All language-based questions today!

( Cut because Regev rambles )

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Demonstrating that I'm a complete glutton for punishment, I've been volunteering -- albeit in small amounts -- to the Cherokee translation of Facebook, or as it's been "Cherokized", ᏞᏏᏋᎩ, hlesigwvgi. Many of the things that need translated are simple words or phrases for the interface -- "Profile," "Update", "Friends", etc ( Read more... )

Today we're talking about hompohnes and homonyms -- "tale" and "tail", "hire" and "higher", "presence" and "presence", "butt" and "but", "site" and "site," and of course "too," "two," and "two." Depending on one's variant of English other words can also be homophones -- "merry" and "Mary", "awful" and "offal", "ask" and "axe', "hour" and "our", &c ( Read more... )

I'm amazed I haven't covered this topic yet! Today we talk about terms for family members, and how such terms are used differently in English and make distinctions that would take further elaboration in English as well ...

JAPANESE: We'll start with Japanese, where there is a differentiation between older and younger siblings -- an older brother ( Read more... )

It's certainly something to think about -- apparently the Cherokee nation has been active in hiring fluent Cherokee speakers for education purposes in one of many efforts to increase the number of Cherokee speakers, causing schools like Northeastern State to start Cherokee education programmes.I'd, personally, love to be part of language ( Read more... )

This past Monday I wrote a small write-up about trying to coin computer terms in the Cherokee language. Just as a brief follow-up I figured I'd follow up with a few of my own attempts at coining. Again, no guarantee if these are the best choices or if anyone would ever actually use said terms, or hell, even if these are correct ( Read more... )

I'm part of several groups on Yahoo that focus on the Cherokee language, and while a lot of it pertains to people learning the basics (the syllabary, numbers, arguments as to who created the Cherokee script, etc.), sometimes there's pure gold and it reminds me why I'm on said lists. Recently a gentleman had started asking about computer ( Read more... )

I think every aspiring linguist, at some point in time, delves into Basque. And it's certainly understandable -- I'd convinced myself that, if I could learn Basque, then I could learn ANYTHING. After all, the language is unique in the world, and possesses a unique grammar and verb system that is unlike anything I've ever studied. But these "oh ( Read more... )