Category Archives: Fun with languages
2023-01-31
by Pisana Ferrari
Interlingua, a language that can be understood by anyone who speaks Latin languages, going viral on TikTok
On TikTok Orlophe Vauchertres, is introducing millions of people to Interlingua, a language which can be understood by anyone who speaks a Romance language, from Spanish to French to Italian to Romanian to Portuguese, whether they have studied it or not. Orlophe’s real name is Carlos Valcárcel Riviero, and he is is a philologist and teacher …
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2022-12-28
by Pisana Ferrari
Is visual media replacing text as our culture’s dominant form of expression? Pictures’ capacity to convey “a thousand words” is a palpable advantage
Meghan O’Gieblyn is an award-winning author and “spiritual advice columnist” at Wired. In a recent article she reassures us that visual media is not (yet) replacing text as our main form of expression but that do we need to be aware that our relationship to language is changing. On the one hand the artificial intelligence …
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2022-11-22
by Pisana Ferrari
“Algospeak”, a new vocabulary that has emerged on TikTok as content creators try to get around algorithms and strict content moderation
Seggs, leg booty, cornucopia, nip nops, S.A., D.V. and panoramic are just a few examples of a new vocabulary that is emerging on the TikTok social media platform, often referred to as “Algospeak”(see table below for the meanings). In a recent article for the The New York Times senior staff editor Melina Dukic writes that …
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