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Wise Quotes - 0 views

www.brainyquote.com/...wise_9.html
shared by Trevin Nishibun on 30 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Trevin Nishibun on 30 Nov 10
     
    This is a list of many quotes from famous people that contains some paraprosdokian phrases
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Language and toolmaking evolved together, say researchers | Science | The Guardian - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...uage-hand-toolmaking-evolution evolution tools
shared by Ryan Catalani on 26 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Ryan Catalani on 26 Nov 10
     
    "Brain scans of modern stone-tool makers show that key areas in the brain's right hemisphere become more active when they switch from making stone flakes to more advanced tools. Intriguingly, some of these brain regions are involved in language processing... 'Our study reinforces the idea that toolmaking and language evolved together as both required more complex thought.'"
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The Linguists: A Very Foreign Language Film - 1 views

www.thelinguists.com
shared by Ryan Catalani on 24 Nov 10 - Cached
  • Ryan Catalani on 24 Nov 10
     
    "David [Harrison] and Greg [Anderson] will circle the planet to hear the last whispers of a dying language. They are The Linguists." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Linguists
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GOD-LOVING LINGUISTS | More Intelligent Life - 0 views

moreintelligentlife.com/...god-loving-linguists language endangered
shared by Ryan Catalani on 24 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Ryan Catalani on 24 Nov 10
     
    "Christian missionaries have become strangely vital to conserving endangered languages... In 1951 Pittman had started interviewing missionaries and linguists about the languages that were spoken in the parts of the world where they worked. The result was a language catalogue called Ethnologue... For example, the Spanish priests who followed the conquistadors into South America documented indigenous languages as they went."
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Interview: Seven questions for K. David Harrison | The Economist - 0 views

www.economist.com/...interview extinction endangered language
shared by Ryan Catalani on 24 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • A language hotspot is a contiguous region which has, first of all, a very high level of language diversity. Secondly, it has high levels of language endangerment. Thirdly, it has relatively low levels of scientific documentation (recordings, dictionaries, grammars, etc.). We've identified two dozen hotspots to date
  • The hotspots model allows us to visualise the complex global distribution of language diversity, to focus research on ares of greatest urgency, and also to predict where we might encounter languages not yet known to science.
  • The human knowledge base is eroding as we lose languages, exacerbated by the fact that most of them have never been written down or recorded
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Each language is a unique expression of human creativity.
  • there are no exact matches for words or expressions across languages.
  • In Tuvan, in order to say "go" you must first know the direction of the current in the nearby river and your own trajectory relative to it. Tuvan "go" verbs therefore index the landscape in a way that cannot survive displacement or translation.
  • People of all ages, but especially children, can easily be bilingual. New research shows bilingualism strengthens the brain, by building up what psychologists call the cognitive reserve.
  • I and many fellow linguists would estimate that we only have a detailed scientific description of something like 10% to 15% of the world's languages, and for 85% we have no real documentation at all. Thus it seems premature to begin constructing grand theories of universal grammar. If we want to understand universals, we must first know the particulars.
  • Their knowledge of ice, their words for it, and the hunting skills and lifeways are all receding in tandem with the Yupik language itself.
  • If we can learn to value the intellectual diversity that is fostered by linguistic variety, we can all help to ensure its survival.
  • I'll close with the inspiring example of Matukar, a language spoken in a small village in Papua New Guinea. Down to about 600 speakers (out of a tribal group of 900+), Matukar is under immense pressure from the national language Tok Pisin and from English.
  • Working with me under the National Geographic Enduring Voices Project, he devised a written form for what had been until 2010 a purely oral language. Rudolf and his mother Kadagoi Raward patiently recorded thousands of words in their language.
  • Ryan Catalani on 24 Nov 10
     
    "The human knowledge base is eroding as we lose languages, exacerbated by the fact that most of them have never been written down or recorded... Each language is a unique expression of human creativity... it seems premature to begin constructing grand theories of universal grammar...If we can learn to value the intellectual diversity that is fostered by linguistic variety, we can all help to ensure its survival."
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A Brief History of the "Pat-Down" : Word Routes : Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus - 1 views

www.visualthesaurus.com/...2513 history etymology
shared by Ryan Catalani on 24 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Ryan Catalani on 24 Nov 10
     
    From the "frisk" to the "freedom pat."
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Babel's Dawn: Birds R Us - 3 views

www.babelsdawn.com/...birds-r-us-1.html babble birds foxp2 critical_period
shared by Ryan Catalani on 19 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • Ryan Catalani on 19 Nov 10
     
    "Birds learn to sing their songs and babies learn to make the sounds of their language in the same way.... Furthermore, both birds and humans go through a period [critical period] when learning is best accomplished... the brain architecture supporting babbling and birdsong is similar...the same mutated gene, FOXP2, is implicated in both [birdsong and speech]."
  • Lisa Stewart on 19 Nov 10
     
    What a find! He talks about so many of the things we've touched on, and the fact that he titles his post "Birds R Us" is just too funny. :) I like that he provides the links to the original research, too.
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