Category: Â鶹Éç
Date: 17.01.2005
Printable version
If you speak more than one language scientists suggest you are less
likely to develop Alzheimer's.
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Women talk 'posher'. In every studied language of the world, females
use more prestige, standard forms of language.
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The Scots dialect has at least 75 different ways of expressing tiredness
– a few of them – bauch, daviely, defait, dirt deen, fornyward...
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Welsh was frequently heard in the English court at the time of Henry
VII and was the language of a Downing Street inner circle when Lloyd
George was Prime Minister.
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Bird - spelt 'burd' - was once the normal word for a young woman.
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People in South West Wales have been English speakers for 900 years.
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Grass with a short 'a' has been an English pronunciation for more than
1,500 years but with a long 'a' for less than 400.
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People were saying 'I don't fink so' in Yorkshire in the 1890s.
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Rhyming slang is found all over the UK.
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Shakespeare made up his own words.
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It's not just the Americans who call their mother 'mom' – lots
of Midlanders do too.
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In the Fifties there were at least 84 different English words meaning
left-handed.
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Standard English derives from the old East Midland dialect.
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The only language that isn't changing is dead.
