A standard title but an interesting report on how being proficient in a second language can reduce bias in decision making.
Visualizing English Word Origins (via Ideas Illustrated)
It would be interesting to see the percentages if word frequency were taken into account as well (assuming it hasn’t been already). I don’t about you, but this makes me feel really privileged to speak English as my native language - it has relations with so many other languages!
Father Sky
Vedic Sanskrit dyàuș pítar, Greek Zeũ páter (vocative), and Latin Iū-piter (Jupiter) are all derived from the Indo-European roots meaning ‘to shine’ (as in how a bright daytime sky looks; this root is also found in the words for ‘god, deity’ etc.) and ‘father’. ‘Father Sky’ probably occupied a (if not the) central role in the Proto-Indo-European pantheon.
The Atlas of True Names — revealing the etymology of place-names around the world.
(via Atlas of True Names)
This is amazing!!!
Elizabeth Spelke talking about her research into infants - what do humans know as infants and how does this affect the way we think about the world later in life, and how and when does human knowledge differ from other animal knowledge?
A professor of linguistics might possibly be at home in the wilderness, but he surely doesn’t know hand-to-hand combat; he doesn’t know how to fashion a Viet Cong cage-net; he doesn’t know how to hijack a car. Above all, he doesn’t know how to successfully conceal himself from the CIA.
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| — | On Jason Bourne aka David Webb from The Bourne Legacy by Robert Ludlum & Eric Van Lustbader. Never underestimate a linguistics professor! |
