Questions tagged [language]
The specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication.
89
questions
134
votes
2
answers
28k
views
Do the Finnish have a word for getting drunk alone in your underwear?
Urban dictionary (and many other articles on the internet) claim that the Finnish word "kalsarikännit" means:
to drink by yourself at your house in your underwear with no intention of going out
I ...
- 4,658
66
votes
3
answers
14k
views
Do people think in a language?
I was discussing some things with a psychology major, and he insisted that people always use a language to think. This is quite opposed to my own experience.
I agree that I am capable of formulating ...
- 2,533
65
votes
3
answers
10k
views
Can Chinese people read the literature of 2,500 years ago as easily as yesterday's newspapers
Bill Bryson in his book The Mother Tongue: English And How It Got That Way, on page 110, writes:
An equally useful advantage of written Chinese is that people can read the literature of 2,500 years ...
- 3,963
57
votes
2
answers
10k
views
Is Stanford's "Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative" real?
The Wall Street Journal claims that this document is a legitimate initiative of Stanford University.
It recommends, for example, that the term "blind study", widely used in experimental ...
- 56.2k
49
votes
5
answers
24k
views
Are there 20,000 English words in the average adult's vocabulary?
Is there any consensus as to how many words are in the average adult's vocabulary? Over the years, I've come across various factoids and blurbs online and in magazine articles that have made ...
- 5,923
41
votes
1
answer
10k
views
Did Parker Pens release an advertisement in Spanish that accidentally implied their pens would prevent pregnancy?
I've heard some variation of this story a handful of times: an advertisement for a pen was meant to claim that it wouldn't leak in your pocket and embarass you, but in Spanish, they used the word ...
- 551
40
votes
2
answers
42k
views
Is it against the law to mispronounce Arkansas?
There are many sources that claim that it is illegal to pronounce Arkansas incorrectly and you can be fined for doing so.
My favorite law is one designed to get Northerners into trouble. That's ...
- 1,628
40
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Are LDS missionaries taught languages to a level of fluency in under three months which takes other schools years?
In How do Mormon missionaries learn foreign languages so quickly? it is claimed that LDS (Mormon) missionaries spend only up to ten weeks in languge learning, and that most are "fluent" within one ...
- 994
39
votes
1
answer
6k
views
Is xenoglossy a scientifically verified phenomenon?
It has often been said that people can speak in languages that were not formerly known to them. Arguably the most often recited example of this is in the context of demonic possession. For example, ...
- 18k
38
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Are Americans more likely to be monolingual?
From a comment on English Language & Usage, also mentioned in Wikipedia, and Chad Fowler's book The Passionate Programmer (Related blog post by the author: How Learning a Second Language Changed ...
- 38.9k
28
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Can toddlers learn sign language?
The other day came across a commercial of a 'course for sign language' for infants and toddlers.
I was a bit sceptical from the start and my suspicions only rose, then I discovered that there is what ...
- 693
27
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Did Germans receive corn instead of wheat and rye after WW2 due to a translation error?
After World War II, the U.S. army sent food supplies to Germany. There is a widespread legend that they delivered maize instead of wheat and rye because the Germans demanded "Korn" which means grain ...
- 373
26
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Did Shakespeare introduce over 1700 new words to the English language?
I was cruising the JREF forums, and while I am very familiar with many of the phrases he coined and popularized in the English language, a post makes the claim.
Shakespeare coined about two thousand ...
- 45k
25
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Is profanity correlated with trustworthiness and honesty?
This image can be found on 9GAG and Facebook:
Profanity is defined by Merriam-Webster as "an offensive word" or "offensive language". It is also called bad language, strong language, coarse language, ...
- 30.3k
25
votes
2
answers
12k
views
Are there more English speaking people in China than in the USA?
I have heard there are more Chinese who speak English than there are Americans who speak English. Is this true?
- 561
24
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Is “Your Baby Can Read” effective and helpful?
I have seen these videos advertised online and on TV, and they make some pretty fantastic claims, showing kids as young as 2 reading complicated words. From what I can find online, it uses a ...
- 2,389
23
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Does Arabic graffiti in "Homeland" criticise the show?
There are multiple reports that the show "Homeland" has Arabic graffiti that amongst other things criticise the show as racist.
The news reports cite the graffiti artists commissioned by the show, ...
- 38.9k
23
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Do number systems in native languages affect math performance?
This blog post said that Asians are good at math because Asian languages have less-confusing number systems:
So if it’s not the schools, what accounts for Asians succeeding in math across different ...
- 481
22
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Can speakers of Kuuk Thaayorre navigate much better than Western speakers inside unfamiliar buildings?
Lera Boroditsky writes in the Edge article How does our language shape the way we think?:
Simply put, speakers of languages like Kuuk Thaayorre are much better than English speakers at staying ...
- 33.3k
21
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Did Reverend Mezzofanti fluently speak thirty-four languages?
In the John England's book titled "The Works of Reverend John England, Volume 6" (page 172) I read:
Reverend Joseph Mezzofanti, first keeper of the Vatican library, of whom Lord Byron had ...
- 3,963
21
votes
0
answers
856
views
Did Burmese typewriters contain an upside-down character, which subsequently became proper typewriter style?
I was reading about the Internet Archive's work to archive the materials of a famous New York City typewriter family:
http://blog.archive.org/2020/08/26/an-archive-of-a-different-type/
I was ...
- 399
20
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Is Polish the hardest language to learn?
I've recently been to Poland and I've heard the claim that Polish is the hardest language to learn. I've found this claim repeated again today, for example on this blog post:
The hardest language ...
- 78.6k
19
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Does using big words make people sound more professional?
I have read in several places that people use big, fancy, complicated, and little known words (such as Brobdingnagian) to give the impression that they are knowledgeable, smart, and professional. Does ...
user1936
19
votes
1
answer
11k
views
Is the "I before E" English spelling rule wrong more than it is right?
There are 923 words that break the "i before e" rule. Only 44 words actually follow that rule.
This is a picture circulating right now, claiming that a huge majority of the words break the "i before ...
- 5,958
19
votes
3
answers
8k
views
Did Japanese people misspell "We pray for MacArthur's election"?
The Internet is full of references to the same story:
It was probably in 1946, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur was temporarily put in charge of running Japan, which was in tough shape after ...
- 38.9k
19
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Did Native Americans call European people "pale-face"?
In lots of American Indian novels you can read that the native peoples of North America called European people "pale-face" or "pale-faced":
“Young Randolph! war-chief among the ...
- 4,353
19
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Are shorter lines easier to read?
People keep claiming that shorter lines are easier to read - especially when discussing user interfaces and fixed width layouts.
I recall a stack overflow question years ago where someone essentially ...
- 1,460
19
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Is a large percentage of human communication non-verbal?
The claim that 60, or 80, or 90 or 93 percent of all communication is non-verbal is endlessly repeated, not only in pop culture but in the professional worlds of education, business, and in some less ...
- 960
18
votes
1
answer
21k
views
Was the phrase "hello" popularized because of the name of Alexander Graham Bell's wife/girlfriend "Margaret Hello"?
This is a popular explanation of the etymology of the word hello, seen in many email forwards:
When you lift the phone, you say "Hello".
Do you know what is the real meaning of "Hello" It is ...
- 2,992
18
votes
4
answers
32k
views
Was the word 'racist' coined by Trotsky in 1927?
According to the image below, "racist is a made up word by Leon Trotsky in 1927."
I searched in the Online Etymology Dictionary and found that
racist (n.)
1932 [as a noun], 1938 as an ...
18
votes
2
answers
6k
views
In American Sign Language, does 2022 loosely translate to "bird go peace-peace"?
This Tweet is doing the rounds:
Hearing people are like joke-panicking about the fact that 2022 is pronounced “2020, too”. But like in ASL, 2022 loosely translates to “BIRD go PEACE-PEACE” and that’s ...
- 8,414
18
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Are people who love inspirational quotes less intelligent?
An article in the Daily Beast claims the following:
A new study finds that people who love bullshit inspirational quotes have lower intelligence and more "conspiratorial ideations".
Life ...
- 56.2k
18
votes
1
answer
987
views
Do people tend to have a particular language representational system (visual, auditory, or kinesthetic representational)?
One of the primary claims of neuro-linguistic programming is that people possess a particular language system (visual, auditory, or kinesthetic representational).
For example:
For example, a ...
- 10.2k
18
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Is passive listening useless when learning a language?
In an article on the blog Fluent in Three Months is a claim that listening to hours of a foreign language without really concentrating on it is "barely better than nothing".
The shocking truth is ...
- 3,791
17
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Was "their" a singular pronoun in English before the 16th century?
I saw this meme on facebook:
So, was "their" truly a genderless 3rd person singular pronoun prior to some change in the 16th/17th century?
This Wikipedia article indicates that the ...
- 399
17
votes
1
answer
5k
views
Is the origin of the phrase "suck it up" referring to WWII pilots?
I was reading this New Statesman article and was surprised to read this:
The origin of the phrase “suck it up” is quite gross. Allegedly, it’s what WWII pilots were instructed to do if they vomited ...
- 660
16
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Churchill's quote: "This is just the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put."
Did Winston Churchill say, as some on the 'net claim, in response to being told he should not end a sentence with a preposition, something like "This is just the sort of nonsense up with which I will ...
- 18k
16
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Do babies have their own language?
Is it true that when babies make their little noises, they are understood by surrounding babies? Is there a regular pattern in their actions and noises they make to signify their meaning?
- 6,185
16
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Are the ingredients listed in "Macbeth" common plants?
It is easy to find dozens of sites claiming, generally without attribution, that the ingredients in the famously gruesome witches' brew from Shakespeare's play Macbeth are herbalist jargon for common ...
- 1,563
15
votes
1
answer
6k
views
Was the official language of the Union of India selected by a single tie-breaker vote?
This answer in Yahoo Answers claims:
Hindi has been declared in the Constitution of India, as the official language of the Union of India. It is also one of the 23 languages recognised under the ...
15
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Do 22% of Muslim women in the UK speak little or no English?
According to the BBC, the UK government claims:
22% of Muslim women living in England speak little or no English.
It also quotes a former Superintendent of the Metro Police as disputing this ...
- 1,492
14
votes
0
answers
1k
views
Was there ever a universal human language or mother-tongue?
In "Is this how Eve spoke? Every human language evolved from 'single prehistoric African mother tongue'" from the UK Daily Mail:
Every language in the world - from English to Mandarin - ...
- 5,400
13
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Does language acquisition become more difficult after a "critical period" linked to age?
The critical period hypothesis (from Wikipedia):
The critical period hypothesis is the subject of a long-standing
debate in linguistics and language acquisition over the extent to
which the ...
- 239
12
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Did the head of the Joint National Committee on language claim Jesus spoke English?
In Bill Bryson's book The Mother Tongue, it is claimed, that Dr. David Edwards, head of the Joint National Committee on Languages once said: "If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for ...
- 3,986
12
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is “Lord Privy Seal” a technical term in documentary film making?
Richard Dawkins has claimed many times in public speeches, especially in reference to the documentary “Expelled”, that documentary filmmakers use the expression “Lord Privy Seal” in a disparaging ...
- 1,004
12
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Is Arabic the 4th most common language used on internet?
The Wikipedia page, Languages user on the Internet provides two different ways of ranking the most popular languages on the Internet.
By content:
Estimated percentages of the top 10 million ...
- 1,453
11
votes
2
answers
12k
views
Did World War II propaganda posters tell people to "Speak American", rather than languages of the enemy?
Wikimedia commons entry, claiming a citation to "Una Storia Segreta" by Lawrence Distasi. The licensing metadata from the picture claims that it is a "work prepared by an officer or employee of the ...
- 38.9k
10
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Was this Harry-Potter themed text written solely by a computer program?
A YouTube video caught my eye with the title, "A Robot Wrote A Chapter To A Harry Potter Book, And It's Absolutely Insane." The video claims that a software algorithm created by Botnik Studios was ...
- 403
10
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Is dyslexia unheard of in Spain?
I've been told that dyslexia is unheard of in Spain, and presumably other Spanish-speaking cultures, because Spanish is pronounced as it is spelt. Is this true?
Example:
Cases of dyslexia and ...
- 203
10
votes
2
answers
9k
views
Was French spelling artificially altered for longer words?
There's a widespread belief that says that the reason for French having so many silent letters is that historically the authors were paid by the letter, so they were tempted to write longer words. ...
- 1,083