The current finding indicates that linguistic knowledge can influence perception, contradicting the traditional view that perception is processed independently from other aspects of cognition, including language. This is most famously seen in the case of visual illusions, which are mostly impervious to knowledge about the illusion.

Understanding how languages emerge and survive holds great interest for researchers, since many languages are slipping away in increasing numbers around the world. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) states that more than 40 percent of the world’s estimated 6,000 languages are endangered. But each new-language debut represents a bright spot against the global backdrop of widespread language die-offs. Tongues such as Light Warlpiri, Jedek, and Koro Aka fill gaps in our knowledge of how languages arise and endure, revealing some of the factors that can help keep rare languages alive.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/why-some-tiny-hyperlocal-languages-survive/582367/

Writing was independently invented at least four times in human history: in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica. The scripts of these civilizations are considered pristine, or developed from scratch by societies with no exposure to other literate cultures. All other writing systems are thought to be modeled after these four, or at least after the idea of them.
With future research, the number of pristine scripts could decrease, if archaeologists find evidence that any of these cultures copied the idea of writing from one another (most likely Mesopotamia and Egypt, because geography). And the number could grow, if other ancient symbol systems are deciphered and proven to represent true writing. But as it stands, most scholars believe that just these four scripts had independent origins.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2018/12/19/the-origins-of-writing/

A fun read for your weekend

Happy New Year to all our clients, employees, contractors, partners, friends and family! Have a successful 2019, everyone!

Many animals vocalize but may not be capable of vocal learning. Vocal learning is ability to imitate new sounds and use them correctly in different situations. Bats, cetaceans and birds are vocal learners. Orcas are advanced vocal learners in that they can imitate sounds of other species.
https://www.azula.com/orcas-learned-speak-dolphin-2476405389.html

Happy holidays to all our clients, employees, collaborators, partners, friends and family around the world!

Efforts are underway to train algorithms on a sample of 4,000 ancient administrative texts from a digitised database. Each records transactions or deliveries of sheep, reed bundles or beer to a temple or an individual. Originally impressed into the clay with a reed stylus, the texts have already been transliterated into our alphabet by modern scholars. The Sumerian word for big, for example, can be written in cuneiform signs, or it can be written in our alphabet as “gal”.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20181207-how-ai-could-help-us-with-ancient-languages-like-sumerian