Planet Word Museum
@PlanetWordDC
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Planet Word is an interactive museum of words and language in Washington, D.C.
Washington, DC
Joined October 2016
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When we say we're a "descriptive" museum and not a "prescriptive" museum, this is what we mean. We're not here to correct anyone's language—we just want to celebrate the many ways people sign, speak, read, and write every day!
#MusMeme
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@neilhimself
We think you're pretty cool too, Neil! If you're ever in DC, we'd love for you to stop by the museum — we bet you'll get a kick out of our magical library.
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🚨🚨Announcement time!🚨🚨
Planet Word is officially opening May 31, 2020!
Read more from the Washington Post here:
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Hailed as one of the best nonfiction books of 2021,
@ClintSmithIII
's latest book, HOW THE WORD IS PASSED, is a poignant exploration of the impact of slavery on American society. Planet Word Advisor Clint Smith joins us Feb. 1 to discuss his book.
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“I have to make sure that young people who are growing up today...I need them to know that their language and therefore their culture is valuable” -
#PlanetWord
advisor and author
@JasonReynolds83
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In less than a week, “it’s gonna be May”! Thanks to the atypical way Justin Timberlake sings the line “It’s gonna be me” in NSYNC’s 2000 hit of the same name, it’s now a classic meme welcoming the start of May. But why does he sing “may” instead of “me”?
#Tunesday
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With a poet’s keen observation and a journalist’s diligence,
@ClintSmithIII
explores the legacy of slavery through American monuments and landmarks in HOW THE WORD IS PASSED. He joins us Thursday for a free online event to discuss the book. Register here:
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Planet Word is re-opening on April 1! The museum will be open Thursday through Saturday and free, timed-entry passes will be available on Monday, March 29. We can’t wait to see you again!
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Planet Word advisor
@ClintSmithIII
joins us tomorrow for a free online event to discuss his best-selling book HOW THE WORD IS PASSED and the ways in which American monuments and landmarks shape our collective memory about the history of slavery.
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Happy
#IndigenousPeoplesDay
! From the names of landmarks and local animals to everyday foods and objects, many commonly used words originally come from Indigenous languages across the Americas.
#Etymonday
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Is “Standard” English changing because of social media? What is considered “Standard” — and why? Hear from linguist
@GretchenAMcC
tomorrow at 6:30 for a wide-ranging discussion of the language of the internet.
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There now is a place in D.C.
That most everyone should want to see
Planet Word is our name
And we’re rising to fame
Showing folks how cool language can be!
It’s National Limerick Day, so we couldn’t resist tooting our own horn a bit in limerick form. Let’s hear your limericks!
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Roses are red
Violets are blue
Languages matter
And so do you ❤️
Shoutout to everyone advocating for language today!
#LAD19
#AcademicValentine
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The echoes of slavery linger in landmarks across the US, from Monticello in Virginia to a plantation-turned-prison in Louisiana. Tomorrow, hear from writer
@ClintSmithIII
, whose new book HOW THE WORD IS PASSED weaves the stories of these places together.
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Words matter. Planet Word is the only museum in the country dedicated to renewing and inspiring a love of words and language. Reach us at .
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If we ever needed a lesson in the power of words to cause physical and psychological harm, we’ve had such a lesson—no, several—this past week. If ever there was a time to recognize our shared values around words and language, it was this past week.
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Nikki Giovanni’s poem “My First Memory (of Librarians) is perfect for National Librarian Day. Read her full ode to the sensation of walking into a library at — and don’t forget to show some appreciation for the librarians in your life today!
#SundayStanzas
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"I found power early on in saying things exactly the way a person I know or I would say them. I used to hear songs say things like 'Girrrrl, I cry for you.' And I'm like, no one says that!"
Congrats to
@BenFolds
(a Planet Word advisor!) on his new book 🥳
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We were honored to welcome
@FLOTUS
Jill Biden and Mrs. Brigitte Macron of France — both lifelong educators — to the museum Thursday morning. With bilingual poetry readings by Ada Limòn and Maya Salameh, we celebrated the power of words and language to bring us together.
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“I get a joyful thrill every time I zoom out on the English language and realize that we’re somewhere in the middle of its story, not at the beginning or end.” -
@GretchenAMcC
, author of BECAUSE INTERNET
“Selfie,” “unfriend,” “binge-watch” — what are your favorite internet words?
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You may be wondering...what even *is* a museum of words and language?
Here's a taste! At Planet Word, you can explore languages from around the world by interacting with native speakers and signers in the Franklin School's stunning Great Hall.
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Happy birthday to Jay-Z! It’s no wonder this master wordsmith is the most-nominated artist in the history of the Grammys — in our Unlock the Music gallery, you can learn about how he uses sophisticated techniques like anadiplosis to elevate his lyrics.
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Hwæt! Tomorrow we’ll be speaking with
@hanavideen
about her book, The Wordhord. Join us to explore what some fascinating words from our linguistic past, like “hleahtor-smiþ” (“laughter-smith”), can tell us about the lives of the earliest English speakers.
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While you’ll have to come visit our magical Library gallery to hear
@JasonReynolds83
’s beautiful reading, “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden is just too appropriate to not share today:
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We get this question all the time: "So what *is* a museum of words and language?" Let us show you!
As we get ready to open in the spring (!!!), we'll be previewing some of our 10 main gallery experiences—starting with The Spoken World!
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Our virtual ribbon cutting ceremony begins at 11am ET! Musical performances, special guests, and more—you won't want to miss it.
View the stream on our homepage or on Facebook live!
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The wait is over, word sleuths! Lexicon Lane, our brand-new puzzle room featuring 26 cases full of word mysteries just waiting to be solved, will open to the public March 26! Grab your friends, don your thinking caps, and get ready for word-adventure fun!
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Do you ever think about how people often use fancy Latin adjectives for spring (vernal) and fall (autumnal), but not summer and winter? Well, we do! Let's investigate.
(Pictured: Emily paints with the word "autumnal" in Word Worlds, a gallery where you can paint with words!)
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Happy birthday to Toni Morrison,
#NobelPrize
laureate and the prolific author of novels like Beloved, The Bluest Eye, and Song of Solomon. With sweeping prose, Morrison tells profoundly Black stories that draw on folklore and magical realism.
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Planet Word is thrilled to welcome
@BenFolds
to our advisory board! We feel like "The Luckiest" museum in the world 😊
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Happy birthday, Nancy Drew! Readers were first introduced to this plucky teenage detective on this day in 1930 with the release of the first Nancy Drew mystery, The Secret of the Old Clock. Her books encouraged generations of young women to be inquisitive and do what is right.
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Amanda Gorman dazzled the nation on Wednesday with her inaugural poem, “The Hill We Climb.”
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Today is
#InternationalMotherLanguageDay
— a day to celebrate linguistic diversity and inclusion. It is part of the United Nations’ efforts to promote multilingualism and protect non-dominant, Indigenous, and endangered languages. (📷 Les Talusan)
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Who can relate to this Japanese word? 🙋
A visitor contributed this delightful word to our Words Matter gallery, where you can share words that you find personally meaningful and powerful. What are some of your favorite words from other languages?
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“I kept feeling like I was an intruder...Even in major publications it would have clues like ‘Husband’s spouse’: WIFE. ‘Towels his and ____’: HERS."
Communities of diverse cruciverbalists are striving to make the crossworld more inclusive
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Too burnt out for New Years resolutions this year?
@maggiesmithpoet
finds inspiration for the new year in the etymology of “resolution” itself: “We can trace the word back to the Latin resolvere, meaning ‘loosen’ or ‘release.’”
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Happy International Women’s Day! If you’ve ever looked at the English words “woman” and “female” and wondered why they contained “man” and “male,” well…
#Etymonday
is here to tell you why!
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"None of us are good listeners all the time. It’s human nature to get distracted by what’s going on in your own head. Listening takes effort. Like reading, you might choose to go over some things carefully while skimming others, depending on the situation"
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Psst...we're hiring.
We'll be reading resumes in the new year!
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Every visit to Planet Word begins with Speaking Willow, the interactive sculpture in the museum’s courtyard. Each of the speakers hanging from the tree plays a recording from a different language — together representing the native tongues of 99% of the world’s population.
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Happy Poem in your Pocket Day! If you’re stopping by the museum today, be sure to check our charming gumball machine at the front desk for a little poem to carry with you.
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What’s up, word fans! The moment you didn’t know you were waiting for has finally arrived: it’s time for the first annual Planet Word-style March Madness tournament, aka
#MarchWordness
!
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What’s in a meme? Join us on March 19 as internet linguist
@GretchenAMcC
shares insights from her best-selling book BECAUSE INTERNET on everything from doge memes to ellipses.
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When planning your visit to Planet Word, don’t forget about our
#LittleFreeLibrary
! Consider bringing a book or two to leave behind for other visitors to discover and take one home yourself. Maybe you’ll find a new favorite!
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“Reading has shown me how to become closer to people, to understand their choices and relationships, to explore their worlds.” Read Planet Word Founder Ann Friedman's thoughts on how reading books can bring us together:
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Amanda Gorman, the USA's first National Youth Poet Laureate, has been selected to read at next week's inauguration ceremony! Her poem will be titled "The Hill We Climb" and, at 22, she will be the youngest inaugural poet on record.
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Planet Word is 2nd on the list of
@CNTraveler
’s 10 Best Museums in Washington, D.C.! Described as “Disney World-levels of imaginative” and “a hidden gem,” we’re honored to be singled out as one of the best museums in our museum-rich city.
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Smithsonian Magazine calls Planet Word the "talk of the town"!
"Far more than the sum of its constituent characters, language is a crucial aspect of how humans navigate the world around them."
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Why do people of different ages use punctuation differently online? And what exactly is going on with all these memes? Internet linguist
@GretchenAMcC
covers these questions and more in BECAUSE INTERNET—and she joins us for a (free!) event on March 19.
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"Those who worry about teens speaking 'hashtag' aloud ('Good for you—hashtag sarcasm!') might consider the last time they punctuated an utterance by saying 'full stop' or 'period'"
@lanegreene
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Haven’t had a chance to visit Planet Word yet? Get an insider’s tour of our voice-activated, interactive galleries this Sunday at 9 a.m. ET on CBS Sunday Morning alongside
@CBSSunday
correspondent Chip Reid as he visits our “literary wonderland.” 😊
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We have delicious news! Immigrant Food+ is now open on our lower level!
From casual fare during museum hours to fine-dining fusion cuisine in the evening,
@immigrantfooddc
offers food with a mission and honors the gastronomic contributions of immigrants.
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“They” has been a hot topic for a while, with many people using it as a nonbinary singular pronoun. While some debate whether “they” can be singular (it can, and it has been since the 1300s), often overlooked is the fact that “they” originally wasn’t English at all!
#Etymonday
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The word “cisgender,” which refers to the majority of individuals who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth, has been the source of some controversy in the past week, with Elon Musk declaring it a “slur.” But where does the word come from?
#Etymonday
🧵(1/4)
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Mellifluous, whimsical, penultimate, lollygag… these are all words that visitors to our Words Matter gallery love the sound of! What are some of your favorite words to say?
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“Intonation patterns—the specific ‘melodies’ people use when making statements or asking questions—are often among the first aspects of accent that get picked up" -
@jennycz
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In support of the safety of our community we will temporarily close to the public as of Monday, November 23rd. Please follow us
@PlanetWordDC
or via our newsletter to join our online events and programs and get advance notice of our re-opening plans.
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Franklin Park is open once again! 🎉 Congratulations to
@DowntownDCBID
for the beautiful renovation of the park – we’re thrilled to have such a lovely outdoor space next door to the museum!
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All year, Planet Word advisor
@bgzimmer
has been tracking
#coronacoinages
— words made up during the Coronavirus pandemic. For Beyond Wordplay, he gathers up the highlights of a year from doomscrolling and gleefreshing to quarantini and covidiot:
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You might know that saying “chai tea” could be a little redundant (like “ATM machine”), because “chai” means “tea” in India. But did you know that in most of the world’s languages, the word for tea is either “te” or “cha”?
#Etymonday
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What happens when a linguist reads a menu? Join us next week as we sit down with Stanford professor
@jurafsky
, author of The Language of Food, to talk about the delicious intersection of language and food.
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It’s a rainy day here in DC! It’s got us thinking about how in French, Spanish, and German, the word for “umbrella” includes a reference to rain or water (parapluie, paraguas, Regenschirm). So what’s up with English? Where does “umbrella” come from?
#Etymonday
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“A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered.” — E.B. White
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What a stellar review! Thank you, Julie 😄
My 9yo spent the afternoon exploring ideas about language I didn’t encounter until my first year as a
#linguistics
major - and she gave it a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review.
@PlanetWordDC
was worth the wait!
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It’s National Letter Writing Day! To celebrate, we wanted to showcase a few of our favorite epistolary novels — that is, novels written as a series of letters and other documents between characters. Let us know if you’ve read these, or if your favorite is missing!
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Happy, merry, joyous National Thesaurus Day! English is particularly rich in synonyms and antonyms because while a third of our vocabulary comes from Old English, roughly 60% comes from French, Latin, and Greek.
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Love is in the air — and in our magical library! 🌸 Last week, we had our first ever marriage proposal at Planet Word.
Congratulations, Kady and David! All the best to you both as you write the next chapter in your love story.
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Words matter. That’s why we covered our museum’s walls with the wise words of iconic writers, orators, and philosophers, which remind us every day about the power of language in all its forms. What wise words have shaped you?
#LifeLessonsMW
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Our magical library is ready for its closeup! 📸 A film crew from Long Story Short has been hard at work capturing the wonder of Planet Word this week.
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Happy National Read a Book Day! Whether you're a fan of fast-paced high fantasy or a slow- burning romance, we encourage all of our fellow book lovers to spread their love of reading. What are some of your favorite books?
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Our founder, Ann Friedman, is Downtown DC's 2020 visionary of the year — but she's already looking ahead to 2021! Hear her vision 2.0 for the future of Planet Word.
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Did you know that Washington, D.C. is home to a vibrant linguistic tapestry?
Explore the “D.C. dialect” and the rich linguistic diversity of our nation’s capital in this Q&A with linguist and
@LCDC_Georgetown
co-founder Natalie Schilling.
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7
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In the wise words of Nicole Kidman, we go to the movies to laugh, to cry, to care. Because we need that, all of us. While we’re getting ready for tonight’s
#Oscars
, let’s look back at some iconic movie lines through the years. What are your favorite lines to say?
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James Baldwin was a prolific American writer who started difficult conversations through his written work about race and sexuality in the 20th century. Today, on his birthday, we take the time to celebrate his life by highlighting his legendary impact on the literary world.
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It’s National Puzzle Day! Can you solve these wordy rebus puzzles?
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Up for some multilingual "I spy"?
When looking for a clock in a crowded image, English speakers also looked at a cloud, while Spanish speakers looked at a present. Why? Because clock/cloud share a sound in English and reloj/regalo share a sound in Spanish
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Ever wanted to read Ancient Egyptian? Ever wondered if emojis are just modern hieroglyphics? We teamed up with Georgetown professor
@ruthtkramer
create a crash course in Ancient Egyptian to answer your deepest questions (and provide plenty of fun facts)!
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At Planet Word, we are working day and night to bring just such a place to life, to remind people of what we stand to lose from the careless use of words. And how much we stand to gain from the thoughtful, creative, compassionate and even playful use of words. —Ann
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On this day in 1996, the original Pokémon game was released! Over the past 25 years, the names of hundreds of monsters have entered the gaming lexicon, leaving us to wonder... how do Pokémon get their names?
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It’s beginning to feel like summer in D.C.! What better way is there to cool off than with a refreshing treat like ice cream, or even a sweet sherbet or sorbet? We can thank Iran and the global food trade for the sweet drink that later became all three frozen desserts.
#Etymonday
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With St. Patrick’s Day fast approaching, today we’re looking a word that came to us from the Irish: “boycott.” “Boycott” is an eponym (a word named for a person), after English land agent Charles C. Boycott. 🧵
#Etymonday
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How many words are in the English language? Truthfully, it depends on how you define “word.” We commonly consider “run” to be just one word, but it contains numerous meanings across parts of speech and contexts. “Run” alone has 645 definitions in the Oxford English Dictionary!
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“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.”
— Flora Lewis
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It's punctuation day...
It's punctuation day?
It's punctuation day!!
Happy
#NationalPunctuationDay
to the expressive little marks we know, use, and love ❤️
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The United Nations has declared 2022-2032 to be the International Decade of
#IndigenousLanguages
, to raise awareness of the plight many Indigenous languages face as they lose speakers, and to promote preservation and revitalization efforts for these languages.
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What happened to the semicolon that broke the law?
It was given two consecutive sentences! 😂
Share your favorite language jokes with us in the comments.
#WordplayWednesday
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We’re breaking ground today! Join us at Franklin Square Park at 13th & K Street NW at 11:30 a.m. for the official ceremony. Look forward to special performances and previews of what’s to come at the
#PlanetWord
museum
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Today is Juneteenth (a portmanteau of "June" and "nineteenth"), the oldest known holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States. How will you commemorate the day? Some ideas:
Learn about the history of Juneteenth in DC:
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This
#Etymonday
, we are exploring the magical qualities of grammar...in quite a literal way. As we all know, words have power. But did you know that “grammar” shares its etymological roots with “glamour,” originally a Scots word for magic, and “grimoire,” a book of spells?
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On this day in 1066, the Normans invaded England and changed English forever. As you learn in our Where Do Words Come From? gallery, they brought words that we commonly use to describe politics, food, and more.
Thanks to the Normans, a third of English words come from French!
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Happy
#WorldEmojiDay
! As linguist
@GretchenAMcC
notes in her book, BECAUSE INTERNET, we often use emojis in our text messages the way we use gestures in our speech — to convey tone, attitude, and more. What are your most-used emojis? 😂❤️😍🤣😊
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Our founder Ann Friedman on the power of language: “I want people to be aware of their words...Because they have a choice. You can use your words to hurt others, to wound, or you can use them to heal and to create friendship and understanding and empathy.”
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Happy National Library Week! It’s a great week to stop by your local library to borrow a book, attend a program, or access the many other resources libraries provide. Planning to visit Planet Word? Don’t miss our magical Library, where books come to life! (📷 IG: uri__indc)
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"When you encounter contemporary poetry in all of its diversity, you find that that there is a lot for you. And so we really want to reach the people who love poetry, but don’t know it yet."
@johngreen
,
@Paige_M_Lewis
, and more launch "Ours Poetica"
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Habari Gani! Today is the first day of
#Kwanzaa
. The annual Pan-African celebration gets its name from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza,” meaning “first fruits.” It refers to the harvest festivals that take place throughout Africa.
#Etymonday
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