A fun read that even goes as far as to include a color survey from XKCD.

Written by Ben Zimmer, this article concerns itself with the New Yorker and it’s writer’s stance on prescriptivism and views on descriptivism. Further in the read, you’ll come to find that Pinker has also responded to this whole Pre vs De dichotomy, surmising the entire argument.

A fun article that was made culturally relevant a year ago when this viral video came to be. Though the video shows twins imitating, the article goes on to talk about the validity of twin-speech, another avenue that may help humans understand how language came to be, much like creole languages and certain deaf cases have (or haven’t) done.

A U.S.-Netherlands research collaboration delving into this tie discovered that actual actions on objects, such as physically stirring a spoon in a cup, have less of an impact on the brain’s understanding of speech than simply gesturing as if stirring a spoon in a cup. This is surprising because there is less visual information contained in gestures than in actual actions on objects. In short: Less may actually be more when it comes to gestures and actions in terms of understanding language.

This blog is hosted by the Alaskan Native Language Center. This piece covers the latest proposal by locals to create a language preservation council called Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council (ANL-PAC).