Link love: language (80) | Sentence first
Before they gather any more digital dust, here are a few dozen links on a linguistic theme – etymology, grammar, slang, dialect, gesture, writing, spelling, animal communication, etc. – for …
*tewk- and Its Descendants.
I recently came upon the Wiktionary page Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/tewk- and was struck by the wide semantic divergence involved. The reconstructed meaning is ‘germ, seed, sprout, offspring’ (presumably based on Indo-Iranian *táwkma), …
The Grammarphobia Blog: Liwans, porticos, and palaces
Q: I am reading Ben-Hur (1880) by Lew Wallace and I have come across a word, “lewen,” that I cannot find in any dictionary. It appears to be an architectural …
A Quick Overview of Japanese for Beginners
In this post, I want to give you an easy introduction to Japanese for beginners. Japanese may look intimidating at first—complicated writing systems, particles, politeness levels—but if you take the …
Lauren talks about Gesture: podcast and media…
7 notes September 1, 2025 Since launching Gesture: A Slim Guide, one of the most delightful things has been getting to share all of my favourite bits of it on …
2024 Year in Review
In 2024, I traveled to Europe to speak at several events, including the launch of the Spanish translation of Because Internet. I started studying American Sign Language through the Lethbridge …
A bioengineered protein may someday treat carbon monoxide poisoning
An antidote for carbon monoxide poisoning could come from bacteria. Mice treated with a tweaked version of a bacterial protein rapidly cleared carbon monoxide from their blood, safely eliminating it …
Hidden viruses in our DNA could be medicine’s next big breakthrough
You are mostly but not entirely human. If we crunch the numbers, 8 percent of your genome actually comes from viruses that got stranded there. This viral detritus is a …
Can we finally recycle all of the metal in scrap cars?
Scrap vehicles contain many different metal alloys, which can be hard to recycle Marc Hill/Alamy A new way to recycle the metal from scrap cars could eliminate millions of tonnes …
House Republicans add to support for maintaining NIH budget in 2026
Both chambers of Congress have now rejected Trump’s proposed 40% cut