Language Log

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When I lived in Nepal (1965-67), I heard of the Kusunda, but never had a chance to go visit them.  Now they are in the news, because their language — an isolate that linguists believe is unrelated to any other language in the world — is on the verge of extinction, with only one remaining […]

Figuring out the etymologies of words has always been one of my favorite things in life, almost as much as eating flavorful food.  All the way back in second grade of primary school, my Mom gave me a Merriam-Webster dictionary, and I treasured it above all my other belongings because of its etymological notes.  Much […]

From Connected (2/4/22), a publication of the Peabody Essex Museum: "Phillips Library digitizes dictionaries from Vietnam and unlocks stories of museum founders and their travels", by Kathlene Baldanza The blog post is accompanied by beautiful images of pages from the dictionaries.  Here are the first three paragraphs: Two recently digitized manuscript dictionaries in the Phillips […]

In the comments on yesterday's post "Language development", Olaf Zimmermann pointed us to this recent Onion scoop — "Newly Uncovered Manuscript Reveals China Invented English Language 700 Years Before Western World", The Onion 1/13/2022: BEIJING—Shedding new light on the origins of the world’s most popular language, an international team of linguists announced Thursday that a […]

Article by Rhoda Kwan, Hong Kong Free Press (31/10/21): ‘The loss of language is the loss of heritage:’ the push to revive Taiwanese in Taiwan "You can't completely express Taiwanese culture with Mandarin – something is bound to be lost in translation," says one advocate for the local language. When I go to Taipei, I […]

The PRC authorities have always policed human behavior and thought, but especially during the last half year or so and particularly toward young people, for whatever reason, they have been coming on more gangbusters than usual. First they went after the phenomenon of tǎngpíng 躺平 ("lying flat"), i.e., those who chose to opt out of […]

New article in Mongabay (the critter in the banner at the top of the page who serves as their logo reminds me of our little friend, the gecko): "Extinction of Indigenous languages leads to loss of exclusive knowledge about medicinal plants", by Sibélia Zanon on 20 September 2021 | Translated by Maya Johnson Key points: […]

Sign in Vancouver International Airport: Segregated line-ups for vaccinated and unvaccinated international arrivals at Vancouver International Airport. Photo by Andrew Aziz. (Source)

[The following is a guest post by Zihan Guo in response to this article by Bruno Maçães, a Portuguese politician and political philosopher, who asserts, among other things, that China lacks metaphysics because of the nature of its language (i.e., script):  "The Black Box:  A Theory of China", World Game on Substack (12/25/20) — excerpts […]

The question of language survival in Taiwan is far more complex than whether Taiwanese (and Hakka and Cantonese) will die at the hands of Mandarin.  Helen Davidson probes the real situation in: "Healing words: Taiwan’s tribes fight to save their disappearing languagesThe island’s Indigenous people are in a race against time to save their native […]

Article in Sunday's NYT: "A Scratched Hint of Ancient Ties Stirs National Furies in Europe" "Czech archaeologists say marks found on a cattle bone are sixth-century Germanic runes, in a Slavic settlement. The find has provoked an academic and nationalist brawl." Andrew Higgins (5/16/21) The opening paragraphs lay out very clearly the reasons why the […]

From Anne Henochowicz: View this post on Instagram A post shared by 富孩警 (@richkids_english_police)