I wonder though whether a linguist today with a basic knowledge of the language, and/or access to basic tools like a grammar and dictionary, transported back to that time might have figured it out, given enough data and the context in which the messages were delivered. A relatively few cracked messages could render the essential cryptographic key. Do all human languages have such basic description? Far from it. My best guess based on what we’ve been able to find for The Rosetta Project is maybe one half of all human languages? A third? Without this, the decryption task would have to encompass basic linguistic analysis as well.

So is it possible that a human language in this day and age could serve the purpose? Maybe, maybe not — I welcome discussion. But if not – and here’s the real question on my mind – are we linguists done? Can we pack up our bags and go home? Although I think we understand something about human language – maybe a lot more than we did 70 years ago, it would be extreme hubris to say we really get all there is to human language at this point. I expect there are plenty of surprises in store even as far as grammatical structure is concerned – and at every level of structure. Many of the more interesting questions are likely to relate to how language is used in its cultural context — like the Pirahã avoiding speaking about the remote past because it is inaccessible to eyewitness verification.

The Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken Englishis a searchable collection of almost 2 million words of transcribed spoken English from the University of Michigan, including student study groups, office hours, dissertation defenses, and campus tours. Researchers use the Michigan corpus to investigate questions about usage, like "less or fewer?" (cf. this contentious Ask Meta thread) and more general topics, like "Vague Language in Academia."

"Yes, Canadians have our own spelling. The basic facts are right there in the title: We write organize with a Z (like Americans), marvellous with two Ls (like the British, but only sometimes), and neighbour with a U (also like the British)."

An introduction to the twenty-first century.

"A map of programming languages and rough locations in the world where they were created. Colors correspond to four major epochs: blue -- first languages, green -- establishing paradigms, yellow --consolidation and modules, pink -- the Internet age."

"Speculative Grammarian is the premier scholarly journal featuring research in the neglected field of satirical linguistics."

Cliches of tomorrow: "Back to World 1-1" -- "Even if they send in Chinese tanks" -- "Let's shoot this pig into space" -- "Trying to find a clock in a casino" -- "Putting the 'umption' before the ass."

"Suggestions on how to talk in the 21st century."

Time-traveling proto-hacker cuts up the Mayan control calendar, smashes control images, kills priests, etc. "Famine weakening control lines, I cut radio static into the control music and festival recordings together with sound and image track rebellion."

Joshua has seen the future and it is tagtagging, friendzilla, and netdriving. Oldie but goodie.

"As it happens, the phrase 'post card' appears over and over again in the flow of short, post-card-like notices that make up large parts of The Soft Machine." turns into punch cards in the 2nd part of the cut-up trilogy.

"Cutup techniques could swamp the mass media with total illusion." END OF THE WAR GAME

"In the Electronic Revolution I advance the theory that a virus is a very small unit of word and image. I have suggested now such units can be biologically activated to act as communicable virus strains."

"If I say to you, 'The 5 o'clock meeting has been pushed forward 1 hour,' what do you understand the new meeting time to be?"

Page with screen shots, etc.

European-region Nintendo DS language-learning series, very cool. Thanks Leandro!

"Audio clips from online dictionaries sing the hits of yesterday and today. The fun of karaoke meets the word power of the dictionary."

"...aims to be a generic syntax highlighter for general use in all kinds of software such as forum systems, wikis or other applications that need to prettify source code."

"Patterns are signs of weakness in programming languages. When we identify and document one, that should not be the end of the story. Rather, we should ... understand how to improve the language so that the pattern becomes invisible or unnecessary."

Neat hypertext "summary of a book by Christopher Alexander, et al ... The original book contains much essential detail behind each of the following patterns and is recommended reading."

"Without verbs, pretty good imitation of Yoda! And nothing more! No more erudition, no more delicacy in language! Language a broken mirror, litter of fragments on the page!"

"These insults were used by Soviet journalists and politicians, especially during the Stalin years."

"For a while, things went like a lubricated surface with no textural aberrations, but then it was like August 26 all over again. If you can imagine!"

"Wikiality."

See sections: 4 Should the article itself be in E-Prime? / 7 Article written in E-Prime considered a violation of npov. / 13 'is' in the definition / 17 Inserted 'is' following Wikipedia's Guide

"Stop giving god free publicity."

Michael Herman writes about the experience of having some of his OST articles translated into Russian.

"A cross-platform gettext catalogs (.po files) editor ... It aims to provide more convenient approach to editing catalogs than launching vi and editing the file by hand."

Unpacked, expanded version of her defense of Inform 7 from the recent SPAG.

"Doesn't everyone, no matter their politics or opinion of the phrase, secretly believe that in interpersonal dealings, they wear the 'decider' badge?"

"There's a good reason for a Theory Object being a kind of Theory Object, and it's about design patterns for design itself."

Regarding "thousands" of tactical errors in Bush Administration, "the secretary of state says she was speaking 'figuratively, not literally.'"

"The four villains of the game have been called both 'monsters' and 'ghosts.' ... The TV cartoon version compromised between the two conflicting names by calling them 'ghost-monsters.'"

"It should be possible to build a domain theory of built environments as structural and functional entities in themselves, and this will lend greater precision to studies of its interactions with other domains."

"From similes recently used in newspapers and magazines to describe the shapes of federal and state legislative districts."

"The current state of copyright infringement reminds me of prohibition-era drinking: a lot of people doing it but there's no constructive conversation."

Kind of myopic, but thorough within its narrow scope.

The word "esquivalience" is in your 10.4 Dictionary.app -- look it up!

Get the memo? It's now "a global struggle against the enemies of freedom."

Why are the textbook and the workbook both ~$20, but the CD $200?

"I believe this is the most comprehensive glossary of carnival terms to be found anywhere on the Internet."

"We seldom legislate new technologies into being."

The long wait is over. Check this out!

Acronym and abbreviation search engine.

Corporate euphemisms for "employee" and other interesting junk.