Author: doktorwu
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Getting to ‘Yes’
There are many different ways to accentuate the positive. We continue the guided tour of world languages with forty (plus) ways of expressing ‘yes’. As with its counterpart, the essential, and toddler-beloved ‘No!’, we will observe that the words for ‘yes’ exhibit a great deal of similarity within language families. As a general rule, when…
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Starting from ‘No’
A word that’s powerful, useful, understood by everyone… Even babies. To kick off our guided tour of 40 world languages, as they say, “a simple yes or no will suffice.” Or more precisely, a simple ‘No’ (don’t worry, ‘Yes’ will follow soon behind.) Why start here? First: Because you have to start somewhere. As Chinese…
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Around the world in 40 ways
Can the variety of world language be captured by looking at just 40 examples? Well, no. But one needs to start somewhere. By anyone’s count, there are thousands of languages alive in the world today, though the precise number will always be difficult (if not impossible) to pin down. Some, like the one you’re reading…
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Why More Than Words?
What is More Than Words? And why should you care? (Excellent questions.) In brief: Because language really matters—and so do languages. When I was very young, my parents spoke one language to me while most of the people in the world around me spoke another. This is not at all unusual; millions of people (Tens…