Linguistics

In a large-scale functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, neuroscientists from MIT and Harvard University evaluated the claim of language universality with respect to core features of its neural architecture. Approximately 7,000 languages are currently spoken and signed across the globe. These are distributed across more than 100 language families — groups of languages that [...]

Linear A is a logo-syllabic script used for administrative purposes on Bronze Age Crete. Together with Cretan Hieroglyphic, it is one of two writing systems created by the Minoan civilization. Upon its template, the Mycenaeans later created the Linear B script to register their dialect of ancient Greek. Linear B was cracked in the 1950s, [...]

In a new study, published this week in the journal Science Advances, apes and monkeys were able to track relationships between sounds the same way as humans, showing that this ability predates the evolution of language itself by at least 40 million years. Across the globe, humanity flourishes by sharing thoughts, culture, information and technology [...]

University of Copenhagen researcher Isabelle Augenstein and colleagues trawled through 3.5 million fiction and non-fiction books, all published in English between 1900 to 2008, in an effort to find out whether there is a difference between the types of words used to describe men and women in literature. “We are clearly able to see that [...]

The Voynich manuscript, sometimes described as the ‘world’s most mysterious text,’ uses proto-Romance, a language that arose from a blend of spoken Latin (Vulgar Latin) and other languages across the Mediterranean during the early Medieval period following the collapse of the Roman Empire and subsequently evolved into the many Romance languages. The manuscript originates from [...]

A class of speech sounds that is now present in nearly half of the world’s languages — labiodentals, produced by positioning the lower lip against the upper teeth, such as in ‘f’ or ‘v’ — are a relatively recent development, one brought about by post-Neolithic diet-induced changes in the human bite. That’s according to a [...]

According to a new study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, gestures of chimpanzees follow the same mathematical patterns — known as linguistic laws — as are seen in human language. The investigation of linguistic laws is a cornerstone of quantitative linguistics. In recent years, studies have begun to explore the universality [...]

A team of linguists from Lund University in Sweden announced this week they have identified an endangered minority language known as Jedek that is spoken by about 280 hunter-gatherers in the resettlement area of Sungai Rual, near Jeli in Kelantan state, Peninsular Malaysia. Jedek belongs to the Aslian group of languages, a typologically distinct branch [...]

It has often been claimed that we learn language using brain circuits that are specifically dedicated to this purpose. Now, new evidence suggests that language — indeed both first and second language — is learned in circuits that also are used for many other purposes and even pre-existed Homo sapiens. “Our conclusion that language is learned [...]

According to new research published in the journal NeuroReport, a month before they are born, fetuses can distinguish between someone speaking to them in English and Japanese. “Research suggests that human language development may start really early — a few days after birth,” said lead author Dr. Utako Minai, an associate professor at the University [...]

A careful statistical examination of words from 6,000+ languages shows that humans tend to use the same sounds for common objects and ideas, no matter what language they’re speaking. The new research, led by Prof. Morten Christiansen of Cornell University, demonstrates a robust statistical relationship between certain basic concepts – from body parts to familial [...]

A new tool called the Geographic Population Structure (GPS), which converts DNA data into its ancestral coordinates, has pinpointed origin of Yiddish speakers, according to a team of researchers led by Dr. Eran Elhaik of the University of Sheffield, UK. The Slavic Yiddish (now called universally simply Yiddish), spoken since the 9th century CE, is [...]

Historians have long debated whether the first major phase of compilation of Biblical texts took place before or after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah in 586 BC. While they agree that key texts were written starting in the 7th century BC, the exact date of the compilation remains in question. A [...]

A team of scientists, led by Ohio State University cognitive researcher Prof. Aleix Martinez, has identified a universal facial expression that is interpreted across many cultures as the embodiment of negative emotion. “To our knowledge, this is the first evidence that the facial expressions we use to communicate negative moral judgment have been compounded into [...]

Speakers of the Nheengatú language talk about time of day by pointing at where the Sun would be in the sky at that particular time, according to a study conducted by Dr. Simeon Floyd from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Nheengatú, also known as Lingua Geral Amazónica, Lingua Boa, Lingua [...]

A team of researchers led by Dr Alison Bruderer, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia, has discovered a direct link between tongue movements of infants and their ability to distinguish speech sounds. “Until now, research in speech perception development and language acquisition has primarily used the auditory experience as the driving factor. [...]

According to a duo of Australian scientists, Aboriginal society has preserved memories of Australia’s coastline dating back to 11,000 – 5,300 BC. Prof. Patrick Nunn of the University of the Sunshine Coast and Dr Nick Reid of the University of New England analyzed Aboriginal stories from 21 places around Australia’s coastline, each describing a time [...]

According to Prof Irving Rothman from the University of Houston, mystery words in Jonathan Swift’s famous novel, Gulliver’s Travels, are, in fact, variations of Hebrew. Gulliver’s Travels, published in 1726, reports the unlucky Gulliver’s various adventures, including his capture on the shores of the island nation of Lilliput by a race of people just six [...]

A burned 1,500-year-old scroll found at Ein Gedi, on the western shore of the Dead Sea, has been read using advanced digital imaging. The scroll was discovered in 1970 inside the Holy Ark of the synagogue at Ein Gedi, Israel. However, due to its charred condition, it was not possible to either preserve or decipher [...]

A new study led by Dr Andrew Garrett from the University of California, Berkeley, provides evidence that a common ancestor of the Indo-European languages – Proto-Indo-European – originated 6,500 years ago, in the Pontic-Caspian steppe stretching from Moldova and Ukraine to Russia and western Kazakhstan. Languages from Greek to English to Hindi, known as Indo-European [...]

According to a new study carried out by a group of scientists including Dr Peter Dodds from the University of Vermont, all human languages skew toward the use of happy words. In 1969, Dr Jerry Boucher and Dr Charles E. Osgood of the University of Illinois proposed what they called the Pollyanna Hypothesis – the [...]

According to a team of forensic linguists from Aston University in Birmingham, UK, a mysterious creator of the digital currency Bitcoin is most likely Nick Szabo, a blogger known for his research in digital currency. Bitcoin is an internet-based currency which allows users to buy goods and services online. The payment system is supposedly easier [...]

A new translation of a 40-line inscription on a 3,500-year-old stone block from Egypt called the Tempest Stela describes rain, darkness and the ‘sky being in storm without cessation, louder than the cries of the masses.’ The Tempest Stela dates back to the reign of the pharaoh Ahmose, the first pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty. [...]

A 1,800-year-old private letter from the Egyptian recruit Aurelius Polion of legio II Adiutrix stationed in Pannonia Inferior (modern day Hungary) has been translated into English by Rice University Religious Studies graduate student Mr Grant Adamson. Writing home, Aurelius Polion complains of receiving no letters and mentions furlough. There is a third-party address on the [...]

Evolutionary analysis applied to North American and Siberian languages suggests that while most of the Beringia people migrated into North America, some migrated back to central Asia. Previous studies have identified common language elements in the North American Na-Dene languages and the Yeniseian languages of Central Siberia. To investigate this further, two linguists from Georgetown [...]

Inscriptions on Indus seals give details about animals sacrificed and nature of ceremony. Some ceremonies were performed for obtaining remission of sins and others were for pleasing the souls of dead ancestors (Pithru Karma ceremony). Indus script had remained un-deciphered for a long time. There are some valid reasons for that. The Indus valley civilization [...]

A new study published in the journal Language (full paper) provides the first empirical evidence to prove that television viewing does help to accelerate language change. In this study, linguists from the University of Glasgow, the University of Strathclyde and the University of Leicester looked at how watching the television soap ‘EastEnders’ is altering certain [...]

A broad range of evidence from linguistics, genetics, paleontology, and archaeology suggests that Neanderthals and Denisovans shared with us something like modern speech and language, according to Dutch psycholinguistics researchers Dr Dan Dediu and Dr Stephen Levinson. Neanderthals have fascinated both the academic world and the general public ever since their discovery almost 200 years [...]

Dr Marcelo Montemurro from the University of Manchester and Dr Damian Zanette from the Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro, Argentina, claim to have found linguistic patterns in the world’s most mysterious book, the Voynich manuscript. Named after the antiquarian Wilfrid Voynich who owned it since 1912 until his death in 1930, the Voynich manuscript [...]