Germans bemoan the “idiot’s apostrophe”, and research on using AI to communicate with dolphins wins the $100,000 Dolittle Prize

Welcome to this week’s edition of Discovery Dispatch, a weekly roundup of the latest language-related news, research in linguistics, interesting reads from the week, and newest books and other media dealing with language and linguistics.

📰 In the News

Language and linguistics in the news.

Dr. Ofelia Zepeda is a Native Tohono O’odham scholar and linguist at the University of Arizona who is well known for her work in language documentation and revitalization. The Tohono O’odham language is a part of the Uto-Aztecan family, and in the past has been known as Papago or Pima. It is the 10th most-spoken indigenous language in the United States, and is spoken in Arizona and northern Sonora, Mexico. AZ Central has a wonderful article about Dr. Zepeda this week:

This Tohono O’odham linguist is fighting to keep Indigenous languages alive in Arizona

Ofelia Zepeda is a renowned poet and linguist, and one of the world’s foremost experts on the Tohono O’odham language.

The Arizona Republic, The Arizona Republic

Apostrophes used in a “non-standard” manner are called grocers’ apostrophes or idiots’ apostrophes in English, and German has their version of them too: Deppenapostroph ‘idiot’s apostrophe’, when German writers use an apostrophe to indicate possession. While technically unnecessary because German nouns already have a genitive (possessive) ending, it has nonetheless become common to see apostrophes with names especially. In acceptance of this growing convention, the latest edition of the Council for German Orthography’s style guide now allows this usage with proper names.

Germans decry influence of English as ‘idiot’s apostrophe’ gets official approval

Linguistic body has relaxed rules on use of apostrophe to show possession, not traditionally correct in German

The GuardianPhilip Oltermann

🗞️ Current Linguistics

Recently published research in linguistics.

Primate Communication

A pair of recent studies finds that chimp communication includes two features considered important for spoken communication: rhythmic structures and call combinations.

Chimp Calls Offer Clues to the Origins of Human Language

Learn more about how researchers have discovered that chimps can combine calls in multiple ways to create new meanings, remarkably similar to the way we combine sounds and words into sentences.

Discover MagazineRosie McCall

• Chimps’ rhythmic drumming and complex calls hint at origins of human language (NPR)
• Eleuteri et al. 2025. Chimpanzee drumming shows rhythmicity and subspecies variation. Current Biology 35(10). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.04.019
• Girard-Buttoz et al. 2025. Versatile use of chimpanzee call combinations promotes meaning expansion. Science Advances 11(19). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adq2879

A recent study also finds that alarm calls from female Sumatran orangutans also display embedding and recursion, a feature once claimed by Noam Chomsky to be unique to human language:

Orangutans use complex vocal patterns found in human language

New research reveals Sumatran orangutans use recursion in vocal patterns, challenging human language uniqueness.

Earth.comSanjana Gajbhiye

• De Gregorio, Gambia, & Lameira. 2025. Third-order self-embedded vocal motifs in wild orangutans, and the selective evolution of recursion. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, pp. 1–11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.15373

Americans and Britons outswear Australians online

In a surprising result, a new study finds that Americans and Britons swear more online than Australians do. However, Australians make up for this in creativity, using a wider range of swear words than Americans, who mostly stick to “fuck” and its variants. And of course Australians use more swear words in person.

WTF? Americans and Britons swear more than Australians online, research finds

Findings surprise Australian researchers, though compatriots score higher on creativity than sheer volume

The GuardianTory Shepherd

US ranks first in swearing

‘Some may find it disappointing,’ said the new study’s Australian co-author.

Popular ScienceAndrew Paul

• Schweinberger & Burridge. 2025. Vulgarity in online discourse around the English-speaking world. Lingua 321. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103946

Linguistics for Language Learning

Recent research suggests that add linguistics into language learning curricula could improve student outcomes and engagement. I can’t say this one surprises me!

Linguistics could make language learning more relevant – and attractive – for school pupils

A languages curriculum enriched with linguistics is appealing to students and teachers.

The ConversationAnna D. Havinga

Rethinking the UK Languages Curriculum: Arguments for the Inclusion of Linguistics | Modern Languages Open

Modern Languages Open

📃 This Week’s Reads

Interesting articles I’ve come across this week.

Yiddish is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews originating in the 800s, based on High German but with influences from Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages, and Romance languages. When many eastern European Jews migrated to Britain in the late 19th century, they may have influenced the English cockney accent as it evolved in the early 20th century:

Cockney Yiddish: how two languages influenced each other in London’s East End

For a younger generation of secular Jews, Yiddish is acquiring a new appeal.

The ConversationNadia Valman

The Dolittle Prize is a $100,000 award recognizing early breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI)-powered interspecies communication. The winning project was just announced, exploring how dolphins use shared, learned whistles that may carry specific meanings—possibly even warning each other about danger, or just expressing confusion.

• ‘About as close to aliens as we’ll ever get.’ Can AI crack animal language? (Science)

Could deciphering dolphin language help us communicate with ET?

“Many of the challenges facing SETI research are similar to those already addressed in the investigation of animal behavior, and the evolutionary origins of human language.”

SpaceLeonard David

The New Yorker has a piece about Trump’s executive order making English the official language of the federal government:

Does the United States Need an Official Language?

Donald Trump’s executive order succeeds where decades of right-wing efforts have failed.

The New YorkerGraciela Mochkofsky

For my own explanation and perspective on the matter, check out this issue of the newsletter:

The linguistics of Trump’s official English policy

Trump issued an executive order making English the official language of the U.S.—sort of. Here’s what that order does, and what language in the U.S. looks like today.

Linguistic DiscoveryDaniel W. Hieber, Ph.D.

Radio France Internationale (RFI) has an article this week introducing readers to the concept of language endangerment. They note that just 20 languages dominate the global linguistic landscape, whereas 95% of the world’s languages are spoken by just 5% of the population:

The last word: why half of the world’s languages could vanish this century

There are around 7,000 languages spoken in the world, but that number is shrinking. Unesco estimates that half could disappear by the end of the century. So how are languages lost, and what does that…

RFIRFI

• [French version] Le dernier mot: quand les langues disparaissent (RFI)

These are some of my favorite etymological mysteries: where words like boy, girl, and dog come from:

Five common English words we don’t know the origins of – including ‘boy’ and ‘dog’

The origins of these words could tell us a lot about our ancestors and the cognitive strategies they used to name the things around them.

The ConversationFrancesco Perono Cacciafoco

If you haven’t yet become acquainted with Colin Gorrie’s excellent newsletter, Dead Language Society, I highly recommend doing so. To dip your toes in, here’s a great introduction to the runic alphabet:

Runes 101

What I wish everyone knew about runes before doing a Google search.

Dead Language SocietyColin Gorrie

I don’t love this question (because with the rare exception of languages forming de novo all languages are equally old), but I do love the fact that Gizmodo reached out to actual linguists to answer it and let them do so in their own voice. I was happy to see mention of Nicaraguan Sign Language (one of those rare de novo languages) and the mixed language Michif, since sign languages and mixed languages are often sidelined and/or not treated as real languages.

What’s the Newest Language?

“Even excluding conlangs (deliberately constructed languages like Esperanto or Klingon), new languages form organically all the time.”

GizmodoDaniel Kolitz

Always happy to see articles explaining the myriad benefits of multilingualism!

The power of language: myriad of benefits of multilingualism

The News talked to an adjunct professor of linguistics and students to learn about cognitive, academic and social aspects of bilingualism.

Yale Daily NewsUma Jeddy, Zoe Beketova

📚 Books & Media

New (and old) books and media touching on language and linguistics.

Slate has a laudatory review of Laura Spinney’s new book Proto: How one ancient language went global:

At Its Beginnings, Only a Handful of People Spoke This Language. It’s the Origin of Every Word You Say.

This revelatory new book will open your eyes to the source of everything you say.

SlateLaura Miller

In 2005 archaeologist Steven Mithen published the book The singing neanderthals: The origins of music, language, mind, and body, which gives an overview of language evolution, and proposes that language may have had its origin in music. Our understanding of human evolution has advanced significantly in the 20 years since, and now Mithen has followed up with another book on language evolution, The language puzzle: Piecing together the six-million-year story of how words evolved, published early this year. Here’s a review by paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall in The New York Review:

Look Who’s Talking | Ian Tattersall

When did our first linguistic ancestor emerge, and how did the transition from a nonlinguistic to a linguistic state take place?

The New York Review of BooksIan Tattersall

🗃️ Resources

Maps, databases, lists, etc. on language and linguistics.

The World Atlas of Language Structures Online (WALS) is a database of grammatical and phonological properties of the world’s languages. Some properties include whether the language is tonal (and what kind of tonal), how the language indicates plurality on nouns, how the language indicates past tense, the order of the subject, object, and verb, and many others. It includes chapters on each feature that explain what possibilities exist in the world’s languages, and interactive maps that you can use to see the geographic distribution of features. It’s an incredible tool and well worth checking out if you’re not already familiar with it:

WALS Online - Home

Home

That’s all for this week! I hope you enjoyed this issue of the digest, and that you have a wonderful week!

~ Danny