As usual, The Onion has the scoop.
(Even though they screw up the dates for the Anglo-Saxon period, alternatively calling it “pre-medieval” and “800 year old,” I think we can forgive them.)
Five TED Talks on Language
19 February 2010
Yesterday’s Beyond Words blog features five “must see” talks on language from past TED conferences.
The first is a talk by Wade Davis on language death. Unfortunately, this is a “must skip” talk. Davis fills his talk to bursting with polysyllabic, postmodernist babble, which when decrypted is actually quite ludicrous. It’s a shame, because it’s an important topic.
Erin McKean’s talk on lexicography, on the other hand, is absolutely wonderful. If you don’t watch any of the others, this is the one to see.
Steven Pinker gives a nice primer on the relationship between grammar and cognition.
Susan Savage-Rumbaugh talks about bonobos and language acquisition and the importance of culture, rather than biology, on language use.
Finally, James Geary gives a nice presentation on metaphor.
(Hat tip to the Lousy Linguist)
How To Invent a Word
17 February 2010
Lots of people try to submit invented words to the dictionary, a futile effort. But comedian and writer Alex Horne is making a serious attempt to get one of his invented words in the Oxford English Dictionary. It’s a long shot, but he is going about it in the right way. He understands the key is to actually get the word used by a variety of people first, and only then, after it is actually part of the language, will it be included in dictionaries. Read about Horne’s attempt here.
But Horne is wrong about one thing. Beyoncé Knowles did not invent the word bootylicious. It was floating around the hip-hop scene for years before Knowles used it as the title for one of her songs. While she certainly popularized the word, bootylicious probably (and in the case of slang dictionaries, certainly) would have made it into the dictionary without her help.
(Hat tip to the DSNA Blog.)
King’s College Axes Paleography Chair
10 February 2010
In a very unfortunate and short-sighted fiscal decision, King’s College London has decided to eliminate it’s chair in paleography, the study of ancient writing and manuscripts. No other British university treats paleography as a distinct discipline and the decision will have far-reaching negative impacts for a host of academic fields.
To an outsider paleography may seem like one of those fuzzy, arcane academic disciplines that has little value to anyone else. Furthermore, it attracts few students and generates little in grant money and can be seen by accountants as a cost rather than a “profit center.” But this is a false assessment of the field’s value. Paleography is the foundation for a host of academic disciplines: literature, religion and theology, history, linguistics, ethnic and cultural studies, and more. Any discipline that requires examining old documents needs paleography.
And ironically, paleography and manuscript studies are now, perhaps for the first time ever, incredibly valuable in their own right and not just for the support they provide to other fields. We are in the midst of an information revolution, going from print to digital media. The last time humanity faced a similar revolution was 600 years ago during the transition from manuscript to print media. While the modalities are different, many of the basic problems and questions facing us in this transition are the same as those created by Gutenberg’s invention. And the digital media of the internet shares many features with the manuscripts of a thousand years ago—copying, subtle alterations in copying, multiple versions, mash-ups, anonymity of authors and more were all features of manuscript culture. Understanding how the transition to print occurred centuries ago may be critical to how we make the transition to digital media.
The Guardian has more.
Last Speaker of Bo Dies
5 February 2010
The BBC reports the death of Boa Sr, at 85 years old the last native speaker of the Andaman Islands language of Bo. She was the last native speaker of the tongue for at least thirty years.
What I’m not sure about is the hype about it being an “ancient” language. It’s not like the language that Boa Sr learned as a child would have been intelligible to someone from 70,000 years ago. In a way, every language is equally as old. But if the language remained fairly isolated for all those millennia (doubtful), it might have elements that trace back that far. But even if so, I’m not sure how you could divine any cogent information about language development from it.
(Hat tip to the Slog)
