Posts tagged linguistics

When you don't know anything about linguistics: The plural of "memorandum" is "memoranda", why can't people get it right
When you know a little about linguistics: The plural of "memorandum" should just be "memorandums" because that's how people naturally say it, "memoranda" is just prescriptivism
When you know a lot about linguistics: Oh my god? So certain English words borrowed from Latin and Greek have competing plural forms, with one form using the English plural -s and the other using a borrowed Latin or Greek form? Do you realize how crazy that is - a language borrowing *inflectional morphology* from another language? And here the two competing plural forms have become markers of education, expertise, and social class, isn't that incredible?
When you have a degree in linguistics and dgaf anymore: memorandibles
7 years ago
oupacademic: “ In celebration of the European day of Languages on the 26th September, here in the OUP Archives, we have a Victorian sample from the extensive print shop that was closed in 1989. This artefact shows a selection of the 900 or so...
oupacademic: “ In celebration of the European day of Languages on the 26th September, here in the OUP Archives, we have a Victorian sample from the extensive print shop that was closed in 1989. This artefact shows a selection of the 900 or so...
oupacademic: “ In celebration of the European day of Languages on the 26th September, here in the OUP Archives, we have a Victorian sample from the extensive print shop that was closed in 1989. This artefact shows a selection of the 900 or so...

oupacademic:

In celebration of the European day of Languages on the 26th September, here in the OUP Archives, we have a Victorian sample from the extensive print shop that was closed in 1989.

This artefact shows a selection of the 900 or so languages that Oxford University Press could print at that time. The characters shown were cut (on metal blocks) at the Oxford Press, by Mr John Streaks, who has also made the greater number of the electrotype matrices which are stated in this work to have been produced at the Press. 

Image courtesy of OUP Archives.

8 years ago