Grammaticalization
Life of Brian - Latin Lesson - Romans Go Home!
Play video1979's "Life of Brian" comedically depicts the titular main character, played by Graham Chapman, defacing, in Latin, a Roman monument. A Roman centurion, played by John Cleese, stops him and punishes him for his "bad" grammar. The scene is largely a parody of the relationship between English schoolchildren and their teachers. Linguistically, it's interesting as a demonstration of prescriptive norms as well as the representation of different dialects. Cleese's dialect is meant to sound more elevated while Graham Chapman's, who is from Melton Mowbray, north of London, is meant to sound less elevated, which is supposed to add to the comedy. Funnily enough, I think some of Brian's usages correlate with changes that would end up occurring in Latin before it changed into the various Romance languages.
Boers of Patagonia
cutting from The Times about Afrikaans in Patagonia [Published on 01-12-2019]
John McWhorter: Txtng is killing language. JK!!!
This is a TED talk by John McWhorter in which he is explaining that writing is just a representation in the way we talk. He explains that there is an emergent complexity in fingered speech (texting). There is a new kind of "language" that is being created now that speech is in continuous change and therefore a new structure is created. [Published on 02-01-2013]
Phineas and Ferb: Ferb Latin
Play videoIn this episode of Phineas and Ferb, Ferb comes up with a new language to "accommodate new customs". He takes the first letter of the word, places it at the end, and then adds -erb. The characters even go on to replace normal dialects, such as saying "Bless you", by replacing them with an action. The action for "Bless you" being you play a flugelhorn and give them your left shoe. They describe it as a 'phoenetic caboose'.
What is Language?
Play videoThis video gives an extensive definition of what is language and how it affects each of us individually.
Internet Language
This article goes over the beginning unique language on the Internet. It also goes over grammar that is unique the Internet. [Published on 01-22-2015]
The Linguistics of AAVE
Play videoThis video discusses the history of AAVE, "African American Vernacular English. It address the origin, the pronunciations, and how it is used. The video gives great examples of AAVE and the translation of what it means in "proper" English.
How Dothraki was made
This video discusses what's needed to "create a language" [Published on 04-13-2015]