Communication
Clues to the Past: The Austronesian Language Family
By John McWhorter, Ph.D., Columbia University There exist over 6,000 recorded languages on earth, and depending on how they are counted, they can be arranged […]
Language
Communication
The Peculiar Patterns of Language as Clues to the Past
Peculiar patterns found in various language families all over the world represent the history and culture of the people who speak those languages. […]
Communication
The Diverse Structures of the Cantonese Language
Read about some peculiar characteristics of East and Southeast Asian languages, such as Cantonese, which separate them from Indo-European languages. […]
Communication
The Language Families of East and Southeast Asia
Read on to find out about the diverse characteristics of certain East and Southeast Asian language families, that can seem peculiar to English speakers. […]
Communication
The Diversity Structures of Semitic Languages
Read about the diverse ways in which Semitic languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic, differ from the Indo-European understanding of language. […]
Communication
Changes in the Language, Gain or Loss?
Languages change over time. It is a natural phenomenon that is true for every language. The English language is no exception, and it will continue to change. While some people think the changes in the English language will limit the language’s ability to express ideas, some features are gained in the process of change that adds to the richness of the language. […]
Communication
The Process of Word Order Change
There are many elements in a language that have evolved over centuries. One of them is the word order. There is a debate as to which word order was used first, but we now have many languages with different word orders. […]
Communication
Changes in Grammar and Pronunciation of English Words
Changes that happen in a language are constant. When we think of language change, we might be inclined to assume these changes happened several centuries ago. However, these variations can be seen in the written works as recent as the 19th century. When we read these written works, we might think of these variations as misprints or stylistic idiosyncrasies. However, they are exactly how English was spoken at that time. […]
Communication
How is the Language of Shakespeare Different From Ours?
semantic changes in languages are sometimes so deep that the written works of centuries ago are difficult to comprehend. This is why most native English speakers have difficulty reading or watching Shakespeare’s plays without concentrating on the meanings of individual words. […]
Communication
Indo-European Languages and Their Nonexistent Common Source
Indo-European language, one of many language families in the world, believed to have sprung from something ancestral. Does that source still exist? […]