Linguistics and Human Languages

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Program to Raise Awareness of Global Language Loss

17 May 2013

The United Nation's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization estimates that of the more than 7,000 languages in the world, nearly half of them are in danger of becoming extinct by the end of this century. The Smithsonian's Folklife Festival program "One World, Many Voices: Endangered Languages and Cultural Heritage" will focus attention on this urgent issue of global language loss by ...

Mathematicians analyze social divisions using cell phone data

17 May 2013

Differences divide us. Human society fractures along lines defined by politics, religion, ethnicity, and perhaps most fundamentally, language. Although these differences contribute to the great variety of human lives, the partitions they create can lead to conflict and strife, impeding efforts toward social justice and economic development.

Isaac Newton’s universal language

11 May 2013

The famed physicist and mathematician also had a passion for linguistics -- and even devised his own idiom