This week, I wrote about how Greek and Russian speakers process blue differently than English speakers do, because their languages carve it into two colours. But English has its own version of this story.

There was an idea in linguistics that the language you speak determines what you can think. That is, if your language has no word for a concept, that concept is unavailable to you. This idea has been more or less dead in linguistics for decades. But it’s had a strange afterlife in the wider world.

The most famous idea from linguistics is that your language determines what you can think. It's the premise behind the film Arrival, Orwell's Newspeak, and every “untranslatable word” listicle. And it's been dead in linguistic circles for a long time... although it has had a curious afterlife.

Old English didn't use the words “left” and “right” for the two hands. Instead, it used “winestre” and “swiþre”: ‘friendlier’ and ‘stronger.’ But ‘friendlier’ wasn’t meant as a compliment.

Written English has barely changed in 300 years. If you can read Harry Potter, you can read Robinson Crusoe (1719).

Cicero invented the words "quantity" and "quality" by translating Greek terms piece by piece using Latin roots. Linguists call this a kind of piece-by-piece translation a calque. English could have done the same thing centuries later. "How much" and "what kind" were right there!

Va a haber que estudiar inglés antiguo con este libro de @colingorrie.bsky.social.

In writing Ōsweald Bera, I had to make some decisions that not everyone will agree with Trade-offs had to be made between: - story - grammatical simplicity - vocabulary load - idiomatic use of the language I explain my point of view on Substack: colingorrie.substack.com/p/potential-...

Language Log 2024.11.10–2024.11.16 9h Old English 2h Mandarin 2.5h Ancient Greek 2h Biblical Hebrew 1.75h [redacted] 1.25h Yiddish 1h Spanish Post 'em if you got 'em!

Go buy @colingorrie.bsky.social's book! youtu.be/zB9OBbM6GPQ

Happy to be able to announce that Ōsweald Bera: An Introduction to Old English is now available! Orders will begin shipping out over the next few days. You can get your copy at oswealdbera.com

Greeking Out is geeking out about Old English with @colingorrie.bsky.social about a certain bear. (Say that 5 times fast.) podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fle...

Wow, I haven't been on here in a year's time...

Having fun choosing texts for the Old English 202 class Are you thinking poetry? Because I'm thinking poetry. In particular, Andreas, with The Wanderer and The Seafarer for dessert.

New cover design for Ōsweald Bera just dropped