Listen & Learn Blog

Beloved author of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams, died 11 years ago, but his legacy lives on.

Adams wrote The Meaning of Liff, a dictionary of “things that there should be words for but aren’t”, and his family and friends have now written a new volume called Afterliff. The book will be published in August next year.

The original Meaning of Liff, and its 1990 sequel The Deeper Meaning of Liff, set out to find a use for the “spare words which spend their time doing nothing but loafing about on signposts pointing at places”.

“Our job, as we see it, is to get these words down off the signposts and into the mouths of babes and sucklings and so on, where they can start earning their keep in everyday conversation and make a more positive contribution to society,” wrote Adams and Lloyd in 1984, before going on to explain the meaning of words including “liff” itself: “A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover. For instance, any book the dust jacket of which bears the words. ‘This book will change your life’.” (Source: Guardian)

Afterliff’s new words include:

Poughkeepsie (n)
One who supervises, curates, or commentates on another’s colonic irrigation

Gussage St Michael (n)
System used by Marks & Spencers’ store planners to ensure that the way to the men’s sock counter always passes through the ladies’ lingerie department

Want to learn some new words of your own? Try Portuguese classes in New York.

The Muppets have enduring popularity, both in America and around the world.

But there’s one question it seems everyone asks – what exactly is the Swedish Chef saying??

Well, apparently Swedish people get asked that question a lot, and their answer is nothing Swedish. To Swedish people he sounds Norwegian. Actually he’s speaking gibberish!

Slate did find a ‘translation’ of the gibberish though – it’s based on the context and which words sounds similar to Swedish words. There are videos of the Swedish translation and the English version here.

Did you have a secret diary as a kid? Perhaps written in a language no one but you understood?

Now you’re all grown up, why not spice up a boring day at the office by communicating with your colleagues using a fictional alphabet? If you’re all Lord of the Rings fans, there’s a couple alphabets for you to choose from. Or maybe Futurama is more your thing? Try out their alien alphabet.

Take a look at this Flavorwire article for more inspiration!

Stephen Colbert has perhaps reached the pinnacle of his career – he’s inspired a language.

Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois needed to invent a new language for a study, and chose Colbert as the language’s inspiration.

“Stephen Colbert has brought new words like ‘truthiness’ and ‘Lincolnish’ into the lexicon,” Marian said. “We had to invent a new language to do our research, and no one invents words as readily as Stephen Colbert. Naming our new language after Colbert was a no-brainer.”

Marian said the Colbertian words were designed not to resemble any words in English or Spanish. (Source: UPI.com)

The researchers say their study will help them find out if knowing multiple languages makes learning a new one easier.

A fascinating article in the New York Times describes the rise of invented languages (conlangs) in Hollywood.

The most famous conlangs are probably Klingon (from Star Trek) and Esperanto but more recently languages have been invented for the film Avatar (Na’vi) and the television show Game of Thrones (Dothraki). Who is behind these new languages?

Trained linguists, it would seem. The person who constructed Dothraki is David J. Peterson, a linguistics graduate of the University of Southern California, San Diego. Paul R. Frommer, the man behind Na’vi is a professor at USC. Constructing new languages is apparently quite challenging:

Dothraki came with its own challenges. Mr. Martin’s books described the Dothraki people as nomadic warriors who live in grass fields and survive mostly on horsemeat.

“First you say, should this word exist at all?” Mr. Peterson said. He decided that the Dothraki, with their long braids, or “jahaki,” wouldn’t have a word for toilet, cellphone or even book since that implies they have a printing press. The Dothraki do however have more than 14 words for horse (including “hrazefishi” for a teeny-tiny horse).

Next, Mr. Peterson tried to establish words that would be native and basic (meaning they are not derived from another Dothraki word), toying with letter combinations and sounds he liked. His favorite sound is “JH” as in “genre,” so he made the word for man in Dothraki mahrazh.

“I said to myself, if I won the right to coin the word “man,” it better be cool,” Mr. Peterson said. (Source: New York Times)

Big Harry Potter fan? Can’t wait for the release of the final instalment of the movie? Then this is for you!

Warner Bros. has developed a Parseltongue translator – put in a message and it will be converted into Parseltongue! For non-Potter fans, Parseltongue is the snake language that both Harry and his nemesis, Voldemort, speak. (they’re known as Parselmouths).

Once you’ve typed in a message and it has been translated, you can choose to email the message, post it to Facebook or Twitter or download an mp3 version.  Be warned though – Parseltongue is a pretty creepy sounding language!

Source: LA Times

The first production performed entirely in Klingon has premiered in the Netherlands.

Called u, the production was conceived by the Klingon Terran Research Ensemble (KTRE), based in the Hague. The title translates as ‘universe’ or ‘universal’.

Klingon was invented by linguist Marc Okrand as the language of the fictional Star Trek warrior race. Fans have taken up the language with enthusiasm and sometimes controversy – one American man decided to speak to his child only in Klingon for three years.

The opera apparently features a Klingon story with Klingon lyrics and Klingon singers although this has caused some difficulties:

..Schoenfeld admitted the KTRE had to “assume a lot of things”. “We can’t go to Qo’noS and hang out with the Imperial Opera,” he said. “That’s just not an option right now. And we’re hoping, of course, for some grants to allow that.” (Source: The Guardian)

Quite an achievement for an invented language.

Why not take a break from your serious language learning today – and celebrate International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

If you’ve never heard of this most amusing of days, then read this history for more information. Then head over to check out the vocabulary (in English, German or Dutch) or this video and get speakin like a pirate – arrr!

For those who are won over by pirate speak and want to incorporate it into their everyday life, you can search like a pirate with Google, Twitter like a pirate with this tool and change your Facebook language to English (Pirate) too. There’s even a pirate guide to parenting if you want the younger generation to follow in your footsteps.

Being British, I’m baffled by American sports such as baseball and football. I’m pretty sure one’s the national pastime and the other is the national obsession, but I couldn’t tell you which was which, despite the best efforts of my American friends.

Perhaps then, I should get myself the Dickson Baseball Dictionary, now in its third edition. A friend sent me a link to this article, an enjoyable introduction to the history of the dictionary, which now includes 10,000 entries compiled by researchers, fans and volunteers.

The language definitely looks interesting, with terms like “doozy maroony”, “fandango” and “whiz chuck” being thrown around. And as the author says, the baseball language transcends time:

Dickson points out that when Call Ripken Jr was honored as one of the 100 greatest players of the 20th Century at the 1999 All-Star Game with the likes of Ted Williams and Carlton Fisk, the shortstop thought how cool it was that the language of baseball transcends different eras. “We talked baseball,” Ripken told The Boston Herald “with the same dimensions and strike zones.” (Huffington Post)