The Linguist

RESEARCH DEVELOPMENTS 1 Scientists are piecing together the 'alphabet' of which large mammal? 2 Did researchers find that newborn babies of bilingual mothers hear speech differently to babies of monolingual mothers or the same? 3 Are languages louder or quieter in the Tropics according to a Kiel University study? 4 Which land mammals were found to call each other by unique names? THE YEAR IN POLITICS 1 In the House of Lords, Baroness Coussins argued for an amendment to the Victims' Code. Now under public consultation, what language rights would this secure? 2 MPs spoke in Gaelic, Cornish, Welsh and Irish as they were sworn in following the election of a new UK government. But which former Prime Minister spoke in Sanskrit? 3 The senate of which EU country rejected a plea to end the outsourcing of language services for its congressional sessions in the nation's Indigenous languages? 4 Why was Kamala Harris called 'chicken' in Chinese after Trump campaigners accused her of stealing a woman's husband? How well do you remember the language stories of the last 12 months? TECH CONCERNS 1 Which language learning app promoted a fake ice skating musical for April Fool's? 2 What word did Facebook erroneously add to accounts with 'Palestinian', 'alhamdulillah' and the Palestine flag in their tagline? 3 Which weekly UK newspaper launched AI-translated videos to try to connect with young audiences in multiple languages? 4 Google launched its Gemini AI assistant in nine languages from which Asian country? THE LINGUIST QUIZ 2024 TRUE OR FALSE? 1 After the death of a care home resident due to staff members' inability to explain her critical state to 999 operators, the Home Office is raising the level of English language skills required by care workers. 2 As music in languages other than English grows globally, the top five languages on Spotify music (after English) are French, Korean, Spanish, Swahili and Urdu. 3 Less than 1% of British schools have whole- school policies that address foreign languages, according to the British Council. 4 The UK target for recruitment on language teacher training courses was missed by 34%. WORLD OF LITERATURE 1 Why did a translation project of 10 titles by The Netherlands' largest publisher, Veen Bosch & Keuning, cause such uproar? 2 Roughly what percentage of translators surveyed by the Society of Authors have lost work due to generative AI? 3 Which South Korean author, known for her prize-winning debut The Vegetarian, is the 2024 Nobel Literature laureate? 4 Shakespeare's Globe presented a bilingual retelling of Antony and Cleopatra in English and which other protected UK language? ciol.org.uk/thelinguist WHO SAID (AND WHY)? 1 "I've never spoken this much Vietnamese in my life… But the process gave me a sense of confidence and pride – I guess I found another side of me that I've been hiding for so long, so to speak." a) Hoa Xuande b) Sandra Oh c) Ali Wong 2 "When I played music with bonobo apes, I was stunned by their intelligence and their musicality… There is so much intelligent life on our planet that humans have failed to see." a) Peter Gabriel b) Phil Collins c) Paloma Faith 3 "The writing of a new Constitution is a question of political, economic and cultural sovereignty. No one can truly flourish from the concepts of others." a) Professor Noam Chomsky b) Burkina Faso PM Apollinaire J Kyelem c) Former British PM Gordon Brown 4 "I had coaches, yes, and we communicated every day in Spanish, but, yeah, my dad was even so proud. He was like, 'You're texting me, mija,' and I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm texting you in Spanish.'" a) Camila Cabello b) Sabrina Carpenter c) Selena Gomez FEATURES FCO CC BY 2.0; WUGAPODES CC BY-SA 4.0

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