“usted” and “Vd.”
Interesting article: “Understand Why [the Spanish pronoun] ‘Usted’ Is Sometimes Abbreviated ‘Vd.’” (Originally published in 2006.)
Archive for Languages
Swedish gender-neutral pronoun: hen
Article from 2012 about Sweden’s new gender-neutral pronoun.
Spanish words that break the -o/-a gender rule
Some common exceptions to the usual rule in Spanish that words that end in -o are grammatically masculine-gendered and words that end in -a are grammatically feminine-gendered.
Verb conjugators
Two reference sites that provide conjugations for verbs in many languages: bab.la Verbix
Ming dynasty rebus
The Asian Art Museum’s online collection includes a dish labeled as Foliated dish with bird, deer, wasps, and monkey, from the Ming dynasty (specifically the period corresponding to 1567-1572). The images on the plate turn out to be a rebus. (See also column YY.) The images include, among other elements, a bird, a deer, some […]
On reviving dormant languages
Lovely, long, fascinating, thought-provoking article about languages going dormant/extinct, and languages being revived, and colonialism, and more, from a Marxist or at least Leftist perspective: “Salvaging the Dormant: On Language,” by Sarah Grey. Includes discussion of updating languages for modern use; of appropriate terminology around the death or dormancy of languages; of forcing Native American […]
Gellerese
Back in March, I watched an episode of the original Mission: Impossible TV series, which led me to look the show up on Wikipedia. I was amused by the paragraph...
Kryptonian
Recently happened across the Kryptonian Language Project: “an ongoing effort to flesh out a full working language for the home planet of one of the most popular fictional characters in...
Powerlatin
Y'all may have seen the Powerthirst video. (If you haven't, then the following probably won't make any sense.) Well, now there's Powerlatin!!! MORE PRONOUNS THAN YOUR MIND HAS ROOM FOR!!!...
Indian English
I continue to be intrigued by the differences between British/American English and Indian English. I also wonder regularly if some of the grammatical problems I see in submissions written by...