Learning Chinese is difficult for many reasons, but one of my main weaknesses is learning hanzi, the Chinese pictographic characters. Although some of them make sense (e.g. 川 [chuān], meaning “river”, looks kind of like a river; or 门 [mén], meaning “gate”, looks like a gate), some are a little more cryptic, and some require leaping a few mental hurdles to remember consistently.

While sites like memrise.com are very helpful in committing characters to memory, after a while it gets a little stale. In an effort to make rote learning more interesting, a company have released Fridgelingo in Chinese, a range of fridge magnets that you can rearrange to make phrases.

Very similar to those fridge magnet poetry sets, these magnets have the Chinese character, the pinyin so you know how to pronounce it, and the English translation. There are 3 sets, and each one is tailored to a specific topic (food, talking to your ayi (maid), and sex). The magnets can even be used to leave messages for your maid (“please wash the dishes and make the bed”) or start a shopping list.

Since these are the kinds of things that people like to play around with, and since the fridge is an indispensible part of the house, these magnets help make it a little more fun and interesting to learn Chinese characters.

All 3 sets of magnets are available to order from fridgelingo.com or iwantone.cn.

According to painstaking calculations, Shakespeare used 17,667 different words throughout all his works, and at least 1 in 10 of these words had never been used before. That’s somewhere in the region of 2,000 words that Shakespere coined himself. Among them are common terms such as lonely, excellent, submerged, countless, dwindle, hurry and hint – words without which it would be quite difficult to imagine present-day English. While it’s true that he lived in an era when the English language was going through something of a growth spurt, with new terms and ideas being invented constantly; it’s still an amazing achievement to have made such a major contribution to the language’s evolution.

He also coined many phrases throughout his plays, for example “in a pickle”, “all that glitters is not gold”, “foregone conclusion”, “one fell swoop”, “heart’s content”, “up in arms”, “vanish into thin air”, “pound of flesh” and “in the twinkling of an eye”. Perhaps it’s more a testament to his skill not so much that he invented such phrases, but that these phrases have survived to modern times.

For those interested in etymology (the study of where words come from), this is a fantastic resource. At first glance it may look like a standard atlas, but take a closer look at the names of places and you’ll see that the map doesn’t show the modern-day names, but the modern English translation of where the name came from. For example, San Francisco is marked “St. Little Frank One”, New York is “New Yew Tree Village”, Philadelphia is “Sibling Love”, and so on.

Some places have more obvious etymology than others (for example Vermont means “Green Mountain”, easily decipherable for anybody who has ever learned French), but some etymologies are truly fascinating.

The study of where places got their names from is known as toponymic etymology. The site gives some further insight into how most places got their names:

Many geographical names are clearly rooted in Man’s observation of his natural environment; the physical location of a settlement: “At the Foot of the Mountain” – Piedmont, the character of an important water course: “The Gentle One” – The Seine, or even just the local vegetation: “Under the Oaks” – Potsdam.

Unsurprisingly, countries and landscapes often derive their names from the characteristics of the people who lived there: “Great Land of the Tattooed” – Great Britain, whilst local mythology and regional rulers also frequently leave their legacy: “Isle of the Monster’s Eye” – Peleponnese, or “Illustrious Emperor” – Zaragoza.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the origins of countries, regions and cities, you can order separate fold-out maps of the USA, Europe or the UK for £4.99 (around $7.50) directly from the site, or a wall poster of the world or the USA for £14.99 (around $23).

The Angles (where we get the word English) were originally a Germanic tribe hailing from Denmark, and they inhabited the British Isles after the fall of the Roman Empire. The Saxons joined them later, and the Anglo-Saxon language later flourished, but it was not finished there. The Vikings brought their language to the islanders, and even later the French, and all the time the English language continued to grow, develop and evolve with all the new vocabulary and linguistic influences.

Nowadays, it’s very difficult even to speak English without using words borrowed from other sources – a great deal of English vocabulary comes from Latin, Greek, German, French and other languages besides, and even extremely common vocabulary like street, wine, marriage, take and husband are non-Anglish in origin.

However, Anglish – a name coined by Paul Jennings writing a series of articles for Punch in 1966 which riffed on how English would have developed without the Norman conquests – still exists, even if it is a purposeful return to the language’s roots. The Anglish Moot is a wiki-type site composed wholly in a form of modern English without any loanwords at all. While it can be a little work to get through, Anglish is pretty mutually comphrensible with modern-day English speakers. Howver, it does give you something of a new appreciation for just how many loanwords English uses on a daily basis.

take the first few paragraphs of the article for the USA, for example (or as it is known in Anglish, The Banded Folkdoms of Americksland (BFA):

The Banded Folkdoms of Americksland (BFA) is the most dwelt-in land in the landstretch of North Americksland. Its makeup is that of an evenly banded rike, with three branches of rike: the Leaderly, the Lawmootly, and the Lawlordly. The foremost tongue in the land is English, though some Spanish is spoken also.

Americksland, its shortened name, has the greatest landgeld and warband in the world, and is thought to be the world’s lone overrike, since the fall of the Band of Workermootly Kithish Commonwealths (BWKC).

Americksland was banded with England until the Americkish Uprising, which began with the Saying Forth of the Selfhood of the Banded Folkdoms of Americksland in 1776. Americksland has since fought other wars, namely: the War of 1812, its war with Mexico, the Americkish Kith War, its war with Spain, and the two World Wars.

There are some who would think that your internet privileges should be revoked should you never have run across lolcats – photos of cats, often in humorous positions, captioned in what seems like a rudimentary form of English. One of the most famous lolcats, rather overweight specimen of a cat, bears the caption “I can has cheezburger?”, which helped spawn not only a plethora of other lolcat images, but also the website icanhascheezburger.com (which has just celebrated its five-year anniversary), where people can submit their own.

lolcats are a prime example of what is known as a meme: an image or concept that spreads rapidly from user to user over the internet (also known as a “macro image”). There are many of these, and to the unfamiliar their names seem very odd indeed, for example: “socially awkward penguin”, “good guy Greg”, “nope! Chuck Testa”, and “internet husband”. Confused? Luckily there is a site that seeks to help out those dazed and confused by the huge variety of memes that have gained popularity or notoriety – knowyourmeme.com.

However, it seems that in the 5 years since the meme first became popular online and spawned thousands of copycats (sorry), there is more to “lolspeak” than meets the eye. So much so, in fact, that Jordan Lefler, a student at the University of Louisiana, has published a 129-page thesis entitled “I can has thesis?: A linguistic analysis of lolspeak”. In the thesis she explores “lolspeak” from its very roots as an image meme, to its evolving linguistic properties. While it may seem to be a randomly warped version of English, it turns out that “lolspeak” – kind of like ebonics – is an artificial dialect in its own right, and actually has its own syntax, formulas and punctuation rules, the proof being that there is enough structure there for somebody to write an entire thesis about it.

You can read the entire thesis for free on the lsu.edu site.

Not recommended for younger learners, Swearport allows you to explore the various vulgarities in a multitude of different languages, and is available for both iOS and Android.

While swearing is neither funny nor clever, it can actually be an important part of speaking a language fluently. It is said that no matter how proficient they are at speaking another language, people always return to their native tongue when uttering profanities due to surprise or pain, but with the help of Swearport you can also become proficient in expressing yourself in an intense way in your non-native language.

The app’s marketing blurb claims that “Swearport lets you become a global swearing master”, and not only gives you a list of rude words, but even an audio pronunciation for each term from a native speaker. It even gives an “intensity rating” for each word, letting you know just how offensive each term is considered to native speakers.

This is one app that you may need to be a little careful with…

• Swearport for iOS
• Swearport for Android

A friend asked me last night why we sing a song called “Auld Lang Syne”, and what it even means. I knew it was a traditional Scottish song and that the words were penned by legendary Scottish poet Robert Burns, but as far as what the words meant, I was at a loss.

After a quick Google (remember the days when your phone couldn’t tell you anything you ever wanted to know?), we found out that auld lang syne literally translates to “old long since” (or rather, “a long time ago”).

Here’s the full song, with a modern English translation:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne* ?

CHORUS
For auld lang syne, my jo (or my dear),
for auld lang syne,
we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp !
and surely I’ll be mine !
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae run about the braes,
and pu’d the gowans fine ;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary fit,
sin auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We twa hae paidl’d i’ the burn,
frae morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
sin auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere !
and gie’s a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

English translation:

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne ?

CHORUS
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
and surely I’ll buy mine !
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine† ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

For example, “a murder of crows”, “a bed of eels”, “a parliament of owls”, “an army of caterpillars”, “a cluster of spiders”, and “a streak of tigers”.

Some collective nouns even change depending on the nature of the group in question. For example, geese are usually referred to as a “flock” or a “gaggle”, but these terms should only be used if the geese are on land. In flight, they should be referred to as a “skein”; if they are flying close, then it’s “a plump of geese”.

For a detailed list of the appropriate collective nouns to use in any situation, take a look at the Wikipedia entry.

English is not unique in using different terms to define different groups. Japanese, for example, takes it even further with measure words, as described in a previous post:

Unfortunately, however, it’s not as simple as all that. Like Chinese and Korean, Japanese incorporates into ‘measure words’ (josuushi) into its counting system. Whereas in English, I could simply say “there are thirty four of them”, in Japanese you need to add a suffix to the number that is specific to the object, person, event, or action you’re counting. Sadly, there are several hundred of these, and they simply have to be learnt. The josuushi used depends on the qualities of what you’re counting – long, thin objects such as pencils, roads, rivers or bottles use hon or pon; but thin, flat objects such as sheets of paper, photos or plates use mai. Thus, being able to say that “there are two dogs” will not necessarily allow you to say “there are two cars”. There are around 30 commonly-used josuushi, and plenty more that are used sporadically.

The latest US Census Bureau figures show that even during a time when so many Native American tribes are struggling to retain their native tongues, 169,000 people speak Navajo at home, more than any other Native American language.

However, these figures may be easy to misinterpet.

From the article:

Evangeline Parsons Yazzie, a Navajo professor at Northern Arizona University, said the figure recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau is no surprise, but can be misleading. The country’s population of Navajos is well over 300,000. For every one who speaks the language, one doesn’t — and those are likely younger Navajos, Yazzie said.

“Navajo has the largest population, they say, of Native speakers, but it also has the largest population of non-speakers,” she said Wednesday. “And it kind of presents a skewed picture.”

The figure is based on five-year estimates from community surveys that allowed the Census for the first time to study small segments of the U.S. population. The Census found in a study released this month that fewer than a half-million people age 5 and over speak a Native American language at home. About 65 percent of them are in nine counties in Arizona, New Mexico and Alaska.

The surveys don’t gauge the level of fluency but ask whether a language other than English is spoken at home. If so, respondents are asked to write something in that language.

Following on from previous posts about Na’vi (the language invented for James Cameron’s Avatar), Klingon Star Trek, and most recently, the language of Dragons (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim): here’s another language invented for the media – Dothraki.

Though the language is not actually seen in and of itself in the series of novels by George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire, when HBO serialized the books into the hit show Game of Thrones, they undertook to create an actual language – complete with full vocabulary, grammar and syntax – for the Dothraki race of people.

Some people build model railroads or re-enact Civil War battles; Mr. Peterson, a 30-year-old who studied linguistics at the University of California, San Diego, is a “conlanger,” a person who constructs new languages. Until recently, this mostly quixotic linguistic pursuit, born out of a passion for words and grammatical structures, lived on little-visited Web sites or in college dissertations.

Today, a desire in Hollywood to infuse fantasy and science-fiction movies, television series and video games with a sense of believability is driving demand for constructed languages, complete with grammatical rules, a written alphabet (hieroglyphics are acceptable) and enough vocabulary for basic conversations.

It seems that constructing languages has become something of a fashionable addition for big-budget productions such as Game of Thrones. While Martin did not lay the groundwork for the language in the same way that J. R. R. Tolkien famously did for the Elvish and Dwarven tongues in Lord of the Rings, it’s amazing to see how the attention to detail of making a language really does help to flesh out a fantasy world and make it seem more real – even if it’s only the true fanatics who make the effort to learn to speak them.