Category: Linguistics

This is Without a Doubt the Most Difficult Language to Learn

  If I had a dollar for every time someone started gabbing about what the easiest or most difficult language to learn is I’d be a regular Scrooge McDuck. Typically I’d tell you that there is no hardest language and that it’s all subjective and based on your motivation and the similarity of your target language to those you…
Read more

Why I Will Definitely Learn the IPA, and Why You Should Too!

I really like the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), as the title of this article clearly states. I mean, I really like it. I think it’s pretty much one of the best things ever. Okay, well maybe that’s an exaggeration but it’s still pretty cool. However, not everyone agrees with me (for reasons beyond my comprehension…). My…
Read more

OMG! Texting Isn’t Ruining English!

In the past decade the world has experienced a communications boom brought on by an insane amount of increased connectivity; widespread use of the Internet, and of course; cellphones. Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’re also probably aware that these devices and methods often fall under considerable scrutiny for somehow helping to undermine…
Read more

Book Review of “The Last Speakers”

Some time ago someone at The Living Tongues Institute turned me on to a fantastic book about the value of endangered languages and the importance of revitalization efforts that I was shocked to have not yet read. K. David Harrison’s The Last Speakers is a must read for anyone – linguist or otherwise – interested in endangered…
Read more

Would You Learn an Endangered Language?

Would you ever decide to study a language that was spoken by only 50,000 people? What about 5,000 people? 500 people? 5? Many of us make decisions about which language(s) to study based on a perception of their global worth. That is to say that we’re usually most interested in languages that can confer upon…
Read more

Open Learning Platforms Help Languages in the Fight Against Digital Extinction

Thanks to the Internet, linguistic anthropologists today have a forum for alerting the public and activists when a language is in danger of becoming extinct. But while the worldwide web has opened up avenues of communication and support for even the most obscure tongues, it has also served as a tool for the proliferation of…
Read more