Sam Quillen – Medium

Sam Quillen

Batailles Perdues: Why Isn’t French the Global Language?

Last summer, the world descended on Paris, bringing a festive atmosphere to a city whose recent history has been characterised more often…

Feb 22

Batailles Perdues: Why Isn’t French the Global Language?

Feb 22

Who Actually Lives in Greenland?

In recent weeks, the world’s largest, coldest island has been suddenly thrust into the centre of world affairs. US President Donald Trump’s…

Feb 20

Who Actually Lives in Greenland?

Feb 20

Interesting Characters: Why Doesn’t Everyone Adopt the Alphabet?

About a decade ago, a Beijing newspaper published a campus “gotcha” video that went viral nationwide. A reporter, armed with a pen and…

Feb 1

Interesting Characters: Why Doesn’t Everyone Adopt the Alphabet?

Feb 1

Swahili, Schools, and Decolonisation

Photo Credit: The Africa Specialists

Jan 23

Swahili, Schools, and Decolonisation

Jan 23

Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays? Why Does It Matter?

’Tis the season for many things. Friends and family, gifts and good cheer, and, unfortunately but inevitably, some amount of petty…

Dec 24, 2024

Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays? Why Does It Matter?

Dec 24, 2024

Why Don’t Egyptians Speak Egyptian?

Three years ago, I published an article asking whether Arabic is truly one language, or a family of related dialects artificially joined…

Nov 17, 2024

Why Don’t Egyptians Speak Egyptian?

Nov 17, 2024

Why Simple Rhetoric Works

This is not a political blog. But, throughout this year, which has held more elections worldwide than any in human history, it has stricken…

Nov 8, 2024

Why Simple Rhetoric Works

Nov 8, 2024

The Importance of Accent in American Politics

Over Labor Day weekend, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris gave speeches in the two key swing states of Michigan and…

Oct 19, 2024

The Importance of Accent in American Politics

Oct 19, 2024

Trade Names: How Geographic Mistakes Shaped Our Vocabulary

It is easy to forget, in our age of global trade and intercontinental flights, that the world was once a vast and mysterious place. Leaving…

Sep 19, 2024

Trade Names: How Geographic Mistakes Shaped Our Vocabulary

Sep 19, 2024

When Does a Dialect Become a Language?

A popular linguistics quip observes that a language is a dialect with an army and a navy. It is tragically common for national disputes (by…

Aug 21, 2024

When Does a Dialect Become a Language?

Aug 21, 2024

Common Speech: How China Invented Their National Language

Do you speak Chinese? If you asked this question to the average person living in Beijing, Hong Kong, Fujian Province, or on the banks of…

Aug 8, 2024

Common Speech: How China Invented Their National Language

Aug 8, 2024

Chillaxed Syntax: Is Language Becoming More Informal?

I recently visited Paris, to enjoy some athletic events and a lot of polyglot crowds, and stayed in an area that is still known as the…

Aug 5, 2024

Chillaxed Syntax: Is Language Becoming More Informal?

Aug 5, 2024

Will Technology Make Our Language Skills Worse?

Two years ago, I wrote an article arguing that translation apps were no substitute for learning a language. My ultimate case was social —…

Jul 29, 2024

Will Technology Make Our Language Skills Worse?

Jul 29, 2024

Is the United States a Latin American Country?

If you have spent time in many parts of the United States, you have probably noticed that a lot of people have a language background other…

May 10, 2024

Is the United States a Latin American Country?

May 10, 2024

Polyglot Politicians: How Many World Leaders Speak English?

At a joint press conference in 2019, US President Donald Trump declared, as he often does on such occasions, that his Indian counterpart…

Mar 31, 2024

Polyglot Politicians: How Many World Leaders Speak English?

Mar 31, 2024

How to Anglicise a Country: The Strange Story of Hawaii

Mar 20, 2024

How to Anglicise a Country: The Strange Story of Hawaii

Mar 20, 2024

What Are Language Families? Part III: Unusual Cousins

A significant majority of human beings today speak languages that fall into the Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, or Afro-Asiatic language…

Mar 6, 2024

What Are Language Families? Part III: Unusual Cousins

Mar 6, 2024

What Are Language Families? Part II: Hereditary Messiness

Of the 7,000 or so languages that exist in the world today, most belong to larger families. In Part I, we explored how this works through…

Feb 1, 2024

What Are Language Families? Part II: Hereditary Messiness

Feb 1, 2024

What Are Language Families? Part I: The Indo-European Connection

Speakers of most of the world’s languages are at least vaguely aware that their tongue is related to some others. For people in the West…

Jan 24, 2024

What Are Language Families? Part I: The Indo-European Connection

Jan 24, 2024

Spotify Wrapped Lists and Today’s Global Language Trends

Dec 30, 2023

Spotify Wrapped Lists and Today’s Global Language Trends

Dec 30, 2023

Sam Quillen

Sam Quillen

Former linguistics student; current investment bank analyst who sometimes thinks about something other than spreadsheets

Following

Help
Status
About
Careers
Press
Blog
Privacy
Terms
Text to speech
Teams