White matter density in our brains at birth may influence how easily we learn to understand and use language
Nature, as well as nurture, play a part in our ability to learn language.
Tag: language
This Australian duck says ‘You bloody fool’ and can imitate other sounds — and scientists couldn’t be more fascinated
This rare display of acquired vocalization could help scientists unravel the origin of speech and language in humans.
What is the hardest language to learn?
English speakers may find Mandarin, Arabic, and Japanese up to four times harder to become proficient in than Spanish or ...
AI reads, translates, and auto-completes ancient cuneiform texts
It should help us preserve these priceless texts for the future.
Politically-incorrect language can seem sincere, but only if you’re saying what the audience wants to hear
Nobody is free of biases, not even ourselves.
Very young children use both sides of the brain to process language, while adults only use half
Two hemispheres are better than one!
‘Brain fossil’ suggests origin of human language may be 25-million-years old
The seeds for the development of speech and language may have been sown many millions years earlier than scientists previously ...
Language forms spontaneously, and fast
People love to communicate -- there are over 7,000 languages in use today.
Men are more likely than women to use more abstract language
The differences may be due to the power dynamics between the two genders.
Old World primates can only use two ‘words’ at a time, new research suggests
"It's not the human system," say the authors.
African green monkeys howling at drones teach us about the evolution of language
Before there was the word, there was the meaning of sound.
New research sheds light into how our brains handle metaphors
Whether you break an egg or break into dance, our brain handles the word "break" the same.
A new study estimates English only takes about 1.5 megabytes of your brainspace
That's about the same size as.... 3 high-resolution memes or one-tenth of a second of video in 1080p.
Ancestral shift in diet may have changed human speech as well
Softer food gave humans an overbite that made it easier to produce "v" and "f" sounds.
Activating a new language is easy — the effort goes in suppressing the old one
Oui oui, tres bien!
From insects to whales, all sorts of animals take turns to communicate
When one utters, the other listens -- and such is the case in most animals too.
Australian magpies can understand what other birds are ‘saying’ with surprising clarity
Magpies? Check. Throwing orange balls at magpies? Check. Grated cheese? Check. I love this study.
Nouns slow down speech, which is why we utter a lot of ‘uhs’ and ‘uhms’ before them
We're far more likely to use slow-down sounds before nouns than verbs.
Monkey ‘vocabulary’ could clue us in on evolution of human speech
An adorable monkey's 'ekks' and 'tsiks' might teach how speech evolved.
New study links ancient cave drawings and the origin of language
Human speech may have been born out of cave art.