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Year: 2007

We need Simpler Syntax, but we can do without a Grammar of the Gaps

December 17, 2007 5 Comments

Recently I picked up Simpler Syntax in the library. It is a good read on a very complex topic, and…

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Posted in: Linguistics

w00t chosen ‘word of 2007’

December 12, 2007 2 Comments

Languagehat’s news flash on w00t (chosen as the Merriam-Webster’s Word of ’07) piqued my interest. A quote: There’s a lot…

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Posted in: Sound symbolism

Early sources on African ideophones, part I: Schlegel on Ewe, 1857

December 5, 2007 9 Comments

Featured philologist of today is Joh. Bernhard Schlegel, for providing us with precious data on ideophones (expressives) in nineteenth-century Ewe, a Kwa language of southeastern Ghana.

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Posted in: African languages, doi, Early sources, Ideophones, Sound symbolism Filed under: Sound symbolism

Gender-based folk etymologies for the name Akpafu

November 25, 2007 2 Comments

Akpafu is a term used by the Ewe of Ghana to refer to the Mawu people, their language (Siwu), and…

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Posted in: Anthropology, Siwu

Introducing Siwu

November 22, 2007 Leave a comment

Siwu is a minority language spoken in the mountainous central part of the Volta Region, Ghana. The language and the…

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Posted in: Siwu

Latest 10 posts

  • On plagiarism, predatory publishers and creating the future we want
  • Silence is a commons
  • Requiem for writing town
  • Don’t seek permission, center values
  • On generative AI and reproducibility
  • Scientific publishing: AI in submissions
  • We’re hiring! PhD and postdoc positions in Futures of Language
  • Waarom ik niet instem met het onderhandelingsakkoord voor de CAO universiteiten
  • Bringing about the singularity by giving up thinking
  • Why synthetic text is incompatible with science blogging

Most read

  • Human creativity in the age of text generators
  • Mindblowing dissertations
  • Slides for a hands-on Zotero workshop
  • How Academia.edu promotes poor metadata and plays to our vanity
  • Some things you need to know about Google Scholar

Oddly specific

  • Malinowski (1922) on Large Language Models
  • The Gruner Map: a 1913 map of the Togo Plateau in present-day Ghana
  • Daniel Tammet invents his own Siwu ideophone
  • Bingo! Refinding the oldest specimen of Siwu
  • I thought I had company (a Mawu dirge)
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