Category: alphabet (page 1 of 2)

351: A Perfect Alphabet (or, The Royal Tweet)

Some deep thoughts are going on at the Palace.

The Royal Family is tweeting about what a perfect alphabet would look like, and how far the English alphabet varies from this ideal. And are there any redundant letters?

Hedvig, …

288: Letters Lost

English used to look a lot different.

We used to use a lot of letters that no longer exist. They had names like eth, wynn, thorn, and ash. Ben, Kylie, and Daniel talk about …

281: The Emoji Code (featuring Vyvyan Evans)

Why does everyone ❤️ and 😡 emoji?

Emoji have been received enthusiastically in our electronic communication, and yet complaints about them continue. Is there anything wrong with using them? Are they really the equivalent of modern-day hieroglyphics? Do they represent …

245: Language Fact or Fiction?

Ever read a language story, and felt something was a bit off?

Does your keyboard layout affect how you feel about words? Is it true that people couldn’t see the colour blue until modern times? How are you supposed to …

234: Disruptive Language Tech

What happens when computers can use language like humans can? Language workers may be out of a job.

Translators, teachers, and others are watching with concern. But is there reason to think that we’re on the verge of solving all …

227: Are Emoji Words?

Can an emoji be a word?

Oxford Dictionaries thinks so — they chose one as their Word of the Year. And this has language purists fuming. But what exactly is a word?

Linguist Daniel Midgley explains on this episode of …

205: Lost Writing

The written word lasts longer than speech, at least in principle.

But what happens when a writing system is lost in the mist of history? Lost writing can be deciphered, but these scripts have resisted all attempts.

Linguist Daniel Midgley

183: The End of Cursive

There’s more than one way to speak English.

But too often, kids who speak other varieties of English find themselves on the wrong side of their teachers. How can educators — and everyone else — avoid linguistic discrimination and value …

182: Machine Translation

Penmanship is becoming a lost art.

In our age of keyboards and smartphones, fewer and fewer of us use that distinctive cursive script, and schools are even letting go of teaching running writing. Will cursive die out, and will computers …

150: The Voynich Manuscript

The Voynich Manuscript is 600 years old, written in a strange script, and it’s never been deciphered.

Is it a guide to the universe, a book of secrets, or is it just pages and pages of gibberish? Modern techniques are …

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