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Baby Birds' Babbling Suggests Intricate Brain

How our feathered friends learn, play back song may hold answers for human speech

(Newser) - Being bird-brained might not be much of an insult: New MIT research paints a more intricate portrait of how songbirds learn to sing, with one part of the brain used for learning and another for singing itself. Rather than maturing from babbling to birdsong, the independent but overlapping pathways work...

Philly Steak Shop Can Keep 'Please Speak English' Signs

Statement political, no service denied: panel

(Newser) - The owner of a Philadelphia institution can keep signs that ask customers to order their cheese steaks in English, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. A city agency ruled the signs at Geno's Steaks—"This is America. When ordering, please speak English"—do not violate discrimination rules; owner Joey Vento...

Why Girls Are Better at Language
Why Girls Are Better at Language
Mar 6, 2008 11:12 AM CST

Why Girls Are Better at Language

Study finds brain wiring gives girls the edge

(Newser) - Study after study has found that girls have better language skills than boys, and scientists now think they've found a biological reason why, Scientific American reports. Researchers discovered that girls showed more activity in the language part of their brains, which deciphers abstract encoding, than boys. The boys had more...

Miami Needs to Study Spanish
Miami Needs to Study Spanish
Mar 3, 2008 1:30 PM CST

Miami Needs to Study Spanish

International financial hub finds Latinos' language skills lagging

(Newser) - Miami's role as an international city—the "financial hub of Latin America," as one businessman calls it—is threatened by its residents' declining Spanish skills, the Miami Herald reports. Many descendants of the Cuban entrepreneurs and businessmen who flooded South Florida in the '60s and '70s speak only...

New Dictionary Helps Germans Steer Clear of 'Nazi Words'

Taboo terms tainted by Third Reich

(Newser) - German words like "Endlösung" (final solution) have been tainted, likely forever, by their association with the Nazis. A new dictionary looks at how the horrors of Hitler's regime changed the German language, Der Spiegel reports. The "Dictionary of Coming to Terms With the Past" looks at how...

The Most Useless Words of 2007
The Most Useless Words of 2007
Jan 1, 2008 6:00 PM CST

The Most Useless Words of 2007

'Surge,' 'random,' 'under the bus' top list of cringe-worthy neologisms

(Newser) - Do you roll your eyes every time a newscaster calls a coincidence a "perfect storm"? Cringe the thousandth time a teenager invokes "random"? The faculty at Lake Superior State University shares your vexation. Here are some selections from the school's list of words and phrases to...

It's All Greek to Miss Belgium
It's All Greek to Miss Belgium
Dec 17, 2007 2:28 PM CST

It's All Greek to Miss Belgium

Beauty queen is no Dutch treat; caretaker PM tries to mend government

(Newser) - The new Miss Belgium sparked fury in Flanders this weekend with her admission that she doesn't speak Dutch, AFP reports. In a country already torn over the Flemish-French conflict that's derailed the government for months, 20-year-old Alizee Poulicek's attempt to speak the language of the country's majority was met with...

Winning Word of 2007: 'W00t'
Winning Word of 2007: 'W00t'
Dec 12, 2007 10:47 AM CST

Winning Word of 2007: 'W00t'

Merriam-Webster word of the year is gamer's victory cry

(Newser) - W00t is Merriam-Webster’s word of the year. The term is the victory cry of computer hackers and gamers, who also heatedly argue its origins. Merriam-Webster cites the explanation that gamers coined it as an alphanumeric acronym for “We Owned Other Team.” Contentious hackers claim it was code...

American Languages Nearly Extinct
American Languages Nearly Extinct
Dec 2, 2007 1:44 PM CST

American Languages Nearly Extinct

Hundreds of tongues are down to their last few speakers

(Newser) - Johnny Hill Jr., a 53-year-old Arizonan, talks to himself in Chemehuevi, a language once spoken by many Southwestern Native Americans. He does that because there's rarely anyone for him to speak Chemehuevi with; Hill tried to teach the language to his stepson without success. There is every chance that the...

Immigrant Kids Talk the Talk: 90% Master English

Fluency makes dramatic leaps across generations

(Newser) - Although many Spanish-speaking immigrants who moved to America know little English, that's not true of their children and grandchildren, according to a new Pew survey. Only 23% of first-generation immigrants said they were competent in English, but 88% of second-generation and 94% of third-generation residents said they can carry on...

I Swear! And More and More, in Public

Profanity has moved beyond private discourse, experts say

(Newser) - Profanity seems to be more and more widespread, but linguists suggest people aren't actually swearing more—they're just swearing more publicly. The tide of athletes and musicians who pepper their language with choice four-letter words is meeting a surge of media avenues that aren't regulated by the government, resulting in...

Arabic, Asian Languages Gaining More US Students

Arabic enrollments grew 126.5% from 2002 to 2006

(Newser) - American students are studying Arabic and Asian languages more than ever before, according to a Modern Language Association survey. Spanish has been the most studied language since 1995, still with more than 50% of students, but Arabic is fastest-growing, jumping 126.5% from 2002 to 2006—making up 1.5%...

Me Caveman, Me Talk
Me Caveman, Me Talk
Oct 19, 2007 5:20 AM CDT

Me Caveman, Me Talk

Gene indicates Neanderthals may have had language capabilities like ours

(Newser) - Neanderthals may have spoken much like we do, new research shows. Scientists examined a gene linked to language called FOXP2 in the DNA of cavemen bones discovered in northern Spain, and found that it was identical to ours. The gene is the only one known to be involved in human...

To Be, or Not: That Is the Question for Irregular Verbs

Study shows language evolves à la Darwin, less-used forms die off

(Newser) - Irregular verbs, much like the Kennewick Man, evolve. But, much like the woolly mammoth, sometimes they vanish altogether, and linguists and evolutionary theorists have teamed up to compute their extinction times—in terms of half-lives. The study, published this week in Nature, shows that irregular forms of lesser-used verbs are...

Mum's Almost The Word for Endangered Languages

Native American speech among vanishing

(Newser) - A language dies about every two weeks and thousands are at risk, warned linguists, who yesterday identified five global hotspots where languages are most endangered. Several native American languages are dying out in the Southwest and regions including British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. Indigenous communication is also vanishing in rural...

World's Smartest Parrot Is No More
World's Smartest Parrot Is No More
Sep 11, 2007 3:27 PM CDT

World's Smartest Parrot Is No More

Alex was no bird brain: He amused millions, aided science

(Newser) - Brandeis researchers feel as though they’ve lost a colleague: Alex, the African gray parrot they studied for 30 years, died Friday. He helped them reach surprising new conclusions about the avian brain and “was extraordinary in breaking the perceptions of birds as not being intelligent,” according to...

Dems' Miami Debate Makes Foray Into Spanish

First presidential debate translated live on Univision

(Newser) - Democratic hopefuls took part in a Spanish-language debate in Miami yesterday, having questions translated UN-style from Spanish to English, and answers back again into Spanish. Though he'd agreed to the ground rules, bilingual contender Bill Richardson couldn't resist  asking in Spanish if he could continue in Spanish, and Sen. Chris...

What Is This 'Mate' of Which You Speak?

Australian government gives immigrants a formal definition

(Newser) - For its new citizenship test, the Australian government has provided a formal definition of the word "mate." Yes, as in "G'day, mate." A 40-page guide for aspiring Aussies, the brainchild of the immigration minister, defines mateship as the condition “where people help and receive help...

So, You Need to Learn Swahili?
So, You Need to Learn Swahili?
Aug 26, 2007 5:08 PM CDT

So, You Need to Learn Swahili?

Learning languages is labor-intensive. Here's how to get you up to speed.

(Newser) - Get ready for your business trip or vacation with these programs recommended by Porfolio.
  • Pimsleur Approach: 10-day courses offered in 40 languages.
  • Rosetta Stone: Promises competence in 2 weeks in 30 languages.
  • Teach Yourself: CDs and books offer 200 languages at varying speeds.

NYC May Ban the 'B-Word'
NYC May Ban the 'B-Word'
Aug 7, 2007 3:38 PM CDT

NYC May Ban the 'B-Word'

City council wants to nix 'bitch' from New Yorkers' vocab

(Newser) - The "N-word" was the first to go, earlier this year, and now New York's city council wants to impose a citywide symbolic ban on another dirty word: bitch. The councilwoman who jump-started the initiative calls the slur "a vile attack on our womanhood," but plenty of New...

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