Whistled Languages - Guaranteed To Be Very Interesting Or Your Upvote Back Posted: 10 months ago by 2manyusernames
Some cultures use a whistled language to communicate. This means that speech is emulated in whistling, which can cover much larger distances (typically 1 – 2 km but up to 5 km). Link points to examples and the wikipedia page is incredibly fascinating and points to even more examples of people speaking in whistles.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 149 [+].
Scientists look to apes for language origin clues Posted: 2 years ago by AutumnLotus
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.
Comments: 3 Score: [-] 66 [+].
Why Norwegian is the easiest language for English speakers to learn Posted: 4 months ago by bernardblack
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.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 177 [+].
Young Street Seller Sells in 13 Languages Posted: 1 year ago by ogri2003
He's not fluent I'm sure, but this kid's grasp of 13 languages is amazing.
Comments: 4 Score: [-] 181 [+].
Not Just a Pantomime Posted: 1 year ago by 2manyusernames
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.
Comments: 3 Score: [-] 105 [+].
The Oldest Language in the Universe Posted: 3 months ago by lostsoul135
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
Comments: 2 Score: [-] 94 [+].
Foreign policy 101: Teach kids key languages Posted: 3 months ago by muppet
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 this notion about our - you know our bullying concept of freedom by letting people see what we're about."
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 185 [+].
Neanderthals may have had language skills Posted: 1 year ago by DrNothing
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.
Comments: 7 Score: [-] 126 [+].
How totally paralyzed people communicate Posted: 1 year ago by Bornbad
Some people with locked-in-syndrome can communicate by blinking or moving their eyes.
Comments: 2 Score: [-] 115 [+].
Have you ever met a baling? How about a baffona? Posted: 1 year ago by 2manyusernames
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
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 152 [+].
English language campaigners blast public signs Posted: 1 year ago by spocksmyhomeboy
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."
Comments: 8 Score: [-] 181 [+].
Plants Communicate to Warn Against Danger Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
Plants chatter amongst themselves to spread information, a lot like humans and other animals, new research suggests.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 167 [+].
Another dead language Posted: 9 months ago by picklebob12
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*
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 103 [+].
Obama Clarifies Comments Over Foreign Languages Posted: 5 months ago by BernardBlack
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.
Comments: 3 Score: [-] 80 [+].
'Babelfish' to translate alien tongues could be built Posted: 8 months ago by AutumnLotus
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.
Comments: 4 Score: [-] 315 [+].
Learn A Foreign Language For Free Posted: 1 year ago by 2manyusernames
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
Comments: 9 Score: [-] 296 [+].