This poster is keen to stress how fat-free the advertised product is. But somehow, the drafters mixed up their directions. The text says, in both Spanish and English that the product could contain ‘up to 0% fat’. So, the product has 0% fat, or even less—but wait, ‘less than 0%’ is a negative number. That…… Continue reading Up to 0% fat
Month: September 2026
Two suppletive people in Slovene
As I’ve mentioned before, a few Russian nouns have a plural form bearing no resemblance to their singular form. One example is человек (/čelovek/ ‘person’), which has the plural люди (/ljudi/ ‘people’). (The form čelovek is sometimes possible in the Genitive Plural.) When different inflected forms of a word (for example, a noun) come from…… Continue reading Two suppletive people in Slovene
Conjugated prepositions in Welsh and Irish (and Hungarian and Finnish)
The Celtic languages have an unusual feature: inflections suffixed to most simple prepositions used with pronouns. I discuss below: conjugated prepositions in Welsh, and in Irish; conjugated postpositions in the 2 main Uralic languages (Hungarian and Finnish); conjugated adpositions (prepositions or postpositions) in languages around the world. Welsh In Welsh, the suffix forms typically have…… Continue reading Conjugated prepositions in Welsh and Irish (and Hungarian and Finnish)
Inscription in Old Spanish in Cordoba
The Mezquita in Cordoba (Spain) has a rich and varied history, having been a mosque and later a cathedral. It contains many inscriptions. Many are in Arabic, but here is a picture of one in Latin or old Spanish. Online sources suggest that the non-Arabic inscriptions are in Latin (perhaps medieval Latin). But I see…… Continue reading Inscription in Old Spanish in Cordoba
When many more languages were in use
A paper published this year reports estimates of the number of languages spoken on Earth over the last 12,000 years. The authors estimate that the number of languages: was around 4,500 to 6,200 (and perhaps as low as 3,300 to 7,800) 12,000 years ago, when the estimated world population was around 4 to 7 million…… Continue reading When many more languages were in use
Irish challenge (9)
This post is the 9h instalment of the Irish leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers chapter 8 of Teach Yourself Irish. For previous instalments, please see https://languagemiscellany.com/tag/irish/ It covers: adjectives forming adverbs from some adjectives lenition after masculine plural nouns preposition: le (‘with’) preposition de (‘of’, ‘from’) expressing quantity words and phrases Mutation…… Continue reading Irish challenge (9)
This typo was just a typo, not a result of a different variety of English
I have written before about the distinction between (a) different varieties of a language and (b) performance errors within a single variety. https://languagemiscellany.com/2026/08/a-place-that-you-know-where-it-is/ Sometimes, it can be hard to draw this distinction in practice, but sometimes it is easier. I recently saw an example that clearly results from an editing glitch and is not an…… Continue reading This typo was just a typo, not a result of a different variety of English
That stitched thing from Bay-you
The airwaves are full of reports and interviews about the imminent exhibition of the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum. I’m surprised how many British speakers have been calling this embroidered cloth the Bay-You /beɪjuː/ Tapestry. I’ve always called it the /baɪjɜː/ Tapestry, and I always thought everyone else did too. I checked what the…… Continue reading That stitched thing from Bay-you
Welsh challenge (9)
This post is the 9th instalment of the Welsh leg of my current Celtic challenge. It covers chapter 8 of Colloquial Welsh. This post covers: prepositions (personal forms, temporary states) compulsion telling the time possessive adjectives with verbal nouns some indefinite pronouns form of auxiliary bod (‘be’) after subject question word For earlier instalments, please…… Continue reading Welsh challenge (9)
Odd word order for German modal verbs
When I started learning German to a reasonable level, I was puzzled by 2 oddities in how modal verbs work. I’ll start by giving some background. In German main clauses, the finite verb appears in 2nd position (example 1). A finite verb is a verb form that marks the person and number of the subject—…… Continue reading Odd word order for German modal verbs