The World in Words The World in Words with Patrick Cox focuses on language. We decode diplospeak and lay bare nationalist rants. And as English extends its global reach, we track the blowback from world's 6,000 other languages, in the form of hybrids like Chinglish, Hinglish, Singlish and Binglish. Binglish???
The American Muslim teenagers handbook (5:00) June 25, 2008 |download |permalink |email |
It's not that easy being a Muslim teenager in the United States. Now two Muslim teens and their Pakistani-born mother have a written a guide. It's called "The American Muslim Teenager's Handbook."
Esperanto didn't really catch on as a global spoken language. Maybe Nol will. It's a new universal language designed for the text message generation. The World's Gerry Hadden has the story.
Estonians love to study English. But some in the Estonian government wonder whether Estonians put too much emphasis on learning English, and too little on learning other languages. Cyrus Farivar reports from the Estonian capital, Tallinn.
Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with British journalist, Steven Poole about the phrase "cluster bombs" and other war-related words. Poole is the author of "Unspeak: How Words Become Weapons, How Weapons Become a Message, and How That Message Becomes Reality."
The World's Alex Gallafent gets to grips with meaningless lyrics. That is, lyrics written in invented languages, from Belgium, Wales and right here in the United States (circa 1946).
Peace on earth and other wishes (7:40) December 25, 2007 |permalink |email |
The World's Alex Gallafent considers what politicians, diplomats and other officials think about when they talk about peace.
Miss Belgium controversy (1:40) December 18, 2007 |permalink |email |
The winner of this year's Miss Belgium contest got into trouble recently. She couldn't answer a question in Dutch -- one of Belgium's official languages. She speaks French, the country's other official language. But her linguistic misstep highlights the country's current identity crisis. Anchor Lisa Mullins explains.
What's in a name? (3:30) December 11, 2007 |permalink |email |
The man who could be Russia's next president has a good name for the job. Dmitri Medvedev last name has roots in the Russian word for bear. And the bear is a traditional symbol of Russia. Anchor Lisa Mullins finds out more from Svetlana Savranskaya, who directs Russian programs at the National Security Archives of George Washington University.
For our Geo Quiz --- we wanted to match some "hard to translate" phrases with their country of origin. ("Poronkusema" means "the distance equal to how far a reindeer can travel without a comfort break". And "Hanyauku-Rukwangali" means "walking on tiptoes across warm sand." The first is heard in Finland, the second in Namibia.) Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Adam Jacot de Boinod, author of Toujours Tingo, a book about the extraordinary variety of international speech.
France's immigrant slang (3:00) October 30, 2007 |permalink |email |
The language spoken in France's immigrant neighborhoods doesn't sound much like French -- especially that spoken by young people. But the kids do want to be understood. So they've created a slang dictionary to help others in France understand them. Genevieve Oger reports.
People fleeing war, political persecution and poverty are transforming the face of America, and remaking the globe. This collection of stories examines the impact of populations on the move. read more