Can anyone point me to a resource where I can learn construction industry-related lingo? [more inside]
posted by eliina on Nov 22, 2009 - 1 answer

I'm very seriously considering the foreign service, but I've never been any good at languages. Will I likely be able to learn a language, with the intense training the Foreign Service provides, without a natural apptitude for languages? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Nov 18, 2009 - 7 answers

I am confused as to the use of the word "allegedly" and why it is used outside of a strictly legal sense (in the media for example)? For instance, with this most recent shooting in Texas, there are obviously dozens of eye witnesses, only one suspect under consideration, no one is going to argue in court that someone else did it, so why on the news are the anchors still saying Mr. Hasan "allegedly" shot these people? It just seems weird... [more inside]
posted by the foreground on Nov 10, 2009 - 38 answers

I'm looking for "black best friend" supporting characters in movies who also come with a black love interest. I'm interested in their language patterns and dialect usage. [more inside]
posted by ms.codex on Nov 9, 2009 - 35 answers

I need some academically credible synonyms for same-sex erotic activity that are less ambiguous than "gay sex" and less clinical-sounding than "homosexual contact." [more inside]
posted by Jon_Evil on Oct 26, 2009 - 16 answers

Looking for podcasts or radio shows with women talking in Mancunian accents or similar Northern English accents. [more inside]
posted by reenum on Sep 5, 2009 - 6 answers

Is the use of meronym and synecdoche the same thing? If not, please illustrate. I am confused.
posted by whimsicalnymph on Aug 30, 2009 - 12 answers

When did "Maths" change to "Math" in American English? Or is it the other way around? [more inside]
posted by fishmasta on Jul 11, 2009 - 39 answers

PrepositionFilter: When did "bored with" become "bored of"? [more inside]
posted by dogrose on Jun 15, 2009 - 23 answers

What are the most common 20% of words in any language? [more inside]
posted by jinatrix on Jun 14, 2009 - 12 answers

Calling all historical linguists: do languages ever shift from being analytic to synthetic rather than vice versa? [more inside]
posted by Kosh on Jun 12, 2009 - 16 answers

I'd like to study about Comparative Literature, but as I've looked around at CompLit university departments it appears that there isn't really anything like an introductory course or textbook. [more inside]
posted by elfgirl on Jun 11, 2009 - 5 answers

How to best use (or not) Bodmer's The Loom of Language? [more inside]
posted by graymouser on Jun 6, 2009 - 4 answers

Looking to purchase some awesome linguistics-related posters. I've searched for hours on the internet and I can't seem to find any family tree posters, IPA posters, or even anything remotely related to linguistics that is interesting and somewhat academic. [more inside]
posted by iamkimiam on May 28, 2009 - 8 answers

In the distant past the megabyte and gigabyte were honorable quantities of storage and we referred to them by their full names; now they are too familiar, and we call them "meg" and "gig." Has a common spoken abbreviation already emerged for the terabyte? Or must we wait until TBs are readily available in larger multiples before the linguistic hivemind of digital humanity collectively determines the spoken shorthand? Sysadmins and data center pros--you know best. What do you call 10,000,000,000,000 bytes?
posted by lucius on May 17, 2009 - 24 answers

In a languages that uses both the formal and informal "you," is there any situation in which people using the informal "you" with each other would ever go back to regularly using the formal "you" with each other? [more inside]
posted by mustcatchmooseandsquirrel on Apr 29, 2009 - 26 answers

Looking for linguistic theories that describe why words change in meaning, particularly because they look and/or sound like other words. [more inside]
posted by hiteleven on Apr 26, 2009 - 5 answers

I'm kicking around a concept for a theoretical piece I hope to work on in the near future, dealing with the way "femininity" and the "female" category are conceived of linguistically. Help me find some empirical data! [more inside]
posted by parkbench on Mar 24, 2009 - 24 answers

Does there exist a piece of scriptable speech synthesis software? [more inside]
posted by miniape on Mar 12, 2009 - 14 answers

Looking for a flash exercise/game or some way to train my ear to recognizing tone so that I can be a better transcriber. I'm currently researching two tonal languages and I need a way to practice/improve on my skills so that my data is more complete. I don't want to devote a lot of time to this, maybe a few hours. Are there any tools out there that can help me? [more inside]
posted by iamkimiam on Mar 4, 2009 - 6 answers

What is the term/ help me invent a word for: situations where you take a small hit to avoid the risk of a possible substantially larger hit in future. [more inside]
posted by greytape on Feb 25, 2009 - 39 answers

I am going to graduate soon with my BA in Linguistics. I am not planning to go to graduate school because of my department's issues and I'm quasi-singled out from the rat race. Other than being a translator, what can I possibly do? It seems that the very "underrated" field of studies called Linguistics (or any Liberal Arts stuffs) is an under-appreciated quality for a safe career.
posted by sanskrtam on Feb 21, 2009 - 15 answers

Why are they "words" in English, but "root with suffixes" in Inuit? [more inside]
posted by Flunkie on Jan 15, 2009 - 15 answers

My two-year-old has begun to say "Ummm" when pausing and thinking about her next word. I find it very interesting (and cute), this little conversational tick. She has very few words overall, maybe a couple of hundred, and though often she just babbles, sometimes she really seems to be sorting out in her mind what she is going to say ("What do you want for breakfast?" leads to "Ummm - pause - banana!") So, ummm, I'm curious--did this arise naturally from her developing brain, or is she imitating something she heard? Do people speaking other languages say "Ummm?"
posted by _sirmissalot_ on Jan 7, 2009 - 23 answers

Is there some linguistic or cultural explanation for mistakenly calling Firefox FoxFire? [more inside]
posted by odinsdream on Jan 7, 2009 - 31 answers

What did "forensic" mean in the late 1600s? [more inside]
posted by oddman on Jan 2, 2009 - 6 answers

Roman IPA fonts and the non-roman characters who love them. [more inside]
posted by nebulawindphone on Dec 18, 2008 - 2 answers

This is my question. There are many like it, but this one is mine. [more inside]
posted by als129 on Dec 17, 2008 - 18 answers

What are the best resources for professional Hebrew-English translators? Dictionaries, word lists, machine translation programs, etc. Online, offline, dead-tree all fine. [more inside]
posted by callmejay on Dec 15, 2008 - 4 answers

What is the best, most efficient FREE way to get a bunch of people on the same page with IPA or special character fonts, across platforms? [more inside]
posted by iamkimiam on Dec 12, 2008 - 16 answers

LanguageFilter: I see some connection between the words 'eight' & 'night' in a number of languages. Is there some reason for this? [more inside]
posted by KingoftheWhales on Dec 9, 2008 - 27 answers

Hi, I just learned a new word. And for the first time, I can't find a definition for it on Google (The Horror! The Horror!) I will wager that there is someone reading this who knows all about it. The word is "econological." [more inside]
posted by foxy_hedgehog on Nov 28, 2008 - 12 answers

Help a linguistics-obsessed college student learn Latin via the magic of the interwebs. [more inside]
posted by fantine on Nov 25, 2008 - 19 answers

What jobs are linguists good at, and who will give me one for the summer? [more inside]
posted by nebulawindphone on Nov 23, 2008 - 9 answers

What's the linguistic term for this?: In a sentence like "The pharmacy called about your prescription," it's understood that it was actually someone *at* the pharmacy, not the building itself, that called. [more inside]
posted by lgandme0717 on Nov 18, 2008 - 6 answers

"I'd like to welcome you to Dallas-Fort Worth" "I would say that's correct" What is this linguistic construct called? [more inside]
posted by aubilenon on Oct 6, 2008 - 17 answers

Where does Doo-Wop come from? [more inside]
posted by phylum sinter on Oct 1, 2008 - 8 answers

Analytic/Isolating languages that have standardized, highly phonetic writing in the Latin alphabet? [more inside]
posted by zeek321 on Sep 24, 2008 - 8 answers

LanguageFilter: Having a little bit of a few languages under my belt, I'd like to add more/get better at the ones I know. [more inside]
posted by ikahime on Sep 17, 2008 - 6 answers

Are there any layman-accessible, English-language books or (less preferably) websites on Japanese etymology or the development of Japanese? [more inside]
posted by Citizen Premier on Aug 30, 2008 - 6 answers

Generally speaking, how long does it take for a root language to evolve into mutually incomprehensible offshoot languages? Or, conversely, how long would languages with a common root be understandable to one another's native speakers? [more inside]
posted by CKmtl on Aug 27, 2008 - 9 answers

I'm having a lot of angst about whether to continue with my major, Comp Engineering, or to find something else, such as linguistics or web design. Can you give me some perspective? [more inside]
posted by malapropist on Aug 8, 2008 - 16 answers

What is the origin of the cross-linguistic "kutt"-like root for dog? [more inside]
posted by harhailla.harhaluuossa on Jul 12, 2008 - 8 answers

Is there a sailor's equivalent to the phrases "stir-crazy" and "cabin fever"? [more inside]
posted by vraxoin on Jun 30, 2008 - 14 answers

I've just started a wine tasting course, and someone asked whether there was an adjective that described a wine that tastes like it smells. The closest we could get was onomatopoeic, which obviously isn't the right word, but is similar in concept. If not in English, is there a word in any language? (I'm thinking that maybe there's a German word, as they're really good at creating new words by putting other words together) Or is "tastes like it smells" as good as it gets?
posted by finding.perdita on Jun 17, 2008 - 18 answers

After a long period of soul-searching (and trying many different jobs), I've decided on a career path in language learning. [more inside]
posted by mammary16 on Jun 12, 2008 - 3 answers

What are your favorite online resources for learning, practicing or getting exposure to the languages you speak? I'm looking for things that go beyond a textbook and a couple of CDs: things like interactive tools and study materials, well-written blogs written in / about the language, and especially audio, video or reading materials that people learning the language might not be able to find easily. [more inside]
posted by shirobara on Jun 4, 2008 - 8 answers

Where can I find beta testers for a niche-ish recipe site? [more inside]
posted by soma lkzx on May 21, 2008 - 9 answers

anyone familiar with the language/alphabet used in this WWII-era document from western China? my best guess is something related to the Yi language, but that could (of course) be totally wrong.
posted by garfy3 on May 13, 2008 - 7 answers

What is the first question people ask when you tell them what you do? Are there common misconceptions or generalizations that people make? How do you tactfully and/or humorously correct them? [more inside]
posted by iamkimiam on Apr 28, 2008 - 156 answers