Accents Make Speakers Seem Less Trustwor...

Sad, but true…according to researchers at the University of Chicago, when you speak with a foreign accent, people are less likely to believe what you say. The researchers designed a study in which people  were asked to rate the truthfulness of various statements spoken by people both with and without noticeable foreign accents. In an attempt to control for prejudice against people from other cultures, the scientists conducting the study told the volunteers that all of the participants were reading these statements from scripts prepared in advance and were not making...

New Computer Program Could Be the Key to...

Translating written fragments of long-forgotten languages is an extremely difficult, often frustrating task. It requires vast amounts of linguistic knowledge, skill at pattern recognition, and good intuition to make the pieces fall into place. Even with the help of the Rosetta Stone, it still took over 25 years to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics. Now, a team of researchers at MIT has developed a computer program that promises to translate forgotten languages automatically. According to National Geographic, the program correctly translated Ugaritic, an ancient language from...

China Encourages Beijing Residents to Le...

The Chinese government just announced a new drive to encourage residents of Beijing to learn English, according to this article in the Australian. The program comes as part of an effort to turn Beijing into a “world city” that welcomes foreign visitors, especially English-speaking visitors. The Chinese government’s plan to improve English fluency in the city consists of 5 parts: - Toddlers will begin learning the language in kindergarten, to better prepare them for more advanced classes in later grades. - Every public servant under the age of 40 with a college degree...

Milkman Learns Gujarati At Work...

Some people spend months in language classes without becoming fluent, but the Daily Mail recently published an article about John ‘Jimmy’ Mather, a Lancaster milkman who became fluent in Gujarati just from listening to his customers talk. Mather has been delivering milk since 1960. When he began his route, he actually used a horse and carriage to make his rounds. The first wave of immigrants from India had begun to settle in the region, and Mather made an effort to learn their language so that he could communicate with them. He told the Daily Mail: “All I did...

Language Demonstrates Link Between North...

Archaeologists have long believed that humans migrated to North America from Asia, walking across a land bridge over what is now the Bering Strait. Evidence from ancient sites supports this theory, as does genetic evidence. Now, Western Washington University linguistics professor Edward Vajda has demonstrated a linguistic connection as well. Professor Vajda has been studying with the few remaining speakers of the Ket language since the late 1980′s. The Ket people live in a remote, isolated part of Siberia. Even so, only about 100 of the tribe’s 1,200 members still...

Papiamentu Language Beats The Odds...

In an age in which we lose an average of 10 languages forever each year, it’s heartening to see that at least one language is beating the odds. Although Papiamentu, a Creole language spoken in Curacao, Bonaire and Aruba, only boasts around 250,000 speakers, according to the New York Times it is actually gaining ground in terms of official acceptance and cultural prominence. The Times notes that Dutch continues to be the language that Curacao’s laws are written in, as well as the language its children are taught in, at least in the upper grades. However, if you set...

Sign Language In Space...

American Sign Language (ASL) is the fourth most commonly used language in the US.  It is so completely different from British Sign Language that the two languages are mutually unintelligible.  Developed at the American School for the Deaf shortly after it opened in 1817, ASL is used in the United States, Canada and several other countries. However, until last week, it had never been used  on the International Space Station. That changed when US astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson gave a video address aimed at schoolchildren in ASL last week. In the video address, Caldwell Dyson...

Lack of Tamil-Speaking Police Handicaps ...

Talking to police officers can make even the most law-abiding citizen feel just a wee bit nervous. Can you imagine if the officer didn’t speak your language? In Sri Lanka, a devastating civil war that lasted for decades is finally over.  However, a lack of Tamil speakers on the country’s  police force  is slowing the healing process in Tamil-speaking regions. Tamil is the primary language spoken in Sri Lanka’s Northern province. However, most of the rest of the country speaks Sinhalese, as does the majority of the country’s police force. In fact,...

Eyak Language May Get a New Lease on Lif...

In 2008, an 89-year-old Alaskan Native woman named Marie Smith Jones died. The Eyak language died with her, as she was the last living speaker. Now, a young French student with a passion for languages is considering helping to resurrect the language. According to the Anchorage Daily News, Guillaume Leduey has always had a passion for language. When other kids were playing video games, Leduey daydreamed about being able to speak Lithuanian. In 2005, he got in touch with Laura Bliss Spaan, the director of a documentary about Eyak, and requested some instructional DVDs so that...

Language Barrier Blocks Asian Fishermen ...

BP’s Deepwater Horizon spill is covering beaches, drowning birds and putting a serious damper on tourism all across the United States’ Gulf Coast. But it’s not just an environmental tragedy, it’s also a human tragedy. Along the coast, fishing and shrimping were a way of life, and the people who depended on the ocean for their livelihood are suddenly out of work. BP is providing financial support to people who lost fishing industry jobs because of the spill. However, some fishing communities, such as Bayou La Batre, Alabama, are mostly populated by immigrants,...