it took a dyslexic designer to create a typeface that optimizes the reading experience for people who suffer from that condition.Christian Boer's "Dyslexie" doesn't exactly make the letterforms look conventionally beautiful, but since when is that a prerequisite for well-designed? If it works, it works.
The New York Times tells of a lawsuit "filed by Paul Ceglia, owner of a wood-pellet fuel company in upstate New York. Mr. Ceglia says that a work-for-hire contract he arranged with Mark Zuckerberg, then an 18-year-old Harvard freshman, entitles him to half of the Facebook fortune." The gist of the evidence is a collection of emails purportedly from Zuckerberg to Ceglia, ostensibly saved in Word files. The foundation of the refutation is an analysis of syntactical minutiae -- whether "internet" is capitalized or "cannot" is one word or two as commonly written by the Facebook founder.Many linguists, however, would challenge the notion that the “fingerprint,” a supposedly unique identifier, can be metaphorically applied to writing. Surely we all have our own written quirks and mannerisms — I tend to overuse em-dashes, for instance. But there is just too much internal variability in any person’s body of writing to imagine that we could take just a bit of it — a handful of e-mails — and recognize some sort of linguistic DNA.
Krauss suggests the erosion of Native languages could be due to television, which is mostly English and ubiquitous in villages nowadays, and "the likely lethal effect of the 'No Child Left Behind' (federal school mandate), requiring proof of proficiency in English but not Native language."
But he also says that Yup'ik and Inupiaq are being retained at rates much higher than the Aleut and Indian languages. Yup'ik is particularly strong, he writes, accounting for "fully 93 percent of those who speak an Alaskan Native language."
The Economist writes about the book "The Last Lingua Franca" which postures that English will decline in importance.
English is expanding as a lingua-franca but not as a mother tongue. More than 1 billion people speak English worldwide but only about 330m of them as a first language, and this population is not spreading. The future of English is in the hands of countries outside the core Anglophone group. Will they always learn English?
Mr Ostler suggests that two new factors—modern nationalism and technology—will check the spread of English. The pragmatism of the Achaemenids and Mughals is striking because no confident modern nation would today make a foreign language official. Several of Britain’s ex-colonies once did so but only because English was a neutral language among competing native tongues. English has been rejected in other ex-colonies, such as Sri Lanka and Tanzania, where Anglophone elites gave way to Sinhala- and Swahili-speaking nationalists. In 1990 the Netherlands considered but rejected on nationalist grounds making English the sole language of university education.
English will fade as a lingua-franca, Mr Ostler argues, but not because some other language will take its place. No pretender is pan-regional enough, and only Africa’s linguistic situation may be sufficiently fluid to have its future choices influenced by outsiders. Rather, English will have no successor because none will be needed. Technology, Mr Ostler believes, will fill the need.
This argument relies on huge advances in computer translation and speech recognition. Mr Ostler acknowledges that so far such software is a disappointment even after 50 years of intense research, and an explosion in the power of computers. But half a century, though aeons in computer time, is an instant in the sweep of language history. Mr Ostler is surely right about the nationalist limits to the spread of English as a mother-tongue. If he is right about the technology too, future generations will come to see English as something like calligraphy or Latin: prestigious and traditional, but increasingly dispensable.
Indiana is the latest state to dump cursive handwriting as part of the curriculum.The national move away from cursive is being fueled by the Common Core curriculum. That is an effort led by governors in 46 states, including Indiana, to agree to common standards and, eventually, common tests to measure whether kids are learning them. Cursive is not part of the Common Core curriculum. Keyboarding is.
NPR reports on a class available in Boston to help locals reduce their accent (link to audio file).The Boston accent is a sound that's as much a trademark of the city as Fenway Park and Harvard Yard. But some locals are looking to ditch the accent. Michele Norris talks to Billy Baker of The Boston Globe about his story on a class to help Bostonians get rid of their accents.Six years earlier NPR reported on those distinctive Boston accents.
Pahk the kah in Hahvud yahd... Say what? To celebrate the launch of Day to Day on Boston member station WBUR, NPR's Mike Pesca reports on the nuances of Bostonian accents
The company plans to adopt English as the sole official language for all its employees in 2012, according to Kim Sung-dae, director of the OCI public relations office.
"The reason behind this is because exports already account for 80 to 90 percent" of sales, Kim told Yonhap.
The move, of course, comes with huge costs for the companies, not just in terms of money but also in time and energy as communications between their employees are often hampered by their poor English skills.
They, however, say it is a price they are willing to pay.
"We are still in the very early stages of the plan and there must be significant amounts of stress placed on our employees," said the official from Korea East-West Power Co.
"The point is to encourage our employees to continue learning until speaking English becomes natural or sort of a habit."
Trilingual voting materials are now the law in Alameda County, Calif.“The right to vote is the foundation of our democracy, and language barriers should never keep citizens from accessing that right,” Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. The “agreement ensures that Alameda County’s Spanish- and Chinese-speaking citizens will be able to cast an effective ballot and successfully participate in the electoral process. I congratulate Alameda County for their earnest cooperation in resolving this matter.”
This team of scholars also noted that the fact that the Russian speakers had better Hebrew skills than the Hebrew speakers themselves indicates that acquiring a mother tongue and preserving that language in a bilingual environment does not come at the expense of learning a second language -- Hebrew in this case. In fact, the opposite is true: fluency and skills in one language assist in the language acquisition of a second language, and possessing skills in two languages can boost the learning process of a third language.
"Gaining command of a number of languages improves proficiency in native languages," Prof. Abu-Rabia explained. "This is because languages reinforce one another, and provide tools to strengthen phonologic, morphologic and syntactic skills. These skills provide the necessary basis for learning to read.
Our next word is "horrible." How does that first vowel sound?
Weighing the pros and cons of textspeak, this essay balances the ideas that communication skills are enhanced by every means and the short-hand is short-sighted.“These different channels of communication have led to the emergence of new communicative styles including text abbreviations and acronyms,” says Prof Merchant. According to him, writing is “enjoying a moment of creativity”, with young people at its heart.
His conclusion is that “there is no evidence that literacy is in decline, reading and writing, in whatever form, is advantageous”.And
... textspeak is not enough. “As someone with a deep concern for English literature, and the full possibilities of the use of the language, I’m eager for children and young people to read real books as extensively as possible, so that they can absorb all the things that textspeak doesn’t cover: a large vocabulary, the shape that well-made sentences can take, how to develop ideas through language, even punctuation. I want them to experience all the pleasure that reading gives, and the satisfaction that writing well brings.”
Here’s an explanation from the style guide: “As a general rule, do not use the serial/Oxford comma: so write ‘a, b and c’ not ‘a, b, and c’. But when a comma would assist in the meaning of the sentence or helps to resolve ambiguity, it can be used – especially where one of the items in the list is already joined by ‘and’ [for example]: They had a choice between croissants, bacon and eggs, and muesli.”
Although the owner of the diner that insisted patrons speak English maintains that his policy has nothing to do with its closing, being rude to people can't be the best business modelThe restaurant's owner, Greg Simons, closed his restaurant on Wednesday.
Simons made waves in March when he posted a sign on the door banning customers who don't speak English.
Simons said the closure has nothing to do with the sign, but that he needs to tend to his mother's health and doesn't have time to devote to the restaurant.
LA Times looks back at the ways to pronounce the name of the city. In a campaign speech, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is the latest to fumble it. But there's a long line.Mispronouncing L.A. is an old tradition.
"There is no other city in the world whose inhabitants so miserably and shamelessly, and with so many varieties of foolishness, miscall the name of the town they live in," author Charles Lummis wrote in 1914.
As early as 1880 the Chamber of Commerce issued this reminder to visitors (and residents):
The Lady would remind you, please
Her name is not Lost AN-jie-lees."
But what is the lady's name? It depends, of course, on whether one is talking about a Spanish or Anglicized pronunciation
In the early 1900s, The Times advocated the Spanish version, carrying a box by its editorial page masthead that proclaimed the way to say Los Angeles was Loce AHNG-hayl-ais.
English speakers who found that difficult could only be thankful that the city had shortened its original name, which some scholars believe was El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula.
The Times' campaign aside, the United States Board on Geographic Names decreed in 1934 that the name should be Anglicized to Loss AN-ju-less.
The Language As Culture blog posts and reacts to a TED talk on the supremacy of English. The essayist's analysis on one of the points raised:policy makers fear the increasing number of Spanish speaking immigrants will somehow threaten the large hold English has on power in America. The point here is that measuring language’s values can be done but it is pointless because language is not a lone factor in deciding policies that affect an entire nation and groups of people (education, voting, etc….).
An English-only law has been revoked in New York.An upstate New York town has repealed an ordinance designating English its official language and prohibiting officials from writing or speaking in others while conducting municipal business.
The Jackson Town Board's 4-to-1 vote Wednesday night repeals the measure passed last year. It follows a recent letter from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman saying the ordinance was illegal, discriminating against non-English speakers.
Town Supervisor Alan Brown says there has been criticism from residents of the rural town who felt it was "an unfriendly way to greet strangers" and pressure from outsiders, with Schneiderman's letter the last straw.
A literary agent has compiled some commonly confused words and commenters have added more.lie-lay
Time to lie down for a nap. (verb, present tense)
Yesterday she lay on the grass and daydreamed. (verb, past tense)
If you are going to use “lay” as present tense, it’s only if you are going to lay something down. The present tense verb “lay” needs to have an object.
affect-effect-effect
Will this post affect the way you write? (verb)
If so, I hope it has a positive effect. (noun)
I’m trying to effect a change in the way writers use grammar. (transitive verb meaning to cause or bring about)
Things such as calling women "girls" but not calling men "boys" or referring to a collective group as "guys" are forms of subtle sexism that creep into daily interactions. The study helps not only identify which forms of sexism are most overlooked by which sex, but also how noticing these acts can change people's attitudes.
"Women endorse sexist beliefs, at least in part, because they do not attend to subtle, aggregate forms of sexism in their personal lives," wrote authors Julia C. Becker and Janet K. Swim. "Many men not only lack attention to such incidents but also are less likely to perceive sexist incidents as being discriminatory and potentially harmful for women."
The language of the Native American Blackfoot tribe has made a small radio station in Montana a regional force.In the Blackfeet language, the station is Ksistsikam ayikinaan. That translates to "voice from nowhere," but you can call it Thunder Radio.
At 30-watts, the community radio station doesn't reach too far beyond Browning, but its impact is growing.
"What I've heard is, it's our own," station manager Lona Burns said. "The Blackfeet people have our own accent so I guess they enjoy that it sounds like them."
The DJs are preachers, teachers, students and others but have one important thing in common.
"Every single one has a positive outlook on life," Burns said. "Their programs transform into positive energy for the listeners."
NPR's Robert Krulich on how one word can have many many different spellings.Mackerel, by the way, was originally an old French word, "maquerel" but when the Normans conquered the British (or was it the Angles and Saxons?) in 1066, they brought maquerel into the English language where it got bounced around quite a bit. James Gleick, the science writer, says the OED in 1989 listed 19 different mackerel spellings down through English-speaking history.
Nineteen is a lot different names to call a fish.
But when you consider that most people were illiterate, there were no dictionaries, and no notion of "correct" spellings, it would have been highly unusual for only one spelling to predominate.
...
In its 2002 edition, The Oxford English Dictionary almost doubled the number of ancient mackerel spellings. Why?
Blame the internet.
After 1989 the internet made it easier for historians and antiquarians to scan, publish and exchange old documents. With a bigger database, all kinds of new/old spellings turned up.
Climate scientists gathering at a conference on Arctic warming were asked Wednesday to explain the dramatic melting in the region in layman’s terms, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
An authoritative report released at the meeting in Copenhagen showed melting ice in the Arctic could result in global sea levels rising 5 feet within this century, much higher than previous forecasts.
James White of the University of Colorado at Boulder told fellow researchers to use plain language when describing their research to a general audience. Focusing on the reports technical details could obscure the basic science. To put it bluntly, “if you put more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, it will get warmer,” he said.
US climate scientist Robert Corell said it was pertinent to try to reach out to all members of society to spread awareness of Arctic melt and the impact it has on the whole world.
“Stop speaking in code. Rather than 'anthropogenic,' you could say 'human caused,” Corell said at the conference of nearly 400 scientists.
The Arctic has been warming at twice the global average in recent decades, and the latest five-year period is the warmest since measurements began more than 100 years ago, according to the report by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program.
Very few remnants of the tribal past exist. The Guardian (UK) documents the evaporation of another one: There are only 2 fluent speakers of a Mexican indigenous language and they're not speaking to each other.The language of Ayapaneco has been spoken in the land now known as Mexico for centuries. It has survived the Spanish conquest, seen off wars, revolutions, famines and floods. But now, like so many other indigenous languages, it's at risk of extinction.
There are just two people left who can speak it fluently – but they refuse to talk to each other. Manuel Segovia, 75, and Isidro Velazquez, 69, live 500 metres apart in the village of Ayapa in the tropical lowlands of the southern state of Tabasco. It is not clear whether there is a long-buried argument behind their mutual avoidance, but people who know them say they have never really enjoyed each other's company.
"They don't have a lot in common," says Daniel Suslak, a linguistic anthropologist from Indiana University, who is involved with a project to produce a dictionary of Ayapaneco.The paper links to UNESCO's list of endangered and extinct languages
On Punctuation
David Rakoff's essay in the NYTimes discusses the language used in his contacts with his medical professionals.It has taken years for me to learn not to analyze the voices and vocabularies of those taking care of me. For the most part, I’ve been very lucky even as I’ve been less than fortunate. The doctors and nurses in my life don’t prolong the anticipation with pleasantries. We joke around a lot, but that’s the second order of business. With a long illness, there are stretches of triumph that feel like cosmic rewards for good behavior followed by inexplicable setbacks that seem like indictments of your character. With so much muddy logic crowding out reason, it’s best when news, good or bad, is delivered quickly and clearly. I will forever be grateful to my oncologist for opening the door and saying, “Damn it, the tumor’s 10 percent bigger,” before he even said hello.
“It shouldn’t be chalked off as boys being boys,” Vallotton said. “They need extra attention from child-care providers and teachers to help them build language skills and to use those skills to regulate their emotions and behavior.”
