The specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication.
Questions tagged [language]
89 questions
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Are people who love inspirational quotes less intelligent?
An article in the Daily Beast claims the following:
A new study finds that people who love bullshit inspirational quotes have lower intelligence and more "conspiratorial ideations".
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Stars can't shine…
matt_black
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Was the phrase "hello" popularized because of the name of Alexander Graham Bell's wife/girlfriend "Margaret Hello"?
This is a popular explanation of the etymology of the word hello, seen in many email forwards:
When you lift the phone, you say "Hello".
Do you know what is the real meaning of "Hello" It is the name of a
girl.
Yes .... and do you know who is…
Lincity
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Was the word 'racist' coined by Trotsky in 1927?
According to the image below, "racist is a made up word by Leon Trotsky in 1927."
I searched in the Online Etymology Dictionary and found that
racist (n.)
1932 [as a noun], 1938 as an adjective, from race (n.2); racism is first attested 1936 (from…
Elberich Schneider
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Do people tend to have a particular language representational system (visual, auditory, or kinesthetic representational)?
One of the primary claims of neuro-linguistic programming is that people possess a particular language system (visual, auditory, or kinesthetic representational).
For example:
For example, a person whose predominant representational system is
…
Casebash
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Was "their" a singular pronoun in English before the 16th century?
I saw this meme on facebook:
So, was "their" truly a genderless 3rd person singular pronoun prior to some change in the 16th/17th century?
This Wikipedia article indicates that the genderless 3rd person singular pronoun was "it" for early…
Astor Florida
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Is the origin of the phrase "suck it up" referring to WWII pilots?
I was reading this New Statesman article and was surprised to read this:
The origin of the phrase “suck it up” is quite gross. Allegedly, it’s what WWII pilots were instructed to do if they vomited into their oxygen masks, to avoid drowning in…
Jeremy French
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Are the ingredients listed in "Macbeth" common plants?
It is easy to find dozens of sites claiming, generally without attribution, that the ingredients in the famously gruesome witches' brew from Shakespeare's play Macbeth are herbalist jargon for common plants. For instance, according to Aldersbrook…
Obie 2.0
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Do babies have their own language?
Is it true that when babies make their little noises, they are understood by surrounding babies? Is there a regular pattern in their actions and noises they make to signify their meaning?
Thursagen
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Churchill's quote: "This is just the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put."
Did Winston Churchill say, as some on the 'net claim, in response to being told he should not end a sentence with a preposition, something like "This is just the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put."
Brian M. Hunt
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Do 22% of Muslim women in the UK speak little or no English?
According to the BBC, the UK government claims:
22% of Muslim women living in England speak little or no English.
It also quotes a former Superintendent of the Metro Police as disputing this figure:
Mr Babu also said he did not recognise the…
PointlessSpike
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Was the official language of the Union of India selected by a single tie-breaker vote?
This answer in Yahoo Answers claims:
Hindi has been declared in the Constitution of India, as the official language of the Union of India. It is also one of the 23 languages recognised under the Official Languages Act 1962.
Hindi got the position…
Abdulsattar Mohammed
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Was there ever a universal human language or mother-tongue?
In "Is this how Eve spoke? Every human language evolved from 'single prehistoric African mother tongue'" from the UK Daily Mail:
Every language in the world - from English to Mandarin - evolved from
a prehistoric 'mother tongue' first spoken in…
Paul
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13
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Does language acquisition become more difficult after a "critical period" linked to age?
The critical period hypothesis (from Wikipedia):
The critical period hypothesis is the subject of a long-standing
debate in linguistics and language acquisition over the extent to
which the ability to acquire language is biologically linked to…
Five Points
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Is Arabic the 4th most common language used on internet?
The Wikipedia page, Languages user on the Internet provides two different ways of ranking the most popular languages on the Internet.
By content:
Estimated percentages of the top 10 million websites using various content languages as of 4 March…
Akli
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Did the head of the Joint National Committee on language claim Jesus spoke English?
In Bill Bryson's book The Mother Tongue, it is claimed, that Dr. David Edwards, head of the Joint National Committee on Languages once said: "If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me."
Is this claim true? Has David Edwards been…
user unknown
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