Let me guess where you’re from.
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The world is becoming increasingly connected, but local accents still define who we are.
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Perception of truth and lies changes between languages for bilingual speakers.
In cities and countries around the world, drivers use a range of hand signals to communicate with other drivers.
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A sociolinguist wonders if they’ll ever be able to interpret the waves, high beams and middle fingers of human drivers.
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Child sexual abuse is rising but there is still ignorance around how to speak to and support children who are badly in need of help.
Wes Mountain/The Conversation
We need to enter 2018 with a fresh set of expressions for the workplace.
The initial aim of political correctness, to establish non-hateful language was, and still is, admirable.
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In little more than a generation and a half we have become a more caring and inclusive society.
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The Mississippi is characterised in America as male, while the Indians see the Ganges as female.
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Between them, Kazakhstan’s 18m people speak 117 languages but the country is opting for the Latin alphabet as it aims for wider global integration.
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Attempts to change French grammar to make it more gender-blind have aroused the wrath of many conservatives.
Indonesia’s language policy makes the use of standard Indonesian a measure of nationalism.
Prodita Sabarini/The Conversation Indonesia
Indonesian, an engineered language made in the time of colonialism, is “the envy of the multilingual world”. But no one speaks standard Indonesian on the streets. Does anyone speak the language?
The influence of countries in francophone Africa, like Ivory Coast, have shifted how universities think about the French language.
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French is no longer taught as a European language representative of “French” culture in South Africa. New modes of teaching, learning and research speak to an inclusive Africanist agenda.
Everyone sees them all, but we don’t all give them the same distinct names.
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People across the globe all see millions of distinct colors. But the terms we use to describe them vary across cultures. New cognitive science research suggests it’s about what we want to communicate.
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New research gives weight to Noam Chomsky’s idea of a universal language ability.
A photo of Stoney Squ-w Mountain in Banff by the Bow River.
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The word Squ-w has an innocent origin, but its use in English has long been derogatory and racist. Place names which use this word should be changed.
Words are more than their dictionary definition.
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Extremists haven’t always been associated with violence, or religious views.
In Lower Fungom, Cameroon men sing while working, highlighting the local culture.
Duylinh Nguyen
To understand the full scale of the world’s linguistic diversity, we should be thinking about languages and how speakers relate to them.
‘Now, did you understand all that?’
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‘If we can’t understand our rights, we have no rights.’ But efforts are being made to rebalance the inequalities.
No-one leaves this room until we get this sorted.
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Careful how you talk about Brexit. People are making assumptions as soon as you’ve said the word.
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Humans behave like atoms when viewed from a distance.
Language and herbs travel thanks to the Rastafarian community around Cape Town.
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Ethical engagement in multilingual communication is about mutual respect. More importantly, it’s about shaping a shared future through face-to-face communication.