By guest contributor John Hubert The Japanese Alphabet is an elegant system of writing that consists of two main scripts known as the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets. It’s these two writing scripts that comprise the some 100 kana characters that...
Ah, the language of love. Whether it is the cooing of French, the rolling purr of Spanish, or the tremulous richness of Italian, come along with me, the Poly-flirt, on a tour of the romantic side of language. We will...
Language people tend to have strong opinions about emoticons: they are ruining our language! Corrupting the youth! A symbol of technology’s stranglehold on our intellects! Or, they are creative and give us new ways to explore empathy with symbols for...
Happy election day everyone! If you can vote and you’ve yet to do so, stop reading this post and get to your polling location! Whether your political allegiance lies with the republicans, the democrats, or neither party, here’s to another...
A unifying trait of all cultures and languages is playfulness — a desire to have fun with language, to twist it this way and that, and to create out of grammatical rules and restrictions a game of words and sounds...
By ALTA Linguist, Wesley Cook. We are all familiar with prefixes and suffixes in the English language, but there is a third “fix” that is rarely discussed: the infix. An infix is a part of speech that is inserted between...
Like many modern holidays, the history of Halloween links an ancient pagan ritual with the Christian effort to eradicate it, ending in the repackaged consumer holiday we know today. Halloween began as the ancient Gaelic holiday of Samhain. On the...
As the financial crisis gains momentum and uncertainty reigns over the markets, we tend to look at stock market behavior as a barometer of the economic environment. After yet another stock roller-coaster day, stockholders are more uncertain about tomorrow. The...
Although there is no holistically objective way to quantify and rate the impact and import of world languages, there are several objective factors that contribute to creating a list of the world’s most useful languages to know. In his influential...
With only a week left before the U.S. presidential election, and some poll margins beginning to narrow in, it has become increasingly important for the candidates to speak directly to a group of voters who may tip the final outcome:...
The issue of linguistic diversity is enmeshed in political debates ranging in topic from global economics to post-colonial nationalism. A common thread that runs through these discussions is the explosive growth of English language use over the last century. The...
With 2008 being the International Year of Languages, I thought I’d wish a happy birthday to the UN, and do my part to spread the word about their language initiatives. October 24, 2008 marks the 63rd anniversary of the Charter...
Words can be treacherous. They can have an effect that goes beyond their original meaning or intent. The terminology used during the current global financial crisis is particularly important because of the role some terms can play in reshaping and...
There is no doubt that when the candidates get together tonight for the third and final debate, they will focus on the state of the economy. Like many words frequently used in matters of state and government, economy has its...
Now that the U.S. has entered into the final weeks of a long presidential campaign, let’s take a closer look at the language we use to describe the process. The etymology of the word campaign reflects a military history dating...
Sometimes even the finest translators come up against words that defy translation. Many languages include words that don’t have a simple counterpart in another language. When translators come across such a word, they usually describe it so that it makes...
The Italians and the French have a history of cultural rivalry that dates back to before the Renaissance, when scholars, philosophers, artists, and writers of the two countries held the reins of Europe. Fostering progress in tandem, European polyglots and...
Who is a barbarian? The word barbarian was used originally by the Greeks to refer to any non-Greek: Egyptians, Persians, Indians, Celts, Germans, Phoenicians, Etruscans, Macedonians, Carthaginians, Vikings, Goths – all of these became known as barbarians. The ancient Greek...
If there is one philosophy that transcends cultural boundaries and linguistic differences, it is “Eat, drink, and be merry.” From the tip of Chile to the top of Siberia, lengthwise and breadth-wise and zigzagging the globe, nations have developed a...
When watching foreign films, I often wonder whether the translation is, in fact, accurate. Unless a viewer is a native speaker, he is at the mercy of an unknown translator. Inaccurate translation can lead to confusion, or even unintended laughter....
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