Thursday, October 27, 2011

Halloween Special: The Linguistics of the Paranormal

I asked our resident expert on linguistic "weird stuff," Sally Thomason (remember our phenomenal 10/24 meeting? The very same!) for some Halloween-related linguistics, and she was kind enough to forward me an article she wrote about xenoglossy, a spooky process by which someone suddenly learns a language or accent without acquiring it naturally, supposedly (according to the psychiatrist who first described it) a language learned in a previous life. She also posted an article about the linguistics of channeling spirits in the Skeptical Inquirer called "Entities in the linguistic minefield", and if anyone is able to find it that would be great.



Sally Thomason's Article

And here's a sort-of-related Colbert Report video on Japanese phonetics robots and Foreign Accent Syndrome!

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