Innehållsförteckning för Issue 89 från Silly Linguistics

Siberia is linguistically diverse, both with so-called “Paleo-Siberian languages”, including for example the Chutko-Kamchatkan and Yukaghir families, as well as the larger, arguably more recently-distributed families such as Uralic, Turkic, Mongolic and Tungusic - although in reality I think that in many ways the aforementioned families also have an ancient presence in Siberia, as I have discussed elsewhere. Photo below: part of the Western Sayan Mountains in the Ergaki Nature Park, part of the indigenous landscape of the now-extinct Mator language. In this photo we can see tēre (1)- “God, sky”, hä (1)- “tree” or “forest”, bijä (1)- “mountain” and čä (1) – “pine tree” Copyright information is below the image. The photo above was published under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license and uploaded to Wikimedia commons by user Tschitschaloff,…

There are events in our world so rare and so precious that its occurrence should be treated almost ritualistically with attention and love – Halley’s comet, blooming bamboos, and people that are so humane, their love spans between species. Such is the case with Dame Jane Goodall – primatologist and anthropologist, a pioneer whose life was dedicated to her cause. Her reserve located in Umhloti Nature Reserve has been doing the work of what can only be described as Mother Nature’s touch. Just a few days ago we, unfortunately, lost her. In her wake, what we can do to mourn her is of course cherish the bridges that this woman built, the effort and discoveries she made that turned our views for other species upside down. Now, you might be…

Did you know that July 17th is National Tattoo Day? Are you considering a tattoo? After all, one in three people have at least one. If you think getting a tattoo is a simple decision, it can turn out to be more complicated than it looks on the surface. It is imperative to complete some research first to receive the tattoo you actually want. It involves more than just perusing through a book and choosing a picture, especially if you want to add text. Does the tattoo you choose have a personal meaning to you? Do you want it to tell a story, or perhaps does it represent something from your culture? What would it say? What language would it be written in? Would you choose the language based on…

Anyone with even a basic knowledge of ancient Greek history is likely—though it may not be the first thing that comes to mind—to know that the ancient Greeks founded several city-states in southern Italy (in the area broadly known as "Magna Graecia") and in Sicily. What is less well known to the general public—sometimes even within Italy itself—is that, to this day, varieties of Greek are still spoken in the regions of Calabria and Puglia. The debate among scholars regarding the origin of the Greek spoken in southern Italy has a long history: indeed, the history of these regions suggests that its roots in Magna Graecia are not immediately apparent. In this article, I will focus—as the title indicates—mainly on one of these two forms of Greek, namely Calabrian Greek,…

How differently would you see the world if your mother tongue was Danish? I'm sure such a vague question brings to mind hundreds,if not thousands of answers, many of which would be true regardless of the language you'd chosen for this hypothetical. So, what could possibly be so special about Danish that it would change your perception of the world so significantly compared to anything else? The answer lies in "20": Base 20, that is, because the Danish language has historically counted using the vigesimal system for a large portion of their numbers. This is almost alarmingly difficult to comprehend as beings who have used the decimal system all our lives (statistically, including you here is an easy bet to take). But before we start getting deep into the Danish…