Language Talk

I've been wandering off into other topics lately but it's time to get back to language matters.
Some links:

Buzzwords, from The New York Times.

The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2008 the International Year of Languages. It will aim to promote unity through linguistic diversity. The Assembly called upon States and the Secretariat to work towards the conservation and defence of the world's languages and requested the Secretariat to appoint a coordinator for multilingualism.

Language Log noted the declaration back in May and, of course, had an interesting observation about emphasis.

Prof.Shetter assesses the multilingualism of Wikipedia.


Erin McKean
cites a piece on unusual words


and Language Hat posts this:

"I Love My Country's Language"

The American Speech Committee offered this pledge in 1918:

I love the United States of America. I love my country's flag. I love my country's language. I promise:
1. That I will not dishonor my country's speech by leaving off the last syllable of words.
2. That I will say a good American "yes" and "no" in place of an Indian grunt "um-hum" and "nup-um" or a foreign "ya" or "yeh" and "nope."
3. That I will do my best to improve American speech by avoiding loud, rough tones, by enunciating distinctly, and by speaking pleasantly, clearly and sincerely.
4. That I will learn to articulate correctly as many words as possible during the year.

Editor-Mom points to a post about bias-free language