Search results for historical linguistics

Social Sciences Mar 1, 2024

The role of history in how efficient color names evolve

Suppose two speakers of the same language are playing a guessing game where each has the same color swatches, and Player 1 tries to get Player 2 to guess a hue by naming the color. If the second player consistently guesses ...

Archaeology Feb 14, 2024

Written accounts reveal how sexual assault claims were dealt with in the Middle Ages

Written testimonies from the medieval period show sexual assault being successfully reported to the authorities, despite legal, social and even family obstacles. This took place, we must remember, in a society which had next ...

Social Sciences Feb 2, 2024

Tracing the evolution of sign languages using computer modeling

An international team of linguistics experts has traced the origins of the most common modern sign languages using a computer model to compare them against one another. The research is published in the journal Science.

Social Sciences Dec 19, 2023

Researchers fear the spoken 'r' is ready to roll away from the last bastion of rhoticity in England

How do you pronounce your "r"s towards the ends of words like Shearer, purr, nerd and pore? And what about those in car, bird and her?

Social Sciences Dec 18, 2023

Recent immigrants saw biggest spike in mental distress as anti-immigrant sentiment increased, find researchers

Anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies are widely known to have harmful impacts on mental health, but a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has revealed large disparities in rates of serious psychological ...

Archaeology Dec 7, 2023

Ancient Balkan genomes trace the rise and fall of Roman Empire's frontier, reveal Slavic migrations

A multidisciplinary study has reconstructed the genomic history of the Balkan Peninsula during the first millennium of the common era, a time and place of profound demographic, cultural and linguistic change.

Environment Nov 30, 2023

Examining urban design for past, present and future cities

Increasingly, more people worldwide are living in cities. By the year 2050, it is projected that two-thirds of the global population will reside in urban areas. Living closely together in relatively small spaces offers advantages ...

Social Sciences Nov 30, 2023

Q&A: Where do accents come from? Linguist explains why we talk the way we talk

When it comes to how we talk, accents are often the thing people focus on first. We love to do impressions, and certain accents even have an impact on what we buy. But what exactly is an accent, and how does one develop?

Social Sciences Nov 27, 2023

May the 'Star Wars' vocabulary be with us

These days, "Star Wars" is everywhere. There are numerous films and all kinds of merchandise. But is "Star Wars" also an integral part of the English language? That is the question Prof Dr. Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer, ...

Social Sciences Nov 24, 2023

Waking a sleeping language: A plan to revive the speaking of ta rē Moriori

When is a language extinct and when is it merely dormant? There are certainly languages that have passed over that line, and many remain threatened today. But what of those in the twilight zone—can we revive them, and what ...

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