Sprognyheder

Will we ever... build robots that pass the Turing Test? | bbc.com

Wed, 16 May 2012 18:10:30 +0200

As the latest set of contestants fail the infamous Turing Test, John Pavlus explores what it will take to create a computer that can think like a human.

Emner: AI Turing sprogteknologi

Sign Language Translator glove interprets gestures | slashgear.com

Tue, 15 May 2012 22:53:46 +0200

American Sign Language happens to be the sixth most-used language in the US and yet there are few options when it comes to bridging the communication gap between those who understand the language and those who don’t. However, that may soon change with an interesting project by three engineering students from Cornell University who have developed a glove that can translate gestures into spoken letters.

Emner: sprogteknologi tegnsprog

Papua New Guinean tongue saved from extinction? | theregister.co.uk

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:31:59 +0200

Recently deceased language preserved online

Emner: Arapesh Papua Niugini Tok Pisin sprogdød

Language diversity offers key to London future | upi.com

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:25:05 +0200

Understanding the linguistic diversity found among London's schoolchildren is a key factor in assuring the city's future as a "global player" researchers say.

Emner: minoritetssprog uddannelse

Pakistan: Saving our indigenous languages | dailytimes.com.pk

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:20:11 +0200

Pakistan is one of the many countries in the modern world that can boast of a rich cultural, demographic, and geographic diversity. People in the US are often surprised when they are told that Pakistan has beautiful mountain ranges and places where it snows even in summer (many Americans consider Pakistan to be a desert country somewhere in the Middle East!). The same Americans are frequently stunned to learn that Pakistan is a multilingual country where roughly 72 languages are spoken (many Americans think that every country in the world is largely monolingual and mono-ethnic).

Emner: Pakistan minoritetssprog sprogpolitik

Canada: Inuktitut-language bible finished after 34-year project | news.nationalpost.com

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:16:37 +0200

After 34 painstaking years, a small band of Inuit translators have finally delivered an Inuktitut-language bible to one of the most-Christian regions in Canada.

Emner: inuktitut oversættelse religion

Bangladesh tribals fear linguistic genocide | thesundaily.my

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:14:53 +0200

Bangladesh can justly claim to be a nation born of language, but its status as a cradle of linguistic diversity is under threat from nationalist pride and economic growth.

Emner: Bangladesh bengali minoritetssprog sprogpolitik

India: Tamil Nadu MPs demand Tamil as official language | ndtv.com

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:12:50 +0200

Three Tamil Nadu MPs from different parties on Sunday made a strong pitch for making Tamil one of the official languages and opposed any move to impose Hindi on the country.

Emner: Indien hindi sprogpolitik tamil

Why Arabs translate a small fraction of publications relative to other languages? | english.ahram.org.eg

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:09:57 +0200

Translators and publishers speak on the challenges along the way to getting Arab translations up to speed with other languages, concluding that a one-man solution is impossible

Emner: arabisk oversættelse

Having more children affects your basic word order | replicatedtypo.com

Sun, 13 May 2012 20:27:36 +0200

Last week in an EU:Sci podcast, Christos Christodoulopoulos challenged me to find a correlation between the basic word order of the language people use and the number of children they have. This was off the back of a number of spurious correlations with which readers of Replicated Typo will be familiar. Here are the results! First, I do a straightforward test of whether word order is correlated with the number of children you have. This comes out as significant! I wonder if having more children hanging around affects the adaptive pressures on langauge? However, I then show that this result is undermined by discovering that there are other linguistic variables that are even better predictors. I used the World Values Survey: a large database of survey results from thousands of people around the world, including what language they speak and how many children they have. I then linked this up with linguistic typology data from the World Atlas of [...]

Emner: børn grammatik ordrækkefølge sprogvidenskab

Nepal: Mystery language on the verge of extinction | bbc.co.uk

Sun, 13 May 2012 19:51:13 +0200

Gyani Maiya Sen, a 75-year-old woman from western Nepal, can perhaps be forgiven for feeling that the weight of the world rests on her shoulders. She is the only person still alive in Nepal who fluently speaks the Kusunda language. The unknown origins and mysterious sentence structures of Kusunda have long baffled linguists.

Emner: Kusunda Nepal flersprogethed grammatik minoritetssprog nepali sprogdød sprogvidenskab truede sprog

Language Diversity Is Highest in Biodiversity Hotspots | huffingtonpost.com

Fri, 11 May 2012 08:55:26 +0200

These biodiversity hotspots and wilderness areas must be among our top priorities for terrestrial conservation if we hope to preserve Earth's natural ecosystem services and biodiversity for future generations of people.

Emner: biodiversitet sprogdød

NEW OLD LANGUAGE | languagehat.com

Fri, 11 May 2012 08:04:11 +0200

The Independent has a story by David Keys, "Ancient language discovered on clay tablets found amid ruins of 2800 year old Middle Eastern palace," that will make the heart of any aficionado of the ancient Near East beat faster. Not that they've discovered an epic poem, or even a laundry list—it's just a bunch of names—but we aficionados will take what we can get, and this is actually pretty exciting:

Emner: arkæologi

Learn a new language while Web surfing in Chrome | howto.cnet.com

Fri, 11 May 2012 07:06:42 +0200

Wish you had time to learn a new language? Check out this Chrome extension that adds words in your target language into the sites you're already reading. Read this blog post by Nicole Cozma on How To.

Emner: browser sprogteknologi sprogundervisning

Gestures fulfill a big role in language | sciencedaily.com

Wed, 09 May 2012 00:34:27 +0200

People of all ages and cultures gesture while speaking, some much more noticeably than others. But is gesturing uniquely tied to speech, or is it, rather, processed by the brain like any other manual action? Scientists have discovered that actual actions on objects, such as physically stirring a spoon in a cup, have less of an impact on the brain’s understanding of speech than simply gesturing as if stirring a spoon in a cup.

Emner: kropssprog sprogvidenskab

Vacuum robot is trilingual, knows witty dialect | ajw.asahi.com

Tue, 08 May 2012 13:58:18 +0200

It looks just like iRobot's Roomba vacuuming machine, except the new circular roaming vacuum cleaner from Sharp Corp. is trilingual, and even knows a hip humorous dialect.

Emner: Japan robot

Californien: Chukchansi Pledges $1 Million for Language Study & Revitalization | ksee24.com

Tue, 08 May 2012 09:45:12 +0200

The Chukchansi variety of the Yokuts language will be preserved and revitalized thanks to a $1 million gift from the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians to Fresno State’s College of Arts and Humanities for the Department of Linguistics

Emner: Californien Yokuts indianersprog revitalisering

Crowd gathers for Alaska Native languages workshop | newsminer.com

Tue, 08 May 2012 09:38:27 +0200

SB130 would establish the Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council, which would evaluate the state's 20 indigenous languages and make recommendations for preservation, restoration and revitalization. Olson said that while educators have made great efforts, indigenous people throughout Alaska feel first languages continue to become extinct. One example of this, he said, is when the last speaker of Eyak, died in 2008.

Emner: Alaska indianersprog revitalisering

Talking parakeets: Why do they mimic human speech? | slate.com

Tue, 08 May 2012 01:38:13 +0200

A lost parakeet in Japan was returned safely to its owner last week after it told police its home address. Why do captive birds mimic human speech, and how do they decide what to say? They’re trying to fit in with the flock, and they’ll say whatever it takes. Parrots...

Emner: dialekt dyr

Stray parakeet tells Japanese police where he lives | google.com

Tue, 08 May 2012 01:37:23 +0200

A pet parakeet was returned to its owner Wednesday after the lost bird told police its home address near Tokyo.

Emner: dyr