Chinese, English Speakers Vary at Math

Things add up differently for native English speakers compared with people who learned Chinese as a first language.

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English Language Debate Renews Questions

It's been 30 years, but Dick Tucker has no trouble recalling the French signs posted inside city buses that crisscrossed Montreal: "In French, we say it this way. We don't say it that way."

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Ukrainian Celebs Condemn Language Decision

Cultural figures and celebrities on Friday criticized efforts to grant the Russian language special status in this ex-Soviet republic, calling it an act of war against Ukrainian.

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'W' Gets Its Own Place in Swedish Language

The letter 'W' has entered the mainstream of the Swedish language, getting its own section for the first time in the country's most respected dictionary.

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China to Train U.S. Teachers in Chinese

Calling Chinese "an important tool for the rest of the world," China's education minister announced a plan Wednesday to help train hundreds of U.S. educators in the language.

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The Power of Words: Islamofascist

I've got a pet peeve - I hate it when people, almost invariably conservative commentators, use the word "Islamofascist" in what is supposed to be a serious discourse.

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Revenge of the Language Nerds

From the page:

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This Article Contains Foul Language and Graphic Imagery (Unless Someone Edits It)

A federal judge in Colorado recently ruled that it was not legal for companies to edit movies in an effort to remove foul language, certain types of violence and nudity.

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Family First: Cracking Kids' Secret Online Codes

There's a language used by kids for instant and text messaging, and it's a lot more complicated than L-O-L for "laughing out loud." While it can be used as an online shorthand to be more efficient when communicating, it can also disguise inappropriate conversations.

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Half of All Languages Headed for Extinction

Only about 20 people scattered in small towns near the California-Nevada border can still speak Washo, a Native American language. In Africa, some 17 languages are designated as “endangered” by the researchers who track such things.

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Mayor tells McDonalds not to advertise in Spanish

The mayor of a small Bergen County town is calling for a McDonald's boycott if the fast-food chain does not take down a Spanish-language billboard advertising iced coffee.

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'Google' finds its way into the dictionary

From the page: -- "I googled you," "google me": The word "google," which has become synonymous with searching the Internet since the advent of the popular search engine of the same name, has just found its way into a US dictionary. --

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Google becomes a verb

Google is now officially a verb in the English language.

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Study: Baboons Talk With Hands

A baboon hand gesture appears to send the message "go ahead, make my day" to other baboons — suggesting that gesturing may have been a precursor to human language, according to a new study.

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China to Promote Mandarin Learning Over the World

What many in the West have said we need to fear is about to happen. The Chinese Government wants us to learn Mandarin.

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Evolution of the English Language

this is a quiz over some of the nearly 100 new words added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, along with a question to you about the nature of evolution of the English language.

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'Talking Right': Why the Left Is Losing, Linguistically

In his new book, Talking Right, linguist Geoff Nunberg examines the parlance of the American political right. Conservatives, Nunberg notes, have been remarkably effective at creating a language through which to convey their agenda.

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Government urged to back EU's Gaelic ruling

The UK government is being urged to back moves to allow Gaelic speakers to use their native tongue to communicate with the European Parliament.

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The Top 5 Things I Don't Understand About the United States

Many people on Newsvine write articles as if they have all the answers to the topic they are writing about. Well, I don’t. Not only do I not have the answers, I think I’m quite confused about some of the questions.

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Abu, Ibn, and Bin, Oh My! - Arabic nomenclature, Part 2.

Last week, the Explainer went over the meaning of "al-" in Arabic names. Many readers wrote in to ask about the words that appear in names like Hind ibn Sheik, Osama Bin Laden, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. What's the deal with ibn, bin, and abu?

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What's Up With With "Al-"?

From the page:

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Can a soldier be kidnapped?

The BBC doesn't think so. Instead, according to the editors blog for the BBC, civilians are "kidnapped", Cpl. Shalit was "captured" The BBC has been criticized before for preferring the word militants over terrorists.

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Why Arabic names use 'al-'

What's Up With "Al-"? The ubiquitous Arabic word, explained.

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EuroEnglish

The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility.

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PETA goes wild - Wants dictionary to jump through hoops

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Teaching the person, not the topic

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Kids who blow bubbles find language is child's play

Youngsters who can lick their lips, blow bubbles and pretend that a building block is a car are most likely to find learning language easy, according to a new study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

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Ancient beads imply culture older than we thought

Archaeologists have discovered that 100,000-year-old shells found in Israel and Algeria were decorative beads. This suggests that modern human forms of behaviour, such as language, developed earlier than previously thought.

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Improved posts, better debates, a nicer world

I’m not sure this is a good plan. I’m just tossing the notion out to see how it feels.

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Who the heck is Irma?

Born on June 18th 1969 as the first child in an average normal family, except for the illiterate, abusive father, and the dutiful mother, sacrificing her own life for her children, including that lousy excuse for a husband, all because she made the mistake of marrying him, and be …

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