"he could not speak for you / For the race is run by one and one and never two by two."

[larryhammer]

Ah, linguistics, we hardly know ye!

Studying the random-drift parts of language change. Including how some previously regular past-tense forms became irregular. (via?)

Getting closer to decyphering the khipu "script". (via)

A politician from small Roman colony celebrated an electoral win by setting up a sundial in his home town. (via)

---L.

Subject quote from "Tomlinson," Rudyard Kipling.

Comments

[sovay]

A politician from small Roman colony celebrated an electoral win by setting up a sundial in his home town.

Nice!

[larryhammer]

Interesting, innit?

[thistleingrey]

"Natural selection" is an odd way of trying to conceptualize areal influence and class hierarchy, which have some bearing on how and why certain structures have stuck and others faded. I guess, as the article says at the end, there is still much to do.

ETA the khipu piece seems very cool (or maybe I just know less about the contexts? but evidence for the continuation of some uses into the twentieth century is exciting).

[larryhammer]

Using "natural selection" in this context bugs me.