language
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Like It or Not
How does a non-native English speaker figure out the proper usage and placement of “like”? Is the “like tic” nothing more than a meaningless flaw? “Had the non-native inquirer delved further, he would have found “like” analyzed as communicating something…
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Deaf Culture
“Hearing people should not fool themselves into thinking they can understand the Deaf experience. What we need to understand, though, is that there is more to it than not being able to hear.” In honor of Deaf Awareness Week this…
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Endangered Alphabets
According to the Endangered Alphabets Project, the 6,000-7,000 languages spoken on this planet are written in fewer than 100 alphabets. And, at least a third of those remaining alphabets are considered endangered. The project exhibits fourteen of those scripts: Inuktitut,…
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Happy Words Win
Headed by the University of Vermont’s Isabel Klouman, a team of researchers did a massive language study that revealed an optimistic tendency of the English language—there are more positive words than negative. Compiling words from years of the New York…
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Tracking Our Literary Style
Is there a distinct difference between our everyday, colloquial speak and written literary language? Fiction has gone through some major evolution since the 19th century when written prose and the vernacular of the time diverged, but this dichotomy has transformed.…
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The First ?
Does anyone else think the question mark is the most beautiful of all punctuation marks? Well, the very first question mark may have looked more like a colon. Discovered in Syriac manuscripts of the Bible from the fifth century, the…
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French Faux Pas
A twenty year-old French law that sought to keep the news media from promoting commercial enterprises is being newly reinforced. This means that using “Facebook” and “Twitter” on air is strictly forbidden. This seems like a good way to stave…
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Dictionaroke, and Other Sing-alongs
Nancy Friedman writes: Dictionaraoke: A musical form in which an instrumental (karaoke) version of a song is accompanied by online dictionary-pronunciation audio files.
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Through the Past Darkly
Brian Teare’s second book sorts through the past and charts a new path for the future of poetry.