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+20 +4
To save Cherokee language, a digital tool shares tales of Standing Rock and Big Snake with the next generation
Cherokees Writing the Keetoowah Way provides English translations of historic documents and lessons to help the next generation learn.
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+19 +2
Let's keep our writing simple, precise, cogent and clear
But sometimes it's worth sending a reader to the dictionary if the word fits the nuance of the writing.
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+49 +10
Amazing Discovery Claims Elephants Have Specific 'Names' For Each Other
As elephants wander the African savannah, they might keep in touch with relatives by calling out their individual 'names'.
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+49 +9
How thinking in a foreign language improves decision-making
Research shows people who speak another language are more utilitarian and flexible, less risk-averse and egotistical, and better able to cope with traumatic memories
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+42 +6
40 years of Turbo Pascal
The legacy can still be felt today
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+21 +2
Infocom’s ingenious code-porting tools for Zork and other games have been found
The Z-machine allowed porting from mainframes to TRS-80, Apple II, and others.
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+24 +5
7 Unusual Writing Systems From Around the World & How They Developed
Over the millennia, human language has produced a variety of beautiful, unusual, and weird forms of writing. Here are 7 of them.
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+27 +3
Why we learnt to write the way we do
Workplace writing cannot succeed with a one-size-fits-all approach. Yet most of us enter the workforce having learned exactly that: the essay. Why do we use this approach and how does it limit successful communication? An essay is the perfect writing tool for an education setting. The simple beginning, middle and end pattern helps students tackle the challenging task of assignment writing. And the predictable structure allows teachers to mark dozens of essays more efficiently. But surely more complex writing tasks call for different tools in our writing toolbox? Here are 4 features of essay writing that can slow us down
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+16 +2
English Is Crazy!
Seriously...the English language is insane.
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+19 +4
Multilinguals Have Multiple Personalities
In an essay published on Monday, New Republic Senior Editor Noam Scheiber—who grew up speaking both Hebrew and English—explains why he stopped speaking only Hebrew to his three-year-old daughter. “My Hebrew self turns out to be much colder, more earnest, and, let’s face it, less articulate," he writes. "In English, my natural sensibility is patient and understated. My style in Hebrew was hectoring and prosecutorial.”
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+22 +3
The discovery of a new language can help explain how we communicate
Most of the news about minority languages is that they’re endangered or dying off, and the only new languages we hear about are those created for Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters. But sometimes, linguists find a previously unrecorded language — and when they do, it’s a sign language.
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+14 +2
"Thank you" in many languages
Jennifer's Language Page - Greetings in more than 2800 languages
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+24 +1
Webster's dictionary adds 'selfie,' 'tweep,' 'turducken'
Selfie, tweep and turducken were among more than 150 new words and definitions added to the 2014 updated Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, the publishing company said on Monday. The
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+24 +2
25 years of LOL – the good and bad bits
LOL is 25 years old. Since its first recorded use in May 1989, LOL has completely transformed how we live. We text it to each other. We write it on pictures of animals. We say it out loud if we want people to think that we're creepy sociopaths.
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+5 +1
What sounds and letters are most likely to trip up contestants at the National Spelling Bee?
This week 281 students between the ages of 8 and 15 will assemble outside Washington, D.C., for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Over the last 10 years, it’s taken an average of 645 words and 5,680 letters to weed out the wannabes from the one who outspells them all. Looking at past trends, we can take a shot at predicting which letters and sounds will cause contestants to go home D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D and brō-kən.
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+7 +1
Is French the language of the future?
The French are a proud bunch, especially when it comes to their mother tongue. So it must have been hard for them to take a backseat and watch English become the lingua franca of the 21st century. But revenge could be on the horizon: The language beloved by Parisian poets, Russian aristocrats and pretentious grad students is set to reclaim its title when it becomes the world's most commonly spoken language by the year 2050, according to a study by Natixis, an investment bank.
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+17 +1
Writing tips from the CIA’s ruthless style manual
Though the CIA may dissemble as a matter of course, it speaks plainly to policymakers and operations officers—its “customers,” in the language of the manual. The foreword begins, “Good intelligence depends in large measure on clear, concise writing. The information CIA gathers and the analysis it produces mean little if we cannot convey them effectively.”
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+15 +1
How Using Emoji Makes Us Less Emotional
And what linguists say it means if your smiley face has a nose.
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+19 +1
'Food for thought' taken literally
Found in Translation: Languages use allusions, idioms in tasty and not so tasty ways
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+23 +1
Now You Can Use The Word 'Selfie' in Scrabble
The day has come when Scrabble players everywhere can now lay down tiles spelling Q-I-G-O-N-G or S-E-L-F-I-E without worrying about coming to F-I-S-T-I-C-U-F-F-S with their fellow spellers. Those words, among more than 5,000 others, are included in the Fifth Edition of The Official SCRABBLE Player’s Dictionary, put out by American dictionary behemoth Merriam-Webster.
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