At the beginning of May I presented a talk at an event called “AVL Tech Connect,” which is a monthly occurrence of the AVL Digital Nomads group (a wonderful community that I’ve joined here in Asheville, NC). The presentation was well-received, and I thought I’d share it with the wider internet. Linguists bring unique qualifications…
Are you planning on learning a new language? If so, don’t trust anything you find online that says you can become fluent in a flash – like days, weeks, or even months (barring one or two uncommon scenarios[1]). Getting past the beginner stage with a new language takes considerable time and effort. However, there are…
In keeping with my intention to share “interesting language-related material from deserving folks I know” (see post), I’d like to introduce an amazing teacher, Julie Erard. Julie is a native French speaker, but trilingual in English and Spanish, and speaks multiple other languages (like Arabic) as well. For the last eight years, she’s been living…
I’ve been working on some lengthier articles, but meanwhile, here’s an entertaining read (particularly for word nerds): The Longest Word in the World. In it, you’ll find the longest words in multiple languages (Dutch, German, English, Icelandic, Tagalog, and more), replete with audio pronunciations of many of them. This piece explains the rules of how…
According to a recent study in AI and crime science, humans are not all that good at detecting speech deepfakes. Read the sciencedaily.com summary here, and the full paper here. A few brief comments: First off, if you’re not familiar with the concept of a deepfake, now would be a good time to learn. …
Linguists, psychologists, anthropologists, and others have been arguing for at least a century over the provocative question, “does language shape thought?” New research out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology adds fresh fuel to the fire. An MIT News article summarizes the study: “How ‘blue’ and ‘green’ appeared in a language that didn’t have words…
Think large language models know it all? Then I’d like to introduce Mike Dillinger, an acquaintance of mine in the tech space. Mike is a Knowledge Graph Architect. Until recently, he worked as Technical Lead for knowledge graph (KG) initiatives at LinkedIn; he’s a wiz in the world of taxonomies, ontologies, and KGs. And he’s…
No, I don’t mean short in stature (although all 5’3” of me would support that). In an effort to: share more interesting language-related material from around the web (especially articles/videos/etc. from deserving folks I know); accommodate readers’ lack of free time (and let’s be honest, shorter attention spans in general); and facilitate my ability to…
Before the “season of giving” is over, I’d like to ask a (non-monetary!) favor of you, dear readers. If you enjoy my writing, please subscribe. If you can think of others who might enjoy it, please share the blog with them. Sharing via X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. is great, but so is a simple text…
Following part I and part II, this will be the last in my three-part series. I had intended to finish the post in October, but life was consumed by a big move from West Coast to East, so writing had to pause for a while. For our final exploration of a preschooler’s mind via language,…
