The people of Luxemburg speak Lëtzebuergesch (Luxembourgish), which was officially designated as the national language in 1984. This is a Germanic language descended from a Moselle-Franconian dialect, but having numerous French loan words, particularly in the fields of business and administration. Many German speakers can understand spoken Luxembourgish to a greater or lesser extent. Until…… Continue reading Languages in Luxembourg
Author: Peter Clark
Mnemonics in language learning
Mnemonics can help in learning languages. Here are three I learnt at school. German: Fudgebow This mnemonic is of the 7 basic prepositions that take the accusative case: Für: forUm: aroundDurch: throughGegen: againstEntlang: along (actually a post-position, it generally follows the noun, all the others precede it) Bis: untilOhne: withoutWider: against (not to be confused…… Continue reading Mnemonics in language learning
Puzzle: a hint
Last month I set the following puzzle. Here is a sequence of 11 consecutive instances of ‘had’: had had had had had had had had had had had Can you punctuate this sequence to turn it into a perfectly valid English text? Here is a hint. John and Tom had each written a sentence for…… Continue reading Puzzle: a hint
Top writing tip
The following quote is my number 1 writing tip. It is so vital that it is my number 2, 3 and 4 tip as well. The most important thing in writing is to keep track of what your reader knows and doesn’t know.Writing Tips for PhD Students, John H Cochrane, https://www.johnhcochrane.com/s/phd_paper_writing.pdf Failing to follow this…… Continue reading Top writing tip
Puzzle: 11 consecutive instances of ‘had’
My first English teacher at secondary school said that a perfectly valid text can contain 11 consecutive instances of ‘had’: had had had had had had had had had had had All it needs is some punctuation. Can you see how to do it? I will give a hint on 7 May and another hint…… Continue reading Puzzle: 11 consecutive instances of ‘had’
Lake Lake on Mars
In February 2021, the Mars rover Perseverance landed at Jezoro crater on Mars. Planetary scientists think the crater once held water, presumably a lake. The crater is named after the small town of Jezoro in Bosnia. NASA Mars Mission Connects With Bosnian Town. Update September 2022. For a picture of Jezoro crater by Perseverance, please…… Continue reading Lake Lake on Mars
Welcome to Language Miscellany
Welcome to my blog Language Miscellany. I’m writing about everything that fascinates me about English, other languages and language in general. I’m sure you’ll find plenty here to interest, entertain and delight you.