Find all stories on Linguistics in this tag archive.
After recognizing that society has long-embraced the belief that there is a finite—even minuscule—number of basic human emotions, the editorial team at The Cut has introduced 78 new complex emotions based on …
The latest update to the Oxford English Dictionary includes 29 words, phrases and colloquialisms from Nigerian English—most of which have been used for decades, and have been adopted by English-speakers elsewhere. Some …
Available today on iOS and Android, Interpreter Mode translates conversations in real time through a process similar to Google’s preexisting Translate page. According to the company, the feature can be prompted by …
More inclusive language, flying water taxis, London Design Festival highlights and more in our look around the web
In a significant step toward inclusivity, and another reminder of how powerful words are, Merriam-Webster has added the non-binary “them” to their dictionary. While accepting that the singular “they” has actually been …
A call for climate change protest posters and NYC merchandise, and a great reason to watch porn
Though the public broadcaster doesn’t plan to release a standalone device, BBC announced a forthcoming competitor to Amazon’s Alexa: Beeb. The assistant will be able to recognize regional accents (British ones first) …
The world's "weirdest" languages, spy planes spot archaeological sites, making museums more accessible and more from around the web
Using information from the World Atlas of Language Structures, researchers surveyed the features of 239 languages to determine which are “weirdest”—meaning in sound, the number of features and sentence construction. Out of …
Google Translate uses complex neural and numeric systems to find equivalencies in speech and text across languages. The tool is seemingly simple—at least for users. But on the backend, developers worked tirelessly …