The Ling Space | How Will Language Change in the Future? @thelingspace | Uploaded 8 years ago | Updated 1 hour ago
What might happen to language in the future? What changes can we foresee based on what we know now? In this week's episode, we look at predictions for the future of language: how the past tense in English may change, how many of the world's languages may go extinct, and whether we'll all end up with a global language.
This is Topic #51!
This week's tag language: Guaraní!
Last episode:
Meaning Predicated on Logic: youtu.be/al5SJSbIyvM
Other of our general linguistics videos:
How do computers understand our speech?: youtu.be/FI9IJteS-5Y
Is linguistics a science?: http://youtu.be/25I2Nja6mek
Are made up languages really languages?: http://youtu.be/PQTtO98xdb4
Find us on all the social media worlds:
Tumblr: http://thelingspace.tumblr.com
Twitter: twitter.com/TheLingSpace
Facebook: facebook.com/thelingspace
And at our website, thelingspace.com !
You can also find our store at the website, thelingspace.com/store
Our website also has extra content about this week's topic at thelingspace.com/episode-51
We also have forums to discuss this episode, and linguistics more generally.
Sources:
The Nature paper about the English past tense: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v449/n7163/full/nature06137.html
Further description of Nature article: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/10/harvard-scientists-predict-the-future-of-the-past-tense/
Ethnologue Home: http://www.ethnologue.com
Ethnologue on Paraguay: http://www.ethnologue.com/country/PY
Resource Network for Language Diversity: http://rnld.org
Endangered Language Fund: http://www.endangeredlanguagefund.org
John McWhorter predictions about the future of language: http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-the-world-will-speak-in-2115-1420234648
UNESCO Interactive Map of World Languages in Danger: http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/en/atlasmap.html
Article about hub languages: http://www.pnas.org/content/111/52/E5616.abstract (full text at http://stevenpinker.com/publications/links-speak-global-language-network-and-its-association-global-fame)
For more discussion of language loss and why languages become endangered and die, here are some links:
A pamphlet on the topic from the LSA: http://www.linguisticsociety.org/files/Endangered_Languages_0.pdf
A good short description of the topic: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~alvar22n/Disappearing_Languages/Cause_of_Death.html
A discussion on the BBC: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140606-why-we-must-save-dying-languages
Further, there's information about this on some of the sites linked to above, like the RNLD.
Looking forward to next week!
What might happen to language in the future? What changes can we foresee based on what we know now? In this week's episode, we look at predictions for the future of language: how the past tense in English may change, how many of the world's languages may go extinct, and whether we'll all end up with a global language.
This is Topic #51!
This week's tag language: Guaraní!
Last episode:
Meaning Predicated on Logic: youtu.be/al5SJSbIyvM
Other of our general linguistics videos:
How do computers understand our speech?: youtu.be/FI9IJteS-5Y
Is linguistics a science?: http://youtu.be/25I2Nja6mek
Are made up languages really languages?: http://youtu.be/PQTtO98xdb4
Find us on all the social media worlds:
Tumblr: http://thelingspace.tumblr.com
Twitter: twitter.com/TheLingSpace
Facebook: facebook.com/thelingspace
And at our website, thelingspace.com !
You can also find our store at the website, thelingspace.com/store
Our website also has extra content about this week's topic at thelingspace.com/episode-51
We also have forums to discuss this episode, and linguistics more generally.
Sources:
The Nature paper about the English past tense: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v449/n7163/full/nature06137.html
Further description of Nature article: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/10/harvard-scientists-predict-the-future-of-the-past-tense/
Ethnologue Home: http://www.ethnologue.com
Ethnologue on Paraguay: http://www.ethnologue.com/country/PY
Resource Network for Language Diversity: http://rnld.org
Endangered Language Fund: http://www.endangeredlanguagefund.org
John McWhorter predictions about the future of language: http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-the-world-will-speak-in-2115-1420234648
UNESCO Interactive Map of World Languages in Danger: http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/en/atlasmap.html
Article about hub languages: http://www.pnas.org/content/111/52/E5616.abstract (full text at http://stevenpinker.com/publications/links-speak-global-language-network-and-its-association-global-fame)
For more discussion of language loss and why languages become endangered and die, here are some links:
A pamphlet on the topic from the LSA: http://www.linguisticsociety.org/files/Endangered_Languages_0.pdf
A good short description of the topic: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~alvar22n/Disappearing_Languages/Cause_of_Death.html
A discussion on the BBC: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140606-why-we-must-save-dying-languages
Further, there's information about this on some of the sites linked to above, like the RNLD.
Looking forward to next week!
