229 Items Tagged

Language

"The Men of Ness," after a completed hunt in 1972.

The Gaelic World’s Last Great Bird Hunt

Just 10 men are permitted to hunt and pickle 2,000 young seabirds on a desolate island each year.

Luke Fater September 27, 2019

A 15th-century medical manuscript in Gaelic. No spaces here!

The Merriam-Webster of Medieval Irish Just Got a Major Update

A tiny group of scholars added 500 words and made 5,000 revisions to the Dictionary of the Irish Language.

Sabrina Imbler September 19, 2019

Detail of the time capsule boxes.

Caja de las Letras

A vault of safe-deposit boxes in an old bank has been repurposed as a time capsule of Hispanic culture.

Say again?

It's All Greek to You and Me, So What Is It to the Greeks?

A close look at a strangely global idiom about how little we understand each other.

Dan Nosowitz August 8, 2019

The Taller Leñateros—“Woodlanders Workshop”—has been operating since 1975, using recycled materials and ancient bookmaking techniques.

Indigenous Women Are Publishing the First Maya Works in Over 400 Years

A bookmaking collective in San Cristobal de las Casas is helping keep the Tzotzil language alive.

Jessica Vincent August 8, 2019

Grimmwelt Kassel.

Kassel, Germany

GRIMMWELT Kassel (Grimm World Kassel)

A modern museum dedicated to the fairytales and dictionary work of the Brothers Grimm.

The telephone was a major driver of the development of spelling alphabets.

It Might Be Time to Update the Old 'Alfa-Bravo-Charlie' Spelling Alphabet

But it's hard to break old habits.

Dan Nosowitz July 12, 2019

Congress gets its first gander at the Declaration of Independence in this painting by John Trumbull.

independence day

The German-Language Newspaper That Got the Scoop on American Independence

On July 5, 1776, only the "Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote" reported the big news.

Daniel Crown July 3, 2019

That's a referee.

Why Does English Have More Words for Sports Officials Than Any Other Language?

Arbitrating when to say ref, ump, or judge.

Dan Nosowitz May 26, 2019

Gray and Yellowfly standing beside one of the interferometer at LIGO's 2.5-mile-long arms.

native americans

Meet the Mother-Son Duo Translating Astrophysics Into Blackfoot

Corey Gray and Sharon Yellowfly want to bring gravitational wave astronomy to speakers of the language.

Sabrina Imbler April 19, 2019

The park.

Uppsala, Sweden

Universitetshuset Runestone Circle

A large collection of ancient runestones decorates this university courtyard.

Pater Noster Church.

Jerusalem, Israel

Church of the Pater Noster

Dozens of elegant ceramic tiles decorate these ancient walls, each displaying the Lord's Prayer in a different language.

The stele.

Cáceres, Spain

The 'Astronaut' of Casar

A strange anthropomorphic stele with a mysterious inscription that has never been deciphered.

<em>Girl With a Potato Earring</em>.

Hot, Small, or Couch: Why Potatoes Make Great Idioms

Dan Nosowitz February 20, 2019

This library wasn't meant to be so empty.

Inside the Belgian Library That Tore Itself Apart

In the 1960s, a conflict between Dutch-speaking and French-speaking students divided a historic collection.

Matthew Taub February 14, 2019

The Zlatna Ribica (Gold Fish) bar and cafe in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

What Language Do People Speak in the Balkans, Anyway?

No one can seem to agree.

Dan Nosowitz February 11, 2019

Wikitongues cofounder Freddie Andrade speaks with Caroline Jabulile White, a Gullah speaker and cultural activist from Charleston, South Carolina.

Inside an Effort to Document Every Single Language on Earth

Wikitongues offers video samples of Lemerig, Texas German, Aranese, and many more.

Evan Nicole Brown January 31, 2019

The street sign made to look like Scrabble tiles.

Queens, New York

The Birthplace of Scrabble

A uniquely lettered street sign marks the corner where the iconic word game was invented.