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 on Aug 8, 2008 - 16 answers

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

Is there a sailor's equivalent to the phrases "stir-crazy" and "cabin fever"? [more inside]
posted 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 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 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 on Jun 4, 2008 - 8 answers

Where can I find beta testers for a niche-ish recipe site? [more inside]
posted 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 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 on Apr 28, 2008 - 153 answers

Help me remember this linguistic term. It refers to the phenomena of people hearing a foreign language as gibberish; something to do with their literally not registering the specific sounds made, just a "blur" of general sounds. Furthermore, does that word apply to this specific context? [more inside]
posted on Apr 9, 2008 - 24 answers

LinguisticsFilter: Why are the many Indo-European languages considered to have a common ancestor, whereas Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and other gramatically and lexically similar languages are grouped into separate language families? How did so many different language families arise in the Americas and Australia given that they were populated by the same groups of people? Much more inside. [more inside]
posted on Mar 18, 2008 - 46 answers

Do fish fish fish fish fish fish fish? [more inside]
posted on Mar 5, 2008 - 35 answers

Looking for depictions of surfers in mainstream media. Examples by people who aren't actually surfers (actors, reporters, wannabe surfers) are great, but people in the surf community are good too. The more common, well-known examples are better. I'm thinking of scenes from movies, passages in books, news stories, documentaries, blogs, comedy skits, but unscripted examples are best. [more inside]
posted on Feb 25, 2008 - 25 answers

What are some other examples of using 'an' in front of a non-vowel like some do with 'an historic...'? [more inside]
posted on Feb 22, 2008 - 40 answers

How do people form questions? What fields of study cover the concepts of question formation? Why do people question differently, within the same cultural milieu? [more inside]
posted on Feb 11, 2008 - 11 answers

I'm looking for interesting topics that incorporate the fields of Spanish and Linguistics [more inside]
posted on Jan 28, 2008 - 11 answers

Why are the words for cutlerly (fork, knife, spoon) so different in the Romance languages? [more inside]
posted on Jan 3, 2008 - 17 answers

Russian-translation-filter: Please help me understand the linguistic nuances in Tolstoy's famous quote, "There was something terribly lacking between what I felt and what I could do." (here in English) How accurate is this translation in your view? What is missing from it? What if anything does it add which is not there in Russian? [more inside]
posted on Dec 19, 2007 - 12 answers

Can anyone help me select a high-quality recording device for fieldwork and speech analysis, please? [more inside]
posted on Dec 19, 2007 - 12 answers

I'm looking for popular books, novels, magazines, comic books...in European French (not Canadian French). I'd also like to be able to easily order/purchase them from home (preferably from places like Amazon.com). [more inside]
posted on Dec 4, 2007 - 8 answers

when should I say 'african american' and when 'black' ? [more inside]
posted on Nov 16, 2007 - 70 answers

I am applying to grad school. The deadline is approaching. Where can I go to get my letter of intent (personal statement) read and critiqued? [more inside]
posted on Oct 24, 2007 - 16 answers

I need . . . adjectives! Is there a *scannable* online dictionary or some way in which I can search through giant lists just for the adjectives? [more inside]
posted on Oct 18, 2007 - 9 answers

You know how old English is so vastly different from contemporary English? And how your average person would not understand your average meideval dude? Is that also true of other languages? [more inside]
posted on Sep 24, 2007 - 47 answers

How do you pronounce them when it's stressed? For instance, "Don't give it to me, give it to THEM." [more inside]
posted on Sep 14, 2007 - 58 answers

AccentFilter: What makes a New England accent recognizable? [more inside]
posted on Sep 1, 2007 - 22 answers

LinguisticsFilter: A friend of mine tends to unintentionally mix her words at times. What is this called? Examples within.... [more inside]
posted on Aug 15, 2007 - 22 answers

I want to attempt a doctorate or masters in psycholinguistics (specifically aphasiology, or, failing that, a pragmatic concentration). [more inside]
posted on Jul 24, 2007 - 7 answers

Which microphone should I buy to do fieldwork in the jungle? [more inside]
posted on Jul 21, 2007 - 5 answers

Is there a term for mangling two words to create a new word or term? [more inside]
posted on Jul 17, 2007 - 28 answers

What's the best way for an adult to learn French? [more inside]
posted on Jul 13, 2007 - 17 answers

What are good resources for studying language and translation issues of the Christian Bible (particularly the New Testament and more particularly the Gospels) [more inside]
posted on Jun 15, 2007 - 15 answers

Is there a recent American Word Corpus available for free? [more inside]
posted on May 6, 2007 - 4 answers

How do I diagram this sentence? [more inside]
posted on Apr 25, 2007 - 26 answers

Where can I find a good word frequency list for American English? [more inside]
posted on Apr 9, 2007 - 12 answers

In one of his interviews (in The Grain of the Voice, p. 103) Roland Barthes quotes a linguist whose name he does not remember: "Each of us speaks but a single sentence, which only death can bring to a close." Where does this sentence come from? The interview was in May 1970, so it would have been written before then.
posted on Mar 6, 2007 - 3 answers

Recommend to me a history of the languages of France. [more inside]
posted on Jan 8, 2007 - 5 answers

When talking, Danes sometimes make a quick gasping noise that's very distinctive but difficult to describe. Can anyone explain this odd habit? Does it have a name? (More details inside.) [more inside]
posted on Dec 29, 2006 - 25 answers

In Chinese, the meaning of a spoken word can change depending on where stress is applied. Can you think of English words which embody this characteristic? I can only think of one at the moment: invalid. [more inside]
posted on Dec 7, 2006 - 37 answers

Is there a word or phrase that describes people's ready acceptance of increasingly odd and demanding airport security procedures? [more inside]
posted on Nov 29, 2006 - 40 answers

Hawaiian has only eight consonants. Pirahã purportedly has even fewer phonemes and no numerals. What other languages have properties which would be considered unusual by Indo-European language speakers?
posted on Nov 16, 2006 - 33 answers

Language/Dialect-filter: In search of "authentic" Southern (American) accents... [more inside]
posted on Oct 11, 2006 - 48 answers

Linguophiles: Help me settle this debate on the Chompskyian model of linguistics. [more inside]
posted on Sep 28, 2006 - 20 answers

Are there any recommendations for commercial computer-aided translation programs? More detail inside. [more inside]
posted on Sep 27, 2006 - 4 answers

How do you start digitizing a dictionary? More specifically, how (and where) do I begin putting together a digital and internally cross-referenceable edition of the Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic? [more inside]
posted on Sep 16, 2006 - 16 answers

He was killed; he got (himself) killed. It was sold; it got sold (possibly out from under me). What sort of semantic difference does using forms of "get" versus "be" in passive constructions convey? [more inside]
posted on Sep 8, 2006 - 12 answers

Have the meanings of words referring to colours changed? [more inside]
posted on Sep 3, 2006 - 32 answers

I was wondering if there are any non-Indo-European languages which would sound like gibberish, albeit English-like gibberish, to a native English speaker. [more inside]
posted on Aug 10, 2006 - 32 answers

Okay, so I'm hoping to apply this winter for Ph.D. programs in computational linguistics. (Thanks for the encouraging advice, guys!) The question is, where? [more inside]
posted on Jul 18, 2006 - 10 answers

Corpus/computational linguistics broad question: I'm a religious studies scholar, but I have a tremendous amount of interest in one of the six Middle Iranian languages. There is substantial amount of its complete corpus already entered in Unicode, and I want some advice on how to make it work for me. Books, programs, websites etc. are all fair game. [more inside]
posted on Jul 1, 2006 - 15 answers