Rusi Jaspal (London) and Adrian Coyle ( Surrey): Language and Perceptions of Identity Threat . From Scientific American, an article on the neural advantage of speaking 2 languages. A look at how the transfer of brand names from one language market to another is inherently a tricky business. From On the Human, Terrence Deacon on rethinking the natural selection of human language. Is the world really poorer without Bo? The death of tribal languages is sometimes a good thing, revealing the itchy dynamism of human society. Could written language be rendered obsolete, and what should we demand in return? The puzzling paradox of sign language: It takes longer to sign words than to say them, so how is it possible to sign and speak at the same rate? A review of Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World’s Undeciphered Scripts by Andrew Robinson. They get to me: Psycholingist Jessica Love confesses her strong attraction to pronouns. The many voices of the web: New combinations of human and computer translation are making web pages available in foreign languages. Watch what you're saying! Linguist David Crystal on Twitter, texting and our native tongue. This thing we call language is fragile, it must not be taken for granted, and all of us need to pay careful attention to how we communicate, especially when it comes to the written word. From Triple Canopy, Joe Milutis on the primal violence and utopian trill of the rolled r, the most rrresilient of locutions. Present imperfect: Is the human brain ill adapted for language? Languages use different parts of brain, depending on grammar. The New Klingon: Without so much as a dictionary, Avatar fans are learning how to speak Na'vi. Languages are vanishing — so what? Maybe fewer languages would be better.
