from Standard Southern British English speaking females to see how the Queen’s speech related to more general patterns of speech.

They also compared the Queen’s pronunciation of these vowels with data from Standard Southern British English speaking females to see how the Queen’s s…

Lucy Jones of the University of Nottingham did a study on a group of LGBT youths, looking particularly at the way that they used language to construct their own identity.

Her research took place in a youth group that specifically supported those who identified as LGBT or who questioned their gender or sexual identity.

Jones identified three ways in which these young people negotiated their identity.

Jones argued that this creates a disconnect between being gay and performing a gay identity, and hence deliberately distancing themselves from it.

Glossary - Cisgender: Someone whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth------------------------------------------------------…

As one of the best-selling pop artists of our time, Lady Gaga is a name few would fail to recognise.

The term ‘stance’ refers to the way that people align or position themselves in relation to some object, person or idea.

The notion of stance-taking refers to the actual process of making that alignment, which is usually achieved through communication.

The term ‘stance’ refers to the way that people align or position themselves in relation to some object, person or idea.

The notion of stance-taking refers to the actual process of making that alignment, which is usually achieved through communication.

You, a person who’s currently on the English-speaking internet in The Year of The Pandemic, have definitely seen public service information about Covid-19.

You’ve probably been unable to escape seeing quite a lot of it, both online and offline, from handwashing posters to social distancing tape to instructional videos for face covering.

It’s easy to overlook how important language is for health if you’re on the English-speaking internet, where “is this headache actually something to worry about?” is only a quick Wikipedia article or WebMD search away.

For over half of the world’s population, people can’t expect to Google their symptoms, nor even necessarily get a pamphlet from their doctor …

In this article we bring together perspectives from IR & politics (Alex Davis), environmental history (Ruth Gamble), anthropology (Gerald Roche) and linguistics (me!)

We argue that the possibility of violent conflict over contested international borders is not the region’s primary international challenge.

Rather, slow violence inflicted by state-building and militarisation, intimately connected to geopolitical tensions, threaten the region’s ecologies, cultures and languages.

International relations and the Himalaya: connecting ecologies, cultures and geopolitics.

Australian Journal of International Affairs, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357718.2020.1787333 [Open Access article]

You, a person who’s currently on the English-speaking internet in The Year of The Pandemic, have definitely seen public service information about Covid-19.

You’ve probably been unable to escape seeing quite a lot of it, both online and offline, from handwashing posters to social distancing tape to instructional videos for face covering.

It’s easy to overlook how important language is for health if you’re on the English-speaking internet, where “is this headache actually something to worry about?” is only a quick Wikipedia article or WebMD search away.

For over half of the world’s population, people can’t expect to Google their symptoms, nor even necessarily get a pamphlet from their doctor …

A 2016 report showed one in 10 Australians were affected by complete or partial deafness.

“I thought, I’m onto a winner here, it’s a great concept.”Like many Australians, COVID-19 has had a significant impact on Tracey’s work for the year.

When projects fell through, she switched to sewing scrubs, then more traditional masks, to now these new options.

For now, she is producing small amounts by hand — but says she is able to scale up, if the demand requires it.

“If I have many orders, I’d be very happy, because I know a lot of people would benefit from those masks.“”

The Because Internet audiobook is read by its author and Lingthusiasm cohost, Gretchen McCulloch.

Only there’s one problem: where’s our other cohost, Lauren Gawne?

The solution: we have now recorded a reaction track of Lauren saying “ah,” “mhm,” “yup” and other appropriate backchannelling for you to play on loop alongside the Because Internet audiobook!

Bonus: this reaction track also makes all your other audiobooks 50% more Lingthusiastic!

Get Because Internet, a book about internet linguistics for anyone you communicate with online, right here, in paper, ebook, or audiobook form (and newly in paperback!

You, a person who’s currently on the English-speaking internet in The Year of The Pandemic, have definitely seen public service information about Covid-19.

You’ve probably been unable to escape seeing quite a lot of it, both online and offline, from handwashing posters to social distancing tape to instructional videos for face covering.

It’s easy to overlook how important language is for health if you’re on the English-speaking internet, where “is this headache actually something to worry about?” is only a quick Wikipedia article or WebMD search away.

For over half of the world’s population, people can’t expect to Google their symptoms, nor even necessarily get a pamphlet from their doctor …

You, a person who’s currently on the English-speaking internet in The Year of The Pandemic, have definitely seen public service information about Covid-19.

You’ve probably been unable to escape seeing quite a lot of it, both online and offline, from handwashing posters to social distancing tape to instructional videos for face covering.

It’s easy to overlook how important language is for health if you’re on the English-speaking internet, where “is this headache actually something to worry about?” is only a quick Wikipedia article or WebMD search away.

For over half of the world’s population, people can’t expect to Google their symptoms, nor even necessarily get a pamphlet from their doctor …

You, a person who’s currently on the English-speaking internet in The Year of The Pandemic, have definitely seen public service information about Covid-19.

You’ve probably been unable to escape seeing quite a lot of it, both online and offline, from handwashing posters to social distancing tape to instructional videos for face covering.

It’s easy to overlook how important language is for health if you’re on the English-speaking internet, where “is this headache actually something to worry about?” is only a quick Wikipedia article or WebMD search away.

For over half of the world’s population, people can’t expect to Google their symptoms, nor even necessarily get a pamphlet from their doctor …

You, a person who’s currently on the English-speaking internet in The Year of The Pandemic, have definitely seen public service information about Covid-19.

You’ve probably been unable to escape seeing quite a lot of it, both online and offline, from handwashing posters to social distancing tape to instructional videos for face covering.

It’s easy to overlook how important language is for health if you’re on the English-speaking internet, where “is this headache actually something to worry about?” is only a quick Wikipedia article or WebMD search away.

For over half of the world’s population, people can’t expect to Google their symptoms, nor even necessarily get a pamphlet from their doctor …

You, a person who’s currently on the English-speaking internet in The Year of The Pandemic, have definitely seen public service information about Covid-19.

You’ve probably been unable to escape seeing quite a lot of it, both online and offline, from handwashing posters to social distancing tape to instructional videos for face covering.

It’s easy to overlook how important language is for health if you’re on the English-speaking internet, where “is this headache actually something to worry about?” is only a quick Wikipedia article or WebMD search away.

For over half of the world’s population, people can’t expect to Google their symptoms, nor even necessarily get a pamphlet from their doctor …

Lingthusiasm Episode 46: Hey, no problem, bye!

In this episode, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch get enthusiastic about the social dance of phatic expressions.

You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening, and stay tuned for a transcript of this episode on the Lingthusiasm website.

To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.

Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] comGretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic.

You, a person who’s currently on the English-speaking internet in The Year of The Pandemic, have definitely seen public service information about Covid-19.

You’ve probably been unable to escape seeing quite a lot of it, both online and offline, from handwashing posters to social distancing tape to instructional videos for face covering.

It’s easy to overlook how important language is for health if you’re on the English-speaking internet, where “is this headache actually something to worry about?” is only a quick Wikipedia article or WebMD search away.

For over half of the world’s population, people can’t expect to Google their symptoms, nor even necessarily get a pamphlet from their doctor …

I would read Dinosaur Comics in my lunch break.

Dinosaur Comics author and freelance writer Ryan North studied linguistics, and has a dog named Noam Chompsky (below, left).

In undergrad I got a Bachelor’s of Computer Science, then did a Masters of Science in Computational Linguistics.

How does your linguistics training help you in your job?

Also my computational linguistics training came in very handy when I decided to make Squirrel Girl be studying computers at college.

You, a person who’s currently on the English-speaking internet in The Year of The Pandemic, have definitely seen public service information about Covid-19.

You’ve probably been unable to escape seeing quite a lot of it, both online and offline, from handwashing posters to social distancing tape to instructional videos for face covering.

It’s easy to overlook how important language is for health if you’re on the English-speaking internet, where “is this headache actually something to worry about?” is only a quick Wikipedia article or WebMD search away.

For over half of the world’s population, people can’t expect to Google their symptoms, nor even necessarily get a pamphlet from their doctor …

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WiktionarySo the surname "Wallach" really does have something directly related to Rebecca's idle thoughts on "gelding".

Before tackling "wether" and "Wales / Welsh", then moving upward through Rebecca's packed paragraph, perhaps a few words about "gelding", and why it's not an idle topic at all.

Middle English uses the same words for both Attila's people and the Magyars, who appeared in Europe in 9c.

Old Turkic ‎ (Türk), ‎ (Türük)), but the phonetics are difficult to reconcile.

wether ; bellwether from Old English wether, wether, from Germanic *wethruz, perhaps "yearling" 2.

I don't know whether this is because of some issue with Lexis-Nexis data (the alleged source of Miller's numbers), or with Miller's use of the Lexis-Nexis interface, or what.

But for whatever reason, Miller's numbers are (in all cases where I've checked) seriously at variance with the results of NYT archive search.

Here is a page that whose links will take you to the NYT archive searches for the word "racism" in each year from 1970 to 2019.

The sequences as presented in his graphs are clearly different from the counts given by NYT archive search.

And the true sequences (or at least the results from the NYT archive) generally differ from Miller's graphs in ways that undermine his conclusions.

« previous post |Barbara Partee asked me to comment on this thread by Arram Sabeti — crucial bit here:2/ The data makes it plain that the NYT has abandoned its commitment to nonpartisan reporting.

pic.twitter.com/R7s7E7Mc4H — Arram Sabeti (@arram) July 28, 2020Here are my comments, copied from her Facebook post, and slightly edited:It's not easy to evaluate Sabeti's NYT-bashing tweet thread.

He doesn't compare the results to similar data from other sources.

increasing frequency of words like "sexist" and "racist" and "transgender" over the past decade or so, reaching a recent peak?

This is not to say that the NYT is or has ever been an unbiased source.

« previous post |This is the logo of Legco, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong:It is a stylization of the "lap6 立" ("set up; erect; establish; enact") of:Hoeng1gong2 dak6bit6 hang4zing3 keoi1 lap6faat3 wui6 (Jyutping)Hēunggóng dahkbiht hàhngjing kēui laahpfaat wúih (Yale)Xiānggǎng tèbié xíngzhèng qū lìfǎ huì (Hanyu pinyin)香港特別行政區立法會now written in PRC simplified characters as香港特别行政区立法会"Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region"or, for short:Laap6faat3 wui5 (Jyutping)Laahp faat wúih (Yale)Lìfǎ Huì (Hanyu pinyin)立法會now written in PRC simplified characters as立法会"Legislative Council"Here's the Legco logo as reimagined by the endlessly creative graphic designers of the …

« previous post |In a statement on 7/29, Kevin McCarthy apparently meant to say "Congressman Gohmert" but what comes out is "Congressman Covid":Kevin McCarthy accidentally calls Louie Gohmert "Congressman COVID" pic.twitter.com/UcQcvHtEU9 — The Recount (@therecount) July 29, 2020This error is a perfect example of a "Fay-Cutler malapropism" — for an explanation of that phase, see "Defendants wrongly committed of a crime" 8/4/2011.

Note that Covid and Gohmert are both disyllabic proper nouns with initial stress on the vowel /o/, starting with a velar stop (/k/ vs. /g/) and ending with a coronol stop (/d/ vs. /t/).

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We want to be able to trace it…

Here are three replies:Linda Chance:To my mind, kawaii かわいい has four onsetsu 音節 (whether those are syllables or not is another debate).

Kaua'i カウアイ has four, and would not be confused with the first four-onsetsu word.

My understanding is that the number of syllables is the same, but the Japanese does not have the glottal stop found in Kaua'i.

Part of the problem, at least for me (VHM), is the difference between onsetsu and syllables, also moras, for that matter.

See, for example:Seiichiro Inaba, "Moras, Syllables, and Feet in Japanese", Language, Information and Computation (PACLIC12), 18-20 Feb, 1998, 106-117.

« previous post |From Lisa Nichols:I noticed on Twitter some HK protest folks last night talking about being a "handfoot", seemingly a newly coined (punned?)

I take it the meaning is a person on the streets, on the frontlines, but maybe something more than that.

The Cantonese term is sau2zuk1 手足 ("hands and feet; brothers"); in Mandarin it would be pronounced shǒuzú and has the same meanings.

Another term meaning "hands and feet" is shǒujiǎo 手腳; in Cantonese, that is pronounced sau2goek3.

Aside from the literal meaning of "hands and feet", 手腳 also has the figurative meaning of "movement of limbs; action; trick".

Although they don't tell us what it means, they say that "Even most of Chinese people don't know how to read it."

I would say that 99.999+% of Chinese people don't know how to read it, how to write it, and what it means.

Before people get all excited about this new "hardest character to write", three notes of caution:1.

The Chinese writing system is notoriously open-ended, so anyone with enough chutzpah is free to invent their own "hardest Chinese character" at any time.

Don't waste a goodly part of your life by trying to memorize how to write this st*p*d "character".

The "intellectual" author of the volume is He Dian, the second most powerful officer of the public security department in the northeastern province of Jilin.

The title of his 336-page tome is Píng'ān jīng 平安經, to which the English name Peace Mantra has become attached.

A chapter titled “Let China’s railway stations be safe” reads: “Let Beijing Railway Station be safe, let Xi’an Railway Station be safe, let Zhengzhou Railway Station be safe, let Shanghai’s Hongqiao Railway Station be safe …”Yet despite its content, the book was endorsed and recommended by a long list of local government offices and Communist Party -approved groups after being cleared for publication by the state-controlled p…

Probably the people who chose and promoted the term (pandemic) pod had forgotten about the 1956 movie or its remakes.

318 Jet pods are mounted beneath the wings.

1963 New Scientist 9 May 320/3 Rides are being ‘hitch-hiked’ on Atlas rockets for pods of space instruments.

Aug. 13/1 A rotating radome, or radar pod, is mounted on two struts above the rear section of the fuselage.

1 a The sheriff fired him..because he ‘aimed and dry fired’ a high-powered rifle..into the prisoner pods at the jail.

The former is generally considered to mean "organ; instrument", while the latter is considered to mean "engine; machine; mechanism; body organ; organization, institute, agency, authority, establishment; facility".

In Mandarin, the former is pronounced qìguān and is held to mean "organ; apparatus", while the latter (機關) is pronounced jīguān and is held to mean "organ; body; office; mechanism; stratagem; intrigue; scheme; gear".

The theory of the Emperor as an organ of government (the theory of the nation state as a juridical body) that the Emperor is an organ of the state possessing no authority over and above the state, who exercised power only as the highest organ of the state was widely a…

It's about another name for a similar type of vessel called qīqì 欹器, "tilting vessel".

The qīqì (欹器, "tilting vessel" or "tipping vessel") was an ancient Chinese ceremonial utensil that automatically overturned and spilled its contents once it reached capacity, thus symbolizing moderation and caution.

As with many arcane implements from antiquity, the terminology for the tilting / tipping vessel is challenging:"Phonetic loan characters", using an existing character to be read as a substitution for another of similar or identical pronunciation, have complicated interpreting several "tilting vessel" names.

It had an overflow tube that transferred surplus water to a miniature waterfall, pond, …

However, sequence design remains a hard problem due to the exponentially many synonymous mRNA sequences that encode the same protein.

We show that this design problem can be reduced to a classical problem in formal language theory and computational linguistics that can be solved in O(n^3) time, where n is the mRNA sequence length.

We also develop two algorithms for incorporating the codon optimality into the design, one based on k-best parsing to find alternative sequences and one directly incorporating codon optimality into the dynamic programming.

Our work provides efficient computational tools to speed up and improve mRNA vaccine development.

From that paper's abstract:We describe a dyna…

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

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This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

SongdogKaleidoscopeThe Daily Growler †wood s lot †MetaFilteran eudæmonistAvva (Russian)Naked TranslationsNo-swordThe Cassandra PagesTransblawgHaquelebacFar OutlierspaperpoolsLizok's BookshelfA Bad GuidePoemas del río WangThe Flaxen WaveТЕТРАДКИ: Что о нас думают в Европе?

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

SongdogKaleidoscopeThe Daily Growler †wood s lot †MetaFilteran eudæmonistAvva (Russian)Naked TranslationsNo-swordThe Cassandra PagesTransblawgHaquelebacFar OutlierspaperpoolsLizok's BookshelfA Bad GuidePoemas del río WangThe Flaxen WaveТЕТРАДКИ: Что о нас думают в Европе?

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

My deepest appreciation to all of you; thanks for hanging around and chatting so companionably!

So far it’s a delight (and reminds me of Russian novels set in German spas where gamblers congregate).

Now I’m going to return to the 20th century and read my first Trifonov, the 1969 «Обмен» [The Exchange].

For example, I’m friends with a priest by the name of Fenomenov, and now here you are: Infantyev.” “Mm-hm…” Infantyev muttered without knowing how to respond.

Drama, conflict?”The Russian:— А как же, а как же!

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

SongdogKaleidoscopeThe Daily Growler †wood s lot †MetaFilteran eudæmonistAvva (Russian)Naked TranslationsNo-swordThe Cassandra PagesTransblawgHaquelebacFar OutlierspaperpoolsLizok's BookshelfA Bad GuidePoemas del río WangThe Flaxen WaveТЕТРАДКИ: Что о нас думают в Европе?

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

I have strong opinions and sometimes express myself more sharply than an ideal interlocutor might, but I try to avoid personal attacks, and I hope you will do the same.

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

byBack in March (which seems like at least a year ago) I posted about a thought-provoking essay by Joel Christensen of Sententiae Antiquae called “On Not Reading Homer”; now he’s got a follow-up that’s even better, “On Reading Homer,” and I hope anyone who found the earlier post worthwhile will click through and read it.

A few excerpts, as usual, to whet the appetite:Advocates often imagine that the strongest argument for Homer is that Homer was influential in the “Western Canon” and that you need to be familiar with Homer to appreciate and understand everything that came after.

This argument makes me nervous in general because it runs the risk of merely repeating the damaging “Greek Miracl…

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

SongdogKaleidoscopeThe Daily Growler †wood s lot †MetaFilteran eudæmonistAvva (Russian)Naked TranslationsNo-swordThe Cassandra PagesTransblawgHaquelebacFar OutlierspaperpoolsLizok's BookshelfA Bad GuidePoemas del río WangThe Flaxen WaveТЕТРАДКИ: Что о нас думают в Европе?

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

SongdogKaleidoscopeThe Daily Growler †wood s lot †MetaFilteran eudæmonistAvva (Russian)Naked TranslationsNo-swordThe Cassandra PagesTransblawgHaquelebacFar OutlierspaperpoolsLizok's BookshelfA Bad GuidePoemas del río WangThe Flaxen WaveТЕТРАДКИ: Что о нас думают в Европе?

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

SongdogKaleidoscopeThe Daily Growler †wood s lot †MetaFilteran eudæmonistAvva (Russian)Naked TranslationsNo-swordThe Cassandra PagesTransblawgHaquelebacFar OutlierspaperpoolsLizok's BookshelfA Bad GuidePoemas del río WangThe Flaxen WaveТЕТРАДКИ: Что о нас думают в Европе?

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

SongdogKaleidoscopeThe Daily Growler †wood s lot †MetaFilteran eudæmonistAvva (Russian)Naked TranslationsNo-swordThe Cassandra PagesTransblawgHaquelebacFar OutlierspaperpoolsLizok's BookshelfA Bad GuidePoemas del río WangThe Flaxen WaveТЕТРАДКИ: Что о нас думают в Европе?

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

SongdogKaleidoscopeThe Daily Growler †wood s lot †MetaFilteran eudæmonistAvva (Russian)Naked TranslationsNo-swordThe Cassandra PagesTransblawgHaquelebacFar OutlierspaperpoolsLizok's BookshelfA Bad GuidePoemas del río WangThe Flaxen WaveТЕТРАДКИ: Что о нас думают в Европе?

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

SongdogKaleidoscopeThe Daily Growler †wood s lot †MetaFilteran eudæmonistAvva (Russian)Naked TranslationsNo-swordThe Cassandra PagesTransblawgHaquelebacFar OutlierspaperpoolsLizok's BookshelfA Bad GuidePoemas del río WangThe Flaxen WaveТЕТРАДКИ: Что о нас думают в Европе?

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

If your preferred feed is Twitter, you can follow @languagehat to get links to new posts here as they appear.

You will not only get your purchases, you will get my blessings and a karmic boost!

SongdogKaleidoscopeThe Daily Growler †wood s lot †MetaFilteran eudæmonistAvva (Russian)Naked TranslationsNo-swordThe Cassandra PagesTransblawgHaquelebacFar OutlierspaperpoolsLizok's BookshelfA Bad GuidePoemas del río WangThe Flaxen WaveТЕТРАДКИ: Что о нас думают в Европе?

This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor.

It's a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

A girl can’t tell secrets in front of girls who aren’t friends, because only friends should hear her secrets.

Because ASL words are formed by hand shapes, they cannot be written as English words can.

In addition to being more efficient than writing to each other in English, using this private language reinforces their feeling of closeness and of the uniqueness of their rapport.

Any two people can devise a private language, and many who are close do.

I can relate to the more general observations on private language – its creation (and loss) in romantic relationships, and also its continual expression in families, maybe especially among siblings.

My limited knowledge of Scots and Scottish English when I was young was based on caricatures in comics, particularly ‘Hot-Shot Hamish’.

Linguistically it has been described as a continuum spanning Broad Scots and Standard Scottish English, with considerable variety in between.

A common misconception is dispatched on the Spellin an Grammar page of Scots Wikipedia: ‘Scots isna juist Inglis written wi orra wirds an spellins.

It haes its ain grammar an aw.’It is wirds that are showcased in Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers, a new book by Robin A. Crawford, whose publisher, Elliott & Thompson, sent me a copy.

Cauld Blasts and Clishmaclavers is a constant pleasure, thrang (‘densely packed’) with a …

Being bidialectal explores how our accents and dialects can change with circumstances, with some keen observations on dialect loss by Zadie Smith.

The fact that different dialects are appropriate in different spheres of life means that people generally become bidialectal or multidialectal.

Though these adjectives may be unfamiliar, it’s the same idea as bilingual and multilingual, but with different dialects of the same language.

Dude, where’s my etymology?

The dinkum oil on ‘fair dinkum’ looks at the range of uses and senses of a famously Antipodean word whose etymology has invited some creative speculation:

The OED Text Visualizer is an amazing new research tool from OED Labs based on a powerful data engine that automatically annotates text.

The Visualizer displays etymological information in an attractive visual format that can ‘open up new areas of questioning and means of discovery’.

Here’s what I got with the first eight paragraphs of my post on the word culchie:[click to embiggen]Each bubble represents a word in the inputted text, its size proportionate to its frequency in the text.

The x-axis is a timeline from Old English to today, and the y-axis shows a word’s frequency in modern English on a logarithmic scale.

Below the display are fuller breakdowns of each word in tables of tokens an…

Michael Quinion, the writer behind the wonderful World Wide Words, has updated his lesser-known Dictionary of Affixes.

Quinion said he noticed the dictionary site ‘beginning to look very tired’, so he made various edits and updates.

Most people are familiar with prefixes and suffixes, but there are other types of affix, and they have their place in the Dictionary.

But the kernel of the site is its A–Z of affixes of all types.

A search function would be useful, so that readers could search the dictionary for affixes related to a particular idea or sense.

Not every reader will go up this particular path, but many will, since it’s natural and reasonable to assume initially that what was found was complete compliance.

But the real object of found is the entire clause “complete” compliance .

There is the stacked noun phrase government safety measures and the parenthetical phrase such as physical distancing and staying at home.

Including the conjunction that tells the reader immediately that “complete” compliance is not the object of found but the subject of a whole clause.

Occasionally, omission of that ransacks meaning altogether, leaving readers to figure it out as best they can from background knowledge or probability.

An early highlight of my reading year has been Lydia Davis’s Collected Stories.

But I may mean consumed it: I haven’t consumed it because I was already eating the carrot.

Another entry from that story:Driving in the rain, I see a crumpled brown thing ahead in the middle of the road.

I feel sadness for it and for all the animals I have been seeing in the road and by the edge of the road.

Her stories can be extremely short, occasionally a paragraph or even just a phrase in length.

Pull up a chair, my little dears, and I’m going to tell you a sad tale of fallen words, a story about how little dears – or should I say words for ‘little’ and for ‘dear’ – started out lovely and beloved and ended up scorned and scornful.

It also gave rise to Latin carus ‘dear’, which is the source of such words as French chéri(e) and English charity.

And it also gave rise to Proto-Slavic *kury and to Germanic *hōraz, *hōrǭ, and *hōrą.

The meaning of *kury foretells the sense of its descendants in all of the Slavic languages: ‘whore’.

This barely begins to address the thorny and twisted social attitudes towards sex work, of course – it’s just an insight into etymology and the effects of ide…

The book also features what appears to be the word’s antonym: the phrase ass up.

So what do slang experts have on unass and ass up?

GDoS also has two senses for ass up: ‘take drugs’, in US Black slang, and as part of the phrase ass up to, meaning ‘toady to, curry favour’, dating to at least 1970 per the Dictionary of American Regional English.

Wiktionary has unass ‘get out of (a vehicle or building)’, and there are some inevitable half-assed entries in Urban Dictionary.

But you can bet your arse I’ll find a way to use unass in conversation today.

On my blog about British words and expressions adopted in America, Not One-Off-Britishisms, I’ve written briefly a couple of times about “bollocks,” originally meaning testicles and since used in all sorts of colorful ways.

I imagine that the move to acceptability occurred following the 1977 album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols.

It’s this: American “bollix up” does not derive from “ballocks”=”testicles,” but rather from an older verb with a different etymology, “ball.” The OED‘s first definition: “Of a shoe (esp.

Also with the horse as subject.” The dictionary has citations, all but one American, dating from 1760.

The expression “balls-up,” mentioned previously, meaning a b…

Rather than see masks as an annoyance, why not regard them as an opportunity for self-expression?

(Hat tip: Jordie Welles)Here’s a highly specific sport mask for baseball fans who give zero fucks about rival pastimes.

Each of these perky designs—I’m a Ray of Fucking Sunshine, Fresh Out of Fucks, and Zero Fucks Given—will set you back $14.

used in place of an obscenity, especially in comic strips.” Logo-adorned swag includes pillows, mugs, T-shirts, notebooks, and, of course, reusable masks.

You can also buy the fabric by the yard for sewing your own masks, curtains, quilts—you name it.

Once upon a time, dear StrongLangers, we made a promise to keep you regularly updated with interesting sweary tidbits from the Wide World of Web.

It has been, we note with embarrassment, more than 30 months since we posted Sweary Links #25.

Not with 30 months of links: are you fucking kidding?

An excerpt:Scripts were sent to Ian Martin, a comedy writer from Lancashire tasked with making the swearing more creative.

pic.twitter.com/Yh3gB7B4A4 — Jesse Sheidlower (@jessesheidlower) May 12, 2020*[Dont forget to say “tennis.” Don’t forget to say “tennis.” Don’t forget to say “tennis”…] pic.twitter.com/X3Ia2CRqkA — David Hobby (@strobist) May 17, 2020*Question posed:Question answered:*How should w…

When John Boorman and his team were filming Deliverance in rural southeast US, they faced difficulties not only in handling the unforgiving location but also in making certain scenes suitable for eventual TV broadcasting.

One scene in particular proved a challenge: Jon Voight and Ned Beatty’s brutal encounter with two sadistic locals in the woods.

According to Boorman, the film’s producers suggested that he shoot the scene two different ways, so that there’d be a version suitable for TV.

That directive led to the film’s most famous line, spoken by Bill McKinney playing Mountain Man: ‘Squeal like a pig’ (squeallikeapig.com, incidentally, was McKinney’s website address).

‘Squeal like a pig’ w…

Where ordinary words water our worlds with a garden hose, taboo words open a fire hydrant.

Cognitive psychologists rely on this fact; they sometimes use taboo words as distractors in stimulus-response experiments to slow down responses in contrast with ordinary words.

So why do we use taboo words in certain circumstances?

Taboo words are charged with a strong emotion and a sense of danger and of breaking norms, and they zap the discourse with that charge when we deploy them.

Language is behaviour, and loose use of taboo language is by definition misbehaviour.

And here in the virtual Strong Language enclave, we’re thinking about illness-inspired swearing.

But in two European languages, Dutch and Yiddish, the tradition of sickness-cursing is alive and thriving.

In American English you “laugh your ass off”; in Dutch you “laugh yourself the pleurisy” (lachen je de pleuris).

(Pleurisy is an inflammation of the pleura, the thin layers of tissue that separate the lungs from the chest wall.)

A kramp (a kram, a kortsh) im in layb (in boyakh, in di kishkes, in di gederem, in di finger).

This comes to us from aviation, where the throttles are topped with knobs and are pushed fully forward for maximum power.

First, the OED has no record of the term “monkey” or “brass monkey” used this way.

And third, a pyramid of cannonballs on the rolling deck of a wooden ship is a laughably bad idea.

In literature, in the period circa 1850–1930, we find examples of “blow the nose off a brass monkey,” “shave the whiskers off a brass monkey,” “freeze the tail off a brass monkey,” and Thomas Wolfe wrote “It would freeze the balls off a brass monkey — that’s how cold it gets.” It’s looking pretty solid that we’re talking testicles here.

It ain’t his natural stuff, he couldn’t break a wind-er p…

I have been disappointed, not least because some game inventors and game publishers indulge the same cynical punning on WTF as The Troll Pub.

To win, one of your fish cards has to swim to freedom, which is confusing, because cards don’t swim.

Where, on the superstore shelf, would I find a profanity game?

Well, I didn’t find the profanity game of my daydreams, but at least I have a bunch of new games for game nights.

Still, we need a good game about profanity for people who like profanity.

First off, those little dots that appear in words like coöperation aren’t umlauts: they’re diaereses.

That is, the second o in coöperate has a diaeresis over it, but you’d say that the New Yorker uses diaereses in words with doubled vowels.

The word diaeresis comes from the Ancient Greek word for ‘division’, from diairein ‘to divide, separate’, from dia– ‘apart’ + hairein ‘take’.

Umlauts look just like diaereses—you could call diaereses and umlauts homoglyphic—but they’re used in a very different way and have a distinct origin.

For example, the modern German word schön was written schoene in Middle High German (around 1050 to 1350 AD).

The “Only” Comma, pt.

For this reason, in his book Dreyer’s English, Benjamin Dreyer calls the comma before a nonrestrictive appositive the “only” comma.

I gave her a controversial opinion: I would leave the comma out, because it simply doesn’t matter how many brothers Ryan has.

And even if they are, are they expecting that information to be communicated via a comma or the lack thereof?

Many of them don’t know what the comma is supposed to mean or even that it’s supposed to mean something.

My Latest for Grammar Girl: “Verbing Nouns and Nouning Verbs”A lot of people dislike it when nouns like task and dialogue are turned into verbs, but this process has been a normal part of English for centuries.

In my latest piece for Grammar Girl, I explain why we should all relax a little about verbing nouns.

Read the whole piece or listen to the episode here.

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Get 20 Percent Off at the Arrant Pedantry StoreToday and tomorrow only, you can get 20 percent off T-shirts and other items at the Arrant Pedantry Store.

Just use the code ANYTHING20 at checkout.

And remember that you can customize the design color and even put the designs on other items, including mugs and phone cases.

Just hit the pencil icon below the item and then pick the product you want.

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The Style Guide Alignment ChartI’ve been thinking a lot about style guides lately, and I decided that what the world really needs right now is the definitive style guide alignment chart.

Neutral Good: The MLA Handbook“A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do.” Look, the MLA Handbook certainly tries to do what’s right, even if it can’t make up its mind sometimes.

Lawful Neutral: The Elements of Style“A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs her.” The Elements of Style, a.k.a.

Chaotic Evil: Publication Manual of the American Psychological AssociationA chaotic evil character is “arbitrarily violent” and “unpredictable.” Have you ever…

That’s My Name; Please Wear It OutRegular readers of this blog have probably noticed that my name has a slightly unusual spelling: it’s Jonathon rather than Jonathan.

My parents thought the -on form was the usual spelling, so that’s what they put on my birth certificate.

On a whim, I said Jon, so that’s what everyone called me.

And that’s how I’ve remained ever since.

But because of their similar forms, people conflate Jon and John and then start spelling Jonathan like Johnathan.

20 Percent Off at the Arrant Pedantry StoreThere’s a sale going on at the Arrant Pedantry Store today and tomorrow only.

Just use the code LOVE19 at checkout to get 20 percent off any order—there’s no minimum purchase.

And if you haven’t visited the store in a while, you might want to check out some of my new designs.

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Science and ShitA recent discussion on Twitter about whether the line “I’m gonna have to science the shit out out of this” was in Andy Weir’s book The Martian or was only found in the movie reminded me of one of my favorite facts: science and shit are related.

So let’s science the shit out of this etymology.

This means that shit probably started out as a euphemism.

In English, shit was fairly neutral for a long while and apparently didn’t become taboo until around 1600, at which point it mostly disappeared from print.

In Latin, the PIE root *skey gave rise to the verb scire ‘to know, to understand’.

An Etymological WorkoutIf you’re like me and are still trying to get back into the swing of things after a nice holiday break, you might be having a little trouble focusing on work.

You might even be suffering from a mild case of ergophobia, or the fear of work.

Work comes from the Proto-Germanic *werkam, which in turn comes from the Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom, ultimately from the root *werǵ ‘to make’.

It also apparently gives us the name George, a name meaning ‘farmer’ or ‘husbandman’, which comes from ge ‘earth’ + ergon ‘work’, literally ‘earth worker’.

The Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom also yielded the Germanic bulwark (literally ‘bole work’ or ‘tree work’), which originally meant a defen…

Black Friday Sale at the Arrant Pedantry StoreIt’s Black Friday (ugh), but from now through Sunday, everything at the Arrant Pedantry Store is 15 percent off (yay!).

Now’s a great chance to get a word-nerdy shirt for that special someone in your life (or for yourself).

Or if you wait until Monday, you can get 15 percent off and free shipping, which I think is the best sale that Spreadshirt has ever offered.

Just hit the Customize button, find the design you want, and put it on whatever product you want.

You can put Battlestar Grammatica on an iPhone case or I Could Care Fewer on a tote bag.

Q: As much as I dislike the overuse of the phrase, I had a “Wait, what?” moment this morning when I realized that “capitulate” means to yield, so “recapitulate” should mean to yield again, but it doesn’t.

A: When the two words showed up in mid-16th century writing, the usual meaning of “capitulate” was to draw up an agreement or a statement, and the usual sense of “recapitulate” was to summarize the main points of such an understanding.

The Latin usage is the source of our word “chapter.”The Oxford English Dictionary defines this early sense of “capitulate” as to “draw up articles of agreement; to propose terms; to treat, parley, negotiate; to stipulate; to come to terms, to agree.

The dict…

Increasingly, I’ve seen it used to mean nasty.

An essay on Merriam-Webster’s website (“How ‘Mean’ Became Nasty”) notes that the nasty sense of “mean” has “become so widespread in American English” that it is “without question the most frequently used today.”We suspect that the nastiness of “mean” in the US is influencing the way Americans use “mean-spirited.” However, the “nasty” sense of the phrase hasn’t yet made its way into definitions of “mean-spirited” in US dictionaries.

Interestingly, the selfish, nasty, and violent senses of “mean” all showed up around the same time in the 19th century, according to citations in the Oxford English Dictionary.

The use of “mean-spirited” for nasty ap…

Q: What is the difference between “to burgle” and “to burglarize”?

A: Both “burgle” and “burglarize” are respectable, widely used verbs, and they’re recognized as such in all 10 of the standard American and British dictionaries we consult.

Americans prefer “burglarize,” according to some dictionaries, while the British consider “burgle” the verb of choice and see “burglarize” as a North American term.

Nevertheless, critics of “burgle” complain that it’s clipped from “burglarize”—which isn’t even true—while opponents of “burglarize” complain about the suffix.

Only later did “burglarize” come to be the American preference and “burgle” the British.

In Old English, the language was much more inflected than it is now—that is, words changed their forms more often to show their functions.

The first OED citation for “whoever,” which we’ve expanded, is from an Old English sermon in the Lambeth Homilies (circa 1175):“Hwa efre þenne ilokie wel þene sunne dei.

oðer þa oðer halie daʒes þe mon beot in chirche to lokien swa þe sunne dei.

Traditionally, as you know, “who” (like the Old English hwa) is a subject, and “whom” (like hwam) is an object.

If a colleague were to tell me that, my first instinct would be to ask, ‘Who would dare?’ ”]Help support the Grammarphobia Blog with your donation.

Q: I’m curious about the use of “stare” in the W. B. Yeats poem “The Stare’s Nest by My Window.” I couldn’t find a meaning on Google that made sense, and my eyes gave out while staring at the tiny print of my compact OED.

A: The word “stare” in Yeats’s poem is an old term for a starling.

In the poem, Yeats calls on the honey bees building a hive in the crumbling masonry of Thoor Ballylee, the ancient tower he owned in County Galway, to build instead in an empty starling’s nest by his window.

The earliest Oxford citation for the first sense is from an eighth-century Latin-Old English glossary: “Sturnus, staer” (sturnus is Latin for “starling”).

The Yeats poem, part of the lyrical sequence “M…

Q: In an essay on teaching, Bertrand Russell says it’s hard for teachers to maintain their “independence of” the people who pay them.

A: In that essay, “The Functions of a Teacher,” Russell uses the phrase “independence of” in a way that was common in the past but is less so today.

At least that’s what we assume from this comment in the Oxford English Dictionary’s “independence” entry, which hasn’t been fully updated since 1900: “Const.

“A pretence of independence upon secular power” (Oliver Goldsmith, The History of England, From the Earliest Times to the Death of George II, 1771).

Today, “independence from” would be the usual construction, as in this Merriam-Webster example: “She asserted…

Q: Thanks for your recent post about “butt” and “buttock.” How about “butt naked” and “buck naked”?

In fact, “butt naked” may be the more popular term today, as we’ll show later.

The dictionary gives them nearly identical definitions: “buck naked” is “completely without clothing; stark naked,” and “butt naked” is “completely naked, stark naked.” It says the two terms originated and are chiefly used in North America.

A recent search of the NOW Corpus, a database of 4.3 billion words in web-based newspapers and magazines from 2010 to the present, shows these results: “butt naked,” 314 examples; “buck naked,” 187.

A less up-to-date comparison of the two terms with Google’s Ngram Viewer, which …

Q: I’m curious about the use of “hard” and “hardly” in that old play on words, “Are you working hard or hardly working?” Do the two usages have the same derivation or are they from different sources?

A: In Old and Middle English, “hardly” was an adverb meaning energetically, forcefully, strenuously, or fiercely.

The OED, an etymological dictionary based on historical evidence, doesn’t explain why the meaning of “hardly” changed so dramatically.

In Old English, the adverbs “hardly” and “hard” were heardlice and hearde (-lice and -e were adverbial endings).

The OED says the Old English and Middle English senses of “hardly” (energetically, forcefully, strenuously, or fiercely) are now archaic,…

And when the preposition “including” is used in that sense, it too usually refers to only part of something.

Most standard dictionaries say “include” (or “including”) refers to only part of a whole, but some say either word can refer to all the parts.

As for us, we use “include” and “including” for part of something, not all of it.

However, the next Oxford example refers to all members of a group: “Sixteen hundred Children, including Males and Females, put out to Methods of Industry” (the Spectator, Feb. 6, 1712).

Seven of the ten online standard dictionaries we regularly consult say “include” (or “including”) refers to part of a whole.

So when friends call to ask how we’re coping with the coronavirus, I reply, “We’re running low on champagne, but otherwise we’re OK.” Now, why do I say “running low on” something that’s running out?

A: The verb phrase “to run low on” combines a usage from the late 16th century (“to run low,” meaning “to become scarce”) with one from the early 20th (“low on,” meaning “short of”).

The story begins in the 12th century when English adopted the adjective “low” (the opposite of “high”) from various Scandinavian languages.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the phrase “low on” appeared, meaning “short of, deficient in,” according to Oxford citations.

The earliest example we’ve seen for the long…

Is the fixture a “night light,” “night-light,” or “nightlight”?

However, it’s two separate words, “night light,” in Webster’s New World and in a British dictionary, Collins.

And it’s a single unhyphenated word, “nightlight,” in these four British dictionaries: Lexico (the former Oxford Dictionaries Online), Macmillan, Cambridge, and Longman.

It meant “the faint natural light perceptible at night,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary, an etymological dictionary based on historical evidence.

The OED defines this sense as “a light source designed to provide faint illumination in a room at night; spec.

Q: In the last year or so, I’ve been irked to hear mass nouns being replaced by countable counterparts.

Examples: “check the car for damages” … “economic supports for workers” … “non-profits are feeling pressures.” Is this a trend?

A: Let’s begin with “damage.” Yes, it’s a mass noun, but we wouldn’t describe “damages” as a count or countable noun.

Centuries ago, however, both “damage” and “damages” were used to mean a loss as well as compensation for such a loss.

Here’s an example in the Oxford English Dictionary for the plural used in the sense of loss or injury: “Repairing the damages which the kingdom had sustained by war” (The History of England, 1771, by Oliver Goldsmith).

Q: During World War II, my soldier brother used to say “san fairy duckboard” instead of “san fairy ann” when he meant “it doesn’t matter.” I asked him once why he replaced “ann” with “duckboard,” and he said duckboards were everywhere in the army.

We do know that another word familiar from trench warfare, “sandbag,” was merged with “san fairy ann.” The phrase “sandbag Mary Ann” was used as a variation on “san fairy ann.” Well, the French used by English-speaking soldiers may have been wanting, but their English was certainly inventive.

In short, soldiers familiar with both “san fairy ann” and “duckboard” may very well have combined the expressions, even though we can’t point to a published …

Q: I wonder about the derivation of “drunk as a skunk” and other skunkish expressions.

But we believe that “drunk as a skunk,” an American expression that originated in the 1920s, is merely rhyming slang and has no real connection with skunkdom.

The OED’s earliest use of “drunk as a skunk” is less than a century old: “O Dan, you’re drunk!

You’re drunk as a skunk!” (From The Heart of Old Kentucky, collected in New Plays for Mummers, 1926, by Glenn Hughes.)

Our bet is that earlier uses of “drunk as a skunk” will turn up, because the “drunk”/“skunk” rhyme scheme had already suggested itself generations earlier.

Q: I learned the expression “don’t get wrapped around the axle” from my husband, and I frequently use it as a less vulgar way of saying “don’t get your panties in a twist.” He now tells me that the axle expression comes from an exceedingly vulgar joke that I won’t repeat here.

A: The phrase “wrapped around the axle” conjures up the image of a frustrated wagon driver whose reins have gotten tangled in the undercarriage.

As far as we can tell, figurative uses of “wrapped around the axle” didn’t appear until the 1970s, when the phrase meant rule-bound or tangled in bureaucracy.

Both the literal and the figurative uses of “wrapped around the axle” are still around today.

However, those slang us…

WiktionarySo the surname "Wallach" really does have something directly related to Rebecca's idle thoughts on "gelding".

Before tackling "wether" and "Wales / Welsh", then moving upward through Rebecca's packed paragraph, perhaps a few words about "gelding", and why it's not an idle topic at all.

Middle English uses the same words for both Attila's people and the Magyars, who appeared in Europe in 9c.

Old Turkic ‎ (Türk), ‎ (Türük)), but the phonetics are difficult to reconcile.

wether ; bellwether from Old English wether, wether, from Germanic *wethruz, perhaps "yearling" 2.

I don't know whether this is because of some issue with Lexis-Nexis data (the alleged source of Miller's numbers), or with Miller's use of the Lexis-Nexis interface, or what.

But for whatever reason, Miller's numbers are (in all cases where I've checked) seriously at variance with the results of NYT archive search.

Here is a page that whose links will take you to the NYT archive searches for the word "racism" in each year from 1970 to 2019.

The sequences as presented in his graphs are clearly different from the counts given by NYT archive search.

And the true sequences (or at least the results from the NYT archive) generally differ from Miller's graphs in ways that undermine his conclusions.

« previous post |Barbara Partee asked me to comment on this thread by Arram Sabeti — crucial bit here:2/ The data makes it plain that the NYT has abandoned its commitment to nonpartisan reporting.

pic.twitter.com/R7s7E7Mc4H — Arram Sabeti (@arram) July 28, 2020Here are my comments, copied from her Facebook post, and slightly edited:It's not easy to evaluate Sabeti's NYT-bashing tweet thread.

He doesn't compare the results to similar data from other sources.

increasing frequency of words like "sexist" and "racist" and "transgender" over the past decade or so, reaching a recent peak?

This is not to say that the NYT is or has ever been an unbiased source.

« previous post |This is the logo of Legco, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong:It is a stylization of the "lap6 立" ("set up; erect; establish; enact") of:Hoeng1gong2 dak6bit6 hang4zing3 keoi1 lap6faat3 wui6 (Jyutping)Hēunggóng dahkbiht hàhngjing kēui laahpfaat wúih (Yale)Xiānggǎng tèbié xíngzhèng qū lìfǎ huì (Hanyu pinyin)香港特別行政區立法會now written in PRC simplified characters as香港特别行政区立法会"Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region"or, for short:Laap6faat3 wui5 (Jyutping)Laahp faat wúih (Yale)Lìfǎ Huì (Hanyu pinyin)立法會now written in PRC simplified characters as立法会"Legislative Council"Here's the Legco logo as reimagined by the endlessly creative graphic designers of the …

« previous post |In a statement on 7/29, Kevin McCarthy apparently meant to say "Congressman Gohmert" but what comes out is "Congressman Covid":Kevin McCarthy accidentally calls Louie Gohmert "Congressman COVID" pic.twitter.com/UcQcvHtEU9 — The Recount (@therecount) July 29, 2020This error is a perfect example of a "Fay-Cutler malapropism" — for an explanation of that phase, see "Defendants wrongly committed of a crime" 8/4/2011.

Note that Covid and Gohmert are both disyllabic proper nouns with initial stress on the vowel /o/, starting with a velar stop (/k/ vs. /g/) and ending with a coronol stop (/d/ vs. /t/).

Your browser does not support the audio element.

We want to be able to trace it…

Here are three replies:Linda Chance:To my mind, kawaii かわいい has four onsetsu 音節 (whether those are syllables or not is another debate).

Kaua'i カウアイ has four, and would not be confused with the first four-onsetsu word.

My understanding is that the number of syllables is the same, but the Japanese does not have the glottal stop found in Kaua'i.

Part of the problem, at least for me (VHM), is the difference between onsetsu and syllables, also moras, for that matter.

See, for example:Seiichiro Inaba, "Moras, Syllables, and Feet in Japanese", Language, Information and Computation (PACLIC12), 18-20 Feb, 1998, 106-117.

« previous post |From Lisa Nichols:I noticed on Twitter some HK protest folks last night talking about being a "handfoot", seemingly a newly coined (punned?)

I take it the meaning is a person on the streets, on the frontlines, but maybe something more than that.

The Cantonese term is sau2zuk1 手足 ("hands and feet; brothers"); in Mandarin it would be pronounced shǒuzú and has the same meanings.

Another term meaning "hands and feet" is shǒujiǎo 手腳; in Cantonese, that is pronounced sau2goek3.

Aside from the literal meaning of "hands and feet", 手腳 also has the figurative meaning of "movement of limbs; action; trick".

Although they don't tell us what it means, they say that "Even most of Chinese people don't know how to read it."

I would say that 99.999+% of Chinese people don't know how to read it, how to write it, and what it means.

Before people get all excited about this new "hardest character to write", three notes of caution:1.

The Chinese writing system is notoriously open-ended, so anyone with enough chutzpah is free to invent their own "hardest Chinese character" at any time.

Don't waste a goodly part of your life by trying to memorize how to write this st*p*d "character".

The "intellectual" author of the volume is He Dian, the second most powerful officer of the public security department in the northeastern province of Jilin.

The title of his 336-page tome is Píng'ān jīng 平安經, to which the English name Peace Mantra has become attached.

A chapter titled “Let China’s railway stations be safe” reads: “Let Beijing Railway Station be safe, let Xi’an Railway Station be safe, let Zhengzhou Railway Station be safe, let Shanghai’s Hongqiao Railway Station be safe …”Yet despite its content, the book was endorsed and recommended by a long list of local government offices and Communist Party -approved groups after being cleared for publication by the state-controlled p…

Probably the people who chose and promoted the term (pandemic) pod had forgotten about the 1956 movie or its remakes.

318 Jet pods are mounted beneath the wings.

1963 New Scientist 9 May 320/3 Rides are being ‘hitch-hiked’ on Atlas rockets for pods of space instruments.

Aug. 13/1 A rotating radome, or radar pod, is mounted on two struts above the rear section of the fuselage.

1 a The sheriff fired him..because he ‘aimed and dry fired’ a high-powered rifle..into the prisoner pods at the jail.

The former is generally considered to mean "organ; instrument", while the latter is considered to mean "engine; machine; mechanism; body organ; organization, institute, agency, authority, establishment; facility".

In Mandarin, the former is pronounced qìguān and is held to mean "organ; apparatus", while the latter (機關) is pronounced jīguān and is held to mean "organ; body; office; mechanism; stratagem; intrigue; scheme; gear".

The theory of the Emperor as an organ of government (the theory of the nation state as a juridical body) that the Emperor is an organ of the state possessing no authority over and above the state, who exercised power only as the highest organ of the state was widely a…

It's about another name for a similar type of vessel called qīqì 欹器, "tilting vessel".

The qīqì (欹器, "tilting vessel" or "tipping vessel") was an ancient Chinese ceremonial utensil that automatically overturned and spilled its contents once it reached capacity, thus symbolizing moderation and caution.

As with many arcane implements from antiquity, the terminology for the tilting / tipping vessel is challenging:"Phonetic loan characters", using an existing character to be read as a substitution for another of similar or identical pronunciation, have complicated interpreting several "tilting vessel" names.

It had an overflow tube that transferred surplus water to a miniature waterfall, pond, …

However, sequence design remains a hard problem due to the exponentially many synonymous mRNA sequences that encode the same protein.

We show that this design problem can be reduced to a classical problem in formal language theory and computational linguistics that can be solved in O(n^3) time, where n is the mRNA sequence length.

We also develop two algorithms for incorporating the codon optimality into the design, one based on k-best parsing to find alternative sequences and one directly incorporating codon optimality into the dynamic programming.

Our work provides efficient computational tools to speed up and improve mRNA vaccine development.

From that paper's abstract:We describe a dyna…

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The Because Internet audiobook is read by its author and Lingthusiasm cohost, Gretchen McCulloch.

Only there’s one problem: where’s our other cohost, Lauren Gawne?

The solution: we have now recorded a reaction track of Lauren saying “ah,” “mhm,” “yup” and other appropriate backchannelling for you to play on loop alongside the Because Internet audiobook!

Bonus: this reaction track also makes all your other audiobooks 50% more Lingthusiastic!

Get Because Internet, a book about internet linguistics for anyone you communicate with online, right here, in paper, ebook, or audiobook form (and newly in paperback!

Lingthusiasm Episode 46: Hey, no problem, bye!

In this episode, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch get enthusiastic about the social dance of phatic expressions.

Different cultures highlight the similarities and differences between music and language in various ways, which we’ve received lots of questions about!

You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening, and stay tuned for a transcript of this episode on the Lingthusiasm website.

To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.

Different cultures highlight the similarities and differences between music and language in various ways, which we’ve received lots of questions about!

New masksBy popular demand, our IPA, Tree and Esoteric Symbol designs are now available on these new non-medical reusable fabric masks from Redbubble.

On our store you’ll find the white IPA characters on black, red or navy, and the esoteric symbols in white on black or green on black.

Also check out our Schwa (Never Stressed) pins, IPA scarves, IPA socks, and more at RedBubble.

Listen to the linguistics with kids bonus episode and get access to 40 more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.

Transcript Episode 45: Tracing languages back before recorded historyThis is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 45: Tracing languages back before recorded history.

I think the language that a lot of people think of when we think about reconstructing historical languages is this language called Proto-Indo-European.

But most of the languages spoken in Europe, and a large number of languages spoken in India, all have this relationship.

Any language that’s preceded by a “proto” is something that’s been reconstructed.

A lot of their words for things in the North American continent became the English words for the items as well.

Lingthusiasm Episode 45: Tracing languages back before recorded historyLanguage is much older than writing.

In this episode, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch get enthusiastic about these prehistoric languages that historical linguists have reconstructed, known as proto-languages.

—This month’s bonus episode is about doing linguistics with kids!

Support Lingthusiasm on Patreon to get access to this and 39 other bonus episodes, and to chat with fellow lingthusiasts in the Lingthusiasm patron Discord.

To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that if you put a linguist within 5 metres of a child, that linguist suddenly becomes an acquisitionist.

Child language acquisition is a perennial source of entertainment for the linguistically-inclined – and so is helping any young people in your life develop an interest in linguistics.

Now thanks to Rebubbles new merch line we have ‘ə never stressed’ pin badges/buttons, and stickers.

We’ve also expanded our range of 'Not judging your grammar, just analysing it’ merch to include stickers, as well as all merch options with US spelling.

Listen to the linguistics with kids bonus episode and get access to 39 more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm o…

Transcript Episode 44: Schwa, the most versatile English vowelThis is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 44: Schwa, the most versatile English vowel.

Lauren: We talked a teeny bit about schwa in that episode, but I have been wanting to do an episode all about schwa for ages.

Gretchen: You also get this optional schwa sound with Es at the end of the word in French.

Lauren: This is where the rules of English syllables interact with the rules of what sounds can go into them.

But the annoying thing – this fact that you can write any English vowel letter for the sound schwa – is also a fact about the structure of English.

Lingthusiasm Episode 44: Schwa, the most versatile English vowelThe words about, broken, council, potato, and support have something in common – they all contain the same sound, even though they each spell it with a different letter.

In this episode of Lingthusiasm, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about why the schwa is cool enough to get its own name!

We also talk about why the word schwa doesn’t itself have a schwa in it, the origin of the word schwa in Hebrew and German, the relationship between schwa and “silent e”, and how schwa contributes to an English-sounding accent in other languages.

–This month’s bonus episode is about numbers!

Support Lingthusias…

Numbers are one of those topics that reminds us that humans go about the world in meat suits – in particular, meat suits with 10 fingers.

Some also include other body parts, like the toes or even protrusions like the elbow, shoulder, and nose.

In this episode, Gretchen and Lauren get enthusiastic about number systems in different languages!

Announcements:We’ve met our goal for the LingComm Grant, so we’ll now be giving out $500 grants to support FOUR linguistics communication projects!

Listen to the numbers bonus episode and get access to 38 more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.

AboutA podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne.

A lively, deep, language-y conversation with real linguists!

"Joyously nerdy" –Buzzfeed.

New episodes (free!)

the third Thursday of the month.

Transcript Episode 43: The grammar of singular they - Interview with Kirby ConrodThis is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 43: The grammar of singular they - Interview with Kirby Conrod.

Well, I’m gonna make my own English major out of spare parts.” What I did was I decided, “Okay.

Kirby: It’s really, really cool.

That’s really, really compelling.

But if I’m talking about Rory, even if we know that I’m talking about the same person – especially if we know that I’m talking about the same person – I can’t say, “He likes themself.”Gretchen: Right.

More recently, people have also been using singular they to refer to a specific person, as in “Alex left their umbrella”.

In this episode, your host Gretchen McCulloch interviews Dr Kirby Conrod, a linguist who wrote their dissertation about the syntax and sociolinguistics of singular they.

Support Lingthusiasm on Patreon to gain access to the teaching linguistics episode and 37 previous bonus episodes, and to chat with fellow lingthusiasts in the Lingthusiasm patron Discord.

You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening, and stay tuned for a transcript of this episode on the Lingthusiasm website.

To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the…

AboutA podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne.

A lively, deep, language-y conversation with real linguists!

"Joyously nerdy" –Buzzfeed.

New episodes (free!)

the third Thursday of the month.

Content note for synesthetes: This episode talks about the general phenomenon of letters and numbers having colours but it doesn’t talk about specific mappings of symbol to colour, e.g.

We want to reassure you that Lingthusiasm is already a distributed, internet-based project so we’ll be continuing to put out our regular episodes and bonus episodes which don’t talk about news or current events and are hopefully a nice distraction for you.

If you’re looking for other breaks from the social media news cycle, we’re also really enjoying the community that’s growing in the Lingthusiasm Discord.

We’ve also started an email newsletter called Mutual Intelligibility where we summarize resources avai…

It’s a hard questionThis is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 42: What makes a language “easy”?

I think this goes really to the heart of some really interesting non-classroom-based language learning contexts for second language learners, especially in the minority language and language revitalisation context.

I did an interview with Ake Nicholas for Lingthusiasm previously about language learning in language revitalisation contexts.

Lauren: Even beyond the classroom, you have language learning situations in what are known as either master-apprentice language learning programs or language nests which really focus on communication.

It’s an interesting way of fitting language learning into…

CREDITS:The Allusionist is part of Radiotopia from PRX, a collective of excellent podcasts.

This month, the Allusionist is sponsored by:• Bombas socks, thoughtfully engineered for comfort and durability - and for every pair of socks you buy, Bombas donates a pair to someone in need.

Allusionist listeners get 10% off the original base game Catan at catanshop.com/allusionist by using the promo code ALLUSIONIST at checkout.

Get started today at betterhelp.com/allusionist and receive a 10% discount off your first month with the discount code ALLUSIONIST.

For 10% off your first air purifier order, visit molekule.com and at checkout enter the code allusionist10.

CREDITS:The Allusionist is part of Radiotopia from PRX, a collective of excellent podcasts.

This month, the Allusionist is sponsored by:• Bombas socks, thoughtfully engineered for comfort and durability - and for every pair of socks you buy, Bombas donates a pair to someone in need.

Allusionist listeners get 10% off the original base game Catan at catanshop.com/allusionist by using the promo code ALLUSIONIST at checkout.

Get started today at betterhelp.com/allusionist and receive a 10% discount off your first month with the discount code ALLUSIONIST.

For 10% off your first air purifier order, visit molekule.com and at checkout enter the code allusionist10.

The Scots language didn’t have much of an LGBTQ+ lexicon.

Read more about Josie’s work on the LGBTQ+ lexicon, including a lot more terms, at bit.ly/lgbtscots.

There are some previous Allusionist episodes that go alongside this episode, including:Oot in the Open, about the Scots language, oppressed for hundreds of years and even people of my generation were beaten at school for using it.

Queer, about the changing usage of the word ‘queer’.

And for Pride month, there’s this early episode about the choice of the word ‘pride’.

Content note: though the episode is educational and thoroughly untitillating - I know, I know, what a disappointment - the nature of the topic is such that the episode may not be suitable for all audiences or circumstances.

About winged penises.

Very interesting history of Holywell Street, the hotbed of Victorian porn bookshops that has since been demolished.

About the Secret Museum in Naples, where the excavated Pompeiian sexual art was bricked up for 100 years.

Read the first appearance of ‘pornographer’ in Athenaeus’s Deipnosophistae, if you so wish…

More information about how the 1939 poster campaign was put together…then taken apart.

This video about the poster turning up at Barter Books makes Barter Books look like the prettiest bookshop in the world!

Most fun way to stabilise bookcases I can think of.

More background about the poster campaign from the Imperial War Museum.

By Owen Hatherley: “The poster isn’t just a case of the return of the repressed, it is rather the return of repression itself.

The Tranquillusionists have recently been recommended in Vox, the Financial Times and the Observer!

Martin has made several albums, which you can hear at palebirdmusic.com and if you search for Pale Bird on Spotify.

The Allusionist proper will be back from break in May.

Let me know how you’re doing; I’m @allusionistshow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

- HZThe Allusionist is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

The beautiful music in this episode was specially composed by Martin Austwick.

Martin has made several albums, which you can hear at palebirdmusic.com and if you search for Pale Bird on Spotify.

The Allusionist proper will be back from break in May.

I am relieved to tell you that today I finished the owl jigsaw puzzle that has been vexing me since the previous Tranquillusionist.

- HZThe Allusionist is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

The beautiful music in this episode was specially composed by Martin Austwick, based on the chords of ‘Imagine’ in alphabetical order.

Martin has made several albums, which you can hear at palebirdmusic.com and if you search for Pale Bird on Spotify.

The Allusionist proper will be back from break in May.

Let me know how you’re doing; I’m @allusionistshow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

- HZThe Allusionist is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Cursory analysis of the 343 words you submitted shows that the most soothing words start with the letter S, with 70 submissions, and the most soothing word is ‘mellifluent’, chosen by nine of you; closely followed by ‘murmur’, ‘murmuration’, and versions of ‘susurrus’.

And of course all the Radiotopia shows are excellent forms of distraction.

And friend of the show Eleanor McDowall has launched the marvellously relaxing Field Recordings, recordings of people standing in fields.

- HZThe Allusionist is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

PS If you enjoyed Martin’s music this episode AND the word ‘petrichor’:

In the meantime, listen to my other podcasts Veronica Mars Investigations (we just completed Veronica Mars season 1) and Answer Me This.

Here’s an interview about the Allusionist in Podcast The Newsletter.

This month, the Allusionist is sponsored by:• Babbel, the language-learning app that will help you speak a new language with confidence.

Visit babbel.com to find out more, and text ALLUSIONIST to 484848 to try it for free.

Go to squarespace.com/allusion for a free trial, and use the code ALLUSION to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Alie Ward and I cover etymologies of words including ‘buxom’, ‘mediocre’, ‘coccyx’, ‘lacuna’, bust some etymological myths, discuss some broader attitudes towards language, and wonder why so many people hate the word ‘moist’.

Here’s one final Allusionist for 2019: a quiz all about words, for you to play along with as you listen.

Get a pen and paper, or there’s an answer form all ready for your clicks just down this post.

Do let me know how you fare in the quiz and puzzles at twitter.com/allusionistshow and facebook.com/allusionistshow.

Along with the warm glow of satisfaction at helping us make more of the podcasts you like, you can get such rewards as challenge coins, stickers, AND an audio recording of the Allusionist 2019 live show No Title!

I wanted a numerical amount that looked like a word, and 435 is pretty much YES in calculator font, plus 80085 seemed too expensive.

To celebrate Radiotopia’s annual fundraiser, here’s a special episode about the word that brought us all together… aaand a lot of you hate it.

If you love podcasts, or more specifically this podcast, or slightly less specifically but still quite specifically the podcasts in the Radiotopia collective, get involved by making a donation at Radiotopia.fm!

You can get swag that’s exclusive to this fundraiser, or just pay for the glow of satisfaction at funding the audiotainment we make.

As well as paying for the audio itself, of course - your donations help us keep our shows going.

Check out my ever-expanding collection of portmanteaus and if you see one in the wild, do take a photo and send it …

Steven Yardley of Milne & Yardley talks about the disappearing craft of hand engraving.

Wearing their grandmothers’ rings, Lisa Hack connects to family she doesn’t know, and Freddy McConnell to the family he does.

When Eeva Sarlin’s ex-boyfriend lost her Leatherman multitool, she thought she’d never see it again - and were it not for an engraving, she wouldn’t have.

And Arlie Adlington, who reports this episode, had words engraved into his ring to remind him of his reality when others threaten to ruin it.

Hear the first of the pair of Engraving episodes, about epitaphs, at theallusionist.org/epitaph.

CEDAR: Yeah, yeah.

BEN: Yeah, yeah.

CEDAR: Yeah, yeah.

CEDAR: Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We’re talking to pronoun expert Dennis Baron on this episode of Talk the Talk.

(with Dennis Baron)Download this episodePromoTtT promo 2020-02-18 with Tom Reynolds: Theyhttps://www.patreon.com/posts/34128392Patreon extras for this episodeEpisode 394: What’s Your Pronoun?

(with Dennis Baron) coming soonReflections on 394: What’s Your Pronoun?

394: What’s Your Pronoun?

Become a Patreon supporter yourself and get access to bonus audio and video, extra blog posts, Talk the Talk merch, our infamous Leave That In!

We’re listening to your responses on this episode of Talk the Talk.

Listen to this episode393: Push and Pull (Live Q&A)Download this episodePromoTtT promo 2020-02-12 with Tom Reynolds: Pushhttps://www.patreon.com/posts/33954936Patreon extras for this episodeEpisode 393: Push and Pull for everyonePatreon supportersWe’re very grateful for the support from our burgeoning community of patrons, includingAdieCarolinChrisdcctor wohLyssaTermyBobKristoferMattAndrewKittyLord MortisHelenBinhJackNigelDamienDustinLarryMichaelWhitneyGillesYou’re helping us to keep the talk happening!

Become a Patreon supporter yourself and get access to bonus audio and video, extra blog posts, Talk the Talk merch, our in…

Daniel and Ben are speaking to Jane Setter, author of Your Voice Speaks Volumes, on this episode of Talk the Talk.

Listen to this episode391: Your Voice (with Jane Setter)Download this episodePromo with Tom ReynoldsTtT promo 2020-02-04 with Tom Reynolds: Voicehttps://www.patreon.com/posts/33819937Patreon extras for this episodeEpisode 392: Your Voice (with Jane Setter) for everyoneReflections on 392: Your Voice for patronsLeave That In!

392: Voice (with Jane Setter) for patronsPatreon supportersWe’re very grateful for the support from our burgeoning community of patrons, includingAdieCarolinChrisdcctor wohLyssaTermyBobKristoferMattAndrewKittyLord MortisHelenBinhJackNigelDamienDustinLarryMic…

It’s Word of the Year time, and there are more words than ever before.

We bring you the results from the yearly American Dialect Society vote, and from dictionaries around the world on this episode of Talk the Talk.

Listen to this episode391: Words of the Year 2019Download this episodePromo with Tom ReynoldsTtT promo 2019-01-28 with Tom Reynolds: WotY2019https://www.patreon.com/posts/ttt-promo-2019-33513355Patreon extras for this episodeEpisode 391: Words of the Year 2019 for everyoneLeave That In!

391: WotY2019 for patronsPatreon supportersWe’re very grateful for the support from our burgeoning community of patrons, includingAidieCarolinChrisLyssaKateTermyBobKristoferMattAndrewKittyLord Mo…

Just about every week, we bring you the Words of the Week.

Which word from 2019 will listeners vote to make Talk the Talk‘s Word of the Year?

Become a Patreon supporter yourself and get access to bonus audio and video, extra blog posts, Talk the Talk merch, our infamous Leave That In!

Show notesWhich of our Words of the Week should become the Talk the Talk Word of the Week of the Year?

pic.twitter.com/oYOGjPKvRr — Talk the Talk (@talkpod) December 2, 2019 Twitter threadWhich of our Words of the Week should become the Talk the Talk Word of the Week of the Year?They're all here as… Posted by Talk the Talk on Monday, December 2, 2019 Facebook threadA literal paradox: “literally” generally mean…

All on this episode of Talk the Talk.

Listen to this episode389: Mailbag of PronounsDownload this episodePromo with Tom ReynoldsTtT promo 2019-12-03 with Tom Reynolds: Disgruntledhttps://www.patreon.com/posts/32138603Patreon extras for this episodeEpisode 389: Mailbag of Pronouns for everyoneLeave That In!

389: Mailbag for patronsPatreon supportersWe’re very grateful for the support from our burgeoning community of patrons, includingAdieCarolinChrisdcctor wohLyssaTermyAndyBinhBobDamienDustinElíasHelenJackKittyKristoferLarryLord MortisMattMichaelWhitneyYou’re helping us to keep the talk happening!

Become a Patreon supporter yourself and get access to bonus audio and video, extra blog posts, …

You may think you have a sense about this, but the answers may surprise you.

We’re talking to forensic linguist Professor Georgina Heydon on this episode of Talk the Talk.

Listen to this episode388: Lies, All Lies (with Georgina Heydon, Heather Wilson, and Amanda Hamilton-Hollaway)Download this episodePromo with Tom ReynoldsTtT promo 2019-11-26 with Tom Reynolds: Lieshttps://www.patreon.com/posts/31859292Patreon extras for this episodeEpisode 388: Lies, All Lies for everyoneInterview with Georgina Heydon (complete) for patronsPatreon supportersWe’re very grateful for the support from our burgeoning community of patrons, includingAdieCarolinChrisdcctor wohLyssaTermyAndyBinhBobDamienDustinElí…

We’re talking to Dr Maïa Ponsonnet on this episode of Talk the Talk.

Listen to this episode387: The Language of Emotion (with Maïa Ponsonnet)Download this episodePromo with Tom ReynoldsTtT promo 2019-11-20 with Tom Reynolds: Vibe check!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/31709698Patreon extras for this episodeEpisode 387: The Language of Emotion (with Maïa Ponsonnet) for everyoneReflections on 387: The Language of Emotion for patronsInterview with Steven Gagau and Jodie Kell of Toksave (complete) for patronsLeave That In!

387: Emotion (with Maïa Ponsonnet) for patronsPatreon supportersWe’re very grateful for the support from our burgeoning community of patrons, includingAdieCarolinChrisdcctor wo…

If you speak a language besides English, you know that there are some idioms that English is missing, or just doesn’t do as well.

We want to hear them on this episode of Talk the Talk.

Download this episodePromo with Tom ReynoldsOK Boomerhttps://www.patreon.com/posts/31504452Patreon extras for this episodeEpisode 386: English Needs These Idioms (Live Q&A) coming soonReflections on 386: English Needs These Idioms coming soonPatreon supportersWe’re very grateful for the support from our burgeoning community of patrons, includingAdieCarolinChrisdcctor wohLyssaTermyAndyBinhBobDamienDustinElíasHelenJackKittyKristoferLarryLord MortisMattMichaelWhitneyYou’re helping us to keep the talk happening!

…

George and Joey Windsor use the various names of COVID-19 as a jumping off point to talk about naming diseases.

Note that this episode was recorded in March, and quite a lot has changed in the intervening time.

Top of Show Greeting: ChátsuSpecial mentions (from top of show note): A list of BLM charities, When We Stay In, Corley English (YouTube, Bilibili, website)LInks and Resources:

Links:Script:Welcome to Conlangery, the podcast about constructed languages and the people who create them.

In what time I have, I’ve been able to do a little bit of conlanging, and I wanted to share a little bit about my plans there.

Before we get to that, Conlangery is entirely supported by our patrons on Patreon.

I’m going to link to the Google Docs where I’m working on these languages so people can look at what I’ve done so far.

I’m probably going to be seeking feedback about my migrations and such, as I’m getting a bit out of my depth there.

George brings on David J Peterson and Jesse Sams to talk about their new livestreaming adventure, LangTime Studio.

Top of Show Greeting: NekāchtiTranscript

So, “The river runs north,” versus, “I ran a six-minute mile.” I think that’s a pretty clear example.

George: That’s really interesting the way that you do that.

That’s really interesting, especially taking into consideration that it is a posteriori and so you had to work within historical context.

George: That’s great.

Follow us on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter by searching for “Conlangery.” Conlangery is entirely supported by our patrons at Patreon.

George brings on two conlanger DMs, Joey Windsor and David J Peterson, to discuss how to incorporate conlanging into Dungeons and Dragons and other role-playing games.

Joey: Well, I’m gonna take the cue like, George, you already brought out Matt Colville as a DM.

Joey: Not as much as I want to, and I think that’s a matter of time.

So, you’re definitely gonna have more than one spouse unless you’re gonna be living a long, lonely time if there’s intermarriage there.

David: Well, I mean, anything that’s in D&D, that’s just the way it starts, right?

George talks a little bit about how choosing a theme for Lexember can be helpful for your conlanging.

I went on social media recently to ask what people wanted covered before Lexember and got some great suggestions.

Other ideas I had were perfume- or glass-manufacture (I ultimately used glass as my 2018 Lexember theme) or river-faring and boatbuilding.

That said, I think that using a theme for your lexember words is a particularly good way to encourage more onomasiological thinking in the process.

Other ideas I had were perfume- or glass-manufacture (I ultimately used glass as my 2018 Lexember theme) or river-faring and boatbuilding.

George talks a little about little tidbits of his daughter’s linguistic development, and talks about how listening to child language might help conlangers find inspiration.

One of the songs, “Bve Pfa R̂í,” is really, really old.

And I’m presuming you have different songs for different occasions.

I really, really wanted to work with that.

Margaret: If anybody’s interested in being updated about Aeniith music or conlang music in any way, I have a mailing list.

Just take a look into – if you’re a music person, definitely look into what you can do with music and your conlangs.

We bring Mike McCubbins on to talk about his new Kickstarter project, Anasazi, a comic which uses simple constructed written languages to tell a story in a visual medium.

You can find the Kickstarter here!

Top of Show Greeting: Salbécyk / Salbekian

George brings on Christophe and Joey to talk about their experience at the Eighth Language Creation Conference.

We also have clips from interviews Joey made at the conference.

Top of Show Greeting: BizhidaLinks:

George and William invite Prof. William Croft to talk about his theoretical approach to word classes and constructions.

Forget a language without adjectives, let’s talk about how your property concepts are predicated!

Links and Resources:

George spends some time talking about his recent revisions of his Istatikii grammar, with a focus on organizing writing to serve the needs of the language and the readers.

Now, onto our topic for today:After finishing my dissertation, I took a little time to look at my grammar for Istatikii.

I followed a pretty classic format for a reference grammar breaking up topics into phonology, morphosyntax, etc.

There is a third section entirely devoted to glottal deletion rules, as the glottal stop and /h/ have deletion rules that interact with both nasal deletion and liquid deletion.

I’m thinking about how I should present things in other sections of the grammar as well.

Christophe Grandsire-Koevoets joins us to talk to us about Ainu, a minority language of northern Japan.

Top of Show Greeting: Bwángxùd by alr2569 (Translation Notes)Links and Resources:

Jessie Sams comes on the show to talk to us about how she uses conlanging in the classroom.

We discuss how these courses can be designed, what fields of linguistics they address well, and the results she saw from the course.

Jessie also requested the following message be added to the notes:I would also like to thank David J. Peterson, who has visited with my conlang students the last three times I’ve offered the course.

His visits have been incredibly beneficial for both my students and me.

Students don’t often have the chance to speak with the author of their textbook, so it’s an amazing experience.

George and William come back to talk about telicity and lexical aspect.

Listen to us talk about endpoints in events and puzzle over why achievement and accomplishment are supposed to mean different things.

Links and Resources:

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✅ Порция лингвоссылок: ➡️ Откуда взялись автомобилистки, авиаторши и циклистки на Снобе — опять о феминитивах. Помимо авиаторш и авиаторок, бывают еще и авиатрисы, оказывается. Местами все это напоминает попытки сказать «человек, который спит» одним словом: спатель, спун, спец, спляк. ➡️ Очередной нейросервис — This Word Does Not Exist (видимо, младший брат нашумевшего This Person Does Not Exist). Конструирует несуществующие слова, неотличимые от существующих. Они настолько похожи на «настоящие», что даже хочется проверить в словаре — действительно ли они не существуют. ➡️ Мы тут недавно рассуждали о принципиальной разнице между диалектами английского и русского. А вот пост на Хабре об отли…

Канадская романистка с волшебным именем Эмили Сэнт-Джон Мэндел узнала, как растёт доля книг со словом girl в названии и написала об этом статью «Исчезнувшая девушка с татуировкой дракона в поезде». Там много забавной статистики.

— только каждую пятую из таких книг пишет мужчина;

— 65% из заглавных girls —вполне себе великовозрастные женщины;

— зато в книгах авторов-мужчин заглавная girl втрое чаще погибает или пропадает;

— и, наконец, самое страшное: похоже, что пик тренда ещё не достигнут, и нам предстоит ещё прочитать много книг про девушек с разными татуировками в разных видах транспорта. http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-gone-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo-on-the-train/

Сайт словаря Merriam-Webster предлагает небольшой и увлекательный квиз по названиям английских цветов. Очень пригодятся знания романских языков: в корнях слов всплывают латынь, испанский, французский и многие другие. Удачи!

Поделюсь еще одним маленьким личным достижением. Гигант мысли и повелитель клавиатуры @vas3k_channel запустил Infomate — личную RSS-ленту по разным тематикам. В чем соль: если вы интересуетесь технологиями, блокчейном или маркетингом, то теперь есть одностраничные подборки, где собраны главные медиа, блоги, сабреддиты и ютуб-каналы по этим темам. Подборки обновляются раз в час, поэтому не нужно открывать десять сайтов, теперь достаточно одной страницы. Я решила немного выделиться на фоне технарей и айтишников и собрала свою подборку по лингвистике. Помимо классных подкастов, комиксов и серьезных изданий (передаю привет @sysblok!) там есть телеграм-каналы коллег @lingvojokes, @glazslov, @lin…

Владислав Демьянов ведёт параллельный русско- и украиноязычный канал о переводе и локализации. Нашла там советы Нетфликса по субтитрам, дубляжу и адаптации аудио- и видеоконтента. Будет хорошим подспорьем для всех, кто увлекается переводом сериалов и фильмов. @translation_localization

@pereklad_lokalizatsiya

❤️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktidpf8Cx0I

Ксенолингвистика — не очень точная наука, которая готовит нас ко встрече с Чужими. Почему стоит слать сообщения в космос, кто лучше всех справится с инопланетянами и как самому стать пришельцем? https://knife.media/speaking-with-aliens/

Поделюсь с вами важной для себя статьей, где я наконец-то смогла свести две большие любви: лингвистику и космос. Статья большого успеха не имела, в комментариях прекрасно писали «нахера нам знать это неприменимое к жизни фуфло» (орфография авторская). Не буду спойлерить фильм «Прибытие», только скажу, что можно и с инопланетянами пообщаться, и личную жизнь устроить. Да и вообще, может Чужой на самом деле милашка, надо было с ним просто поговорить нормально, а не орать сразу.

На выходе может получиться такая красота

Генератор искусственных языков бесплатно создаёт глоссарий из 200 слов, в платной версии - из 4000. Есть возможность устанавливать свои правила, выбирать нужные фонемы, орфографию и грамматику и сверяться с подробной таблицей IPA.

Красота: новая лунная программа NASA названа в честь богини Артемиды — сестры Аполлона.

Как говорил Шерлок в версии от BBC, 'Short Version: Not Dead'. Снова буду периодически развлекать вас новостями из мира языков. Начнем со ссылки, которую я открывала один раз, а потом искала ее полтора года. The Proper English Foundation несёт знамя истинного английского и просит убрать от него грязные руки инноваций. Далее прекрасное от самих авторов: FREEZE THE LANGUAGE?

No, we don't want to stop new words from being invented. We shall even say it categorically, we do not want to freeze the language. We simply feel that the language is currently far too warm and needs to be cooled or even frozen to save it from anarchy. Thank you. На сайте указан расстрельный список ужасных выражений и лю…

В июне я публиковала тут опрос о мате от Анны Диковой из ВШЭ: она исследовала понятия «хуйня», «хуевина», «ебанина», «пиздюлинка», «поебота», «ебала» и «хуерга». Недавно Анна подвела итоги опроса; если вкратце, выяснилось, что «поебота» — это неприятный рутинный процесс, «хуета» — что-то ненужное и не на своем месте, «хуевина» — какая-то функциональная деталь вытянутой формы, а «пиздюлинка» — маленькая штучка, которую легко потерять (или, возможно, кто-то одушевленный: пингвиненок или чихуахуа). Забавно, что слово «ебала» для большинства опрошенных означает «несколько ебал», а «хуергу» в основном связывают с кочергой. Если вы тоже обожаете, когда об обсценной лексике пишут с серьезным лицом…

Английский язык уже пятьсот с лишним лет присутствует на рынке и пользуется большой популярностью. Многие сделали свой выбор в пользу английского языка и не жалеют об этом. Но почему же, спросите вы, мне нужно его изучать, ведь мой родной язык великий и могучий? Во-первых, его знание превосходно структурирует разрозненные интеллектуальные кластеры в человеческой голове. Он самый лёгкий из европейских языков. И совсем не на ровном месте назван аналитическим. Во-вторых, в нём есть артикли и послелоги. Использование артиклей поможет вам понять, чего же вы хотите в жизни, а послелоги учат гибкости мышления. В-третьих, в английском языке шестнадцать времён. Простое понимание того, чем future sim…

Если вы, как я, всю жизнь считали, что Золушку сыграла Янина Жеймо, так вот нет: её сыграла Янина ЖЕймо (ударение на первый слог, рифмы со словом клеймо, вопреки известной эпиграмме, нет). Кстати размер её ноги был 31, а рост 148 см. Скамейку, на которую она вставала во время съёмок, называли «жеймовочка»).

#Пятничное

#Вопрос

студентка перевела "бессердечный сухарь" как heartless cracker

Как там рубль? Вот что с ним происходило с апреля, по версии Интерфакса: ▪️сократил темпы укрепления к доллару и евро на фоне замедлившей рост нефти» ▪️открыл торги гэпом вниз к доллару и евро» ▪️ускорил снижение к доллару и евро ▪️развернулся вниз к доллару и усилил снижение к евро» ▪️ растерял рост к доллару и подешевел к евро https://meduza.io/shapito/2020/07/30/rubl-ne-padaet-on-otkryvaet-torgi-gepom-vniz-i-razvorachivaetsya-vniz-k-dollaru-po-krayney-mere-tak-pishut-v-interfakse

@factorized прислал усовершенствованную версию

Один мой знакомый переводчик говорил, что достаточно выучить два языка из любой языковой группы, и все остальные языки этой группы становятся понятными автоматически. Возможно, это и так с романскими, германскими или кечуанскими, но точно не со славянскими. Когда Бог давал славянам языки, он уже устал наделять отдельные слова значениями. Поэтому Бог сказал: вот вам, славяне, весь ваш набор слов — и делайте с ними что хотите. Дальше всё происходило как-то так: Чехи (копаясь в куче слов): Так, что у нас тут… Chytrý. Неплохо-неплохо. Пусть это значит «умный»!

Русские: Отличное слово! У нас оно будет значить «изворотливый, скрывающий свои истинные намерения».

Чехи: Мы протестуем, это же почти о…

twitter.com/KarlreMarks/status/1288815819477090306

В Новой Шотландии в Канаде есть место с такими улицами: This Street, That Street, The Other Street: https://twitter.com/qikipedia/status/1287281499914600450

Открываю один специфический словарь. Там во введении есть глава: "Семь смертных грехов: Типичные Ошибки Современного Переводчика".

"Ууууууу, — думаю, — то есть человек, который не знает, как в русском языке работает капитализация, сейчас будет нас учить нюансам перевода?"

А автор чуть дальше пишет: "Первая ошибка — нами нарочно допущена в подзаголовке. Заметили? Если нет, если вам не режут глаз неуместные заглавные буквы — дело плохо".

Ну хорошо, ладно, чувак, ты думаешь, что это я прошла у тебя этот уровень проверки, но это работает в обе стороны, ты тоже у меня этот уровень проверки прошёл. Верим, продолжаем пользоваться.

Рина (она ведет тут канал о русском дизайне @ntlnk) привезла милую книжку детских стихов, буду теперь пить исключительно англичай #лингвомама

Справедливо twitter.com/NazzOPooh/status/1288694997651529728

Вычитала на канале @ru_mat слово "троехуйственно" — это как однохуйственно, но втройне. Также на канале сообщается, что со словом "хуй" существует 400 идиом, а "пизда" бывает магической, пространственной, языковой, желанной, означающей и философской. Автор канала, как вы понимаете, изучает все, что связано с русским матом — от этимологии и семантики до примеров его использования у классиков. Ну и рассказывает подписчикам — с нескрываемой нежностью к предмету исследования. Особенно меня впечатлила классическая русская бранная формула под названием "малый петровский загиб", взгляните обязательно. #реклама

Чем вам «Красное и белое» не алкозамок?

Панорама 💖

https://panorama.pub/43597-shtrafovat-za-grammaticheskie-oshibki.html

twitter.com/nik_aragua/status/1286739584945213441

МИССИЯ: ПЕРЕВЕСТИ ТОСКУ «Капитанская дочка», перевод: Marie H. de Zielinska, 1877 Тоска взяла меня; я отошел от окошка и лег спать без ужина…

I turned from the window, seized by BITTER SADNESS, and went to bed without supper…

-------------------------------- «Герой нашего времени», перевод: J. H. Wisdom, Marr Murray, 1916 … и тоска овладела мной; и, тоскуя, просиживал я на утесе целые дни…

… and YEARNING has taken possession of me, in my ANGUISH I have spent whole days on the cliffs…

-------------------------------- «Белые ночи», перевод: Constance Garnett, 1918 С самого утра меня стала мучить какая-то удивительная тоска.

From early morning I had been oppressed by a strange DESPONDENCY. … и…

КАК НЕНАРОКОМ НЕ ВЫДАТЬ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЙ ТАЙНЫ, ЕСЛИ ВЫ ЗАНИМАЕТЕСЬ ФИЛОЛОГИЕЙ 1. Помните, что русский язык является государственным языком Российской Федерации, поэтому сбор и распространение любых сведений о его структуре и функционировании могут быть расценены как государственная измена. 2. Не думайте, что осторожность надо проявлять лишь при изучении синхронного состояния русского языка. История языка способна дать врагам ключи к осмыслению его нынешнего положения. В связи с этим не заблуждайтесь относительно того, будто древнерусский язык может хранить только какие-то древние государственные тайны. 3. Особенно берегитесь исследования диалектного варьирования русского языка. От него руко…

ТВОЕ ЛИЦО «Рот» этимологически связан с «рыть», «рыло»; это то, чем роют. «Губа» этимологически то же, что диал. «губа» ‘гриб’, это такой же нарост на лице, как какой-нибудь гриб на дереве. «Голова» этимологически родственно слову «желвак», это такая твердая шишка на теле. «Глаз» этимологически означает ‘круглый камень’, ‘шар’. И без того трудно смотреть в зеркало, а тут еще эта этимология. Задать вопрос @UchenyjBot

КОПЬЕНОСЦЫ Слово «фриланс», то есть англ. freelance, буквально «свободный копьеносец», придумал Вальтер Скотт, обозначая им в романе «Айвенго» средневекового воина, свободного от обязательств перед каким-либо сюзереном. В русском переводе вальтер-скоттовское Free Lances передано как «вольная дружина». Переносное значение у этого существительного возникло в 1860-е гг., в начале XX века оно было осмыслено как глагол, откуда и freelancer, то есть «фрилансер». Человек с копьем и в русском языке оставил следы. Такое изображение было вычеканено на монетах, которые получили название «копейка». Неприятная ассоциация для фрилансеров. Задать вопрос @UchenyjBot

ЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКИЙ СОННИК Мы получаем много писем с просьбами растолковать значение какого-нибудь лингвистического сна. Следуя пожеланиям читателей, публикуем первую часть лингвистического сонника. Если вам приснился суффикс, ждите визита неприятного человека. Видеть во сне приставку означает пополнение в семье. Если женщина во сне увидела имперфект, значит скоро ее возлюбленный надоест ей. Если приснился Зализняк — встреча со стариком в казенном доме. Интонационная конструкция №4 — скандал в семье. Если вам приснилась фонема , будет спор со столичными жителями, затем совместная безобразная пьянка вплоть до потери человеческого облика. Видеть во сне страдательный залог — наступают трудные врем…

АРХИКАКОС Древнегреческий глагол ἄρχω ‘быть первым, начинать’, ‘иметь власть’ не только дал отглагольные существительные ἀρχός ‘начальник, вождь’ и ἀρχή ‘начало, первопричина’, ‘власть’, от которого в свою очередь возникли слова ἀρχαϊκός ‘древний’, ἀρχαϊσμός ‘устаревшее явление’, ἀρχεῖον ‘место начальников’ > ‘присутственное место’ (ср. наши «(мон)арх», «архаичный», «архаизм», «архив» — последнее уже в латинизированной форме), но и выделил в распоряжение языков мира свою начальную часть ἀρχ- (варианты — ἀρχε-, ἀρχι-), которые стали выступать во множестве сложений, передавая значение ‘начальный’, ‘древнейший’, ‘главный’. В русском языке много слов с этими начальными компонентами, которые поп…

РАД И ТОШНО Чацкий говорил: «Служить бы рад, прислуживаться тошно». У нас тоже, знаете ли, накопилось немало раздражения против всего вот этого. Сейчас мы бы хотели поделиться им с вами. Курить бы рад, прикуриваться тошно. Дурить бы рад, придуриваться тошно. Винтить бы рад, привинчиваться тошно. Месить бы рад, примешиваться тошно. Писать бы рад, приписываться тошно. Варить бы рад, привариваться тошно. Валить бы рад, приваливаться тошно. Вязать бы рад, привязываться тошно. Глядеть бы рад, приглядываться тошно. Держать бы рад, придерживаться тошно. Кончать бы рад, приканчиваться тошно. Ебать бы рад, приябываться тошно. Задать вопрос @UchenyjBot

ПРОВЕРЬТЕ СЕБЯ Попробуйте соотнести историю литературы и историю техники. Ответы ниже. 1. Мог ли А. С. Пушкин прокатиться по железной дороге? 2. Мог ли А. П. Чехов услышать какую-либо радиопередачу? 3. Мог ли сфотографироваться П. А. Вяземский? 4. Наблюдал ли Н. С. Лесков электрический свет? 5. Мог ли А. Платонов посмотреть телепередачу? 6. Мог ли Н. А. Некрасов поговорить по телефону? 7. Мог ли Т. Г. Шевченко отправить телеграмму? 8. Мог ли Н. В. Гоголь покататься на велосипеде с педалями? Ответы: 1. Пушкин не мог прокатиться по железной дороге. До открытия первой железной дороги в России он не дожил нескольких месяцев. 2. Чехов не мог услышать никакой радиопередачи. Первая радиовещательна…

​​РУССКОЕ ВЛИЯНИЕ В XIX—XX веке русский язык подарил миру не очень много слов. Многие связаны с общественно-политической темой, всякие там pogrom, intelligentsia и проч. А есть ли слова добрые и вечные, которые заимствованы из русского языка? Да, безусловно. Например, во второй половине XX века из русского в румынский было заимствовано слово «дружба». И теперь в румынском языке есть слово drujbă. Если не верите, можете сами проверить по словарю. По-румынски это значит 'бензопила'. Задать вопрос @UchenyjBot

ТРЕ В свое время Н. М. Шанский рассказывал о том, что в русском языке есть приставка тре- ‘очень’, но она присутствует лишь в трех (совпадение?) словах: «треволнение» (в современных словарях часто слово дается только в форме множественного числа), «трезвон» / «трезвонить», «треклятый». Есть в современном русском языке и другое тре- («треугольный», «треух», «треножник», «трезубец»), но здесь тр(е)- — не приставка, а первая часть сложного слова. Шанский не упоминает, что эти два тре- исторически одно и то же (полагая, видимо, это очевидным). Мы же об этом скажем и дадим более развернутый исторический комментарий к словам такого типа. Слово «треволнение» (калька греческого τρικυμία) имело и пр…

ЭПИСТОЛА СЕРГЕЮ БЕЗРУКОВУ ОТ РУССКОГО ЯЗЫКА Любезный Безруков, посмотрел я тут видеоролик, в котором ты агитируешь проголосовать за изменение конституции, потому что это якобы поможет меня защитить и сохранить. Спешу тебя уверить, что твои тревоги напрасны: у меня все хорошо, никакая опасность мне не угрожает. Защищать меня не надо. Даже смешно и говорить об этом. Возьми ты, Безруков, в толк, что мне уже тыща лет, а вашей конституции нет и тридцати — и то вы ее собираетесь менять. Как же, спрашивается, она может сохранить меня? Скорее уж следовало наоборот, но мне, честно признаться, недосуг. Еще. Неловко об этом упоминать, но вы все реально задрали с рассказами про то, будто таких метафор …

​​ТВОРЧЕСКИЕ ТРОЛЛИ Многие, вероятно, привыкли считать, что речевое поведение платных интернет-троллей характеризует бесконечное повторение одних и тех же сообщений. Наблюдения и анализ между тем показывают, что все несколько сложнее. В чем особенность коммуникативной ситуации тролля? Ему необходимо проплыть между Половциллой и Печенибдой: с одной стороны, передать ограниченное число оплаченных идей как можно большее количество раз, с другой стороны, сделать это таким образом, чтобы как можно дольше оставаться не раскрытым в качестве тролля. К каким последствиям приводит соединение двух этих факторов в плане лексической дистрибуции? Очевидно, к изменению привычной сочетаемости слов. Небольш…

ПЕРВОЕ СЛОВО, ВТОРОЕ СЛОВО Заголовок — это «первое слово автора, обращенное к читателю» (из научной статьи). Ну, где первое, там и второе: Слово о полку Игореве нелепо. Бедная Лиза, может быть, никто. Евгений Онегин — мой дядя. Герой нашего времени, я ехал на перекладных из Тифлиса. Двенадцать. Черный вечер. Легкое дыхание на кладбище над свежей глиняной насыпью. — Поэма без героя? — А так как мне бумаги не хватило. Задать вопрос @UchenyjBot

ОБРАТНОЕ СЛОВООБРАЗОВАНИЕ Обратное словообразование (вторичное словообразование, редеривация) — это образование нового слова в качестве не производного от существующего производящего, а наоборот: в качестве будто бы производящего для слова, которое начинает осмысляться как производное, хотя изначально таким не является. В пример приводят обычно слова «зонт» (образовано как псевдопроизводящее для слова «зонтик», хотя последнее возникло именно в этой форме — от нидерл. zondek, где zon ‘солнце’, dek ‘покров, покрытие’), «фляга» (образовано как псевдопроизводящее для слова «фляжка», хотя последнее появляется, будучи заимствовано из немецкого через посредство польского, именно как «фляшка» > «фл…

​​ЛЮБОВЬ К ЦИФРЕ 9 Этот пост будет посвящен не словам, а цифрам. Ну а что? Их холодный жар, как сказал поэт, нам тоже внятен. К тому же то, о чем мы собираемся говорить, имеет скорее семиотическое измерение. Есть такой закон Бенфорда. Он говорит, что если вы возьмете некое множество чисел, описывающих количественную сторону той или иной сферы реальной жизни и способных расти экспоненциально, то распределение первых цифр в этих числах будет выглядеть так: 1 — 0.301,

2 — 0.176,

3 — 0.125,

4 — 0.097,

5 — 0.079,

6 — 0.067,

7 — 0.058,

8 — 0.051,

9 — 0.046. Иными словами, чем меньше цифра, тем выше вероятность встретить ее в начале числа. Понятно, что, как и всякий эмпирический закон, закон Бенфо…

В русском языке большая транспортная станция называется «вокзал» в честь английской станции Vauxhall. А в современном эстонском языке станция называется jaam в честь древнерусского слова «ям». Откройте, например, карту Таллинна, и там по-русски будет написано «Балтийский вокзал» и рядом по-эстонски Balti jaam. На самом деле, слово «ям» не исконно русское, а чуть ли не монгольское (систему ямов ввели при монголо-татарах).

В Новой Шотландии в Канаде есть место с такими улицами: This Street, That Street, The Other Street: https://twitter.com/qikipedia/status/1287281499914600450

Партизанское переименование улицы в Берлине: https://twitter.com/dw_russian/status/1284850060023476224?s=21

У компании Reebok имеется отдельный бренд Weebok для маленьких детей — потому что они "r" не выговаривают

#sözler #слова Всё знают, что Средиземное море турки называют Ак Дениз (Ak Deniz), что означает Белое море. А российское Белое море называется в Турции -Beyaz Deniz. И переводится как Белое море. Вот вам и 50 оттенков белого :)

Ещё в португальском (старосветском) Paris звучит примерно так же

Знаете, почему мы называем Paris «Парижем» — и бесим этим французов, потому что никакого «ж» в названии столицы нет? Потому что это «полонизм» — слово, пришедшее в русский из польского. Ну а сам польский язык был какое-то время — сюрприз — под влиянием французского. Мы, авторы каналов @fuckingfrench и @popolsku, решили сегодня поговорить о неожиданной теме — тесной связи Польши и Франции. И заодно польского с французским. Ведь в польском довольно много галлицизмов (то есть заимствований из французского). Вот подборка самых любопытных, на наш взгляд: 🔹Garsonka — все узнали французское garçon? В польском это слово обозначает женский костюм — юбку и жакет. 🔹Polonez — да-да, название традиционн…

Многие люди путают слова «инсайт» и «инсайд». Избежать ошибки поможет простое правило: не использовать эти слова.

Заголовок: Apple Recloses 11 Stores in Southern California, Maryland, Ohio, and Tennessee «Recloses», то есть, заново закрывает. Если вы когда-то читали у Чуковского про смысловое богатство слова «перелай», и это привело вас к мысли об уникальном величии и богатстве русского языка, так знайте — подобное богатство есть в каждом языке.

Слышал недавно в одном видео, как ведущий отчётливо произнёс: «Большое пасибо».

Сегодня практическая топонимика. В Хабаровске, похоже, любят переименовывать автобусные остановки. Но перед этим каждый раз проводят опрос на сайте газеты «Хабаровские вести». Сейчас там висит 10 опросов о переименовании разных остановок. Например: следует ли переименовать остановку «Пчёлка» в остановку «СНТ „Пчёлка“» или оставить как есть? https://khab-vesti.ru/oprosy/ Можно зайти на сайт и проголосовать. Правда, там надо зарегистрироваться, но для доброго дела не жалко. Призываю пользоваться силами интернета ответственно.