TIL that #Polish and #Lithuanian have both taken the transcription from #Czech. Yet each has a different one. Polish took it from Old Czech. But the Czech language reformed and when the Lithuanians wanted to distinguish their language from the dominant Polish during the national revival, they adopted the transcription from modern Czech. That is why Polish has "cz" and Lithuanian has "č".
θύμον (thúmon) in Ancient Greek refers to thyme. Same as French "thym," oe Swedish "timjan." Some suggest that it comes from a pre-Greek word that simply refers to the plant. However, others proposed something interesting: what if it derives from θύω (thúō), meaning "to smoke"? Thyme has been burned to release its esences into the air since antiquity. It could be.
The Japan Times interviewed me for a May 27, 2024 article on #bilingual#education (1st picture).
While the newspaper article is for paying subscribers, the reporter Eric Margolis agreed that the publication Bilingual Japan of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (#JALT) #Bilingualism SIG may publish the full interview. After that issue comes out next month, I will make the article available in research repositories.
The article is subtitled "Japan wants its next generation to be fluent in English. Culture and economic inequality stand in the way." What it means by #culture getting in the way is treated in my answer as to why the #English level in #Japan is relatively low (2nd picture).
The conclusion quotes part of my response to the common opinion that #foreign#languages are not needed in Japan (3rd picture). My complete answer also predicts that the increasing influx of foreign #tourists and #residents will change that complacent attitude.
"“You can’t fully rely on translation apps,” said a 20yo Japanese woman who serves tourists at a dining bar. “It’s been more than a few times where I haven’t been able to serve customers [in English] and they wave their hands and shoe me away as if to say, ‘You’re useless.'”
"In Hollywood today, not only are Asian and Asian American narratives more prominent than ever, but they are also being told in increasingly dynamic ways through the artful use of Asian languages."
Some Japanese service staff say they're struggling to cope with visitors who don't make any effort to find linguistic common ground. More below on tourists who insist on speaking their mother tongue (and how not to be That Guy).
Around the 7th century, Japanese underwent a change, ditching the self-referential kanji 倭 (wa) in favor of the 和 (wa) you see today that references "Japanese" things such as washoku (和食/Japanese food), wagyu (和牛/Japanese beef), and washitsu (和室/Japanese-style room).
Sharing etymological roots in pairs is particularly true when it comes to the word for "raspberry": For example, Lithuanian avietė & Latvian avene. it comes from Proto-Balto-Slavic *áwis "sheep", because to them, raspberries resembled sheep.
BINI members Maloi from Batangas and Aiah from Cebu challenge each other to guess the meaning of common phrases in their native languages Tagalog (Batangueño dialect) and Cebuano.
The current frequency of language usage on the Web (e.g. 52% of websites in English) doesn't reflect the diverse cultural and linguistic needs essential for global access, highlighting the importance of internationalization (i18n).
Fuqiao Xue, @w3c i18n activity lead, gave a comprehensive report of past and future @webi18n work, collaborating with spec and #browser#developers to address gaps, particularly for endangered scripts and #languages.
If you are into languages, you are probably familiar with those conversations with your multilingual friends: you take arbitrary elements from the languages you both speak, and randomly squeeze them together into sentences.
That is any regular Monday for the Swiss. Schwyzdüütsch, a.k.a. #Swiss German is a colorful amalgamation of German, French and Italian.
What’s a word or phrase in a language you speak that describes someone who is nervous? Not just nervous about an exam or something but like, you’re at an airport and the person next to you is shuffling anxiously not wanting to miss the boarding announcement even though it’s at least an hour away, and they just can’t stop shuffling? More a way of being.