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Soul-Searching Over Apple Exposé
The World’s environment editor Peter Thomson has been reading the news on Apple’s supply chain, and shares some thoughts on Apple, human rights, and us.
Oh My Lady Gaga, and Other Linguistic Exchanges
Hengeilivable! Nonsensical English words and phrases are all the rage among young Chinese.
Translators Past, Present and Future
Why human translators aren’t afraid of machine translators. Also, a history of translation, and a new novel that draws on The Iliad.
Corporate Spelling Experiments and Fear of a Chinese-Speaking Planet
Corporations love to tinker with spelling, often with disastrous consequences. Also, a film explores fears about Chinese.
Are Chinese Kids Losing Their Language?
In this week’s World in Words podcast, Beijing urges mandatory calligraphy classes for school kids.
An Inuit Dialect, a Grammar for Cities, and Zappa’s Lyrics
Podcast: Almost no place on earth is remote any more, as a linguist discovers when he spends a year in an Inuit village.
Slipping in out of foreign tongues with Sherard Cowper-Coles and Yang Ying
Should diplomats learn the languages of the countries they’re assigned to? And how easy is it to learn a foreign musical language?
Finally, Proof that Fiction is Good for You
In this week’s World in Words podcast, researchers test the supposed link between reading fiction and empathy.
What’s Assyrian for Canuck?
One of the world’s first written languages gets a new 21-volume dictionary.
Podcast: The US Government’s Metaphor Program
In this week’s World in Words podcast, new Scrabble words and spying on foreign metaphors.
Linguistic surrealism from China to Belgium
On the World in Words podcast, the trials, tribulations and silliness of living in Belgium, where most people define themselves not by nationality but by mother tongue. Also, arrested Chinese artist Ai Weiwei wrote a blog that was, if anything, even more provocative than his art. We hear from his English translator. And the latest children’s TV hit in the UK features Jamaican-British musical mice, with dialects that offend English purists.
English-only in the US, translating tweets in Japan and satire in Egypt
The English Only movement in the United States is always active during times of high immigration. Now, the movement has got a shot in the arm from the Tea Party. It may help convince lawmakers and voters in the 19 remaining states that don’t yet have a law on their books declaring English to be the official language [...]
From Cicero to Lynne Truss with Robert Lane Greene
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Robert Lane Greene’s new book “You Are What You Speak” examines how language we speak is bound up in our identity. How much does our native language define us? How much does it set our ways of thinking? Can we think a different way in a different language? Why do people get so persnickety about punctuation? Why do grammar sticklers yearn for a golden age of usage that usually coincides with their school days? Download MP3
Dictators with dialects, finger spelling and universal Inuit
Napoleon, Hitler and Gaddafi all grew up speaking a distinct dialect of their native tongue. Coincidence? Dialects are the languages of outsiders, at least until they are co-opted by people, or governments, trying to standardize the language. That’s what’s happening right now in northern Canada, where with the dialects of the Inuit. The hope is that language will unite this widely scattered people[...]
At the BBC, fewer languages and less influence?
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In this week’s World in Words podcast: after the BBC World Service announces huge cuts, what’s next for global broadcasting? Five language services are to close, and seven more will become internet only, resulting in 30 million fewer BBC listeners worldwide. Will people migrate to the web, or will the BBC – and its news values – become less influential?Download MP3
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