Change is the one thing we can expect. Whatever social and cultural changes are going on in the world, our language is the first to reflect it. We have to constantly come up with new words and new definitions for new things that we do….
Vietnamese or “tiếng Việt” in the vernacular, is the official and national language of the Vietnamese people or “Kinh” living in Vietnam and the Vietnamese people located in many parts of the world since 1954. Several ethnic minorities in Vietnam also speak Vietnamese as their…
Language experts and other agencies, including UNESCO are one in being concerned about the fast disappearance of world languages. In the United States alone, there are close to 170 native languages that are already categorized as vulnerable, endangered, severely endangered languages and critically endangered. UNESCO…
The year 2012 has given us much to remember by, and as with any year, it has also given us some new words in our daily language. These words may not yet necessarily be in any recently published dictionary, but they can be heard spoken…
Everyone knows that as a world organization, nothing symbolizes unity, cooperation and understanding more than the United Nations. Better known as the UN, the United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945, at the heels of the Second World War. The UN was intended to…
With less than half a million native speakers, Aramaic, the language of Jesus is about to be extinct. Aramaic is a living language that belongs to the Semitic language group, which includes Arabic, Tigrinya, Amharic and Hebrew. It has been spoken by countless peoples for 3,000…
Travelers to foreign countries usually rely on a traveler’s guide to tour a new country with ease, and a phrase book is an invaluable basic source of information when it comes to communicating in a foreign language. However, there will be instances when you would…
When Victor Hugo first published his classic novel Les Misérables, little did he know that his French historical novel would be translated into other languages and evolve into various adaptations on stage and film, including an award winning movie version in 2012. Hugo’s highly complex…
There is no doubt whatsoever that language is a very powerful tool. It is a communication system used not only by humans but also by the rest of the members of the animal kingdom. Humans make use words to identify persons, places, things, feelings, ideas…
Some books cannot be contained by the language barrier. Other than religious texts which are translated into numerous languages out of necessity, there are works of fiction that has such an effect on its readers that they have been translated in more than 50 languages….
Are you familiar with the longest words in English? We’re betting you haven’t had a go at the official longest one though. We also won’t be mentioning it in this post since it’ll span roughly fifty-seven pages! The word we’re referring to is the chemical…
Did you know that the word “tycoon” is from the Japanese word, “taikun?” This term was used by foreigners to mean the shogun, a leader in ancient Japan who worked hard to attain power and position rather than inherit it. English words that are borrowed…
