Languages

Questioning the lost purity of Australian English due to American influence raises the issue of whether language corruption should be a real worry. Is Australian English truly under siege by Americanisms, or is it simply natural linguistic evolution?

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The notion of using English as a lingua franca is becoming an increasingly popular concept as more people around the world learn their own unique style of English. Is the English language suited to use as a lingua franca?

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The recent media frenzy surrounding Sarah Palin’s coinage of the non-word “refudiate” has put the topic of word invention in the news. A look at how words go from the streets to the dictionary shows that word invention is ultimately a popularity contest.

» Read More of Can’t Refudiate that Word Invention Is a Popularity Contest

The endangered Shoshone language has only around 3,000 speakers in the world. To change this, the language is benefiting from a University of Utah project to revitalize American Indian languages in hopes of saving them from extinction.

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As more people around the world access the internet, website languages are likely to become increasingly diverse, prompting web translation beyond the most popular languages, such as English, Chinese and Spanish.

» Read More of Languages on the Internet Changing with the Times

The suggested establishment of an Academy of English to help regulate and maintain the purity of the English language raises many difficult questions. First and foremost – is such an institution even necessary?

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Cued speech is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to sign language yet still sparks controversy in the deaf and hearing-impaired community. But what is cued speech, and how does it differ from more traditional signed languages?

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New research suggests that dated statistics regarding language extinction are seriously flawed due to the lack of consideration for bilingual speakers. With this in mind, the world’s languages may not be in as much danger as some thought.

» Read More of Is Bilingualism a Language Lifesaver?

There’s no doubt that some difficult languages are far more frustrating to learn than others. Going from English to German is one thing, but picking up Chinese is a much taller order. So what is it that makes them so hard?

» Read More of Difficult Languages: Why They’re So Freakin’ Hard to Learn

The diversity of official languages is greater in South Africa than nearly anywhere else on the planet. Despite this, one language at the 2010 World Cup reigns supreme in the stands, and it needs no translation.

» Read More of South Africa’s #1 World Cup Language