Blog

Paypal Express Goes Live on Site

We now accept Paypal Express as part of the payment options in our shop. Please let us know if you would like us to add other payment options....

READ MORE | 30 Sep 2011

Why do some Americanisms irritate people?

Entertaining piece on the BBC News Magazine web site of the supposed deluge of new American words entering everyday British English. The article cites the usage of 'stepping up to the plate'--a baseba...

READ MORE | 21 Jul 2011

Where Latin and Arabic Meet: A Bridging of Two Alphabets

Wonderful piece from The New Yorker on Lebanese designer Rana Abou Rjeily's creation of Mirsaal, a typeface family expressly designed to work in both the Latin and Arabic alphabets. In Mirsaal, the ca...

READ MORE | 30 Jun 2011

Cracking the code of machine translation

An amazing step forward in the translation of languages has been made thanks to human and artificial intelligence working together. According to an article in this week's New Scientist, treating langu...

READ MORE | 22 Jun 2011

Evolution of Language Takes Unexpected Turn

April's Wired Science article announces that the notion of there being a universal way in how languages evolve, affected by place, culture and the common linguistic structures in our brain might be ch...

READ MORE | 2 Jun 2011

Here comes the goom

In the wake, or should I say, train of the Royal Wedding, a wonderful piece on the etymology of the vocabulary of matrimony from the Boston Globe. The 'goom' referred to in the title is the old Englis...

READ MORE | 9 May 2011

Babel or babble?

Thought-provoking article in last week's Economist on the evolution of language. New research appears to confirm the theory that all languages originated in Africa. Just as humanity's origins demonstr...

READ MORE | 21 Apr 2011

Modern Day Cyclists Ought to be Linguists

Another post on cycling and languages. Lovely quote from Tim Hilton's wonderful memoirs on the world of cycling, One More Kilometre and We're In the Showers, about how the culture of cycling naturally...

READ MORE | 15 Apr 2011

Le Vélo-Dictionnaire Français/Anglais

Thinking of cycling in France on your Easter or Summer break and would like to learn some key French vocabulary just in case your bike breaks down? Have no fear: Sheldon Brown's Le Vélo-Diction...

READ MORE | 12 Apr 2011

Language begins before birth

Intriguing article in the Canadian newspaper, the Times Colonist that suggests that language acquisition begins before birth. According to a recent study at the University of Regina, babies already st...

READ MORE | 13 Mar 2011