Is “Huh?” a Universal Word?—And Why Is It Important?

Sep 2, 2015 by

[This post was originally published in November 2013] Last week I was contacted by the producers of the AirTalk radio based in Los Angeles and asked to discuss the article on the universality of “Huh?” recently published by Mark...

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Are We “At the Origin of Language Structure”?—Another Blooper-Riddled ...

Aug 31, 2015 by

Are We “At the Origin of Language Structure”?—Another Blooper-Riddled Article from Science Daily

[Thanks to George Walkden for drawing my attention to the article discussed below and for a helpful discussion of some of its shortcomings.]   A recent article in Science Daily describes the research conducted by “a team from...

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Do Languages of Primitive Peoples Have Small Vocabularies?—And Some Th...

Jul 28, 2015 by

In my previous post, I have argued that languages of the so-called “primitive” peoples are not necessarily as simple as many lay people conceive them to be. While yesterday’s post focused on grammars of such languages, illustrating...

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Are Languages of “Primitive Peoples” Primitive?

Jul 28, 2015 by

Are Languages of “Primitive Peoples” Primitive?

A recent discussion of Toki Pona, a conlang dubbed “the world’s smallest language” by Roc Morin on Business Insider Australia website, prompted me to write again on the issue of the so-called “primitive languages” (for my earlier...

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If You Are Not a Linguist… Learn Some Linguistics First!

Jul 21, 2015 by

If You Are Not a Linguist… Learn Some Linguistics First!

On March 1, 2015, blogger Joe McVeigh, a self-described “linguistics major who mainly writes about language and linguistics on [his] blog”, wrote a post titled “If you’re not a linguist, don’t do linguistic research”, criticizing an...

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The Problematic Map of the “Second Most-Spoken Languages”

Jun 19, 2015 by

The Problematic Map of the “Second Most-Spoken Languages”

Recently, I have been contacted by Matt Zajechowski about “an interactive graphic/map that [he] helped develop with Olivet Nazarene University that covers the second most spoken languages around the world”. This interactive map (or...

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