Word: linguistic
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...recent study by M.I.T. linguist Ken Hale estimates that 3,000 of the world's 6,000 languages are doomed because no children speak them. Researchers estimate that Africa alone has 1,800 languages, Indonesia 672 and New Guinea 800. If a language disappears, traditional knowledge tends to vanish with it, since individual language groups have specialized vocabularies reflecting native people's unique solutions to the challenges of food gathering, healing and dealing with the elements in their particular ecological niche. Hale estimates that only 300 languages have a secure future...
...lost the war," said Faisal al Afghani, whose Amman souvenir shop sells miniature Scud missiles. "We haven't had a leader like Saddam since Saladin." Unable to digest Iraq's defeat, many sought refuge in elaborate rationalizations. "The surrender of Iraqi troops," declared Stawri Khayat, a 30-year-old linguist from Jerusalem, "was staged by the Zionist-controlled media...
...jerry cans on the donkeys' backs got lighter. Toad the linguist asked Lutupen in Swahili, "Wapi maji?" (Where is water?) Then after finding a few dung-fouled cattle watering holes, he learned to be more precise: "Wapi maji mazuri?" (Where is good water?) At length they fell to quarreling over water and stopped speaking to one another for hours at a time...
...Macrene is a rare individual: scholar, humanitarian and linguist with a genuine pride in her family background," said Horner during the ceremony. "Not only has she demonstrated superior intelligence, as evidenced by her academic record and the comments from her professors, but she also possesses a compassion for people that has led her to choose a demanding career in medicine...
...standard, Jarobin Gilbert is a success. A Harvard-educated linguist with degrees in international law and finance, he commands a handsome salary as a globe-trotting NBC vice president who negotiated the broadcast rights to the 1988 Olympic Games. But every so often, Gilbert is rudely reminded that for people like him, there are still some things success cannot provide -- simple things, like a taxicab. Late leaving for the airport to catch an important business flight, Gilbert stood on a busy avenue futilely hailing cab after speeding cab. Finally he phoned his secretary for assistance...