A Highly Accurate Language Quiz That Can Tell Where You Grew Up
Do you pronounce it "Roof" or "Ruf?" "Water" or "Wuhter?" Are little river shellfish called "crawfish" or "crayfish" or "crawdads?" Depends on where you grew up.
The First Major Movie To Be Dubbed In Navajo Is...Star Wars
Star Wars has been translated and dubbed into dozens of languages, but recently it became available in one you don't normally see on a DVD menu: Navajo.
The Trouble With Most High Fantasy Dialogue Is That It's Terrible
I can pinpoint the exact line that finally broke me.
Taking the Taboo Out of Mature Gaming
It's like clockwork; Moments after popping open any game that has a mature rating, my 10-year-old son seems to appear at my elbow to ask if he can play it with me.
Do You Enjoy Reading Your Video Game Dialog?
In today's episode of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Korio8 wonders if anyone else prefers subtitles in their video games, even if they can hear every spoken word perfectly.
The Erosion of Communication
Like waves crashing against a cliff face, video games are slowly eating away at the foundations of the English language. But is that such a bad thing? Let's ask Andrew over on LittleBoBeep.
A Conversation with a Game? Devs Seek to Break the Ice
Language recognition is not a new concept to video games - the first text adventures had to understand commands somehow. But researchers are trying to integrate it in more open-ended ways - allowing for dynamic conversations between players and characters.
Games as Language
L.B. Jeffries has a nice essay up on the idea of 'games as languages' — a combination of coercing players to take certain actions and encouraging certain responses, creating a dialogue of sorts. As Jeffries says, "It’s not exactly talking to another person…but it’s not just rolling dice or pressing shoot either." As…
Cunning Linguists: Crafting In-Game Languages
The issue of created languages is hardy new (cf Esperanto), but I've not seen a lengthy discussion of created languages in games — the challenges and pitfalls of designing a working, intuitive, and integrated linguistic system that's really a part of a game is an interesting issue. James Portnow spoke with Richard…
MSU Offering New Chinese Language/Culture MMO
In an effort to make learning Chinese less painful (and ostensibly to capitalize on the 'MMO as language learning tool' trend that's been talked about a bit in the past few months), Michigan State University's Zhao Yong (professor of education technology and educational psychology) has designed Zon!, where players can …