Whistled “Bird” Languages
Songs can elicit a range of emotions, and deliver a meaningful message in their lyrics. In whistled languages, the sound may be pretty, but the message is all business. Instead of speaking words phonetically, they are, of course, whistled. Their repertoire is often based on a traditional language from that same region. In a whistled […]
Does Fast-Track Language Learning Really Work?
Knowing foreign languages can help people get their dream jobs, make important business deals, or even meet the loves of their lives. For much of European history, being proficient in other tongues was a no-brainer for the educated classes. It was part of their upbringing and culture; travel between countries was essential for trade, and […]
Dictionary of American Regional English Completed After Five Decades
Among the most divisive regional differences in the United States are dialect and vocabulary, revealing the outsider at the drop of a syllable. When addressing an individual (a “you”) in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvanians say “yins,” but in Georgia “y’all” is the common pronoun. If yins say “y’all” in Pennsylvania, the locals will note a couple of […]
Can Thinking in a Foreign Language Reduce Our Decision-Making Biases?
A gamble in one language could be an opportunity in another. In a recently published study, psychologists at the University of Chicago examined what happened when participants in a series of experiments weighed their odds in high-risk situations, like profit and loss, in a language other than their native tongue. During one experiment, a group […]
Spoonerisms: William Archibald Spooner and his Infamous Fain Brarts
Spoonerism (n.): the transposition of initial or other sounds of words, usually by accident. Also known in other languages as: French – contrepèterie German – Schüttelreim Spanish – trastrueque verbal Greek – Σαρδάμ Polish – marrowsky Finnish – sananmuunnos As a professor and dean at New College of Oxford University in the late 19th century, […]
How Did That Register? Five Levels of Formality in Language
We’ve all experienced the occasional verbal slip-up, whether we’re nervous or the words just don’t come out right. In casual speech between friends, a faux pas is usually laughed off and moved on from as quickly as it appeared. However, in business meetings and professional speeches, they’re a little harder to overlook. A major source […]