tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430Tue, 07 Apr 2026 23:18:34 +0000MusingsNews and NotesWord of the MomentLanguageTravelCultureLiCTLe of the MonthNYC2ISTJapaneseResourcesArabic for Godless HeathensChessEnglishReviewsLess Commonly Taught LanguagesLoanwordsAll Language is LocalBaseball LinguisticsQuestionsSemantic ChangeAlgicAlgonquianAustronesianBalticEducationFormosanLanguage and RacePhonologyPossessionRevivalSlavicSportshttp://www.schendo.com/noreply@blogger.com (Schendo)Blogger99125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-4549773693879186485Thu, 24 May 2012 22:31:00 +00002012-05-24T15:31:14.693-07:00EducationIn an article published this March in the online journal PloS ONE, a group of researchers have shown that adults learning a foreign language can begin to process this language with the same part of their brains that process their native language. In their research, only those who received full immersion style training became fully native-like, at least when learning the artificial language http://www.schendo.com/2012/05/learn-language-like-native-with-science.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-5813361069600275307Tue, 06 Mar 2012 02:40:00 +00002012-03-05T18:40:46.098-08:00MusingsA paper published by two Japanese researchers last week has been making some noise among both language-people and tech-people recently. Although if it works as promised, the SpeechJammer may be able to silence its own critics. From the abstract: In this paper we report on a system, "SpeechJammer", which can be used to disturb people's speech. In general, human speech is jammed by giving back tohttp://www.schendo.com/2012/03/speechjammer-tool-of-future-dystopian.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-7098172608612215448Mon, 27 Feb 2012 01:02:00 +00002012-02-26T17:02:06.340-08:00Semantic Change "Remember, my son, keep your Arbor Vitae away from Miss. Laycock" To prove that a fascination with slang and vulgarity predates Urban Dictionary, take a look at the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue published by Project Gutenberg. Its author claims it documents "all the peculiarities of language by which the man of spirit is distinguished from the man of worth," that sort of thing being http://www.schendo.com/2012/02/victorian-slang-and-curses.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-4084299868934760382Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:29:00 +00002012-02-02T00:29:00.831-08:00FormosanResourcesHmmm, (Blows virtual dust off blog) I guess it has been a while since I updated here. The good news is that several new projects have arisen which may redefine Bad Grammar the blog's role. More on those in the coming months. With that in mind, I realize that Toward a Grammar of Takivatan Bunun is not on most people's casual reading list. But as a linguist with a interest in the world's less http://www.schendo.com/2012/02/free-reference-grammars-formosan-mini.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-3290529958583376795Thu, 08 Dec 2011 08:29:00 +00002011-12-08T00:29:00.343-08:00ResourcesThese days it is difficult to not know something about the Middle East. Even my old roommate Dass knows where Iraq is (to be fair, he was sent there on an all expenses paid vacation courtesy the US Army...). Between Arab Springs, Iranian nukes and the rise of Turkey as an emerging economic power, the relentless roulette wheel of the news cycle is going to land on at least one of them a day. And http://www.schendo.com/2011/12/free-reference-grammars-kurdish-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-1644153010650209244Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:29:00 +00002011-12-01T00:29:00.632-08:00JapaneseReviews A collection of chapters analyzing the relationship between the English and Japanese in the context of contemporary Japan, Stanlaw's book presents a wide variety of perspectives on language contact. It is written principally for researchers on international varieties of English, although in this case "Japanese English" is quite different from Singapore English or Indian English. It presents a http://www.schendo.com/2011/12/japanese-english-by-james-stanlaw.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-5732936197483729042Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:29:00 +00002011-11-24T00:29:00.203-08:00Less Commonly Taught Languages Zanzibar. "Swahili" comes from the Arabic word for coast My first linguistics teacher used to complain about how the terms “sex” and “gender” were being used interchangeably. An old school linguist in the anthropological tradition, he was adamant that the distinction was useful. Unfortunately, as he said: “The terms sex and gender are now basically synonymous, except that (as far as I know) http://www.schendo.com/2011/11/lctl-of-month-swahili.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-3284862201259268062Thu, 17 Nov 2011 08:29:00 +00002011-11-17T00:29:00.229-08:00MusingsA while back, I wrote about what attributes scientific languages had in common. At the heart of that musing was the question of how we classify languages socially, rather than grammatically. That is, can we create a typology of a sociological nature- based on how languages are used (an idea which was inspired by an article by Michael Clyne in the book Studies in Contact Linguistics.). With that http://www.schendo.com/2011/11/liturgical-languages.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-6522769695993336146Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:25:00 +00002011-11-10T16:25:00.947-08:00ResourcesThere was a time when peppering your speech with some Classical quotes was a guaranteed way to look like an uber-educated prick. That time has passed. Nowadays, dropping some classical Greek or Latin at the bar is about as cool as knowing all the episode titles of Babylon 5. I suppose languages are not immune to the rise and fall of fashions. But Latin and Greek literature is still part of the http://www.schendo.com/2011/11/free-reference-grammars-greek-and-latin.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-3320861271857799204Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:29:00 +00002011-11-03T00:29:00.216-07:00MusingsAs a linguist working in the education field I sometimes feel like an agent behind enemy lines. In the eternal struggle between prescriptive and descriptive grammarians, the battle lines are pretty well established. The linguists get the spoken word and all the (nonstandard) dialects, and the English teachers rule the realm of writing with an iron fist. There are border skirmishes now and again, http://www.schendo.com/2011/11/on-writing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-4737070261353646483Thu, 20 Oct 2011 07:29:00 +00002011-11-14T13:24:18.606-08:00ChessWord of the MomentUntil the Queen's rise to prominence in the 1400s, the rook was the most powerful piece on the chessboard. It remains a remarkably powerful piece, mobile and able to strike from a great distance.  You know, just like a castle. The rook is the only chess piece whose name stretches back to the very origin of the game. This is somewhat fitting, as the rules governing this piece (with the http://www.schendo.com/2011/10/word-of-moment-rook.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-6991740603319140588Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:29:00 +00002011-10-13T00:29:00.945-07:00Reviews A short, non-technical look at a few of the most well-documented artifical languages, this book explores the motivations of language creators, as well as those who choose to learn and form communities based around the use of an invented language. Good for: Anyone interested in auxiliary or artificial languages, philosophy of language or the social aspect of an invented language. Not so good http://www.schendo.com/2011/10/in-land-of-invented-languages-by-arika.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-8087700657710939971Fri, 07 Oct 2011 02:28:00 +00002011-10-06T19:28:05.503-07:00Musings Science, you've failed me again. I mean, it is the twenty first century for Christ's sake. Forget the fact that I have a telephone in my pocket that is also a super-computer. Where is my hover board? Why have I not gone on a dinosaur safari in my own time machine! But, while science may have disappointed the nineteen eighties dreams of my youth, scientific languages fascinate me. When I say "http://www.schendo.com/2011/10/scientific-languages.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-4924646906827541822Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:47:00 +00002011-11-14T13:25:43.932-08:00ChessWord of the MomentThis week we return to our series exploring the history and etymology of chess pieces. Our subject is the bishop, a powerful piece just behind the rook and the queen in offensive might. But, what is it doing there? I doubt that priests were that common on a battle field, so why the presence on a game While the word “bishop” is a relatively short story, it's association with the game of chess is http://www.schendo.com/2011/09/word-of-moment-bishop.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-3869113995414271089Fri, 09 Sep 2011 07:29:00 +00002011-10-06T19:29:02.546-07:00All Language is LocalMusingsWhen you've studied or researched language contact situations, you are used to thinking of the ways that languages become more similar. They share words, sounds and eventually even word patterns. These ideas are so common, that I had come to think that interactions between speakers of different languages always makes those two languages more alike. Then there's this, taken from a grammar of the http://www.schendo.com/2011/09/when-youve-studied-or-researched.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-1415602155619501341Thu, 01 Sep 2011 23:33:00 +00002011-09-01T16:33:21.429-07:00JapaneseReviewsFirst published in 1957 to address contemporary controversies and myths about Japanese to an educated audience of native speakers, this translation of Haruhiko Kindaichi's Nippongo provides a broad linguistic sketch of the language as it was understood in the post-war period. Good for: Advanced students of Japanese language or literature; those interested in the approach of traditional Japanese http://www.schendo.com/2011/09/japanese-language-by-haruhiko-kindaichi.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-2737573889555875460Fri, 26 Aug 2011 02:43:00 +00002011-08-25T19:43:10.246-07:00Less Commonly Taught LanguagesYapese is the perfect example of why I love the world's lesser known languages.  The total number of Yapese speakers (about 7,170) is less than the average number of people at a Tampa Bay Rays home game (18,937).  Almost all of them live on the Yap Islands, a state within Micronesia in the South Pacific (where, coincidentally, divers from around the world go to see real manta rays). http://www.schendo.com/2011/08/lctl-of-month-yapese.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-6680441649541646512Thu, 18 Aug 2011 07:29:00 +00002011-11-14T13:26:40.091-08:00ChessWord of the Moment A former coworker of mine once told me about a night he spent drinking in a downtown park. Maurice and two of his friends were up to no good when a cop on horseback landed in the middle of their party. In his own words: “Man, I ain't scared of much. But when I see a cop on a @#%&*$ HORSE, I'm gonna run!” Years later, I was talking with a mounted patrol officer who confirmed the crowd http://www.schendo.com/2011/08/word-of-moment-knight.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-9123676991170273113Fri, 12 Aug 2011 07:29:00 +00002011-08-12T00:29:00.560-07:00All Language is LocalMusingsWhen I was but two weeks into 18, I moved to Portland, Oregon.  On the ride from the airport, I got talking with a friendly taxi driver who gave me a few tips on how to blend in linguistically. "First of all is the river. It rhymes with 'damn it!' as in 'Willamette, damn it!' And there's a street downtown. It's spelled C-O-U-C-H, but pronounced 'kooch'," Of course, this is not unique to http://www.schendo.com/2011/08/local-transportation-terminology.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-3146648101774710920Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:28:00 +00002011-11-14T13:23:27.881-08:00ChessWord of the Moment In the next few editions of our Word of the Moment feature, we will begin a series examining the pieces used in European chess, how they have evolved over the game's long history and how they got their names. We begin with the lowliest piece on the board, the pawn. The infantry often gets poor billing in war, reflected in the often less than charitable connotations of such words as “grunt,” or http://www.schendo.com/2011/08/word-of-moment-pawn.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-5782129086806316785Thu, 28 Jul 2011 07:29:00 +00002011-07-28T00:29:00.425-07:00LiCTLe of the MonthEveryone has heard the story of how Christopher Columbus was sent out in 1492 to prove that the world was round, right? It has a nice ring to it, but sadly, there's very little truth to it. Fact is, anyone who has ever been on the high seas could tell you that the Earth is obviously round. If it was, then a ship's sails would never disappear below the horizon, or appear to emerge from the water http://www.schendo.com/2011/07/lctl-of-month-ladino.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-3293209911727027083Thu, 21 Jul 2011 07:29:00 +00002011-07-21T00:29:01.109-07:00AlgicAlgonquianResourcesIn the interest of aiding language enthusiasts, researchers and amateur linguists everywhere, it is time to once again to take count of some free resources that have been sprung from the hoosegow of academia.  If you recall, we already found a source for free reference grammars of Slavic languages. Today's posting will explore a much less documented group of languages: the Algic language http://www.schendo.com/2011/07/free-reference-grammars-algic-edition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-1280035949415843089Thu, 14 Jul 2011 07:29:00 +00002011-07-14T00:29:00.444-07:00MusingsWhat do Häagen-Dazs, the Ginsu knife and the American metal band Mötley Crüe have in common?  All of them have engaged in a form of marketing that professionals call foreign branding.  Häagen-Dazs is not from Scandinavia (as a matter of fact, the name doesn't mean anything in any language) and Ginsu knives were manufactured in Ohio.  And the extraneous use of dotted vowels is http://www.schendo.com/2011/07/foreign-branding-and-linguistics.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-4036669058340167619Thu, 07 Jul 2011 07:29:00 +00002011-07-07T00:29:00.223-07:00EnglishQuestionsWhen I said you could send your questions to Schendo's Bad Grammar by finding me at a bar, I didn't think anybody would take me up on that offer. But my friend B. A. Bob challenged me during a Happy Hour to think of a minimal pair between two vowels in English that can both be spelled "OO": IPA /u/ as in "boot" and IPA /ʊ/ as in "cook." A minimal pair is two words that differ only by only one http://www.schendo.com/2011/07/minimal-pairs-between-foot-and-goose.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262865777288446430.post-4703450811358630874Thu, 30 Jun 2011 07:29:00 +00002011-09-21T19:36:55.038-07:00Less Commonly Taught Languages Above is a recording of "The Click Song," also known as "Qongqothwane" as sung by the legendary South African singer Miriam Makeba. The popping or clucking sounds you hear are not artistic embellishments, but part of the words in the lyrics.  The language she is signing in is Xhosa, one of the major languages of South Africa and this month's Less Commonly Taught Language of the Month Club http://www.schendo.com/2011/06/lctl-of-month-xhosa.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Schendo)2