linguistics
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The Race to Document Endangered Languages, Now That We Have the Technology
It was a balmy day in Taiwan in November 2019, and I was rummaging through the Family Mart adjoined to the Qishan Bus Station. It was my last chance for 9V batteries and spicy tuna rice balls before taking a taxi into the mountains, where many of the remaining Indigenous languages of the island are…
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How to Access the Hidden Symbols on Your iPhone’s Keyboard
The iPhone keyboard has a hidden superpower — beneath its usual letters, numbers, and symbols lie a treasure trove of less common but still useful symbols. The next time you want to tell someone how hot or cold it is, for example, you don’t need to type “degrees” or do a Google search for the…
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Chiss Names Are Some of Star Wars’ Coolest Bullshit
Star Wars is full of cool bullshit which is, in many ways, why we love such an absurd behemoth in the first place. Space wizards with laser swords? Extremely bullshit, and very cool (some of the time). Blaster pistols? They go pew pew, what’s not to love. Starfighters? They go pew pew and fly in…
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Patrick Stewart Might Be Responsible For How We All Say Data Now
Pop culture can have a huge effect on society, influencing how we dress, what we eat, what we say (“hasta la vista, baby”), and even how we pronounce certain words. Brent Spiner believes the way we all say the word “data” now was directly influenced by his Star Trek: The Next Generation co-star Patrick Stewart.