Patrick Cox
Lost in a Sea of People and Languages
What happens if you get lost at one of the world’s largest religious gatherings? Not only are there millions of people, but among them they speak hundreds of mutually incomprehensible languages.
Is It Racist When a White Guy Mimics Jamaican Patois?
Some Americans think a VW ad to be broadcast during the Super Bowl is racist because it features a white guy speaking Jamaican patois. But Jamaicans seem happy that the ad is giving their nation and culture some free publicity.
Quebec’s Separatists on Charm Offensive with Bilingual Song
Quebec’s new separatist government is promising to require French exams in English language schools and to ban bilingual newsletters in some municipalities. That’s enraging many English speakers. So the government is bankrolling a province-wide tour by a pro-English musician.
Comic Book Snacks that Talk Back in Two Languages
The World’s Patrick Cox reports on a bilingual iPad app that’s also a comic book. The characters are food snacks that speak English and Chinese, and get into kung fu fights. Dim Sum Warriors is being hailed as both a great comic book series and a great language-learning tool.
Language Life and Death in New York City
Linguist Mark Turin takes us on a whirlwind tour of New York City to explore a few of its 800 languages, and find out what happens to them over time.
New Roles for Old Languages in South Africa
Linguist Mark Turin reports from South Africa, whose post-Apartheid constitution designates eleven languages as official. English is more popular than ever, Afrikaans is re-inventing itself, while the government’s efforts to raise the status of languages like Xhosa and Zulu have succeeded– up to a point.
Bringing Back Nepal’s Minority Languages
Linguist Mark Turin returns to Nepal, where he learned and documented the Thangmi language. Spoken by 30,000 people, Thangmi has many unique expressions but it is imperiled. The Nepalese government is trying to protect minority languages by introducing them into schools, but it may be too late: the children of many Thangmi speakers are choosing to speak more mainstream languages.
Boy Sopranos and Early Onset of Puberty
A new study finds that boys’ voices are breaking at age 12, two years younger than in 1960. That’s bad news for boy sopranos and the choirs they sing in.
Beyond Elvish
Forget Klingon, Na’vi and Dothraki, and consider instead the invented languages of novels: Elvish, Pravic, the language of the Ariekei and Wardwesân.
A Comeback For Africa’s Homegrown Languages?
Cartoon Queen Carol Hills and I talk language and Africa. We also consider food idioms, banana skins and robberies gone wrong.
The Sweet Revenge of Recycling a Book Title
There is no copyright on book titles, which can lead to confusion. It’s all too easy to mistakenly buy the wrong version of ‘Pure,’ ‘Sweet Revenge’ or ‘Nemesis.’ Also, novelist Tom Wolfe talks about his continued experimentation with punctuation.
Damon Albarn’s Soundscape Gives the BBC Something to Celebrate
These past few weeks have difficult for the people who run the BBC (which of course is one of the co-producers of The World). No-one at the Beeb feels like celebrating a birthday. But the BBC is 90 years old. And, awkward or not, it’s marking the day—November 14, 1922—when it made its first broadcast. [...]
The BBC and the Language of Responsibility
Is the BBC’s huge well of public trust in danger of drying up? A veteran news anchor says its managers must stop speaking the ‘gobbledygook’ of bureaucratic jargon and start properly overseeing its output.
Aramaic Revival in the Holy Land
Israel’s Maronites don’t like being labeled as Arabs. They have gone to court for recognition as ‘Aramaic.’ The problem is, most of them don’t speak much Aramaic. So now the language is being re-introduced.
America’s Woes From the Outside In
On the eve of the US elections, two people who know how to throw a phrase about offer their thoughts on America’s troubles. Novelist Lionel Shriver is an American living in London. Journalist Edward Luce is a Brit living in Washington. They both care deeply about United States, and they’re worried.
Additional funding for PRI's The World is provided by:
