Phony grammar rules

Do you buy into the rule that you cannot end your sentence with a preposition, shouldn't put an adverb between to and your infinitive, and that starting a sentence with a conjunction will bring the rage of the grammar fascists down upon you? If the answer to all these are yes, you might also have felt on more than one occasion that your language is sounding rather.. unnatural, jerky, stilted. Why? Because the rules are phony. 

Read more (external source)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20953138

 Silbo gomero: A whistling language revived

On a Spanish island, an ancient whistling language that once seemed to be dying out is now undergoing a revival.

You thought Scandinavian had many vowels?

What initially fascinated me about the Navajo language was the composite words (let me get back to that later).

But the vowel list was almost as captivating - or what do you think?

List from Gomyson.com 

Would you come out?

16:51 < natsu> Warum bist du gehidingen?!?
16:51 < natsu> Kom outen, kom outen, wherever du bisten!

A Horror For Any Linguistic Purist to Behold, in Any Language, Anywhere

TEXT SPELLZ

Channel Drama

12:37 < natsu> echo hi
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < Silme> calm down.
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:39 < natsu> echo Bzzt!
12:40 < natsu> Sorry
12:40 < natsu> I was testing something and it went nuts.

A while later: 

12:47 < natsu> I think I've accidentally put the whole channel on /ignore :/
12:47 < natsu> Sorry, Silme, I won't be able to see any of your text until I fix this.

....life just wouldn't be the same without talvi :) 

Dictionaries...

"Dictionaries are always fun, but not always reassuring."
                                                                                          M.F.K. Fisher

Clinton Deploys Vowels to Bosnia

Another amusing piece, this time focusing on the "lack" of vowels in Bosnia. (Bosnian, btw, is more or less just a dialect of Serbo-Croatian.)  It's an oldie but goodie. Originally it was on The Onion, but even after digging a little bit, I couldn't find it. So I had to use another link for your reading pleasure.


Clinton Deploys Vowels to Bosnia

Funny! 


Finnish As a World Language

Example from text:  "It is a concise language. One Finnish word can mean several different things in English. Why lose time and energy saying 'the committee that takes care of negotiations concerning the truce' when you can use a simple little word like 'aseleponeuvottelutoimikunta?'"

#Languages circa 2004

2004

This is a snapshot from way back in March 2004 of a program that drew links between channel participants (http://www.jibble.org/piespy/) It shows who was active at the time here in #languages