Matthew Miller

Language Education / Lingua Test Center, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

[ラテン語さん @latina_sama]

文字の各部分の名前です。このようにいろいろあります。

[Serbo-Croatian Word of the Day 🇭🇷🇷🇸🇧🇦🇲🇪 @sc_wordoftheday]

Serbo-Croatian word of the day for 31/05/2026:

Dugme meaning button!

[Civixplorer @Civixplorer]

🇯🇵 Japanese Population Visualised.

By @KaleyKing167816

[Gro-Tsen @gro_tsen]

A linguistic point about French vs English:

I recently retrieved an item from an Amazon locker, and the locker thanked me with “merci d'utiliser Amazon locker”.

I would argue this is a bad translation of “thank you for using Amazon locker”. Let me explain. 🧵⤵️ •1/17

[Paras Chopra @paraschopra]

Ok, so I learned that these are called phonesthemes :)

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

We hope this post about orphaned negatives makes you gruntled.

An ‘orphaned negative’ is a word that SHOULD feel like it has a related word, but doesn’t.

‘Nonchalant’ is an orphaned negative because there is no ‘chalant.’

[Merriam-Webster @MerriamWebster]

equine = in the manner of a horse

bovine = in the manner of a cow

porcine = in the manner of a pig

asinine = in the manner of an ass

[Encyclopaedia Britannica @Britannica]

This sounds made up, but it is actually called "sun glitter."

The glittering pattern is caused by incoming sunlight striking the surface of the water at a less than 90-degree angle. 

Waves on the water's surface can also create this angle--and thus produce a glittering effect.

[Kevin Fei Sun 孙愷文 @KEBuHCAH]

shower thought: wait, shouldn't 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑢𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑢𝑟 literally mean "heater" in French?

TIL they literally had to heat up the cars before driving

[Linguistic Discovery @lingdiscovery]

The Hawaiian language only has 8 consonants. So how does it deal with sounds in words borrowed from other languages?

[Civixplorer @Civixplorer]

✍️ Different styles of Arabic handwriting.

[Astro_Neel @Astro_Neel]

My absolute favourite Indo-European cognates are the words for night.

In German, the term for night is → die Nacht (नाख्त).

And phonetically it's very similar to many of its other European counterparts, like:
Latin - Nox (eg. equinox)
Old English - Noct (eg. nocturnal)
Lithuanian - Naktis
French - Nuit
Czech/Polish/Slovak - Noc
Spanish - Noche
Greek - Nyx
Russian - Noch'
Esperanto - Nokto
Italian - Notte
Swedish/Norwegian/Danish - Natt

Most of the everyday Indians today may not be familiar with the above terms or any similar sounding synonyms in their own vernacular, considering that today our widely used terms for night are - Rātri/Raat/Nisha. (See the first pic)

However, what if I tell you that there *was* once an archaic Sanskrit term, eerily similar in sound with the European terms listed above? And that term was used more than a dozen times in Rigveda/Atharvaveda and other ancient classical texts? And one of its remnant forms still survive to this day, hiding in plain sight, but known to all of us while being relevant to Indian astronomy?

That Sanskrit word is → 𝗡𝗮𝗸𝘁/नक्त.
And it has been used generously in the older Mandalas of Rigveda for the personification of night. Sometimes, its other form Naktam/नक्तं is also seen.

Here is the verse that is in all likelihood, the oldest attestation of this word from the oldest mandala of Rigveda, and thereby its earliest mention in the entire corpus of ancient Sanskrit literature -

स ��ं॑ रे॒भो न प्रति॑ वस्त उ॒स्राः शो॒चिषा॑ रारपीति मि॒त्रम॑हाः।
नक्तं॒ य ई॑मरु॒षो यो दिवा॒ नॄनम॑र्त्यो अरु॒षो यो दिवा॒ नॄन् ॥

- Rigveda (Mandala 6, Sukta 3, Hymn 6)

[周尔复 @cholf5]

汉字的信息密度 👇

[yoshi @rk113]

OCAT(日本語)
OCAT(英語)
OCAT(中国語)
OCAT(韓国語)

[Linguistic Discovery @lingdiscovery]

A new book on etymology comes out later this year! “The Wordspotter’s Guide: A jaunt through our etymological past”

Here’s the publisher’s blurb:

[Vintage Maps @vintagemapstore]

Language evolution map of the British Isles

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

Lovely map showing the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet 'ka' in every Brahmi-derived script... It vividly shows the reach of the Golden Road

[Asger R. Christensen @asgerrojle]

Costs to attend private universities in Tokyo hit record high https://t.co/YFe5nyRSiH

[Cambria Press @CambriaPress]

From Mandarin to Cantonese, Hakka to Min, this fascinating handbook reveals the full linguistic diversity of the Sinitic world.

A Handbook of Sinitic Languages, Dialects, and Non-standard Mandarin by Cornelius C. Kubler and Clement Chu Sing Lau offers a rich, data-driven exploration of the languages and language varieties spoken across China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

✔ Covers major Sinitic language families: Mandarin, Wu, Yue (Cantonese), Min, Hakka, Gan, and Xiang
✔ Compares 10 Sinitic languages through 66 shared expressions
✔ Includes annotated speech samples from across China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan
✔ Features over an hour of complimentary audio recordings
✔ Explores non-standard Mandarin varieties and their relationship to standard Mandarin

For linguists, students, advanced language learners, and anyone interested in the diversity of the Chinese-speaking world, this is an essential resource.
→ Add this important handbook to your library and explore the full scope of Sinitic language diversity https://t.co/v9cGwkKh7A
https://t.co/v9cGwkKh7A

[おいでよ小金井👶🏻【非公式】武蔵小金井(ムサコ).東小金井観光大使.ムサコは武蔵小金井です @oidy_koganei]

小金井市民だいたいこれ👶🏻