The protective power of bilingualism
A university in Italy scanned the brains of dozens of patients with Alzheimer’s disease as part of a study. Half of them spoke at least two languages, the other half…
Read More ‘U’ or ‘jy’ and ‘jou’: How does one choose in Afrikaans?
The English personal pronoun ‘you’ is an incredibly versatile little word: one could use it to indicate second person singular or plural, and it allows you to hedge your bets…
Read More Savouring five foreign languages
Staff at the Language Centre decided to explore new pastures this year by hosting their first Non-Mother Tongue Day on 27 October: an initiative that forms part of the Centre’s…
Read More Trilingual terminology website launched
On Monday, 23 November 2015, the isiXhosa portfolio of the Stellenbosch University Language Centre launched its terminology website, with the terms presented in Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa. This site is…
Read More Did you know?
The letter combination “ough” can be pronounced in nine different ways, which can be heard in this sentence: A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after…
Read More Win with words!
Can you think of new creative English words for the Afrikaans bulletjie, koeksister and langarm? Come show your worth and take part in the Language Centre’s New Words competition held…
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