Home > Linguistics > Fun linguistics |
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FUN LINGUISTICS© |
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Words, words, words |
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| Anagrams | Anagrams are words or expressions which are created by combining the letters of another word or expression in a new way. Names are particularly often subjected to this playful procedure. Since it is relatively difficult to come up with anagrams, help is provided in the form of the anagram generator: if you insert linguistics, for instance, you get icing is lust. In advanced mode, you can even switch the language and use different filters for your anagrams. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Palindromes | Palindromes are words or expressions that make sense no matter whether they are read from left to right or from right to left. Here are two of my favourites: | ||||||||||||||||||
| What did Adam
say when he first met Eve? "Madam, I'm Adam." |
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| More
sophisticated is this second example, which tells a whole story in just a
few words: A man, a plan, a canal: Panama. |
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| If you would like to read on, there are sites with an impressive number of examples for both English and German. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Antagonyms | Did you know that there are words which simultaneously have diametrically opposed meanings? Thus you can move fast (i.e. quickly) or be held fast (i.e. fixed). Find a nice list here. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Onomatopoeia | Since even onomatopoeia are to a certain extent arbitrary, they differ in various languages. Bzzzpeek offers even stronger proof for this with its collection of audio-files in which native speakers of different languages imitate the sounds of animals and vehicles. | ||||||||||||||||||
| @-sign | In various languages, the @ sign can be referred to by amusing names, e.g. German Klammeraffe (spider monkey; literally 'clinging monkey') or French escargot (snail). | ||||||||||||||||||
| Names | If you have always wanted to know what your first name means, take a look at www.thinkbabynames.com. This great site does not only provide etymological information but also a list of variants as well as graphs illustrating changes in the popularity of the names (in the USA) over the last decades. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Regional variation in German | 
The maps in the Atlas
zur deutschen Alltagssprache give a nice overview of the regional
distribution of lexical variants in German. For instance, they
illustrate in which parts of Germany the days before Lent are called Fasching,
Fastnacht or Karneval. |
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| New words |
"Mir fehlen die Worte!" Ein weit verbreitetes Gefühl - dessen Ursache in der Sprache selbst
liegen kann - und zwar immer dann, wenn eine lexikalische Lücke vorliegt. Das bedeutet, dass ein bestimmtes Phänomen nicht durch ein einzelnes Wort wiedergegeben
wird und man daher zu einer Umschreibung greifen muss. Um hier etwas Abhilfe zu schaffen, macht die folgende
Liste einige (nicht ganz ernst gemeinte)
Vorschläge zur Bereicherung des deutschen
Wortschatzes. |
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Language learning |
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| Linguistics with a little help from Friends | Successful perception of speech in a new language usually precedes production - as can be seen from the Friends episode in which Joey is trying to speak French. | ||||||||||||||||||
| What can be considered a word? Find out more in the episode Emma's first words. | |||||||||||||||||||
Dictionaries |
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| The Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook | Monty Python's all-time classic proves the importance of reliable dictionaries (or other sources) for foreign users and learners of English. You may also want to read the text version of this sketch. | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cockney rhyming slang | Cockney rhyming slang is a famous secret language spoken in London. It replaces certain words with the first part of an expression whose second part rhymes with the original word. Thus “Use your loaf” means “use your head”, since head rhymes with loaf of bread. The Dick’n’Arry of Cockney Rhyming slang helps you to decode such cryptic messages – or to produce your own. | ||||||||||||||||||
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What rhymes with linguistics? There are several online rhyming dictionaries that you could check. The RhymeZone one is particularly good because it sorts its suggestions by number of syllables. Statistics is thus a particularly good candidate. |
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Linguistic songs |
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| Yes, there are songs about linguistics and by linguists - and the videos are fun to watch! | |||||||||||||||||||
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Linguistic puzzles |
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| Puzzles | Discover some of the riddles that have emerged as a by-product of my linguistic research. | ||||||||||||||||||
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Quotes |
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| Take a look at some inspiring and amusing quotes from the world of linguistics. | |||||||||||||||||||
Signs |
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| Give me a sign | Signs are all around us in everyday life - and sometimes they can be very funny! Discover my collection. | ||||||||||||||||||
Miscellaneous |
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| Unusual spelling |
How can it be that you
read a nonsensical English text - and that it simultaneously makes sense
in another language? That is what happens in Günter Stössel's book The
Best of Nämberch English Spoken. |
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| Dare keel shrunk striked is actually an unusual way of writing German Der Kühlschrank streikt ('the fridge isn't working'). Most of the transcriptions encode Franconian (a dialect spoken in Northern Bavaria), e.g. broad handle ('Brathendl', i.e. roast chicken). | |||||||||||||||||||
