Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [language]

The specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication.

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Is “Your Baby Can Read” effective and helpful?

I have seen these videos advertised online and on TV, and they make some pretty fantastic claims, showing kids as young as 2 reading complicated words. From what I can find online, it uses a memorization technique, which while possibly providing…
Ustice
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Do number systems in native languages affect math performance?

This blog post said that Asians are good at math because Asian languages have less-confusing number systems: So if it’s not the schools, what accounts for Asians succeeding in math across different education systems? As English speakers, we may be…
Ming-Tang
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Does Arabic graffiti in "Homeland" criticise the show?

There are multiple reports that the show "Homeland" has Arabic graffiti that amongst other things criticise the show as racist. The news reports cite the graffiti artists commissioned by the show, and get comment from the creators of the show, but…
Andrew Grimm
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Can speakers of Kuuk Thaayorre navigate much better than Western speakers inside unfamiliar buildings?

Lera Boroditsky writes in the Edge article How does our language shape the way we think?: Simply put, speakers of languages like Kuuk Thaayorre are much better than English speakers at staying oriented and keeping track of where they are, even in…
Christian
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Did Burmese typewriters contain an upside-down character, which subsequently became proper typewriter style?

I was reading about the Internet Archive's work to archive the materials of a famous New York City typewriter family: http://blog.archive.org/2020/08/26/an-archive-of-a-different-type/ I was interested in reading more about this anecdote, but was…
pkamb
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Did Reverend Mezzofanti fluently speak thirty-four languages?

In the John England's book titled "The Works of Reverend John England, Volume 6" (page 172) I read: Reverend Joseph Mezzofanti, first keeper of the Vatican library, of whom Lord Byron had so high an opinion; probably one of the first linguist in…
Carlo Alterego
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Is Polish the hardest language to learn?

I've recently been to Poland and I've heard the claim that Polish is the hardest language to learn. I've found this claim repeated again today, for example on this blog post: The hardest language to learn is: Polish – Seven cases, Seven genders and…
Sklivvz
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Are shorter lines easier to read?

People keep claiming that shorter lines are easier to read - especially when discussing user interfaces and fixed width layouts. I recall a stack overflow question years ago where someone essentially debunked this and had studies to prove that long…
Adam Davis
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Did Native Americans call European people "pale-face"?

In lots of American Indian novels you can read that the native peoples of North America called European people "pale-face" or "pale-faced": “Young Randolph! war-chief among the pale-faces! You have not then forgotten poor Haj-Ewa?” (Osceola the…
Quassnoi
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Does using big words make people sound more professional?

I have read in several places that people use big, fancy, complicated, and little known words (such as Brobdingnagian) to give the impression that they are knowledgeable, smart, and professional. Does that work?
user1936
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Is the "I before E" English spelling rule wrong more than it is right?

There are 923 words that break the "i before e" rule. Only 44 words actually follow that rule. This is a picture circulating right now, claiming that a huge majority of the words break the "i before e" rule, and that only a few actually follow…
Wertilq
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Is a large percentage of human communication non-verbal?

The claim that 60, or 80, or 90 or 93 percent of all communication is non-verbal is endlessly repeated, not only in pop culture but in the professional worlds of education, business, and in some less rigorous social science disciplines like…
Evan Harper
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Did Japanese people misspell "We pray for MacArthur's election"?

The Internet is full of references to the same story: It was probably in 1946, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur was temporarily put in charge of running Japan, which was in tough shape after surrendering. He was such a decent overseer that many Japanese…
Andrew Grimm
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Is passive listening useless when learning a language?

In an article on the blog Fluent in Three Months is a claim that listening to hours of a foreign language without really concentrating on it is "barely better than nothing". The shocking truth is that passive listening is never going to get you to…
Samuelson
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In American Sign Language, does 2022 loosely translate to "bird go peace-peace"?

This Tweet is doing the rounds: Hearing people are like joke-panicking about the fact that 2022 is pronounced “2020, too”. But like in ASL, 2022 loosely translates to “BIRD go PEACE-PEACE” and that’s honestly the energy I’m going into the new year…
Rebecca J. Stones
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