Language in the News: Top Stories of 2011

At the end of every month we gather a number of language-related items in the news. Some have significant scholarly implications; others are downright silly. For this final post of 2011, we've selected ten stories from the past year that continue to stir linguistic interest and debate.

• Numbers Make No Sense Without Language
  People need language to fully understand numbers. This discovery--long suspected, and now backed by strong evidence--may shed light on the way children acquire their number sense. . . . Read more
  (Bob Holmes, "Without Language, Numbers Make No Sense." New Scientist, February 7, 2011)


• 3,500 Vanishing Languages
  Of the 6,500 living languages currently being used around the world, around half are expected to be extinct by the end of this century. It was concern about the cultural and historical losses that result from a language disappearing that inspired the World Oral Literature Project, an online collection of some of the 3,500-plus "endangered languages" struggling for survival in the world. . . . Read more
  (Lucy Tobin, "Half of Living Languages Face Extinction." The Guardian [UK], February 21, 2011)


• The Disappearing Art of Cursive Handwriting
  For centuries, cursive handwriting has been an art. To a growing number of young people, it is a mystery. . . . With computer keyboards and smartphones increasingly occupying young fingers, the gradual death of the fancier ABC's is revealing some unforeseen challenges. . . . Read more
  (Katie Zezima, "The Case for Cursive." The New York Times, April 27, 2011)


• The Latest Push for Plain English
  The federal government is rolling out a new official language of sorts: plain English. . . . [President Barack] Obama signed the Plain Writing Act last fall after decades of effort by a cadre of passionate grammarians in the civil service to jettison the jargon. It takes full effect in October, when federal agencies must start writing plainly in all new or substantially revised documents produced for the public. The government will still be allowed to write nonsensically to itself. . . . Read more
  (Calvin Woodward [Associated Press], "Plain Writing Act To Take Effect Later This Year." The Huffington Post, May 19, 2011)


• Neurological Benefits of Bilingualism
  Ellen Bialystok is a cognitive neuroscientist whose research has shown that speaking two or more languages on a regular basis from a young age can have a positive effect on the brain. Not only does it enhance cognitive abilities, being bilingual can also delay symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. . . . Read more
  (Killian Fox, "Ellen Bialystok: Bilingual Brains Are More Healthy." The Observer [UK], June 12, 2011)


• Preserving Regional Words and Phrases
  Linguists at the British Library have assembled a list of thousands of rare words and phrases from regional dialects in order to preserve them--and make them available far beyond their native area. . . . Once completed, the wordbank will be available for use by language academics, as well as actors wanting to perfect regional roles and even foreign call centre workers looking to understand local British dialects. . . . Read more
  (Jasper Copping, "Regional Phrases Preserved in New Wordbank So You Can Tell a Bobowler From a Bishybarnabee." The Telegraph [U.K.], July 3, 2011)


• Language Speeds
  It's an almost universal truth that any language you don't understand sounds like it's being spoken at 200 miles per hour . . .. [R]esearchers from the Université de Lyon recruited 59 male and female volunteers who were native speakers of one of seven common languages . . .. They instructed them all to read 20 different texts . . .. [A]t the end of, say, a minute of speech, all of the languages . . . conveyed more or less identical amounts of information. . . . Read more
  (Jeffry Kluger, "Slow Down! Why Some Languages Sound So Fast." Time, September 8, 2011)


• Regional Accents and Cultural Stereotypes
  If you're one of the many that assume all this media exposure must be homogenizing the American accent, you're not alone. It sounds like a logical hypothesis: The accents heard in the media are far-reaching and pervasive, so local accents must be on the decline as the population is exposed to all this "standardized" speech. But experts say it's a common misconception that has no basis in fact. . . . Read more
  (Rachel Rodriguez, "Regional Accents Thrive in U.S." CNN, September 29, 2011)


• The Story of English in 100 Words
  If you can tell the history of the world in 100 objects, as the British Museum's Neil MacGregor did last year, then it ought to be possible to tell the history of a language in a similar number. But, as with objects, it isn't enough for each word to be interesting in its own right. It has to represent a whole class of words. It has to tell a story. And each of these individual stories should add up to the history of the English language as a whole. . . . Read more
  (David Crystal, "From Riddle to Twittersphere: David Crystal Tells the Story of English in 100 Words." The Daily Telegraph [UK], October 14, 2011)


• 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible
  It has been intimately tied to the global spread and evolution of the English language--and to the rise and reach of British colonial power. . . . It is the King James Bible--arguably the most beautiful, powerful and influential text in the world. This week, Queen Elizabeth and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, held a special service in Westminster Abbey to mark the 400th anniversary of the publication of the most famous and enduring English-language translation of the Old and New Testaments. . . . Read more
  (Paula Simons, "Poetry, Power and Passion of King James Bible Give Us All Voice." The Edmonton Journal, November 18, 2011)

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