The World's Most Spoken Languages And Where They Are Spoken
This beautifully illustrated infographic (above), designed by South China Morning Post’s graphics director Alberto Lucas Lopéz, shows the most spoken known languages in the world and where they’re spoken by the 6.3 billion people included in the study. Based on records collated from the database Ethnologue, the infographic illustrates the wide-ranging facts and figures of the world’s living languages catalogued since 1951. “There are at least 7,102 known languages alive in the world today.
The case of the missing “u”s in American English
Before you consciously became aware of your decision to read this article, your brain was already making the necessary preparations to click the link. There are a few crucial milliseconds between the moment when you’re consciously aware of a plan to act, and the moment you take action. This brief window is thought by some scientists to be the moment in time when we can exercise free will.
Native American Indian Tribes: Federally Recognized Tribes
This page not only lists all the federally recognized tribes of Native Americans, but also has links from those tribes for their official websites, stories and legends, books, photographs and artwork. This is a work very much in progress and will take a long while to complete [unless you all help with this resource]. Right now I have links to over 150 website locations from about 26 different tribes on this page. I will try to add comprehensive links to an additional one or two tribes each month (moon). Latest Update: Southern Ute lndian Tribe of the Southern Ute Reservation, Colorado; 2 December, 2004
The secret language of South Asia’s transgender community — Quartz
In South Asia, there is a hidden language known only to the region’s hijra community. Found in Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, the hijra are an old and marginalized group, whose members identify as men born with the souls of women. Hijras call themselves she-males and effigies, as well as kwaja sera, or the “guards of the harem,” a title that recalls their historical role serving monarchs in the region. These days, the hijra are known as performers and panhandlers. What few know about them, however, is that they are the keepers of many secrets, including the centuries-old language of Hijra Farsi. “It’s importance for our people that when we want to talk to our siblings and others from our household…we speak in our language and others won’t know what we’re saying,” Deemi, a hijra living in the Pakistani city of Lahore, explained to Muftah.
Film Links
Until quite recently it was difficult to find pedagogically sound film material to help students improve their language through watching film, and teachers had to spend many hours creating their own materials. However, with the advent of the Internet there are now a wealth of online resources for both language teachers and their students. With so many resources it’s sometimes difficult for teachers to see the wood for the trees. Here I’m going to recommend the sites and resources that from my own experience I have found most useful and engaging. Lesson plans
A 3D Map Of The Brain Shows How We Understand Language
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United Kingdom
HISTORY The first Britons (people who live in the United Kingdom) were the Picts, who arrived about 10,000 years ago. In the eighth century B.C., the Celts arrived from Europe and pushed the Picts north into Scotland. In A.D. 43, the Romans invaded and ruled for nearly 400 years. They built roads, bathhouses, sewers, and large villas.
The World's Most Efficient Languages
Just as fish presumably don’t know they’re wet, many English speakers don’t know that the way their language works is just one of endless ways it could have come out. It’s easy to think that what one’s native language puts words to, and how, reflects the fundamentals of reality. But languages are strikingly different in the level of detail they require a speaker to provide in order to put a sentence together.
