In research published on Monday, scientists seeking clues to the origins of human language analyzed the way two types of apes genetically closely related to people -- chimpanzees and bonobos -- use such hand and limb gestures to communicate. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

The class is a result of the National Security Language Initiative, introduced by President Bush in 2006 to teach the youngest students Chinese and other foreign languages considered critical to the nation's future security. "We're going to teach our kids how to speak important languages," he said. One goal, he added, was "to advance America's interests around the world, and defeat... read full post picked by muppet 2 months ago

Norwegian (here I'm talking about bokmål, the most often-used variety of Norwegian) is a language spoken by about 5 million people in Norway, and is extremely similar to the languages Swedish and Danish. picked by bernardblack 2 months ago

He's not fluent I'm sure, but this kid's grasp of 13 languages is amazing. picked by ogri2003 1 year ago

Throughout the world, and dating back to antiquity, deaf people have communicated using their hands and faces. Signed languages are still often regarded as inferior to speech and are perceived as relying on mimicry or pantomime. Most linguists now accept that sign languages have all of the grammatical and expressive sophistication of oral languages. Not all linguists have seen the light, though. picked by 2manyusernames 11 months ago

Arabic, Latin, English, Hebrew, Aramaic and Persian are all well known languages, but can there be a language that predates humanity itself by millions of years?

It's only the genetic code, but still an interesting article picked by lostsoul135 2 months ago

FOXP2, to date the only gene known to play a role in speech and language, has now been found by scientists to be identical in Neanderthals and Humans. picked by DrNothing 12 months ago

Some people with locked-in-syndrome can communicate by blinking or moving their eyes. picked by Bornbad 1 year ago

Mango is offering free language courses on French, German, Italian, Greek, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese and even Pig Latin
Spanish and Polish speakers can learn English picked by 2manyusernames 11 months ago

Plants chatter amongst themselves to spread information, a lot like humans and other animals, new research suggests. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

Campaigners for the English language on Thursday attacked a growing tendency for "obvious" public information posters, such as a police sign urging people: "Don't Commit Crime." picked by spocksmyhomeboy 1 year ago

English language is quite large, but there are somethings that English just doesn't have a word for, such as someone who is excited by eating garlic, or how about the act of taking lice from a person's head and squashing it between one's teeth.
These and other words are in a new book, Toujours Tingo picked by 2manyusernames 12 months ago

maybe its not dead, it says some people still speak it. in my opinion it's an unborn language
*it was intended as a world language, FAIL* picked by picklebob12 8 months ago

If we ever make contact with intelligent aliens, we should be able to build a universal translator to communicate with them, according to a linguist and anthropologist in the US. picked by AutumnLotus 6 months ago

Obama merely commented about the benefits of Americans learning a second language. A few people took issue with his comments, perhaps they misunderstood or twisted his words. He clarified his comments to show he wasn't some sort of secret anti-english person. picked by BernardBlack 3 months ago