Zirkel Babel

05/08/2018

On the recent mainstreamization of the Maori language:

Nation’s native tongue is undergoing a revival – lessons are packed, songs are top of the pops, and even the prime minister wants to be part of it

26/06/2018

"In early Chinese writing, the forms usually depicted something. The character for “fire” looked like fire, the character for “dog” looked like a dog. But that can only take you so far before you have to get creative. It’s difficult to pictographically represent words like “sweet,” “love” and “tomorrow”, so people started combining characters to create new characters."

The real building blocks of the Chinese writing system – John Renfroe If you’re learning to write in Chinese, you’ve probably been advised to learn the 214 standard “radicals,” those alleged “building blocks” of the character system. Perhaps you’ve tried to discern the meaning of an ...

26/02/2018

Three old men in remote northern Pakistan are thought to be the very last Badeshi speakers.

18/09/2017

Wenn Politiker anfangen die Sprache zu regulieren... :)

Steven Pinker is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He conducts research on language and cognition and has authored ten books...

29/08/2017

Hört oder liesst wie der berühmte Unabomber anhand von linguistischen Verhandlungsmethoden geschnappt wurde:

James R. Fitzgerald says Ted Kaczynski's writings helped crack the case that confounded the FBI for more than 17 years. Manhunt: Unabomber, a TV series on the Discovery Channel, retells the story.

26/08/2017

10/08/2017

Click to view in a big, high-res format Last week we highlighted for you a beautiful Tree of Languages infographic, created by Minna Sundberg using data from ethnologue.com.

17/08/2016

https://oldlampsfornew.com/2013/08/31/can-you-think-without-language/

It’s almost impossible to study humans in the absence of language. Our brains soak it up so voraciously that only the most isolated people reach adulthood without it–and then only becau…

31/07/2016

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-17thcentury-language-that-divided-everything-in-the-universe-into-40-categories

So much effort. Such little payoff.

09/07/2016

200 Highlights from the collections of the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, and Stefan R. Landsberger (University of Amsterdam, Leiden University).

24/06/2016

für alle, die ein bisschen Chinesich auffangen wollen - Nihao ist ein minimalistisches Memoryspiel, entwickelt von einem unserer Gründungsmitglieder, ganz umsonst im AppStore zu holen! https://www.facebook.com/playnihao

Nihao is a simple memory game designed to familiarize yourself with Chinese characters

03/06/2016

“Stephen: Do you recall what it was I said to you the last time you were in here?

Hugh: Well sir. You told me to move my ass, and haul my ass, and not to sit on my ass, because if I did, you would personally rearrange my ass.”

Strong language has a unique place in linguistics.