The Viking Origins of “They/Them”
Pronouns have really come into the spotlight in recent years. It’s now fairly common for people to put “he/him”, “she/her”, or “they/them” in their social media profiles and email signatures. This is a way...
Category: Language
Thoughts on language and communication
Language is the Truest Form of Democracy
Language is the truest form of democracy. No one can completely control it. One of the things (and there are many) that makes “Nineteen Eighty-Four” so scary is the invention of Newspeak, eliminating words...
We All Need “Y’all”
“Y’all” is one of the most useful words in the English language. It’s a shame it’s not acceptable in the most formal settings, because “y’all” fulfills a role that no other word can quite...
Outdated Symbols
Pictograms can be useful for conveying information without text. But they can also go out of date pretty quickly. Such outdated symbols often outlast the very objects they are modeled on. Here are five...
Top 5 Stick Figures
Stick figures are one of the simplest forms of art imaginable, but there is a lot of history and meaning behind the simple stick man. Throughout the ages, these minimal line drawings have had...
Odd Punctuation Marks
Punctuation marks are a fairly modern phenomenon. From antiquity up through the Middle Ages, words were written together in great long strings, with little spacing or punctuation. These kind of texts were meant to...
Homage to Catalan
If you’ve ever been to Barcelona, you might know that they don’t speak Spanish. It comes as a shock to many first-time tourists, but the language spoken in Barcelona isn’t Spanish. It’s Catalan. I’ve...
Soda vs Pop (vs. Coke)
American English is remarkably uniform. While there are slight differences in pronunciation, especially in the older parts of the country, most Americans can understand each other with ease. But there are differences in dialect....
Jack of All Trades
“Jack” is the best word in the English language. It is the most versatile word we have, even more than the f-word, which is limited to R-rated conversations. The word “jack”, on the other...
Fun with Esperanto
Back in my high school days, I spent a lot of time in the public library. One day I discovered an old red book that was an introduction to Esperanto. For those of you...
