Tag Archives: Linguistics

Words That Don’t Translate

Posted on June 13, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I have often read that the English vocabulary has more words than any other language. That may or may not be true, but it certainly is a rich mash-up of so many other rich languages. We have a treasure trove … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

There are always exceptions

Posted on January 31, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

If you have ever traveled in the United Kingdom, or even read a British novel, it’s likely that you have been confused about the correct pronunciation of place names. I’m chagrined to admit that I constantly got location names horribly … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Film, Tourism | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Australia or New Zealand

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

I recently had the opportunity to spend three weeks roadtripping around New Zealand. While I was there, I discovered that there were quite a few Australians living and working in the neighboring nation. However, I frequently could not tell the … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Tourism | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Sharing is caring

Posted on August 17, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

When I was scrambling to learn a little Russian last year prior to a trip, I naively thought that shared letters between the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets would somehow make the task a little easier. Of course that proved to … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Tourism, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Mother Tongues

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

The National Geographic’s senior graphics editor Alberto Lucas López created this wonderful pie chart to illustrate the proportional representation of the world’s twenty three most spoken languages. López based the graphic on native speakers, with each language marked by black … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, Maps, Middle East, South America, USA | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Maps Clear Up Any Confusion

Posted on July 24, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

While visitors to the U.S. are often confused by the language that we use to describe commonplace things in our culture, those of us who were born here are frequently baffled as well by the linguistic choices of other Americans. … Continue reading →

Posted in Maps, Uncategorized, USA | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Where Do languages Go To Die

Posted on June 3, 2016 by Brian D. Butler
Posted in Africa, Asia, South America, USA | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Why We Talk This Way

Posted on May 17, 2015 by Brian D. Butler

I tried to explain the evolution of human languages to our third grader the other day and did a poor job of it. Hopefully, this wonderful infographic created by Swedish writer and comic artist Minna Sundberg will do the trick.

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Hogy Mondjak

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Brian D. Butler

There’s no denying the fact that American travelers in Europe benefit from the widespread European proficiency in English. But after visiting most countries in Europe, I can testify that the advantage of being a native speaker of the 21st century’s … Continue reading →

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