THE LANGUAGE NERDS

People who speak more than one language are fascinating. They provide insight into the power of language and how it shapes the way we think and experience the world. In a recent study, it has been shown that people who speak two different languages experience time differently. ——Linguists Panos Athanasopoulos from the Lancaster University and Emanuel Bylund from Stellenbosch University and Stockholm University were able to demonstrate in a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,  that people who speak two languages fluently think about time differently depending on the language context in which they are estimating the duration of specific events. We've always known that the language we speak influences our worldview in interesting ways. How languages express time is a case in point. English and Swedish, for example, mark the duration of time with terms that describe physical distance (e.g. short break, long wedding, etc.). Spanish and Greek, on the oth…

The Latin alphabet for English once included 7 extra characters, some of which did not have Latin origins. But down the road, they fell out of use. Here is a list of the letters that once existed in the English alphabet. We also included a list of other letters that were believed to constitute part of the alphabet but were actually not in the alphabet. ——1. Ash The letter ash represented a short vowel sound. It's something between a and e, thus the symbol above. Examples of the ash are found in words such as cat, apple, etc. 2. Eth  Eth stood for the voiced th sound as in this. But it was originally interchangeable with the voiceless th sound as in think. ——3. Ethel Ethel once represented a pronunciation somewhere between o and e, though it was originally pronounced like oy. Back at the days of ethel the word diarrhea was spelled diarrhœa. 4. Thorn Thorn was the voiced <th> sound; there wasn’t a strict distinction between þ and ð.——5. Wynn Wynn represented the /w/ sound. Previou…

We all had our stories with the English language. We can all agree that it a crazy, zany language where you drive in the parkway and park in the driveway. Whether you are a native English speaker or someone who learned English as a second language, you were not spared from the madness of the English language. It's just what English does; giving people a hard time. But I am not sure if I should blame English for the difficulties that the people below had with the language. I'll let you be the judge. Have a good read and let us know what you think 🤓. ——1.2.3.——4.5.6.——7.8.9.——10.11.12.——13.14.15.——16.17.18.——19.20.————

What children can do with language is fascinating and sometimes just downright hilarious. On their way to learn how to spell words correctly, they make really funny spelling mistakes here and there. Luckily for us grownups, the spelling mistakes we made as kids went unnoticed and today's smartphones and social media were not there to document our forever forgotten spelling stupidity. These kids, however, made typo errors that will be remembered forever. Scroll down below to see our pick of the bawdiest misspellings of words so creative, that even a grammar check might not help them. Have a good read 😀——1. Horse2. Cook3. Math——4. Virginia 5. Whole6. Come in Peace——7. My pen is a goat8. Tights9. Santa ——10. Shirt 11. Peanuts12. You Can’t Catch Me——13. Come With Me14. I Like Pencils15. Happy Birthday Kurt——16. Chum Bucket17. Account18. The Beach ——19. Abraham Lincoln20. Cute21. Your House——22. ??23...————