Words R Us

This article talks about two scientists who conducted an experiment by using the traditional comparative method to predict pronunciations of words in eight Western Kho-Bwa linguistic varieties spoken in India.

Although linguists have used for many years the process of deriving pronunciations of obscure words via comparing it to related descendant languages, this method has now been expedited by being scripted into computer code. Thus, scientists can now utilize computer technology to predict pronunciations of obscure words with up to 76% accuracy, which is greatly assisting the documentation of ancient, poorly recorded, or endangered languages in India.

Why does "left" mean liberal and "right" mean conservative? To answer this question, the article probes into how this political terminology originated from the physical location of politicians in the 1789 French National Assembly, which was the parliament France formed after the French Revolution.

Alcohol consumption, in small amounts, can improve a person's ability to speak a second language. It was also focused on how people who drank the alcohol had better pronunciation in the second language. Although a small amount of alcohol can be beneficial to using language, it is actually reversed if too much is consumed.

This article outlines a study done that found that low levels of alcohol intake can improve bilingual speaker's use of their second language. Although it may seem alcohol would impair language ability because of the executive functions needed when speaking, alcohol lowers social anxiety and increases confidence - which is helpful when learning to speak a second language.

This article explains what Braille is: a system of raised dots that can be read with the fingers by people who are blind or who have low vision. Braille is not a language, but rather a code used to represent language in literacy. Braille is often written in 'uncontracted braille,' which is more common in younger kids or newly blind/visual impaired people and included entire words represented in braille, whereas 'contracted braille' is a shortened form that can use just the first and last letters of a word, respectively.

This article explains how dogs can interpret our speech. Not only are they able to understand the words we say but also how we say them. They can learn words on their own and even better when we use an appropriate tone. This means when we "vent" to our dogs, they might actually understand what we are saying.

This article explains the difference of dyslexia in Chinese. Speakers of alphabetic languages have problems with converting letters to sound, while Chinese readers have difficulty translating symbol shapes to sound and meaning.

Sarcasm is more often than not found to be harmful and conflict inducing. This article touches upon some of the negative outcomes of sarcasm and examines how sarcasm can be beneficial to our creativity. In a study, researchers had their participants engage in simulated conversations containing sarcastic, sincere, and neutral dialogues. Then, they were asked to complete tasks that would test their creativity. Through this study, researchers found that those who participated in sarcastic conversations did better. To create or understand sarcasm takes creative thinking because one must distinguish between the literal and actual meaning.

According to communication experts and marriage counselors, we should stay away from sarcasm because it can hurt others and harm relationships. But in this article it explains how sarcasm can help creative sparks fly.

This article talks about the difficulty of learning new languages at a certain age. It explains how there are different beliefs as to when it becomes difficult for us to become fluent in a second language. Some scientist say the age of 10 is when our ability to learn drops, others say 17-18. This is still an undiscovered mystery in the linguist world.

A quick 1 minute listen or read on the debate over whether or not COVID-19 is feminine or masculine in the French language.

This article explains a study which proved that we tend to over estimate our pronunciation skills when learning a foreign language. It explains how our familiarity with our own accent impacts how we perceive our pronunciation. Finally, the article theorizes about how our perception of our own pronunciation can lead to "fossilization".

This article talks about the possibility of English words being used to suppress women in politics, the workplace, and in general. Also writes about how women use a more passive voice when speaking, and how this is seen as a bad thing, but actually could lead to a better environment in a workplace.

SNL faces criticism for appropriating AAVE in a sketch about "Gen Z slang". This becomes largely problematic as it comes to mind that most of the SNL cast is white. The creation and airing of this skit clearly shows a lack of education from the writers and performers on SNL in regards to AAVE.

This article talks about how speech and language disorders can occur in a variety of different ways. Sometimes, people's brains have problems figuring out how to make their mouths and tongues move in the proper way to make the sounds they want to make. The article goes over how these children might have problems learning others things as well such as reading. In other cases, some children have speech language disorders because of cerebral palsy which means that the muscles in their bodies do not work as well as they should, making it harder to make your mouth create the right sounds. or, children might be deaf, and unable to hear that they're making wrong sounds. The article states many different reasons why people might have speech and language disorders