Current Linguistics

Current Linguistics

The Golden Age of Language might have boasted 75,000 languages approximately 2,000 years ago

Also this week: The Herculaneum scrolls are giving up their secrets + The Bantu Expansion: The mass migration that transformed sub-Saharan Africa

Current Linguistics

Why your foreign accent sucks

Also this week: Why you might not want to learn language like a child + How California “Valley Girl” talk changed the way America speaks + Statistical physics reveals how languages evolve

Current Linguistics

When words look like their meaning, we process them faster

Also this week: Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome to a Eurovision Song Contest that embraces linguistic diversity + Linguists are mapping Rhode Island’s linguistic diversity

Current Linguistics

Homophones, plurals, and language “rulescucks” are roiling prediction markets

Also this week: More Ukrainians are switching from speaking Russian to Ukrainian + Scientists say AI is bringing us closer to talking to animals + A new book on the world’s vanishing languages

Current Linguistics

New study links receptivity to corporate bullshit to weaker leadership skills

Also this week: New Mexico is losing a form of Spanish spoken nowhere else + Study finds that isolated human groups speak more diverse languages

Current Linguistics

New evidence that language evolved before humans did

Also this week: Universals of swearing across languages + Does learning Latin improve your SAT scores? + What killed penmanship

Current Linguistics

We’re losing 338 spoken words every year, linguists find

Also this week: Sperm whale communication closesly mirrors human language + Why toddlers don’t understand the words “I” and “you”

Current Linguistics

Linguists work to create UK’s first swear map

Also this week: Bumble bees show a surprising knack for rhythm + Sperm whale songs are surprisingly like human language

Current Linguistics

Has forensic linguistics solved the mystery of Bitcoin’s creator?

Also this week: How slang works, and how Black culture is shaping Gen Z’s slang

Current Linguistics

Deciphering the Singapore Stone

Also this week: The linguistics of Project Hail Mary + The beautiful linguistic chaos of Iran + Your dog might be eavesdropping on you (linguistically)

Current Linguistics

Did Homo erectus have language?

Also this week: Did writing just get pushed back tens of thousands of years? + How slang works + We finally understand why horses whinny

Current Linguistics

Baby chicks know their kiki from their bouba

Also this week: Why human language isn’t like computer code + Why English needs “y’all” + Why do so many women’s names end in A?