The Origins of Yiddish—A Response to Philologos, Part Dray

Aug 26, 2014 by

[NOTE TO READERS: This post is part 3 of a mini-series on the origins of Yiddish. The concluding part 4 will be published after a short summer break, in the week after Labor Day.] [Many thanks to Merlin Dorfman for bringing the...

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Languages of the World Re-launch!

Dec 23, 2011 by

Languages of the World Re-launch!

Dear Readers, Welcome to the new and revised Languages of the World blog site.  With the help of our web-developers Kevin Morton and Jordan Sandoval, I’ve been able to overhaul the design of this blog. Among the changes you...

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Student posts and other scheduling issues — part 2

Dec 14, 2011 by

Student posts and other scheduling issues — part 2

Dear Readers, Thank you very much to all of you for reading — and especially for commenting on — my students’ posts! I am especially grateful to John Cowan, who remains a loyal reader of this blog and who has spent...

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Student posts and other scheduling issues

Dec 5, 2011 by

Student posts and other scheduling issues

Dear Readers, This year I have asked my students to write blog posts instead of the more traditional term papers as an assignment for the undergraduate “Languages of the World” course and the Continuing Studies “The...

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Winter Offering: Why Do Languages Change?

Nov 21, 2011 by

Winter Offering: Why Do Languages Change?

Jane Austen employed the word intercourse in her novels in the genteel sense of ‘dealings between people’; today, it means ‘copulation’ and nothing else. Shakespeare used holp alongside the modern form helped...

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Brief Vacation

Jul 27, 2011 by

Dear Readers, I am taking a brief vacation away from my email, blog, facebook, etc. etc. I am hoping to resume posting in mid-August. Wishing you a wonderful summer (what’s left of it)! Asya...

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