Topic description and stories

Looking up in a dictionary

Unconscious language learning

03 Nov 2011

Unconscious learning could be the secret to speeding up learning a second language.

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Andy in New York

New York, unplugged: a day without words

02 Nov 2011

We are addicted to language. By way of proof, Andy Martin – lecturer in the Department of French and author of books on Napoleon, Bardot and surfing...

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Henriëtte Hendriks

Making sense of language: learning across the lifespan

02 Nov 2011

Henriëtte Hendriks, Head of Cambridge’s newly formed Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, explains why linguistics – the scientific...

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Greenland

Will the English language ever die?

21 Oct 2011

Imagine a world in which there is no difference between blue and black or green and blue. A world where there are hundreds of different types of snow...

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Still from Memories of old awake

Cambridge Ideas - Memories Of Old Awake

26 Sep 2011

Cambridge University academic, Dr Emily Lethbridge, is breathing new life and understanding into the centuries-old Sagas of Icelanders (...

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Ancient weight excavated from the east coast of Italy

Adventures of a palaeolinguist

20 Sep 2011

The curious bronze, knuckle-shaped object pictured is an ancient weight excavated from the east coast of Italy. The inscription scrawled along its...

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Stephen Leonard in Greenland.

Death by monoculture

02 Sep 2011

Having just returned from a year spent documenting the language and culture of the remote Inughuit community of north-western Greenland, Dr Stephen...

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books

Creation of a new Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics

08 Aug 2011

Two Cambridge institutions, the Department of Linguistics and the Research Centre for English and Applied Linguistics, have merged as of 1 August...

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Extract from the New Testament in Syriac from the sixth century

The riddle of the Syriac double dot: it’s the world’s earliest question mark

21 Jul 2011

Manuscripts written in Syriac, an ancient language of the Middle East, are peppered with mysterious dots. Among them is the vertical double dot or...

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Fabio Capello

Which 100 words of English should Fabio learn?

12 Apr 2011

Following the media coverage of England football manager Fabio Capello’s claim that he only needs ‘100 words of English’, Cambridge Dictionaries...

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Land Rover ambulance

Research road trip to uncover Iceland’s literary and cultural heritage

10 Jan 2011

A decommissioned Land Rover ambulance will be home to Cambridge University’s Dr Emily Lethbridge from December – as she begins an epic year-long...

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Cambridge Ideas - Vanishing Voices

15 Nov 2010

Of the world's 6,500 living languages, half will cease to be spoken by the end of this century. //-->

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