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From this, linguists conclude that ten was the basic unit in the Germanic protolanguages that English came from, and thus those people used a base-10 number system.
Charles Seife • Zero
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
... See moreBill Mayblin • Introducing Linguistics
Link
Air traffic control and scientific research turned out to be mere preludes. The most powerful force for anglicization has been the internet. It has promoted international communication, but it has set English proficiency as the price. The Internet was invented in the United States and has been disproportionately Anglophone ever since. In 1997 a
... See moreDaniel Immerwahr • How to Hide an Empire
The Interpreter
newyorker.comRuby Justice Thelot • The Balkanization and Babelification of the Internet
they stumbled upon a crucial detail—Indo-European
Carlo Rovelli • Anaximander: And the Birth of Science
Languages change and evolve organically. But it is perhaps paradoxically necessarily that languages must remain mostly unchanging — mostly common between their speakers — such that change can be recognized and contextualized, rather than simply disorienting.
