#linguistics

#linguistics

There's an old myth that Inuit cultures have as many as a hundred words for snow. I remember learning about it in school, and there was just something wonderful about the idea that people's perceptions can be so deeply rich and different. I guess that's why, although it has been debunked many times, the story keeps getting repeated. There is also a lot of truth to the underlying concept.

If you are reading this, your world is in grave danger. Touch nothing. Take no samples. Leave this place immediately. Destroy everything you have brought here, and never return. We have left this message in stone, in every language we have ever known, to stop a horrible threat. Heed these words, even though you do not want to. "What does it say?" "Beats me." "Isn't language supposed to be a big subject for a linguistics specialist?"

"For a long, long time, spicy meant exactly what it is supposed to be: that which is containing spice, or redolent of spice," Anatoly Liberman, a linguist at the University of Minnesota. But it was around the 19th century, that records show people started to use spicy in other less literal ways, he said. It can also refer to "racy" or "engagingly provocative" in reference to scandalous gossip or anything tantalizing.

The intrigue: The debate on how to say "pecan" is still nutty. According to Merriam Webster "puh-KAWN," "puh-CAN," and "PEE-can" are widely used. And depending on which survey you point to, either "PEE-can" (preferred by Northeasterners) or "puh-KAWN" is the most popular way for Americans to say it. Some people have very strong feelings about their preferred pronunciation.

Delve, intricate, surpass. Perhaps you've been hearing and seeing these words more often -- ChatGPT may be to blame. People are adopting language from the chatbot's lexicon, according to Florida State University researchers . The university's Modern Languages and Linguistics, Computer Science, and Mathematics departments collaborated to reveal that the chatbot's most overused words are influencing human speech patterns.

If women speak and hear a language of communication and intimacy, while men speak and hear a language of status and independence, then communication between men and women can be like a cross-cultural communication . . . .

Long Island's accent, characterized by distinct pronunciations like 'caw-fee' instead of 'coffee', has been rated as the second most attractive accent in America, with 27.8% positive mentions in a study.

In examining the term tì 弟/悌 from a linguistic perspective, one may observe that its original meaning as 'humbly respectful' evolved significantly over time.

Ewald Flügel, a determined scholar, laid the groundwork for the Middle English Dictionary, an invaluable resource that now serves medievalists globally.

The most basic structural rule of conversation is taking turns, with a corollary that conversational turns should be similar in length. If someone is dominating a conversation, then they are violating this basic structural rule.

The research found Australians were more restrained online, coming only third in the swearing stakes after the UK and the US.

In many fictional works, invented languages often mimic human language structures, featuring nouns and verbs, thus showcasing our linguistic biases and limitations in creativity.

Almost every second person on Earth speaks Indo-European, highlighting its global prevalence and the significance of this language family in human communication and evolution.

One crucial finding of our study indicates that children associate the middle-class SSBE accent with intelligence, while they perceive the Yorkshire accent as lacking cleverness.

Chinese characters, contrary to popular belief, are not merely pictures; they predominantly represent distinct morphemes, revealing a complex language system that goes back centuries.

The so-called 'Fortnite accent' reflects a specific energetic, high-pitched speech style that conveys excitement and functioning as a distinctive social language among players.