The Futility of Linguistic Prescription

When we see men grow old and die at a certain time one after another, from century to century, we laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand years; and with equal justice may the lexicographer be derided, who being able to produce no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability, shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language, and secure it from corruption and decay, that it is in his power to change sublunary nature, and clear ...

 Morse Code Syllabic Mnemonics

LetterMorse CodeMnemonicA·-a-JARB-···BOOT to the headC-·-·CO-ca CO-laD-··DRAC-u-laF··-·for the FAIR-esG--.GOO-GOL-plex (a 1 with a googol zeros)H····hippity hopI··dig-It, ibid.J·---he's-J-JONAH-JAMESONK-·-KICK the CAN,L·-··to 'ELL with it!M--MMMM-MMMMN-·NOO-gieO---ONE OF USP·--·did POP POP itQ--·-GOD SAVE the QUEENR·-·ro-TA-tionU··-gid-dy UPV···-Beethoven's FIFTH (V'th)W·--the WORLD WARX-··-X marks the SPOTZ--··ZSA ZSA did it

 Everyone Can Take an Idea

The words I am uttering penetrate your senses, so that every hearer holds them, yet withholds them from no other. Not held, the words could not inform. Withheld, no other could share them. Though my talk is, admittedly, broken up into words and syllables, yet you do not take in this portion or that, as when picking at your food. All of you hear all of it, though each takes all individually. I have no worry that, by giving all to one, the others are deprived. I hope, instead, that everyone wil...

 Insights from Comparative Linguistics

Nowadays, comparative linguists analyse the minute details of similarities and differences. They can often trace words back through many types of change such as the dropping of syllables and shifts in pronunciation. Thus, the evolutionary history of various languages can be accurately traced. Family trees based on differences in DNA. Also, the migratory histories of whole peoples can be deduced from the languages that remain today. In Africa, for example, the 1500 or more surviving languages ...