Topic: Language
-
Maps
Where You Live Actually Changes the Noises You Make
The science of why certain languages sound the way they do.
-
A Celebration of Yiddish, Emblazoned on a Former Symbol of Nazi Power
The monumental work by American conceptual artist Mel Bochner represents a particularly sweet triumph of art.
-
John J. Gumperz, Who Mapped the Infrastructure of Spoken Language, Dies at 91
He pioneered the study of how people convey and conceal meaning and social standing with words, intonations, and accents.
-
The Strange Decline of the Philly Accent
Linguists are still trying to understand the surprising evolution of how Philadelphians speak.
-
It's No 'Accident': NYPD Changes the Way It Talks About Traffic Deaths
The NYPD is replacing the term "accident" with the word "collision," a change that underscores a new approach to bike and pedestrian fatalities.
-
Maps
Twitter Data Use of the Day: Mapping the Languages of New York City
5 percent of Tweets out of the city are in a language other than English.
-
The Case for Simplified Coffee Shop Ordering
Forget "venti cafe latte." One London store would rather you ask for a "cup of really really milky coffee."
-
Maps
London's Raucous Babble of Languages
Data engineers examined more than 3 million tweets to create this sprawling linguistic cartography.
-
What's a Language Worth to a Small Town in Scotland?
A fisherman's dialect dies out.
-
Videos
The Crazy Pidgin Language That Unites Africa's Megacity
Finding a common linguistic ground in a city of 20 million and 500 languages.
