Linguistik
6 cards from across every topic, each citing a source. Tap one to open it in the feed.
- 'A language is a dialect with an army and navy.'
Popularised in 1945 by Yiddish scholar Max Weinreich, the line sums it up: whether something is called a language or a …
- A language with no words for 'left' and 'right'.
Guugu Yimithirr, an Aboriginal language of northern Queensland, has no left, right, in front of or behind you. …
- Does your language shape your thinking? Yes, but quietly.
The strong Sapir-Whorf claim, that language determines what you can think, is refuted. The weak version holds: language …
- How 'pater' became 'father': Grimm's law.
Jacob Grimm, yes, the fairy-tale Grimm, described a rule in 1822: on the way into Germanic, p became f, t became th, k …
- How linguists reconstruct a language nobody wrote down.
The comparative method: collect words of the same meaning from related languages, such as Latin 'pater', Greek 'patḗr' …
- No, Inuit don't have 100 words for snow.
In 1911 Franz Boas listed four Inuit root words for snow, much like English with snow, sleet, slush and powder. A 1940 …