More Than Words

Tag: Spanish

  • Getting to ‘Yes’

    —

    by

    doktorwu
    in

    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…

  • Around the world in 40 ways

    —

    by

    doktorwu
    in

    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…

  • Why More Than Words?

    —

    by

    doktorwu
    in

    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…