Monthly Archives: November 2009
Words your grandmother taught you in Chinese, Dutch and Yiddish
Did Barack Obama learn a word or two from his grandmother? Well, maybe not — he didn’t grow up with the gran pictured here (it’s his Kenyan stepmother). But many people did learn their very first foreign words from their … Continue reading
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Spelling Obama in Chinese, oratory, and chop suey love
How do you spell Obama in Chinese? Depends who you are. The Chinese news media spell it 奥巴马 (àobāmǎ). But the US Embassy in Beijing recently launched a campaign to change it to 欧巴马 (ōubāmǎ). Why no agreement? The embassy … Continue reading
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Baby talk, Ukrainian talk, and translated punk talk
Is this baby crying in German or French? A new study says we may be able to tell. The study was originally discussed on my sister pod, The World’s science podcast. It concludes that we begin language acquisition in … Continue reading
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Birds, urls and Glaswegians
For the latest newsy pod, Carol Hills and Clark Boyd from the Big Show help me pick our top five language-related stories from the past month: 5. Some birds develop distinct dialects based on the decibel levels of their habitats. … Continue reading
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