Language

The German polymath Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835), brother of the famous explorer Alexander von Humboldt, likewise tried to develop a universalist and philosophical approach to the study of languages. The central fact of language is that speakers can make infinite use of the finite resources provided by their language. Though the capacity for

Bill Mayblin • Introducing Linguistics

a writer’s habits with regard to metaphor (and figurative language generally) were key to their entire worldview. Heavy users of figurative language, she said, see the world as interconnected, full of unseen ties and parallels. Whereas those who abstain from figurative language think that the world is made up of discrete things: every situation is... See more

The Hatred of Metaphor

…believing in the naturalness of your mother tongue shows a lack of serious engagement with language and belies the entire premise of modern literature. This is why I believe that existing outside of one's mother tongue is not exceptional, but simply an extreme version of the normal state of things.

Yoko Tawada • Exophony

In the Bible’s book of Genesis, monolingual humans aspired to build a "city and tower with its top in the heavens". God punished humans by creating a multitude of languages to sow chaos: "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be... See more

Ruby Justice Thelot • The Balkanization and Babelification of the Internet

Babelification is the process by which, after splintering, insular digital groups develop unique languages which makes reintegration in shared digital spaces difficult, if not impossible. When someone believes their insular language in online echo chambers is commonplace reality, clashes ensue when that same individual is placed in a context where... See more

Ruby Justice Thelot • The Balkanization and Babelification of the Internet

As we are fed more content, we are pushed deeper into algorithmic niches. In return, we are encouraged to engage with more extreme and polarizing identifiers because it is more labelable, more indexable by the machine — the creation of the “Island". On this island, the slang, in-jokes, and archetypes which emerge as a community develops in... See more

Ruby Justice Thelot • The Balkanization and Babelification of the Internet

When the Spanish colonizers arrived, their Christianization project began by destroying the very foundation of our indigenous faith. They broke the Anitos. They silenced the chants. They erased every ritual that didn’t serve the cross. What was once sacred became feared. What was once power became persecution.

Colonizers didn’t understand that. In... See more

Babaylan, Bye Bye Lang : The National Colonial Amnesia

We need to challenge the idea that English is the sole marker of intelligence or modernity. This belief traces back to Rizal’s time and persists even in media, like in the Maria Clara at Ibarra Netflix series. The shock when a woman speaks fluent English reflects a deeper social bias, that English equals higher status.

This bias runs deep. English... See more

Babaylan, Bye Bye Lang : The National Colonial Amnesia

Language fluency is activism. This is not about reclaiming purity, but embracing pluralism and contradiction. We reject colonial amnesia through language learning, even informally.