Languages Online: The Best of July 2017

As it's the start of a new month, we're back with some of the internet's best stories and content from last month. Let's have a look:

10: Pollie-speak: 9 uniquely Australian political terms on Oxford Dictionaries

The Oxford Blog brought us some fascinating terms on Australian political speak in this article. Do you know your barbecue stopper from your wombat's tail? Don't worry if you don't! Find out about these interesting English terms in this article.

9: 7 Ways to Embrace Mistakes When Speaking a Foreign Language on I Will Teach You a Language

Anyone learning a language will appreciate this one. While making mistakes in a foreign language can be embarrassing, you should own those mistakes and use them to improve your foreign language skills. This article tells you how!

8: 5 Obscure Words For Everyday Feelings And Emotions on Mental Floss

You ever had a feeling you can't put into words? This article explaining words for weird sensations and feelings might help!

7: Raising a Truly Bilingual Child on The New York Times

Whether you're having a baby, trying to raise one bilingual, or just interested in child language acquisition, this is an article you should be reading!

ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

6: Cantonese v Mandarin: When Hong Kong languages get political on The BBC

This article discusses the languages spoken in Hong Kong and how the linguistic landscape has changed since the UK handed it back over to China in 1997.

5: Do you want fries with that? Data shows Americanization of English is rising on The Guardian

If you're American, this won't bother you. However, if you're a speaker of British English, you may feel a little annoyed. It turns out that English is becoming more and more American but that doesn't mean that there's anything to worry about.

4: End Result Irrelevant on Itchy Feet

We just love the comics on Itchy Feet. Especially this one! (You should also check out their Kickstarter for their travel card game here.

3: Bilingual Baby: How to Teach Your Baby Two Languages on Fluent in 3 Months 

Here's another article on child language acquisition. However, the article's focus is on making your baby bilingual. If you're interested in raising your child in a multilingual environment, here's how!

2: Babies can understand the difference between two languages while in the womb, scientists find on The Independent 

According to a recent study, babies can distinguish languages before they can even speak them. Check out this intriguing article about the study carried out by the University of Kansas.

1: We still have no idea why humans speak over 7,000 languages on Quartz

This month's most popular piece is an article on what would seem like a non-story. It turns out we don't know why there are so many languages in the world! If you'd like to know more about why we don't know stuff, you should check out this article.

Were there any other articles or content online this month that we should have featured? Tell us about them in the comments below.