The human and the frog

Aug 22, 2011 by

[the author thanks Olga Kagan for inspiration] Imagine a bewitched frog, waiting to be kissed in order to turn back into a human. Given a choice between a prince and a princess, who will the enchanted frog kiss? If you are an English...

read more

Discovering the linguistic wheel?

Jul 25, 2011 by

On the one hand, it is great to see so much about linguistics in the popular press and the blogosphere. But on the other hand, many articles (in press and online) that purport to report some newly-made linguistic discovery often make...

read more

Endangered languages: does the size matter?

Apr 22, 2011 by

In the latest posting, I discussed the issue of endangered languages. One interesting question to ask in this connection is whether the size of a given language (i.e., how many people speak it) matters as far as the level of danger...

read more

Eastern Romance: part 2

Sep 20, 2010 by

In response to Martin Lewis’ question/comment on an earlier posting, I’d like to clarify the situation re: the four Eastern Romance languages. The four languages in the Eastern Romance branch are: Romanian (with over 20...

read more

Language and ethnicity: Spain

Sep 1, 2010 by

Undoubtedly, language constitutes an important ingredient in one’s ethnic or national identity. What is essentially the same language, may be perceived — by speakers themselves — as distinct languages, based on...

read more