Do you see what I see? Languages don’t all have the same number of terms for colours. English has 11 basic colour words, while some languages have 12. Other languages lack many “colours” we know, while some cultures don’t use colours in the same way we do and rather distinguish colours by “hot” vs. “cold”, some by “wet” vs. “dry”,…
On National Dictionary Day on 16 October, America honours the birthday of Noah Webster, the word lover who thought Americans should have their own dictionary since all English-language dictionaries came from England. It’s a day to celebrate the power, practicality, and playfulness of language itself. There is indeed power in language, in the command of a broad vocabulary consisting of…
The UN General has proclaimed 23 September as the International Day of Sign Languages in order to raise awareness of the importance of sign language in the full realization of the human rights of people who are deaf. Sign languages convey meaning visually, using fingerspelling systems, known as manual alphabets. These were invented so that words could be transferred from…
The 8th of September was proclaimed International Literacy Day by the UNESCO in 1966 to remind the international community of the importance of literacy for individuals, communities and societies as a matter of dignity and human rights, and the need for intensified efforts towards more literate societies. International Literacy Day 2020 will focus on ‘Literacy teaching and learning in the…
Did you know that the notion of left-handedness as being “wrong” is embedded in our language already? For example, the adjective ‘sinister’ comes from the Latin ‘sinestra’ or ‘left hand’. Wonder what it’s like to see the world from a “left-handed” point of view? US Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were/are left-handed. Or there are artists Leonardo Da…
From ‘covidiots’ to ‘quarantine and chill’, the pandemic has led to many terms that help people laugh and commiserate. Throughout history, challenging circumstances have given rise to new ways of expressing those challenges. George Eliot, the 19th Century writer who was famously frustrated by rigid gender and lifestyle norms, is credited with the first recorded use of the word ‘frustrating’. More…
If you find good things without looking for them, serendipity – unexpected good luck – brought them to you. The first noted use of the word ‘serendipity’ in the English language was by Horace Walpole on 28 January 1754. This rare word thus does not come from Latin or Greek, but rather was coined by this British nobleman from an…
This is a great question, but it is such a hard question that in 1866 the Linguistic Society of Paris got sick of people writing about it with nothing more than guesses, and banned articles on the topic. Fortunately, scientific progress in the past 150 years has changed this situation. We don’t have all the answers, but we can make…
Is English a “weird” language? Many of us might feel this is true when we’re trying to explain its complex spelling rules, or the meanings of idioms such as “it’s raining cats and dogs” to someone who is learning it. Teaching or learning any language is, however, never an easy task. But what is a “weird” language anyway? As linguists,…
