Ouch! Ah! Eina! This is what an Englishman, a Swede and a South African would exclaim respectively if they experienced intense emotion or a sudden painful sensation. They correspond, in any case, to the Castilian "ay!"
If the next time you go out for a drink you observe the people sitting around you, you will see that, while talking, men tend to gesture a lot and maintain a fairly neutral expression on their faces. In contrast, women make moderate hand gestures, but use facial gestures to send and receive messages. Females also smile more while talking and are attracted to those who smile back.
A few years ago, French researcher Daniel Schön showed that language learners find it easier to learn new words when someone sings them than when they are included in normal speech. And it is not only because of the motivation that is attributed to the music. The researchers say that listening to songs involves the same area of the brain that we use to learn languages. In addition, when we listen to a tune it is easier for us to remember the letter that accompanies it than if we try to memorize those same words without rhythm or cadence.
The brain of fetuses between 28 and 32 weeks of gestation is already prepared to establish the neural functions responsible for deciphering human speech, as stated in a study published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS ).
Scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (USA) have investigated whether there are differences based on sex in the expression of the Foxp2 gene, involved in the development of language in humans and in oral communication in birds and other animals.
The American Dialect Society, an association dedicated to the study of language in the United States, has chosen? Hashtag "as the word of the year 2012. The term refers to the common practice on Twitter of tagging topics or making comments by incorporating the symbol into tweets of the hash followed by a word or phrase.
As microblogging spreads on platforms such as Twitter, it becomes more common to use certain acronyms that facilitate the transmission of messages and information in 140 characters. Here we gather a few that you should know, such as IMHO, IRL, TY, PRT, etc.
An Asian elephant named Koshik, who lived in South Korea for five years when he was just a baby, is capable of pronouncing five Korean words, according to scientists at the University of Vienna in a study published by the journal Current Biology.
Danni Büchner is invited to Sam Dylan's Halloween party. But the "Goodbye Germany" emigrant has no desire for many other party guests. And find clear words.
