General language

General language

Use this category for general terms related to languages.

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General language

hard-word dictionary

Language; General language

A primordial type of English dictionary that focused on defining "hard-words", i.e. Latin-derived inkhorn terms.

Harvard comma

Language; General language

Another name for the serial comma, which is a [controversial!] comma that some writers place before the conjunction that precedes the last item in a list.

Hausa

Language; General language

A West-Chadic language whose native speakers are mostly found in Niger and in northern Nigeria.

h-dropping

Language; General language

The removal of /h/ when pronouncing words spelled with h's — e.g. saying 'Arry instead of Harry.

upspeak

Language; General language

Also called uptalk, A way of speaking so that every statement finishes with a rising intonation, making it always sound like you're asking a question.

univocalic

Language; General language

type of constrained writing where the writer only uses words that contain one particular vowel, e.g. the writer only uses words that contain the vowel.

A theory proposed by Noam Chomsky (and his followers) which claims that all humans are born with a specific, human capacity for acquiring language. This hard-wired capacity is what Chomsky calls the ...