July 19, 2011
Languages of the World (Wide Web) - Google shows the various connections between languages as shown by web site linking. Beyond many expectable regional cultural groupings, there are several fun things to notice:
The inventor of Esperanto was Polish
The Armenian diaspora is particularly strong in eastern Europe
Hungary overcomes its linguistic isolation to stay extrovertedly linky
There are a lot of Kurds in Sweden (?!)
Urdu is the one language of India that is far more connected to other languages than to others in India
Swahili looks like it’s just another language in India (except it also is the only language connected to Tagalog)
The French have a thing for Dutch girls
Some other interesting but less strong connections show up when they show the pre-normalized graph.

Languages of the World (Wide Web) - Google shows the various connections between languages as shown by web site linking. Beyond many expectable regional cultural groupings, there are several fun things to notice:

  • The inventor of Esperanto was Polish
  • The Armenian diaspora is particularly strong in eastern Europe
  • Hungary overcomes its linguistic isolation to stay extrovertedly linky
  • There are a lot of Kurds in Sweden (?!)
  • Urdu is the one language of India that is far more connected to other languages than to others in India
  • Swahili looks like it’s just another language in India (except it also is the only language connected to Tagalog)
  • The French have a thing for Dutch girls

Some other interesting but less strong connections show up when they show the pre-normalized graph.

August 22, 2010
Radiolab » Words

Very fascinating podcast on language and thought, and some of the latest discoveries about them.

December 10, 2009
The Voynich Manuscript Decoded?

permalink   tags: history language 
June 6, 2009
oh amazon, how do you always manage to solve my problems?

oh amazon, how do you always manage to solve my problems?

March 21, 2009
Language terms of colors follow surprisingly consistent patterns

1. All languages contain terms for white and black.
2. If a language contains three terms, then it contains a term for red.
3. If a language contains four terms, then it contains a term for either green or yellow (but not both).
4. If a language contains five terms, then it contains terms for both green and yellow.
5. If a language contains six terms, then it contains a term for blue.
6. If a language contains seven terms, then it contains a term for brown.

February 23, 2009
UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
Pictured: the languages in the world that have less than 10 living speakers.

UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger

Pictured: the languages in the world that have less than 10 living speakers.

permalink   tags: language 
October 1, 2008
"Indeed, for any n ≥ 1, the sentence buffalo^n is grammatically correct"

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

permalink   tags: language 
September 2, 2008
The Pop vs Soda Map
I love how some of my family in Boston say “tonic”.

The Pop vs Soda Map

I love how some of my family in Boston say “tonic”.

August 25, 2008
Undeciphered scripts of the world
Interesting fact - the easter island script may be only the 3rd independent invention of writing across all cultures (others being sumerian/egyptian/chinese and the americas)

Undeciphered scripts of the world

Interesting fact - the easter island script may be only the 3rd independent invention of writing across all cultures (others being sumerian/egyptian/chinese and the americas)

permalink   tags: language 
August 5, 2008
Very long names of places

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in Wales

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu in New Zealand

Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg in Massachusetts

The longest official geographical name in Australia is Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya Hill. It is a Pitjantjatjara word meaning “where the Devil urinates”.

More at wikipedia

permalink   tags: language 
July 18, 2008
The Indo-European Family of Languages

The Indo-European Family of Languages

July 17, 2008
Predicting the future of the past tense

permalink   tags: language 
July 16, 2008
Chinese restaurant name

Chinese restaurant name

permalink   tags: language funny