[This is a guest post by Jichang Lulu and Filip Jirouš] A recent post by Mark Liberman nominated the Association for the Promotion of Research on the Origin of World Civilizations (Shìjiè Wénmíng Qǐyuán Yánjiū Cùjìn Huì 世界文明起源研究促进会) for the prestigious Becky prize, bestowed on those who make “outstanding contributions to linguistic misinformation”. The award, […]
An interesting new paper on speech and information rates as determined by neurocognitive capacity appeared a week ago: Christophe Coupé, Yoon Oh, Dan Dediu, and François Pellegrino, "Different languages, similar encoding efficiency: Comparable information rates across the human communicative niche", Science Advances, 5.9 (2019): eaaw2594. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw2594. Here's the abstract: Language is universal, but it […]
Less than half a year ago, we were treated to yet another among countless claims for the decipherment of the mysterious Voynich manuscript (henceforth "Vm"): "Voynich code cracked?" (5/16/19). I was skeptical then and am even more skeptical now after having read this article: Peter Bakker, "The Voynich manuscript: the decipherment of ms. 408", Lingoblog […]
A bit more than 11 years ago I wrote ("HVPT", 7/6/2008): At the recent Acoustics 2008 meeting, I heard a presentation that reminded me of a mystery that I've been wondering about for nearly two decades. The paper presented was Maria Uther et al., "Training of English vowel perception by Finnish speakers to focus on […]
[This is a guest post by Chau Wu] Tai Po District 大埔區 is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong whereas 大埔县 (Dabu xian) in Guangdong is a Hakka culture center bordering on Southern Fujian. In Taiwan the term 大埔 (Tōa-po·) is found in about 40 place names such as 大埔鄉 Tōa-po·-hiong, 大埔村 Tōa-po·-chhun, […]
Earlier today, BBC News wrote about the latest #sharpiegate development: "Trump Dorian tweets: Weather staff 'faced sacking threat' over Alabama", 9/10/2019: US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had threatened to fire senior staff at the federal weather agency unless they backed President Donald Trump's claim that Hurricane Dorian might hit Alabama, the New York Times reports. […]
Guangzhou Daily printed an article discussing whether speaking Canto causes nasal cancer: See just how low China can descend to in an attempt to dismantle #HongKong's unique identity. An alleged scientific report said that speaking Cantonese may result in nasal and sinus cancer 😱. It was immediately debunked but still….Speechless.Source: Telegram#DemocracyForHK pic.twitter.com/85Kz6HNhbs — Hong Kong […]
Boris Johnson called Jeremy Corbyn a "big girl's blouse" in parliament last Wednesday, and on Friday it was revealed that he had referred to David Cameron as a "girly swot" in a cabinet note. For Americans not versed in British slang, the OED tells us that a swot is "one who studies hard", and explains […]
I learned yesterday that Knud Lambrecht died on Friday 9/6. As you can see from his Google Scholar page, his scientific work centered on an important area that deserves more than the (already considerable) attention that it gets from linguists — the relations between "information structure" and the form of sentences.
JPMorgan has a new index — called the “Volfefe Index” — that measures Trump’s tweets and their impact on bond volatility. (1/x) pic.twitter.com/D37ocdebxk — Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) September 8, 2019
If you're interested in going to Hong Kong to witness the earthshaking events that are taking place there, prepare yourself by learning a few useful Cantonese phrases. Luisa Tam, "Learn these Cantonese phrases on your next Hong Kong taxi ride to avoid being ripped off":
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A stylish clothing company comes up with sexy new shoes worthy of an elf or a pixie, and look at their ad:
The whole world is transfixed by the gutsy rebellion of Hong Kong citizens against the militarily powerful PRC imposed government under which they live. Language — spoken, written, and gestural (see the "Readings" below for examples of all three types) — plays an important role in maintaining their solidarity and camaraderie and in emphasizing their […]