Will English Go the Way of Latin and Sanskrit? When I first watched PSY's viral Youtube hit, Gangnam Style, I thought the South Korean singer-songwriter/horse dancer was singing "open condom star.
" I was not alone. This is known as a mondegreen, a term coined by the writer Sylvia Wright to describe the mishearing of a song lyric or spoken word. Many famous examples abound in American pop culture, from Jimi Hendrix ("'Scuse me while I kiss this guy") to John Fogerty ("There's a bathroom on the right"). The difference in this case, of course, is that PSY is a K-pop star who sings in Korean with a few English riffs thrown in ("hey sexy ladies"). It is fascinating to see how PSY's foreign language mega-hit is being absorbed by western culture.
15 Words in Other Languages with No Direct English Equivalent. May 15, 2014 ‘Found in Translation‘ is an ongoing series that highlights words in other languages with no direct English equivalent.
The illustrative posters are done by Anjana Ilyer, a Mumbai-born graphic designer currently based in Auckland, New Zealand. Anjana’s goal is to do 100 of these illustrations in 100 days. You can see the entire series to date on Behance. 1. 2. 3. 4. The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever. Invented Languages from Hollywood to Bollywood. Podcast: Africa's Translation Gap. The Story of English episode 2 - The Mother Tongue - Part 2 / 7. Franglais row: Is the English language conquering France? - FrontMotion Firefox. The French parliament is debating a new road map for French universities, which includes the proposal of allowing courses to be taught in English.
For some, this amounts to a betrayal of the national language and, more specifically, of a particular way at looking at the world - for others it's just accepting the inevitable. It all started with a faux-pas - to use a French phrase commonly borrowed by English-speakers. On 20 March, when French higher education minister Genevieve Fioraso unveiled the proposed road map, she mentioned that there were only 3,000 Indian students in France. In order to attract more foreign students, she added, French universities would have to start offering courses taught in English. "We must teach in English or there will only remain in France a handful of experts discussing Proust around the table," she said.
But Proust was an unfortunate choice. But Fioraso fought back, saying she only meant to be pragmatic. These people present themselves as pure pragmatists. How foetuses learn language - FrontMotion Firefox. Babies are born with the ability to recognise familiar sounds and language patterns, according to new research.
A glimpse into the fast-moving minds of infants. Mastering a foreign language can be a frustrating experience and one that gets harder as we age. The younger you start, the easier it seems to be. Now researchers in the US and Sweden have found evidence that we start learning language before we're even born. The study discovered that in the last 10 weeks of pregnancy, foetuses are listening to their mothers communicate. Forty baby boys and girls - about 30 hours old - were randomly exposed to different vowel sounds that are unique to either English or Swedish. The Economist explains: How do you invent a language?
MORE than 5m people now hear a few words in Dothraki or Valyrian, the fabricated languages spoken in the television series “Game of Thrones”, each week—more than the number who hear Welsh, Irish Gaelic and Scots Gaelic combined.
From the unsung (Babm and Brithenig) to the celebrated (Esperanto and Elvish), constructed languages, in various states of completion, now outnumber the world’s natural tongues. Fantasy literature, science-fiction films and video games have fuelled a demand for otherworldly tongues—and fans increasingly expect them to be usable. Welcome to Adopt a Word - unusual gift ideas and a great way to donate to childrens charity I CAN - FrontMotion Firefox. Should the English & French Language Versions of the Cameroon National Anthem be word-for-Word Translations? Language & Literature. Anglophone Cameroonians Call for More Pidgin English Programs Ahead of World Radio Day.
New York, a graveyard for languages - FrontMotion Firefox. 15 December 2012Last updated at 19:13 ET By Dr Mark Turin Linguist and broadcaster Home to around 800 different languages, New York is a delight for linguists, but also provides a rich hunting ground for those trying to document languages threatened with extinction.
To hear the many languages of New York, just board the subway. The number 7 line, which leads from Flushing in Queens to Times Square in the heart of Manhattan takes you on a journey which would thrill the heart of a linguistic anthropologist. Each stop along the line takes you into a different linguistic universe - Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Bengali, Gujarati, Nepali. And it is not just the language spoken on the streets that changes. Street signs and business names are also transformed, even those advertising the services of major multinational banks or hotel chains. Quebec language police admit they used an ‘excess of zeal’ in censure of Italian restaurant menu. MONTREAL — The Quebec government says its language watchdog was a little too aggressive in pursuing an Italian restaurant for excessive use of Italian on its menu.
The provincial minister responsible for language says she realizes there was an “excess of zeal.” Diane De Courcy says adjustments will be made in the specific case of the Montreal restaurant Buonanotte. National Post Photo IllustrationQuebec’s language police have told an Italian restaurant in Montreal that menu items, including polpette, pasta and insalata caprese, must be translated into French.