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Latin did not die; it evolved and it is still very much alive.

A common belief among people is that Latin has ceased to exist centuries ago, or, in other words, Latin died. But, is Latin really dead? And, as language nerds, do we believe this without first considering the facts? So, in this article of today, you are going to see that Latin is not dead; Latin is still alive and kicking! But how is that? Read on! 
While Classical Latin is undoubtedly a dead, though not an extinct, language; some residue of this Classical Latin, called Ecclesiastical Latin, still roams our society as we speak, you can find it in such things as the Pope’s Twitter account. But this is not the kind of Latins I wanna talk about here. I want to talk about the one which has around 800 million speakers worldwide today; Modern Latin.
Modern Latin is what came to be known as Romance Languages, manifested in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, etc. which can be regarded as dialects of Latin. Have at the following Romance Language family tree for a second…
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American English words that mean the opposite in British English.

Over the course of years, American and British English have diverged, resulting in words meaning different things in each variety. Here is a list of common words meaning different things, in alphabetical order. 1. BiscuitIn American English, it means a bread-like soft item. In British English, it means a cookie. 2. Bonnet In American English, it means a piece of head-wear. In British English, it means the front of an automobile. 3. BootIn American English, it means one of your shoes. In British English, it means the storage found in the back of a car. 4. ChipsIn American English, it means thin, flat, and oval-shaped munchies. In British English, it means French Fries. 5. CoachIn American English, it means a person who teaches something. In British English, it means a type of bus. 6. FallIn American English, it means the Autumn season. In British English, it means to fall down. 7. FootballIn American English, it means the American Football. In British English, it means the European Football, or soc…
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English words you didn't know come from Arabic.

Arabic is one of the most ancient, varied and beautifully scripted languages. It is spoken by nearly 400 million users, placing it among the most 5 spoken languages in the world. Its influence on Spanish since the time of the Moors is well known, but what's less well known is how many commonly used English words were actually taken from Arabic. English didn't borrow all of the words directly; they mostly came filtered though Latin, Turkish, French, Spanish, German, and/or Italian, and have changed in form — and sometimes meaning — since they left Arabic. Here is a list: 1. Zero The electronic device you're reading this on wouldn't exist without digital programming, which wouldn't exist without the number 0 (zero), which — believe it or not — Europeans didn't think of as a number until the Italian mathematician Fibonacci introduced it to them in the early 1200s. He learned it from Arabic culture in North Africa, where he grew up. He took the Arabic word sifr, m…
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As native speakers , how many rules do we not know but still follow?

One of the first and interesting things you realize when you study linguistics is that language—every language—is filled with an amazing amount of complexity and regularity to the point of defying description. And I mean that literally. There is not one single natural language that has been completely formalized at all levels of description in any way. So, with that said, the answer to the above question is pretty much all of the rules we don't know but still follow. Well, we actually know them, but this knowledge can be described as tacit knowledge; stored under the threshold of consciousness. To put it in another way, we know these rules but we don't know that we know them! 
This about this for a second.

Even English grammar, the ins and outs of which have been studied by thousands of people for centuries on end, has not been completely described. You can't go anywhere and pick up a book or look up a computer program that has all the rules of English. Thus, there is no d…
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6 Grammatical mistakes no language nerd should make.

Many of us get into the habit of making writing mistakes either because of unawareness on our part or just mere sloppiness. Many of these mistakes affect the way readers perceive our pieces of writing; foolish typos can make the difference between a great first impression and a tainted one. We at The Language Nerds took the liberty to collect the most common mistakes that the majority of people tend to make and we want you to watch out for them so that there is nothing to worry about when you want to apply for your next job or when you want to email your boss. So let's see what we've got! 
1. Fewer vs. Less This one is tricky but easy to avoid. Use fewer when you can count the number of things being discussed. “Fewer than the required number of people passed the test.” Use less when describing intangible concepts, like time. “It took me less time to complete the paper.” 2. Which vs. That
This one is not entirely easy to spot. There are two ways to remember whether to use whic…
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Language learning: Your ultimate visual guide.

Learning a new language and excelling at it is a tremendous task. It takes effort, time, and a lot of determination. Let's face it, people like us, language nerds, devote a considerable amount of time, sometimes money, to learn a new language or two. But still, the devastation is there. Language learning theories sometimes suck and sometimes they are as good as a pile of old dirt. Without needless technical details, The Language Nerds brought to you a language learning infographic that was put together by a team in UndergradedPoints. This infographic visualizes the optimal language learning process and shows you how language learning is best practiced, according to science. So let's get down to it. Have a good read! 



It is important to remember that this infographic is not exhaustive and does not cover all the mundane details of language learning. But, if followed correctly, it can take you a long way. We wish you a lot of luck in your endeavor and we really wish you stay the …
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What is Universal Grammar?

If you are even slightly interested in language and linguistics, chances are you heard the term Universal Grammar a fair amount of times. It is a central concept in modern linguistics and the most controversial. It is a term that was born in the pursuit of trying to answer some very fundamental  and old questions related to language. But what exactly is Universal Grammar? 
Short version: 
Universal Grammar (UG) is, simply put, the idea that all human languages share the same fundamental principles. It’s mostly associated with Noam Chomsky, and is inseparable from the poverty of the stimulus argument and the innateness hypothesis.
Long version:
This idea is primarily borne out of observations made on first language acquisition research. See, our children acquire their native language(s) at a psychologically breakneck pace, which most linguists and psychologists generally agree on. Chomsky noted that children acquire linguistic features that their parents very rarely produce, if ever, an…
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What linguists know that other people don't.

Being a linguist, or an advanced student of linguistics, is a privilege in a lot of respects. As you analyze language and everyday speech you start to realize that there is an astonishing amount of wonder in this system that we take for granted. Linguists question the obvious, which is language, and got answers that forever changed mankind’s understanding of Language and human nature. They also made us aware of many issues related to language and the attitudes we hold towards them. In this article, you will see what linguists know that is not so evident to, or not accepted by, other people. So let's see what we've got.
We all speak one language. One of the main discoveries of modern linguistics is that it made us aware that all the languages we speak are similar in astonishing respects; they manifest the same pattern, follow the same rules, they are learnt in exactly the same way, and that all the differences are only superficial. So, in a sense we all speak the same language.…
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