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Social media is giving a new lifeline to Bhutan’s native languages, which do not have written script and lack proper documentation.
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The meanings we carry around in our heads seem so natural and inborn that we fail to realise other people can have quite different understandings.
Your brain processes letters, words, sounds, semantics and grammar at breakneck speed.
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Most people can draw from tens of thousands of words in their memory within milliseconds. Studying this process can improve language disorder treatment and appreciation of the gift of communication.
Many second- and third-generation Latinos feel insecure about their Spanish-speaking abilities.
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Young Latinos in the US often navigate a contradictory landscape: Their parents see them as not Latino enough, while teachers and peers view them as not American enough.
Nos Galan Gaeaf on October 31 is followed by Calan Gaeaf on November 1 in Wales.
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Nos Galan Gaeaf on October 31 in Wales is steeped in folklore and tradition.
Deforestation is a global problem with grave consequences for biodiversity and planetary health.
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Getting serious about protecting global biodiversity requires not just policy but a revolution in how we talk about, and with, our planet’s forests.
The Anatolian landscape in Turkey.
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Using data from over 160 languages, a new study explains where, when and how Indo-European languages spread across Europe and Asia.
Akan folklore places emphasis on symbols and their meanings.
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Incorporating Akan folklore in the curriculum will promote quality and lifelong education in Ghana.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes delegates to the G20 leaders summit in front of a placard reading ‘Bharat,’ the Hindi word for ‘India.’
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The government’s use of the Hindi word for ‘India’ revives debates over whether Hindi should be the national language – and reopens some old wounds.
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The Australian Public Service stands at a crossroads where policy effectiveness hinges on its willingness to stare into the abyss of policy language.
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By the time children start school ‘they have the rudiments of adult swearing’, including about 40 taboo words.
French, Spanish and Japanese are spoken faster than German, Vietnamese and Mandarin, with English somwhere in the middle.
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Language, geography, age and other factors can all affect how fast a person talks. But sometimes, these perceived differences are only in the listener’s head.
The language midwives use is an important part of the care they provide.
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Several familiar maternity terms have been abandoned after a consultation with pregnant women and healthcare professionals.
Language is an ecological phenonemon which responds and evolves with environmental change just as much as environments change with language.
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Language is adaptive, self-balancing and evolves with environmental change. Understanding this may be the key to developing more nuanced climate change discourse.
The use of the letter x as a mathematical unknown is a relatively modern convention. Algebra has been around for a lot longer.
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How did the letter x get its enduring role as a symbol of the unknown? A mathematician explains why it’s hard to say for sure.
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By the 1950s a standard version of the language emerged, today spoken by an estimated 200 million people.
A family of Syrian refugees arrive at their new home in Bloomfield, Mich., in 2015.
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The US is home to more international migrants than any other country. But even though immigration is an actively debated topic, immigrants are poorly understood.
Conditions in rural England around the turn of the 20th century offer a case study for cultural evolution researchers.
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People with a common history – often due to significant geographic or social barriers – often share genetics and language. New research finds that even a dialect can act as a barrier within a group.
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Around half of toddlers who aren’t chattering by age two will catch up later, but we can’t predict which ones.
Ted Kaczynski was arrested after the longest and most expensive investigation in the FBI’s history.
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Similar techniques used to identify criminals have been employed to unmask anonymous authors. But they aren’t foolproof.