Hacker News with Generative AI: Language

Study finds a 50% decline in the use of semicolons over the last two decades (theconversation.com)
A recent study has found a 50% decline in the use of semicolons over the last two decades.
Language, Linguistics, Writing, Trends, Technology
27 points by lr0 32 days ago | 33 comments
The Source of "Water" (2020) (jamesgill.net)
Did you know vodka in Russian means “little water”?
Language, Etymology, Russia
12 points by stakkur 35 days ago | 7 comments
A Spectre is Haunting Unicode (2018) (dampfkraft.com)
In 1978 Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry established the encoding that would later be known as JIS X 0208, which still serves as an important reference for all Japanese encodings. However, after the JIS standard was released people noticed something strange - several of the added characters had no obvious sources, and nobody could tell what they meant or how they should be pronounced. Nobody was sure where they came from.
Unicode, History, Japan, Encoding, Language
12 points by Tomte 35 days ago | 0 comments
Amdash – Human only punctuation mark (theamdash.com)
For generations before generative text, writers have used the em dash to hop between thoughts, emotions, and ideas. Dickens shaped his morality tales with it, Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness flowed through it, Kerouac let it drive his jazz-like prose. Today, Sally Rooney threads it through her quiet truths of the heart.
Writing, Literature, Punctuation, Language
41 points by wymerica 35 days ago | 35 comments
Marked decline in semicolons in English books (theguardian.com)
A study suggests UK authors are taking Vonnegut’s advice to heart; the semicolon seems to be in terminal decline, with its usage in English books plummeting by almost half in two decades – from one appearing in every 205 words in 2000 to one use in every 390 words today.
Language, Linguistics, Literature, Writing, Trends
6 points by jnord 36 days ago | 1 comments
Marked decline in semicolons in English books, study suggests (theguardian.com)
Usage of punctuation down almost half in two decades as further research finds 67% of British students rarely use it
Language, Linguistics, Literature, Punctuation, Research
11 points by gnabgib 37 days ago | 0 comments
Passphrases made with slang, band names, movie titles, insults, and jobs (slang45.com)
73 Billion-ish combinations possible. It's like listening to your drunk uncle explain something Carl Sagan said.
Security, Passwords, Language, Humor
4 points by geocrasher 37 days ago | 1 comments
Diary: J. M. Coetzee, (1) Mother Tongue (books.substack.com)
A writer who made his name writing in English tries to leave it behind
Literature, Language, South Africa, Biography
22 points by Caiero 39 days ago | 7 comments
Markovian Parallax Denigrate (wikipedia.org)
Markovian Parallax Denigrate is a series[1] of hundreds of messages[2] posted to Usenet in 1996.[3] The messages, which appear to be gibberish, were all posted with the subject line "Markovian parallax denigrate".
Usenet, Internet Culture, Language, Cryptography, Art
4 points by CGMthrowaway 39 days ago | 0 comments
Wikipedia's Most Translated Articles (sohom.dev)
This is a list of article ranked by the number of Wikipedia language editions in which they appear.
Wikipedia, Translation, Lists, Language, Data
101 points by sohom_datta 39 days ago | 67 comments
Linguists find proof of sweeping language pattern once deemed a 'hoax' (scientificamerican.com)
In 1884 the anthropologist Franz Boas returned from Baffin Island with a discovery that would kick off decades of linguistic wrangling: by his count, the local Inuit language had four words for snow, suggesting a link between language and physical environment.
Linguistics, Language, Culture, Anthropology, Science
132 points by bryanrasmussen 40 days ago | 138 comments
California vanity license plate applications with reasons for rejection (2020) (github.com/veltman)
Warning: this dataset contains vulgar and offensive language (quite a lot of it).
California, Data, Government, Language, Censorship
77 points by networked 40 days ago | 83 comments
Who Did This (Etymonline)? (etymonline.com)
When Etymonline.com turned 10 a few years ago, the anniversary invited a new "who did this" page.
Websites, History, Language
12 points by mmooss 40 days ago | 3 comments
Groups of AI Agents Spontaneously Create Their Own Lingo, Like People (singularityhub.com)
A new study says AI agents can create shared language conventions. Learning how this happens could help us better manage agents in the real world.
Artificial Intelligence, Language, Research, Collaboration
3 points by Brajeshwar 42 days ago | 0 comments
The Awful German Language (1880) (faculty.georgetown.edu)
A little learning makes the whole world kin. --Proverbs xxxii, 7.
Language, History, Literature, Education
198 points by nalinidash 43 days ago | 473 comments
10 Japanese Concepts That Will Change How You See the World (kanjimaster.ai)
Japan's language and culture are deeply intertwined, with kanji characters capturing ideas rich in philosophy and life wisdom. These unique concepts offer more than vocabulary—they provide insight into a distinctive worldview that can reshape your own perspectives. Here are ten influential Japanese concepts expressed through kanji that will inspire you and change the way you see the world.
Japan, Culture, Language, Philosophy, Worldview
7 points by adilmoujahid 43 days ago | 0 comments
A library of words: Discovering Roget's Thesaurus (2023) (austinkleon.substack.com)
It felt like I spent the weekend in another century: Riding my bicycle, chopping wood, and obsessively reading Roget’s Thesaurus.
Language, History, Books, Thesaurus
48 points by NaOH 43 days ago | 13 comments
The Tongue Is a Fire (lrb.co.uk)
It’s​ puzzling, unsettling even, to see ‘free speech’ rearing its head in public debate again, rousing passions which seemed long defunct.
Free Speech, Politics, Language, Opinion
25 points by Petiver 43 days ago | 44 comments
Linguists Find Proof of Sweeping Language Pattern Once Deemed a 'Hoax' (scientificamerican.com)
In 1884 the anthropologist Franz Boas returned from Baffin Island with a discovery that would kick off decades of linguistic wrangling: by his count, the local Inuit language had four words for snow, suggesting a link between language and physical environment.
Linguistics, Language, Anthropology, Science
10 points by pseudolus 44 days ago | 2 comments
The 600-Year History of the Singular 'They' (2022) (mentalfloss.com)
For evidence that language is constantly evolving, look at the history of they. The singular form of the pronoun, which has become mainstream in recent years, can describe individuals whose gender isn’t specified—replacing the clunky he or she—and is used by nonbinary people who identify with the pronoun. The AP Stylebook has accepted such functions of they, them, and their since 2017, and Merriam-Webster made the singular they its word of the year in 2019.
Language, Pronouns, Gender, Grammar, History
9 points by Tomte 45 days ago | 1 comments
Origins of language: Wild chimps mirror linguistic structures in human language (phys.org)
Humans are the only species on Earth known to use language.
Language, Linguistics, Animal Behavior, Primate Research, Science
4 points by pseudolus 48 days ago | 0 comments
Linguists Find Proof of Sweeping Language Pattern Once Deemed a 'Hoax' (scientificamerican.com)
In 1884 the anthropologist Franz Boas returned from Baffin Island with a discovery that would kick off decades of linguistic wrangling: by his count, the local Inuit language had four words for snow, suggesting a link between language and physical environment.
Linguistics, Science, Language, Anthropology
11 points by Anon84 49 days ago | 7 comments
Ask HN: Why is the sender chat box always on the right? (ycombinator.com)
When did this UX convention develop and why? I think this is also true across languages like Arabic and Hebrew whose script runs right-to-left.
User Experience, Chat Applications, Design Conventions, Language
5 points by bdhe 51 days ago | 9 comments
The Turkish İ Problem and Why You Should Care (2012) (haacked.com)
Take a look at the following code.
Turkey, Language, Programming, Character Encoding
112 points by Rygian 52 days ago | 151 comments
Unparalleled Misalignments (rickiheicklen.com)
This is where I maintain a list of Unparalleled Misalignments (formerly quadruple entendres), pairs of non-synonymous phrases where the words in one phrase are each synonyms of the words in the other.
Language, Wordplay, Linguistics, Vocabulary, Creativity
149 points by ChadNauseam 54 days ago | 31 comments
List of Latin Phrases (wikipedia.org)
This article lists direct English translations of common Latin phrases.
Latin, Language, Reference, Wikipedia, Education
7 points by donpott 55 days ago | 0 comments
Zipf's Law (wikipedia.org)
Zipf's law (/zɪf/; German pronunciation: [tsɪpf]) is an empirical law stating that when a list of measured values is sorted in decreasing order, the value of the n-th entry is often approximately inversely proportional to n.
Statistics, Mathematics, Linguistics, Language, Data Analysis
6 points by baxtr 57 days ago | 0 comments
Dialogue-only subtitles are finally making their way to Netflix (neowin.net)
If you use subtitles on Netflix, which Netflix says makes you part of the nearly half of all viewing hours on Netflix in the US that happen with subtitles or captions on, you now have the option to turn on original language subtitles that show only the spoken dialogue.
Netflix, Subtitles, Accessibility, Streaming, Language
14 points by bundie 64 days ago | 2 comments
Kakistocracy: Rule by the Worst (econlib.org)
Every year in December, The Economist finds a “word of the year” that summarizes a major event or trend and has gained popularity in its wake.
Politics, Language, Trends, Economics
16 points by KnuthIsGod 65 days ago | 5 comments
The Ghosts of Gaelic (historytoday.com)
April 2025 is the 20th anniversary of the Gaelic Language Act (Scotland) of 2005, passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament with the aim of ‘securing the status of the Gaelic language as an official language of Scotland commanding equal respect to the English language’. It has provided the main policy framework for Gaelic since then.
Language, Scotland, History, Politics
61 points by apollinaire 66 days ago | 53 comments