cubby posted The Language You Cry In, "an amazing scholarly detective story that searches for —and finds— meaningful links between African Americans and their ancestral past. It bridges hundreds of years and thousands of miles from the Gullah people of present-day Georgia back to 18th century Sierra Leone."
Illustration by Toby Morris via The Spinoff
Etrigan has posted The Side Eye: The Stink A, linking to The Spinoff's really well-done and fascinating infographic on "the glitchy macron" that highlights how font decisions and usage can have an outsized impact on non-Anglo populations.
oed 008 by freeformkatia (cc by-nc-nd)
Everything you didn't know you wanted to know about "countersink": xueexueg drills down on the etymology.
Photo by Enis Can Ceyhan on Unsplash
"Language justice is critically important for health care, legal services, workplace safety, and education": a great member-sponsored post and interesting thread from jessamyn. Sponsored posts are helping with the current, vital fundraising effort, and you can follow these posts on the blue here. (Also, btw: What's metafilter's second language?)
A slightly belated congratulations to MeFi's own Languagehat on the twentieth anniversary of his blog.
LBJ by Michael C Clark (cc by)
In Ask Metafilter, "Diseases can be idiopathic. Archaeological artefacts can be for ritual purposes. What are some other technical-sounding terms from other fields that means 'we're really not sure'?"
Tribute to Signe Brander - Explored by Poupetta
the umlaut is probably the least threatening of the diacritic marks ... Kattullus on why Finnish-language brandnames appeal to anglophone marketers.
¿ by Brandon Giesbrecht (cc by)
In Ask Metafilter, true wants to know what mis-gendered nouns sound like to bilingual people.
IMG_1697 by FrancescaV.com (cc by)
Recently on Mefi, people and places around the world, enchanting, mysterious and magnetic:
40 years of Shenzhen, from market village to SEZ
Breaking the Ice, rare Icelandic funk- and soul-inspired music
Central Station, stories from cattle stations in the Australian outback
Georgia Has a Coast? Photos by drone of the Georgia coast that fills his soul
Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran: looking at the lives of women during the Qajar dynasty (1796-1925)
La Scarzuola: deep in Italy, one man’s surrealist mini-city sleeps
Arundhati Roy on the politics of language and translation in India
Beyond 'Florida Man': The problem with writing about Florida
Figures In The Stars: comparing 28 different sky cultures
#81 Signal by Trevor King 66 (cc by)
Great comment from pemberkins about what botanists mean when they talk about "invasive" species (and social concerns about the terms) in the Giant Hogweed discussion.
koko_holds_smoky2 by sidknee23 (cc by-nc-nd)
ChuraChura reflects on the apes involved in language experiments in the passing of Koko obit thread.
All roads lead to Rome series by Nick Kenrick. (cc by)
But what's The Peutinger Map? Also known as Tabula Peutingeriana, it is a Medieval copy of highly stylized 4th Century map of the Roman road network, extending to India.
Kattullus invites us to explore the roads leading to Rome via "The Peutinger Map Reconsidered" with a variety of ways to view this ancient artifact, including overlays and lists of geographical features, while BWA offers What Latin Sounded Like and How We Know, and other linguistic treats from Nativlang.
Harvesting Palm Sugar by edbrambley (cc by-sa)
Join Mefites for a deep dive on some arts and culture from outside the west:
Catchy song and an intro to Kriol language and culture from an Indigenous Australian singer
A new movie provides a window into the unique culture, language, and politics of multigenerational Tamil-Malaysians
Classic short story from "one of Bengal's greatest writers"
Men's fashion from a prizewinning Indian designer
Regional politics, arts and music from Sudanese and South Sudanese journalists
Monkey by Jennie Robinson Faber (cc by)
An odd FPP is fun and a hit; can you add a new bit of apt wit – but on top of all, eke it out to fit?
inside elevation by parramitta (cc by)
Why does Wyoming have such a low population compared to neighboring states? barchan explains, jeb adds: "everything in the West comes back to water".
Ever wonder what a "nor'easter" is? Check out the great answers from Seymour Zamboni, plastic_animals, and weathergal in rules of thumb for weather patterns in the USA.
Lots of different places have unique colloquial weather terms too. (Gullywashers, the foxes' wedding, and lots of wind terms again from barchan.)
Also in language surveys: What are some antiquated place nicknames (like the Borscht Belt)? What do other languages call it when your foot "falls asleep"?
Different cultures also have their own languages of flower-meanings. Plus some cool info from sukeban on how new imported flowers like roses made their way into kimono designs in the late 19th century.
For geography/history detectives: How can I tell, just from clues in the document itself, when a world map was made or figure out when a photograph was taken?
Did you see the new photos from the formerly-hidden-from-visitors North Korean subway system?
Some great answers in travel threads recently: Italy: non-traditional but amazing?, and also Scotland: what not to miss.
MetaFilter started as a community weblog in 1999, later added question and answers, then music by members, jobs, projects by members, a podcast, and finally an area dedicated to meetups.
