Language / Culture | Keys Corner

The Loom of Language

By John, on January 19th, 2006

I have been reading one book since Christmas. I have just finished it now. I normally read a thick novel in a couple of days to a week or so, so you might suspect that the book isn’t really interesting me. Nothing could be further from the truth. The book, The Loom of Language . . . → Read More: The Loom of Language

X-mas does NOT exist

By John, on December 24th, 2005

This year a new un-word has been doing the rounds in German Christmas advertising: X-mas.

Now, given that the Germans like polluting their language with all sorts of English words and phrases, many of which get used to mean something different to what an unsuspecting native English speaker would expect, I am . . . → Read More: X-mas does NOT exist

The top eight languages

By John, on September 20th, 2005

John Cowan has summarised the top eight languages of the world (by number of speakers). In places 1, 2 and 3 are Chinese, English and Spanish in that order.

The commented list is here. I was surprised, that less people speak Russian than Portuguese.