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6 Ways To Overcome Social Anxiety

Are you always worried that other people are judging you when you’re out and about?

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If you were to walk down a street in New York City, you might encounter hundreds of fonts on a single block: everything from street signs to shop names take on distinct personalities. Urdu and its nastaʿlīq typeface, lagging in the digital space, are much more difficult to iterate on with existing technology. Where there are hundreds of thousands of Latin digital fonts — fonts so iconic that we know them by name, like Helvetica or Times New Roman — digital Urdu fonts are limited to a handful at most. The nastaʿlīq typography that you might see on the streets of Pakistan is most likely to be hand painted.

“We went on Google and typed “what are fonts, how do we develop them,” Zeeshan recalled. “We purchased software but sat on it for a long time because we didn’t know how to use it.” Produced in collaboration with a government technology board over the course of a decade, Mehr Nastaliq uses 500 characters, all handwritten by Nasrullah — a tiny fraction of the 20,000 glyphs Jamil so painstakingly wrote in the 1980s. The Mehrs are particularly proud of how light their font is: at 60 KB, it doesn’t slow down websites and renders quickly. You can elongate letters and add diacritics.

Their experience of developing Mehr Nastaliq drove home an important lesson: the need for close collaboration between the calligrapher and developer. “It is imperative that the calligrapher and developer understand each other,” emphasised Zeeshan. “Abbu understands programming too now, so he can offer a different solution when confronted with tech limitations.” Working with his parent comes with its own challenges, of course. “Sometimes, Zeeshan would say, This letter isn’t looking nice,” Nasrullah said with a chuckle. “And I’d get huffy and say, Are you the calligrapher?”

Unicode, developed in the early 1990s, is now a global standard for representing characters across language systems in computing code, which means if you write Urdu — in naskh or nastaʿlīq — on one computer, it won’t appear as a string of garbled symbols in another. But technological advances don’t automatically bode well for the digitization of non-Latin type languages. Nemeth notes that the proliferation of easy-to-use design software doesn’t eliminate the need for script-specific expertise. “Designers who are not willing or able to invest the years of learning and research necessary to master a foreign script,” he says, “are led to believe that their tools and some superficial ‘borrowing’ of design elements are sufficient for successful design.”

Read the whole article. 

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Linguistic Diversity Challenge: Languages of Asia | 4/7 | Stieng (stiə̯ŋ)

What is the language called in English and the language itself? – The language is called Stieng in both English and the language itself, but in the language’s own scripts, it is transliterated as Xtiêng and ស្ទៀង. Autonyms of Stieng include S'dieng and Xa-Dieng.  – Dialects of Stieng include Bulo, Bu Dek, Bu Biek, and others which have not yet been properly documented and studied. The Bulo dialect is the most researched dialect, but this does not make it more prominent culturally or linguistically. Bulo is simply a dialect that has been more isolated due to being found around the area’s nearby jungles and mountainous. Bu Dek and Bu Biek are more commonly found in lowland areas and, therefore, retain more influences characteristic of vietnamese. 

Where is the language spoken?  – Stieng is spoken along the border of Vietnam and Cambodia near the areas of Bình Phước, Kratié, and Mondulkiri. In other words, Southwest Vietnam and Eastern Cambodia.

How many people speak the language? – There are about 90,000 Stieng native speakers as of 2009

Which language family does it belong to? What are some of its relative languages? – Stieng is classified as Austroasiatic > Eastern Mon-Khmer > Southern Bahnaric > Stieng. Its closest relative languages are Chrau, Koho, and M'Nong. – Remember, although it is not Vietic, some dialects have picked up grammar and vocabulary from Vietnamese.

What writing system does the language use? – It is written using either the Khmer script or a modified Latin script; however, it is very rarely used as a written language. Khmer script is used in Cambodia and Latin in Vietnam. 

What kind of grammatical features does the language have? – Stieng is an SVO language with 2 numbers and 3 persons. It lacks tone and voice quality distinction, but it does differentiate between long and short vowels, so vowels with circumflexes are extremely common. Stieng also allows for polysyllabic words, but it has a strong tendency towards monosyllabism with C©V© as the most common syllable structure. It has many mimetic words, semantic pairing, particles, transitivity distinction, and a highly-complex importance on the instrumental case. Also, clauses are typically structured as follows: Temporal - Location - Manner - Accompaniment - Instrumental - Final Particles.

How to identify the language? – Written Stieng looks a lot like Vietnamese, so if it looks like Vietnamese, but isn’t, that’s a good start. Also, it’s only diacritic is the circumflex. From there, the most common first person pronoun is hêy, and it can only be dropped when used with specific verbs. For spoken Stieng, once again listen for the first person pronoun, but also listen for glottal stops. Being near the Vietnam-Cambodia border might help, too, haha. – The following are example sentences in Stieng, sourced from Vera Grace Miller’s “An Overview of Stieng Grammar” that is linked below: Cnông snam nêy, hêy gôq a poh. Nêy gôq tu nêy pêy mang pêy nar. & Nêy grôw yau nêy, pang leet han tênh leq bal cơ-coon, pang gôq a Mani, hoc a tôw.

What does the language sound like?

I also want to add the following chart of Stieng’s rime catalogue because I found it interesting and spent a bit too long looking at it. I thought you all might enjoy it, too!

What do you personally find interesting about the language? –  Honestly, I had a lot of fun just looking at the similarities and differences between Stieng and Vietnamese! I spent a decent bit of time just looking at example sentences of varying difficulty and finding things that I recognized.

Extra stuff:  – here is a recording of spoken Stieng (Bulo dialect) – here is the research study into Stieng that I spent far too long looking at – here is a compilation of resources. this is mostly a compilation of linguistic resources rather than learning resources

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La energía de SER.

Su origen y su cono de luz espacio temporal.

Que la triple energía de origen que conforma su Ma le guíen a la armonía y plenitud.

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English Vocabulary

All words are taken from Magoosh vocabulary builder! Bromide - a remark or statement that, although it might be true, is boring and has no meaning because it has been said so many times before Firebrand - a person who causes political or social trouble by opposing authority and encouraging others to do so Maxim - a short statement of a general truth, principle, or rule for behaviour Tumult - noise and excitement, or a state of confusion, change, or uncertainty To countermand -  to change an order that has already been given, especially by giving a new order To mitigate - to make something less harmful, unpleasant, or bad To underscore - to emphasize the importance something To vacillate -  to be uncertain what to do, or to change often between two opinions Assiduous - showing hard work, care, and attention to detail Creditable - deserving praise, trust, or respect Discrete - clearly separate or different in shape or form Fledgling - new and without experience

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• Finnish verbs are conjugated in… - Three persons (first, second, third)  - Two numbers (singular, plural)  - Four tenses (present, simple past, perfect, pluskvamperfect) - Four moods (indicative, imperative, conditional, potential) - Two voices (active, passive) - Five infinitives (1., 2., 3., 4., 5.) - Two participles (present and past)  • The verbs are divided into six (conjugation) types • Different verb types undergo a different system of consonant gradation  In this post I only attempt to explain the very basics of verb conjugation in Finnish. Let’s get started!

Before we go into conjugating verbs, we need to understand what verb stems are and how they work in Finnish.  There are two kinds of stems:    • Infinitive stem, which is done by dropping the infinitive sign of the basic form.

• Inflectional stem, which is made by dropping the personal suffix.

• In addition, verb stems that end in vowels are called vowel stems and and verb stems that end in consonants are called consonant stems • The verb can have… - one stem - two vowel stems - a consonant stem and a vowel stem • All various verb stems are made… - from the infinitive - from the 1st person singular of the present tense - from the 3rd person plural

Finnish verbs (just like nouns, adjectives, etc.) can undergo consonant change. The consonants that may change - are k, p, and t. They change when different endings are attached to the verb stem.  The consonants are either strong or weak: nukkua, nukkuvat (strong), nukun, nukutte (weak). The verbs can thus have two stems, a strong stem and a weak stem. Here are some examples of possible consonant changes:

The consonant combinations sk, st, tk and ps have no change.

The Finnish verbs are divided into six conjugation types. The division is based on the infinitive form and the inflectional stem.

TYPE 1

• the basic form ends in two vowels • the infinitive sign is -a, -ä • the inflectional stem ends (in front of the personal ending) in one vowel • k, p, t change is possible • most Finnish verns are of this type Example verbs: asua (to live), kysyä (to ask), lukea (to read), antaa (to give), tietää (to know), ottaa (to take), ostaa (to buy)

TYPE 2

• basic form ends in -da, -dä • infinitive sign is -da, -dä • infinitive stem = inflectional stem • inflectional stem ends in two vowels • no k, p, t changes • very few monosyllabic verbs, a relatively big number of polysyllabic verbs, many of them derived from loan words

Example verbs: syödä (to eat), juoda (to drink), saada (to get), tuoda (to bring), viedä (to take away), jäädä (to stay), myydä (to sell), tehdä (to do), nähdä (to see)

TYPE 3

• basic form ends in -la, -lä, -sta, -stä, -na, -nä, -ra • four infinitive signs: -la, -lä, -na, -nä, -ta, -tä, -ra • the common sign is e, added to the infinitive stem before the personal ending • k, p, t changes are possible in verbs ending in -la, -lä but not others • a number of verbs ending in -la, -lä, and -(s)ta, -(s)tä Example verbs: olla (to be), tulla (to come), kävellä (to walk), pestä (to wash), mennä (to go), panna (to put), purra (to bite), ajatella (to think), kuunnella (to listen)

TYPE 4

• the infinitive usually ends in -ata, -ätä, sometimes some other vowel • infinitive sign -a, -ä; with a -t in front of the sign • -t → -a, -ä before a personal ending • k, p, t changes are possible • a relatively common type, including some verbs derived from loan words Example verbs: huomata (to notice), herätä (to wake up), haluta (to want), kadota (to disappear), pelata (to play), tavata (to meet), osata (to know how to), vastata (to answer), luvata (to promise)

TYPE 5

• basic form ends in -ita, -itä • infinitive sign -a, -ä • -se- is added between the infinitive stem and the personal ending • stem ends in -itse in personal forms • no k, p, t changes Example verbs: tarvita (to need), merkitä (to mark), valita (to choose), harkita (to consider), häiritä (to disturb), tulkita (to interpret)

TYPE 6

• basic form ends in -eta, -etä • infinitive sign -a, -ä • -t → -ne in front of a personal ending • k, p, t changes possible Example verbs: lämmetä (to get warmer), kylmetä (to get colder), vanheta (to get older), pidetä (to get longer), lyhetä (to get shorter), kyetä (to be able to), vaieta (to fall silent), paeta (to flee)

Personal pronouns: Minä - I (1st. person singular) Sinä - you (2nd. person singular) Hän - s/he (3rd. person singular) Me - we (1st person plural) Te - you (2nd person plural) He - they (3rd person plural) As mentioned previously, Finnish verbs are conjugated according to person and number. That means that you add a personal ending (suffix) to the end of an inflectional verb stem.  Personal endings (suffixes): 1st person singular: -n 2nd person singular: -t 3rd person singular: long vowel 1st person plural: -mme 2nd person plural: -tte 3rd person plural: -vat/-vät So here’s what a Finnish verb “sanoa” (”to say”) looks like conjugated in each person in present indicative: Minä sanon - I say Sinä sanot - you say Hän sanoo - s/he says Me sanomme - we say Te sanotte - you say He sanovat - they say

In Finnish, verb negation isn’t done by using an adverb (not, nicht, ne… pas, no, не) like in many Indo-European languages. Instead a negative verb is used. Just like other verbs, the negative verb is conjugated according to person.  1st person singular: en 2nd person singular: et 3rd person singular: ei 1st person plural: emme 2nd person plural: ette 3rd person plural: eivät The verb that is negated comes after the negation verb is in its inflectional stem form. So here’s what a Finnish verb “juoda” (”to drink”) looks like conjugated in each person in present indicative: Minä en juo - I don’t drink Sinä et juo - you don’t drink Hän ei juo - s/he doesn’t drink Me emme juo - we don’t drink Te ette juo - you don’t drink He eivät juo - they don’t drink

• Wikipedia • Wiktionary • Venla.info • Uusi Kielemme • The Finnish Teacher • A Taste of Finnish • A Grammar Book of Finnish (PDF) • Verbix verb conjugator

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Series: Dirty Syntax

Great titles in linguistics: “If you cannot agree, move on!”

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Languages of the world

Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig)

Basic facts

Number of native speakers: 57,000

Recognized minority language: Canada, United Kingdom (Scotland)

Language of diaspora: Australia, China, New Zealand, South Africa, United States

Script: Latin, 18 letters

Grammatical cases: 4

Linguistic typology: fusional, VSO

Language family: Indo-European, Celtic

Number of dialects: 3

History

4th century - development of Scottish Gaelic from Old Irish

11th century - beginning of the replacement of Scottish Gaelic by Scots and Norman French

12th century - first written evidence

1811 - establishment of the Gaelic Schools Society

1872 - ban on speaking Scottish Gaelic in classrooms

2005 - Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act

Writing system and pronunciation

These are the letters that make up the alphabet: a b c d e f g h i l m n o p r s t u.

Long vowels are indicated with a grave accent and through digraphs. They are also conditioned by certain consonants.

Stress is usually on the first syllable.

Grammar

Nouns have two genders (masculine and feminine), three numbers (singular, dual, and plural), and four cases (nominative, vocative, genitive, and dative). Dual forms are only found after the numeral “two”.

Scottish Gaelic has a definite article, but no indefinite one. Prepositions are inflected with personal pronouns, like verbs.

Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood (independent, relative, dependent, and subjunctive), voice (personal and impersonal), person, and number.

Dialects

There are three main dialects: Canadian, Mid-Minch, and East Sutherland. All of them are mutually intelligible, but differ in phonology and vocabulary.

Mid-Minch Gaelic is considered to be Standard Scottish Gaelic. East Sutherland Gaelic is severely endangered, as there is only one native speaker left.

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Morphology: Crash Course Linguistics #2

What even is a word? Well… linguists don’t really know! But that’s ok! When linguists want to get super specific, we don’t even talk about words, we talk about morphemes instead. In this episode of Crash Course Linguistics, we’re diving into the topic of morphology and what makes up these things we call words.

For more links about morphology, including practice morphology exercises with answer key, check out this week’s Mutual Intelligibility newsletter. 

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The majority of the Finnish population (87,3%) speak Finnish as their native language and it is one of the two official languages of the country. On this post I’m going to briefly introduce the linguistic minorities of Finland:

Swedish speaking Finns

Sámi

Karelians

Finnish Tatars

Finnish Romani

Users of Finnish sign language

Foreigners

Swedish is the second official language of Finland and spoken as a native tongue by 5,2% of the population of the country. The people who speak Swedish as their native language are called Swedish-speaking Finns. The most well-known Swedish-speaking Finn is probably Tove Jansson, the creator of Moomins. Because of this, the Finnish Swedish language is also sometimes called moominsvenska, “Moomin Swedish”. Finnish Swedish differs only slightly from the Swedish spoken in Sweden: there is no pitch accent, it lacks the aspirated stops, some sounds (like sj) are slightly different, and there are some loanwords and calques from Finnish. Swedish is also taught in all Finnish schools as a mandatory school subject. 

The Sámi are the only indigenous people of the European Union and about 10 000 of them are living in Finland. There are nine different Sámi languages, out of which three are spoken in Finland: North Sámi, Inari Sámi and Skolt Sámi. 

There are approximately 350 000 Karelians in Finland. They have their own language, culture and traditions. The three varieties of Karelian spoken in Finland are Livvi-Karelian, South Karelian and North or “Viena” Karelian. Karelian is one of the official minority languages of Finland. 

The Tatars are the oldest Muslim minority in Finland. The ancestors of the present-day Tatars came to the country in 1870s. There are some 800-900 of them living in the country currently. It is remarkable that the Tatars have fully integrated into Finnish society but maintained their language, religion and cultural heritage. The Tatars in Finland mostly speak Mishar Tatar dialects.

The original Finnish Romani came to Finland via Sweden in the 17th century. There are approximately 10 000–12 000 of them currently living in the country. Their main languages are Finnish and Finnish Romani. 

There are approximately 10 000 users of Finnish sign language in Finland.  Finnish legislation recognized Finnish Sign Language as one of Finland’s domestic languages in 1995 when it was included in the renewed constitution. Finland then became the third country in the world to recognize a sign language as a natural language and the right to use it as a mother tongue.

At the end of 2019 7,5% of the population of Finland spoke some other language than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi. The most spoken foreign languages were Russian, Estonian, Arabic, English, Somali, Kurdish, Persian, Chinese, Albanian, Vietnamese, Thai, Turkish, Spanish, German, Polish, Ukrainian, Romanian, Tagalog, French, Bengali, Nepali, Urdu, Portuguese, Hungarian, Italian, Bulgarian, Hindi, Bosnian and Swahili. 

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https://medicoplus.com/neurologia/areas-brodmann

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https://ssociologos.com/2016/02/25/las-preguntas-y-la-observacion-en-la-investigacion-cientifica/

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Alain Delon and Romy Schneider in Paris, 1958