Tag: language

Posted on by Tim Worstall

Bugger Modern Languages Then

We’re repeatedly told that we need to have more foreign language studies in the UK because. Because we need to now trade with the rest of the world after Brexit is because. That large chunks of the non-EU world speak English while little of the EU does seems to have passed notice. But there’s something rather more important here as well. We’ve absolutely no evidence that a common language increases trade:

The potential impact of machine translation on foreign trade – caution, please
Jacques Melitz, Farid Toubal 01 August 2019

Artificial intelligence has made spectacular progress in recent years.…

See More
Posted on by Tim Worstall

It Is, Of Course, A Bit Much To Expect Logic From Rhiannon

Ms. Cosslett tells us that knowing more than one language is a jolly thing to do. Indeed it is. And yet we’ve that same old lack of logic in the encomium.

Being able to speak more than one language has opened up whole worlds of experience and understanding – so it is particularly saddening then to see reports that Brexit is putting British pupils off studying modern foreign languages at school. Some parents have even told teachers that it’s useless for their children to learn another language now that the UK is leaving the European Union.

… See More
Posted on by Tim Worstall

Language Depends Upon Those Over Processed, Softer, Foods

Or at least the language that we speak today depends upon processed and softer foods that came with the rise of agriculture and static living. It’s not so much the agriculture, as the staying in the one place, for that’s what allows the processing of food into the softer forms. From The Conversation:

Softer, processed foods changed the way ancient humans spoke

The human capacity for language divides our species from the rest of the animal kingdom.…

See More
Posted on by Tim Worstall

A Very Silly Argument About Farming And Vegetarianism In The Telegraph

It’s not the summer holidays so we’ve not got the day release kids writing the papers as yet. So it’s difficult to understand how this piece managed to make it into the paper. The argument is that since early humans could not deal with fricatives and labiodentals therefore they would not have been able to pronounce the words farming or vegetarianism. That’s fine, obviously enough.

It’s the leap from that to the idea that they wouldn’t have had a word for either and so wouldn’t be able to describe that that irks.…

See More
Posted on by Tim Worstall

Does Geography Explain Economic Outcome And Language? Possibly

That the geography of a place is going to have some influence upon the social structure – thus the economy and possibly language – of a place seems obvious enough. What we’d really like to know though is how long do such effects persist? Quite a long time it seems:

Geographical roots of the coevolution of cultural and linguistic traits
Oded Galor, Ömer Özak, Assaf Sarid 20 January 2019

Evidence suggests that ancient regional variations in geographical characteristics contributed to the differential formation of culturaland linguistic traits, which in turn shaped development and inequality in today’s world.…

See More
Posted on by Tim Worstall

As Brexit Happens The EU Parliament Censors The English Language

This is rather fleeing the stable door after the horse has bolted – the European Parliament has decided that the Eve of Brexit, that most glorious moment in our recent history, is the time to start censoring the English language. You know, that language that they’re all threatening to stop using because we’ve decided to take our ball and money back and go home? The specific thing they’re complaining about being something that doesn’t even happen in those other lesser tongues that they tend to babble, the use of “man” to indicate peeps.…

See More
Posted on by Tim Worstall

An Excellent Reason To Leave The EU – The Status Of English After Brexit

If you’d like a reason to leave the European Union then look no further than this discussion of whether the institution – and institutions – will continue to use English after we’ve left. The point being that they’re wibbling about the details and commas of international treaties. When reality is obvious. English is the international language, it’s the one that the most people have in common. There’s almost no member of the European intelligentsia – for which sadly at this point we’ll have to use to include politicians and bureaucrats – who doesn’t have at least some knowledge of the language.…

See More
Posted on by Alex Noble

I Find Your Lack Of Faith…..Interesting.

Have you noticed how Leftist cult members now use the word “interesting”?

They use it in the same way Darth Vader used “disturbing”

Or the Gestapo used the word “problematic”

Oh no sorry, that’s the Left again.

Suffice to say, the Left co-opts language and uses it to indicate what views should be considered unacceptable when they cannot immediately identify exactly WHY.

In the Soviet Union they used “unsound”. At other times and places, words like “unpatriotic” have served the same purpose.…

See More
Posted on by Tim Worstall

How UnBritish – Louise Casey Insists We Must All Speak English

Dame Louise Casey used to be the “integration czar.” The one who would come up with policies to make us all more British and together that is. Which is odd really, because the very point of being British is that we don’t do such things. We already know we’ve won that lottery ticket of life by being born of the sceptered isle. But still she’s now gone even futher wrong by insisting that we must all be speaking English:

UK should set date for everyone to speak English, says Casey

Hmm, OK then 27 March 2019.…

See More