“Respondents explained that they found spellings with u to be less confusing
because that spelling kept the initial letter in common with usual — as long
as a silent e was there at the end to cue the pronunciation of the u away
from the sound in untie . I find this resolution elegant in its clunkiness:
Solving the problem of two unwritten sounds by writing a further, unpronounced
letter is a truly Englishy solution.”
posted 12/26/2022 8:00pm ∞
“Translated, the inscription reads, ‘May this tusk root out the lice of the hair
and the beard.’ … This purpose was confirmed when the authors searched for
evidence of head lice on the comb under a microscope and found some remains on
the second tooth, still in the nymph stage of development.”
(See also the discussion at Language
Hat .)
posted 11/23/2022 8:00pm ∞
“For years, many linguists have believed that learning language is impossible
without a built-in grammar template. The new AI models
… demonstrate that the ability to produce grammatical language can be learned
from linguistic experience alone.”
posted 11/4/2022 8:00pm ∞
“This shift away needing to add ‘more emoji’ to creating more experiences that
leverage the existing set is an important evolution for the future of emoji
relevancy. Unicode can’t encode every concept in the world, every ingredient in
the planet, every muscle contortion of your face.”
Jennifer Daniel ,
Introducing: Emoji Kitchen
(July 18, 2022 ,
via Andy Baio )
posted 10/24/2022 8:00pm ∞
“So when Hild is called hægtes , she is being labelled uncanny, powerful,
fearsome, and dangerous — but also perhaps necessary to a group’s survival, even
admirable, and most definitely to be paid attention to — not for her femininity
but for her otherworldly power.”
Nicola Griffith ,
Hild’s Bynames #4: Hægtes
(September 20, 2022 )
posted 10/13/2022 8:00pm ∞