Tag Archives: Japanese
Dictators with dialects, finger spelling, and universal Inuit
Dialects are beautiful, ugly, inevitable, unhelpful, and of course, languages without armies. Dialects are widespread– they exist in most languages. Millions, perhaps billions of people speak them. Some, like many Chinese, speak a regional dialect at home, and a standard … Continue reading
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Census-taking, volcano-pronouncing, and why Thais win at Scrabble
The U.S.Census Bureau is firing on all linguistic cylinders to ensure that non-English speakers are counted in this year’s census. It has been getting the word out via ads, PSAs and handbills translated into 28 different languages (compared to 17 … Continue reading
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Bilingual metaphors, the passion of place name changes, and interpreting for the Dodgers
Nobel literature prize winner Herta Mueller grew up in Romania. She spoke German at home, and Romanian at school. As a result her writing is infused with mixed metaphors. Not as in “he careened between lovers till his private life … Continue reading
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podcast #44: Haruki Murakami’s fans, confessions of a kanji-holic, and kwassa kwassa
This week, we check out a claim that with the aid of a supercomputer, it’s possible to predict which words will become extinct in a few centuries. The word “dirty” apparently doesn’t have much staying power. Nor do “guts” and … Continue reading
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