Resources: Languages & Linguistics

From Nepal, With Love (a Nepalese poem translated into English)

The day I heard languages were dying,
I wondered, What else was being killed with it?
Millions of words mutilated,
Thousands of songs unsung,
hundreds of stories untold.
I wondered,
which language,
would answer this:
How long will it take for humanity
to be humane?
The day I heard languages were dying,
I didn’t feel so alive myself.

जुन दिन मैले सूने भाषाहरू मरिरहेका छन्
मैले सोचेँ, भाषासँगै अरू के-के मारिइरहेका होलान्।
क्षतविछ्त् पारिएका लाखौँ शब्दहरू
नगाइएका हजारौँ गीतहरू
नभनिएका सयौँ कथाहरू।
अनि सोचेँ,
कुन भाषाले यो प्रश्नको उतर देला:
मानवतालाई मानविय हुन अझू कति लाग्ला?
जुन दिन मैले सुने भाषाहरू मरिरहेका छन्,
त्यो दिन मैले आफै पनि त्यति जिउँदो महशूश गरिन।


Language and the Brain: What Makes Us Human

"Songbirds learn to sing much like humans learn to speak. They have another similarity, as any early riser knows: put many of them in a small space and they get noisy as they try to be heard over one another."



 Foodie Figures of Speech: A World of Edible Idioms

"All languages are rich in food-related figures of speech, from Swedes 'sliding in on a shrimp sandwich' to Japanese speakers 'eating cold rice'. What are your favourites?"


Language Creation Society

"Conlanging is the creation of constructed languages or conlangs, such as Esperanto, Lojban, or Klingon. A conlanger is someone who creates or constructs languages or conlangs."


Get Started in Gmail with Cherokee

"After a 2002 survey of the Oklahoma Cherokee population found that no one under 40 spoke conversational Cherokee, the Cherokee Nation saw an opportunity to use technology to encourage everyday use of the language among the younger generation."

International Mother Language Day: Feb 21st

"First designated by UNESCO in 1999, the annual event provides an opportunity to promote linguistic diversity and focus on a number of issues related to communities’ mother tongues."


Cyberlinguistics: Recording the World´s Vanishing Voices

"Cyberlinguists of the future may be able to discover the words and structures of dead languages from this data, and even construct dictionaries and grammars."


Understanding How the Brain Speaks Two Languages

"Lynch also believes — albeit based primarily on his own observations — that multilingual kids may exhibit social empathy sooner than children who grow up speaking only one language, which makes developmental sense."

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/23/bilingualism/#ixzz2ezQoMYbP