Word: levelling
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Arika Okrent is fluent in English, Hungarian, American sign language and ... Klingon. (O.K., so she has only first-level certification in Star Trek-speak.) Okrent, a linguistics scholar, spent the better part of five years perusing library card catalogs and attending colorful conferences to learn about languages created by one person and, in some cases, adopted by thousands. Her new book, In the Land of Invented Languages, chronicles the scientists, idealists and eccentrics who tried - and failed - to create the perfect parlance from scratch. TIME spoke with Okrent about defending the cranks from the critics, ordering sandwiches in Esperanto...
What surprised you most about the Klingon and Esperanto conferences that you attended? With Esperanto conferences, it was the level of fluency. I sort of thought it would be like watching a video of "Chapter 1: Dialogue" in a language class, like "Where is the library?" But it was very fluid, like watching someone speak Spanish. So seeing that happen convinced me that it's a real language; it's not people playing dress-up with a different vocabulary. You can speak textbook Esperanto or you could be especially Esperanto by using an unusual word as a verb just because...
...Modern Wing from Millennium Park by way of a slender pedestrian bridge that rises to deposit visitors onto a rooftop sculpture terrace that's free of charge. But to be admitted to the galleries, which on most days have an admission fee, you enter at ground level. What you find there is a three-story, glass-roofed atrium, a long processional space that's flanked on the left by a freestanding stairway that zigzags up to galleries on the second and third floors. On the right, temporary exhibition galleries occupy the first floor, with design and architecture above them...
...biggest criticism of the stress tests has been that they were not stressful enough. For instance, the government's "adverse case" scenario assumed an unemployment rate of 10.3%. But some economists are already predicting that unemployment will reach that level - or worse - in this recession. So the government's adverse scenario seems to be the actual...
...NCAA Regionals taking place in two weeks. “He had a big big breakthrough performance,” Saretsky said. “He really nailed his technique down when it mattered, and it’s great to see him move to the next level.” Junior and next year’s co-captain Jack Brady also competed in the event, tossing the hammer 50.05 meters—good for 37th. Brady also competed in the discus and shot put, where he threw a 10th-place 48.49 meters and 24th-place 14.95 meters respectively...