MetaFilter posts tagged with language

What's nu?

Asparagirl — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:21:42 -0800

A linguist and a sociologist at Hebrew Union College have teamed up to track the inroads made into American English by words and idioms from traditionally Jewish languages, including Yiddish, Judeo-Arabic, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), and Hebrew. They've created an online survey and are looking for people from all religious and ethnic backgrounds to answer a few questions about their word choices, phrasing, and pronunciation. They're also trying to determine whether certain linguistic quirks usually attributed to Yiddish's influence are actually carried over from Jewish ancestors' speech patterns and accents, or whether they're merely an artifact from growing up in or near New York City. [via]

Kay Ryan is the new Poet Laureate

Peach — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:31:51 -0800

My favorite poet, Kay Ryan has been named United States Poet Laureate. The job is a cheap thrill--it pays $35,000 for the year, and the previous laureate, Charles Simic, declined to repeat the honor for a second year because he needed more time to write. The original title was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, but the title was changed in 1985 to make it sexier. Poets Laureate tend to be accessible poets who write relatively clear poems, with Billy Collins perhaps the most controversial because his gentle, ironic verse is popular and sells well. But then poets don't tend to respect their peers. The first poem I read by her was Turtle; she specializes in very brief, compact, internally rhymed, wry poems. "It's kind of a thrill to go from nothing to this," she says. "This is probably going to keep me so occupied that it will discourage any contact with the deeper mind. But my deeper mind needs a break."

Wordchamp: hover over a foreign-language word and get its definition

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:42:30 -0800

Wordchamp lets you view foreign-language web pages with definitions in your language as mouseovers (registration-only). When you've registered, you can enter a language pair and a URL into Wordchamp's "Web Reader" and a definition will pop up when you hover over a word. It's sad that it's registration-only, and I can't vouch for the quality of the dictionaries; but I've found it quite useful in making some sense of web pages in different languages.

Sing, Mr. Ambassador, sing!

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:29:37 -0800

Now that's what I call diplomacy! The US ambassador to Paraguay has become a music sensation in the country after recording an album of folk songs in the indigenous Guarani language. This same James Cason was a conservative darling for, among other things, hanging Christmas lights in Havana a few years back... this article lauds him for "getting under the skin" of the Castro regime. Here's his Wikipedia page.

Capitol Words - US Congress In A Word A Day

Effigy2000 — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:55:19 -0800

Capitol Words allows you to see what the most often used word was on any given day in the U.S Congress. [via mefi projects]

The Ethnosphere

homunculus — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:50:08 -0800

"Cultures at the far edge of the world" (YT) and "The worldwide web of belief and ritual" (YT). Two TED talks by anthropologist and explorer Wade Davis (previously) on the diversity of the world's indigenous cultures and their beliefs, and the richness of the "Ethnosphere," which he describes as "the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness." [Via Mind Hacks]

The "Humans of HokkaidM" formally recognized.

dawson — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:15:58 -0800

Until 400 years ago, the Ainu controlled Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's four main islands. Today they are a small minority group of Japan. They are a hunting and fishing people whose origins remain in dispute. Long before the people who would come to be known as "the Japanese" completed their migrations from the Asia mainland, the islands of Japan were already inhabited by a race of people known as the Ainu ("human"). On this northernmost island, (Hokkaido), in the "snow country," there still may be found remnants of this once proud and vigorous people who roamed the Japan islands long before the Japanese themselves arrived.

More links inside

The first comprehensive attempt to study Ainu culture was not undertaken until 1968 and by that time, the Ainu population had already dwindled considerably and they themselves had, in large part, begun assimilating with the Japanese and became absorbed into the general population. In recent centuries (particularly with the 1889 Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Law) they have been subject to Japanese government policies of modernization and integration. As with indigenous (native) peoples in the United States and many other nations, the Ainu have largely assimilated. And like many other such groups, there have been signs of cultural revival recently. The first official acknowledgment of any kind of separate Ainu identity came only in 1999. And on Friday of this week the Ainu were finally granted recognition as an indigenous people by Japan's parliament. According to the resolution, "Many Ainu were discriminated against and driven into poverty during Japan's modernization process." The resolution urged the government to recognize the Ainu as indigenous people with their own language, religion and culture. In addition, it asks top government officials to compile comprehensive measures after hearing expert opinions.

Previously, Culture and Arts, Wiki, On-line museum, PBS Nova link Language (and here),Religion, Artifacts, Photos, Overview, Discrimination, Racism, and the future (you tube) ,via the amazing AINU REBELS.

Not just for coffee shops and hair salons any more!

Ambrosia Voyeur — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:07:36 -0800

What, no Ph� King? BWE's Top 50 Punny Store Names.

I bet they hate Star Trek.

sonic meat machine — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:25:14 -0800

The Grammar Curmudgeon makes up for all of those snarky grammar comments we refrain from posting.

BBC's Learning English

Wolfdog — Wed, 28 May 2008 04:50:36 -0800

Did you know the BBC has extensive pages on learning English?