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3 votes
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Emoji don't mean what they used to - The pictorial language has moved away from ideography and toward illustration
23 votes -
Is ‘Huh?’ a universal word?
17 votes -
Meet the guardian of grammar who wants to help you be a better writer
4 votes -
Words as feelings. A special class of vivid, textural words defy linguistic theory: could ‘ideophones’ unlock the secrets of humans’ first utterances?
11 votes -
The rise of the swear nerds
13 votes -
Language and identity: Lessons from a unique Afrikaans community in Patagonia
7 votes -
Toadbollock, Dustiberd and Lytillskyll: historian on what names can tell us about everyday medieval life
3 votes -
Why West Africa’s pidgins deserve full recognition as official languages
3 votes -
Wriggly, giggle, puffball: What makes some words funny?
3 votes -
Lets get rid of the apostrophe
15 votes -
‘Kindly adjust’ to our English
8 votes -
Model paves way for faster, more efficient translations of more languages
7 votes -
Feliĉan zamenhofan tagon - Why Esperanto is an interesting language
8 votes -
Explainer: the largest language spoken exclusively in Australia – Kriol
4 votes -
How millennials are breathing fresh life into the ancient Irish language
9 votes -
How to learn a language: Input
8 votes -
What these two French words can teach us about social change
3 votes -
A 4,000-year old tale of trade and contraband
3 votes -
We thought the Incas couldn’t write. These knots change everything
8 votes -
Cultural activist from Guyana's Wapishana tribe tries to revive a near-extinct language
6 votes -
Why are we still teaching reading the wrong way?
9 votes -
The island that never stops apologising
7 votes -
The elusive foolproof theory of the origin of language
2 votes -
What is the best age to learn a language?
13 votes -
Time Traveller by Merriam-Webster—Find out when a word was first used in print
9 votes -
The Bosnians who speak medieval Spanish
7 votes -
Code hidden in Stone Age art may be the root of human writing
5 votes -
Who speaks Indonesian, ‘the envy of multilingual world’?
5 votes -
Learning English from the ground up
There was a recent thread on ~talk about which linguistics habits people find annoying, and much to my horror, I have most of those which were mentioned. After thinking about it a little more, I...
There was a recent thread on ~talk about which linguistics habits people find annoying, and much to my horror, I have most of those which were mentioned. After thinking about it a little more, I realized that a lot of these habits were picked up from the media I consume and the people I interact with. I also feel that this problem is exacerbated by my poor knowledge of English grammar.
While I was taught grammar at an elementary level in school, I didn't quite grok it back then, and mostly relied on my instinct, as to what "sounded" right. I have since forgotten most of what I had learnt, and my instinct is failing me - my grammar is atrocious, my punctuation is terrible and I only have auto-correct to thank for my spelling.
I understand that English, like other languages, is constantly evolving. What is wrong now might be right tomorrow. However, I believe that this is no excuse for my shortcomings as there is merit speaking and writing in accordance with what is considered correct in the present day.
I would like to learn English from "first principles", and would greatly appreciate if some users could suggest some books/resources which could help me (bonus points for resources pertaining to British English). Any other suggestions would also be great.
Thanks, and have a nice day.
24 votes -
The politicisation of English language proficiency, not poor English itself, creates barriers.
7 votes -
A very brief history of the Manx language
7 votes -
How the English failed to stamp out the Scots language
7 votes -
Yiddish Language was Invented by Slavo-Iranian Jewish Merchants, Scientists Say
8 votes -
Do you use gender-neutral pronouns? Which one do you prefer?
A series of gender neutral alternatives for the third person singular pronouns (he/she/it) have been proposed throughout the recent years (and maybe decades). I wonder the preferences of fellow...
A series of gender neutral alternatives for the third person singular pronouns (he/she/it) have been proposed throughout the recent years (and maybe decades). I wonder the preferences of fellow users here in that regard. So I'd be glad if you could answer the questions in the title, and maybe elaborate a bit on the reasons of your preference. I'm both interested in this generally, and it could be useful as a means to help me practice quantitative linguistic variation (obviously this would hardly be scientifically usable source of data for actual real research so I'm not asking this for that purposes). I'll add my preference as a comment.
31 votes -
The say of the land. Is language produced by the mind? Romantic theory has it otherwise: words emerge from the cosmos, expressing its soul
4 votes -
‘Cwtch’: What the most famous Welsh-English word reveals about global dialects
5 votes -
The epic rise and fall of the name Heather
9 votes -
Everyday Dialogues -- Learn Romanian with Nico
7 votes -
Why West Africa’s pidgins deserve full recognition as official languages
7 votes -
Why is Canadian English unique?
19 votes -
Occitan, the language the French forbade
10 votes -
The mysterious origins of punctuation
15 votes -
How the English language became such a mess
11 votes -
The mystery of people who speak dozens of languages
15 votes -
Human language may have evolved to help our ancestors make tools
3 votes -
Do colorless ideas sleep furiously?
13 votes -
How did Americans lose their British accents
24 votes -
Red, yellow, pink and green: How the world’s languages name the rainbow
8 votes -
It’s hard to have an unusual name in China
12 votes