Sam QuillenIs the United States a Latin American Country?If you have spent time in many parts of the United States, you have probably noticed that a lot of people have a language background other…May 105May 105
Sam QuillenPolyglot Politicians: How Many World Leaders Speak English?At a joint press conference in 2019, US President Donald Trump declared, as he often does on such occasions, that his Indian counterpart…Mar 3128Mar 3128
Sam QuillenWhat Are Language Families? Part III: Unusual CousinsA significant majority of human beings today speak languages that fall into the Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, or Afro-Asiatic language…Mar 61Mar 61
Sam QuillenWhat Are Language Families? Part II: Hereditary MessinessOf the 7,000 or so languages that exist in the world today, most belong to larger families. In Part I, we explored how this works through…Feb 13Feb 13
Sam QuillenWhat Are Language Families? Part I: The Indo-European ConnectionSpeakers of most of the world’s languages are at least vaguely aware that their tongue is related to some others. For people in the West…Jan 241Jan 241
Sam QuillenHow Did People Communicate at the First Thanksgiving?This time of year, American newspapers are awash with editorials on how to talk about touchy topics with family members at Thanksgiving…Nov 20, 20231Nov 20, 20231
Sam QuillenWar of Words: How Language Shapes the Israel-Palestine ConflictNote: Wherever there is conflict, language is a contentious issue. In my capacity writing about linguistics, I strive to limit myself…Nov 1, 20237Nov 1, 20237