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These 23 Words Have Survived 15K Years

 These 23 Words Have 
 Survived 15K Years 
new study
May 7, 2013 7:55 AM CDT

These 23 Words Have Survived 15K Years

Linguists discover 'ultraconserved words'

(Newser) - Plants and animals aren't the only things that go extinct: Most words are replaced every few thousand years, with a maximum survival of roughly 9,000 years, say linguists. But in a new study published yesterday, four British researchers say they have found 23 words that have persisted for...

Most Kids Curse Before They Learn the Alphabet

And they pick it up from ... guess who?

(Newser) - Most kids can utter an expletive before they even know their ABCs—probably because their parents (and most other adults) have such terrible pottymouths, according to a new book. In Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing, Mellissa Mohr argues that English-speakers actually use a curse word about once every...

Sweden Bows to Google, Ditches 'Ungoogleable'

Company objected to newly coined word

(Newser) - How to describe something that can't be found in a search engine? Don't say "ungoogleable" or you'll risk the wrath of the company. The Swedish Language Council has officially removed the term from a list of newly coined words after the company objected on trademark grounds,...

South Korea Finds Ancient King&#39;s Hat, With Notes Inside
South Korea Finds Ancient King's Hat, With Notes Inside
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Mar 3, 2013 7:30 AM CST

South Korea Finds Ancient King's Hat, With Notes Inside

Documents explain Seoul's official alphabet

(Newser) - The Hangeul alphabet is a big deal in South Korea: It's what replaced Chinese characters in the 15th century, it's the official script of both the North and South to this day, and it has its own national holiday. And that makes the discovery of King Sejong's...

14 Great Words With No English Equivalent
 14 Great Words the 
 English Language Lacks 
in case you missed it
Jan 19, 2013 7:00 PM CST

14 Great Words the English Language Lacks

Have you ever felt tartled?

(Newser) - You're stuffed, but you just can't stop eating because the meal is so delicious. What's the word for that again? Right, there is none, at least in English. But Georgians sum it up as "shemomedjamo." It's one of 14 interesting foreign words rounded up...

'Fiscal Cliff' Tops List of Banished Words

Of course, that doesn't mean anyone will stop saying them

(Newser) - It's the end of another year, and thus time for Michigan's Lake Superior State University to release its 38th annual List of Words to be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse, and General Uselessness. The dozen words and phrases that made this year's cheeky...

Experts Cracking Oldest Undeciphered Language

5,000-year-old tablets may soon yield secrets

(Newser) - Experts trying to crack the world's oldest undeciphered language say they are close to making a breakthrough that could unlock a large cache of knowledge from the ancient world. The academics are using a high-tech imaging device to scan clay tablets and capture writing in the proto-Elamite language, which...

Romney's 'Old-Timey' English Evokes Another World

Some voters are charmed by 'his 1950s language'

(Newser) - "Binders full of women" may be the Mitt Romney remark of the moment, but colleagues and friends have long marveled at his uniquely old-fashioned version of English, the New York Times reports. Mormons typically avoid salty language, and Romney's father George also spoke in a gentlemanly manner,...

Trendy Brooklyn Babies Learning French

Little ones taking in second language before they can speak

(Newser) - Despite the fact they can barely talk, some cosmopolitan babies in Brooklyn are studying French. The mommies of the tots are heeding the results of various studies suggesting that exposure to a second language when very young will improve the learning of new languages later on in life, reports DNAinfo....

Researchers Name Language After Colbert

It turns out bilingual people are good at learning fake tongues

(Newser) - America's favorite fake pundit now has his own fake language. Northwestern University researchers wanted to study whether or not knowing multiple languages helped you learn a completely unrelated one, so they made one up, dubbing it "Colbertian," NBC Chicago reports. "We had to invent a new...

Social Media Makes Girls 'Seem More Aggressive'

Twitter, Facebook changing how we speak, expert says

(Newser) - Rapid-fire Twitter and Facebook communication is making young women more "to the point" in ways that can seem aggressive, an expert tells the Daily Mail . "It’s not intentional," says Oxford University language professor Deborah Cameron. "Curtness tends to be short, sharp and to the point....

'Long' Countries Protect Languages Better: Study

Jared Diamond's 'Guns, Germs and Steel' inspires quirky study

(Newser) - Speaking an indigenous language in Chile or Italy? You're in luck. In Turkey or Russia? Not so much. So say researchers at Stanford University, who studied 147 countries and concluded that those with a wide west-east axis (as opposed to a long north-south one) tend to eliminate smaller languages...

In the Holy Land, Attempts to Revive Jesus' Language

Schools in two villages teaching Aramaic

(Newser) - In two Holy Land villages—and, randomly, Sweden—efforts are being made to revive Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke that has been almost dead for centuries. The Palestinian village of Beit Jala, near Bethlehem, and the Arab-Israeli village of Jish, in the Galilean hills where Jesus taught, were both inspired...

9 Foreign Words We Really Need to Start Using

Kummerspeck, and other great options

(Newser) - The German language is officially richer, thanks to its adoption of the English word "shitstorm." Now that we've given, it's time to take: Cracked argues that the English language is in desperate need of these nine foreign words, for which there is absolutely no English equivalent:...

Our No. 1 Gift to German Language in &#39;11: &#39;Shitstorm&#39;
Our No. 1 Gift to German Language in '11: 'Shitstorm'
experts declare
Feb 13, 2012 1:24 PM CST

Our No. 1 Gift to German Language in '11: 'Shitstorm'

Yep, really. A jury of German language experts picked it

(Newser) - Germans are better off because of America's pottymouth, at least according to a group of language experts who have named the biggest English contribution to the German language in 2011: "shitstorm." Yep, the "Anglicism of the Year" is a word that the experts say "fills...

Talked Like Yoda Cave Men Did
 Talked Like Yoda, Cavemen Did 
Oct 14, 2011 3:44 AM CDT

Talked Like Yoda, Cavemen Did

Seems to be the natural order for human 'proto' language: scientists

(Newser) - Human beings' very first "proto" language may have sounded more like Yoda-speak than the English we use today. Researchers believe all language derived from one spoken some 50,000 years ago in east Africa. Now scientists are making a case that the first language followed a "subject-object-verb" order,...

Berenstain Bears Try to Save Ancient Language

In animated TV first, they're speaking Lakota

(Newser) - For a typical family worried about messy rooms and money management, the Berenstain bears are killer linguists. The children's books featuring Mama, Papa, Brother, and Sister Bear Berenstain have been translated into more than 20 languages for kids around the world. Now the Berenstains are even speaking Lakota, an...

'Mankini,' Other Fun Words Added to OED

It's official: 'Jeggings' is a word

(Newser) - Language purists, avert your eyes: The Oxford English Dictionary has added some new words. Here they are, along with the Daily Mirror 's helpful definitions:
  • Mankini: "The revealing male bathing costume made famous by Sacha Baron Cohen in his Borat film."
  • Retweet: "Sharing a Twitter message.
...

Monkeys Create Own Language Sign

Mandrills invent way to sign 'do not disturb'

(Newser) - Monkeys at a British zoo have developed a way of saying "leave me alone" that doesn't involve biting or flinging poop. The mandrills cover their eyes—much like in the "see no evil" gesture—when they desire solitude, and their fellow monkeys respect the signal, the Telegraph...

We've Forgotten What 'Respect' Means

It is something earned, not demanded: Peter Funt

(Newser) - Keep your ears tuned for the next time someone complains about being disrespected. It shouldn't take long, writes Peter Funt in the Wall Street Journal . Could be an athlete, a congressman, a musician, or your neighbor. "Apparently 'respect' has emerged as society's favorite go-to word when...

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