Indus Valley script encodes spoken language, says study

September 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of mathematicians and scientists has rejected claims that the Indus Valley people were functionally illiterate, by employing computer modeling to prove that the Harappan script communicated language. In 2004, perhaps out of befuddlement and frustration, a group of scholars declared that the ancient Indus Valley script marked only rudimentary pictograms and that the people during the Harappan period were functionally illiterate.

August 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has shown that bilingual people are not actually capable of "turning off" a language entirely. Ghent University psychologists Eva Van Assche, Wouter Duyck, Robert Hartsuiker and Kevin Diependaele have found that knowledge of a second language actually has a continuous impact on native-language reading.

June 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Having conversations with your children could help them develop language skills, according to a new study. The study by UCLA researchers has found that adult-child conversations have a more significant impact on language development than exposing children to language through one-on-one reading alone.

June 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Watching TV is likely to set back the development of language skills among children, says a new study. Young children and their adult care givers were found to utter fewer vocalizations, used fewer words and engaged in fewer conversations when watching TV.

May 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - If you speak two languages, then it would be easier for you to learn the nuances of a new foreign language than your monolingual counterparts, according to a study by Northwestern University researchers. And this bilingual advantage persists even when the new language being studied is completely different from the languages one already know.

May 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Bilingual people are more adept in picking up a foreign language than their monolingual counterparts, according to the latest research. Their bilingual advantage persists even when the new language they study is completely different from the languages they already know.

May 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Pre-schoolers pick up language faster in the presence of classmates with better linguistic skills. Of course, they also learn how to speak and understand language by the way their parents at home and teachers at school speak.

May 7th, 2009 LONDON - Do you want your child to have the perfect pitch? Well, then start him or her early on Mandarin or Vietnamese lessons, that's the suggestion of a new study. The study, which confirms children's excellent ability to pick up things early in life, claimed that the likelihood of developing perfect pitch seems to be strongly linked to the language people speak.

May 3rd, 2009 In view of recent controversy surrounding singer-model Rihanna’s misspelled Sanskrit tattoo and surge in celebrity interest in Sanskrit tattoos, Hindus have urged tattoo artists worldwide to undertake basic training in ancient Sanskrit language and culture surrounding it. Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that besides affecting tattoo artists, the increasing popularity of Sanskrit tattoo designs and symbols among Hollywood and other celebrities was also recreating interest in this ancient language among youth worldwide.

April 17th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is to move the International Court of Arbitration against India's diversion of the Jhelum river to the Wullar Barrage and what it terms the faulty design of the Kishanganga hydropower project in Jammu and Kashmir. 'I served notice on the Indian commissioner in March after exhausting all endeavours mentioned in the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty to resolve the issue,' The News Friday quoted an official as saying.

April 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Hollywood actor Michael Caine revealed that his forthcoming flick's script managed to do the task that no script has been able to do - it made him cry. The legendary actor revealed that he was bowled over by the script that reduced him to tears.

February 1st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Archaeologists cleaning a drain to flush out rainwater from an explored part of the ancient Indus Valley city of Moenjodaro have been pleasantly surprised to come across artefacts and other objects of much cultural value at the World Heritage site. 'We had gone just half a metre down the level of surface of the old structures in the DK-G area and found the material of cultural value,' Dawn Monday quoted Moenjodaro director Qasim Ali Qasim as saying.

January 25th, 2009 MUMBAI - 'Ghajini' star Asin Thottumkal, who got the Screen award for the most promising female debut in a Hindi film, says the matters most to her and she signs a film only if she likes the narrative. 'I have no particular choice of role in a film, but in the order of preference, I first see the script, followed by the role, director, banner and then the co-star,' Asin told IANS.

December 29th, 2008 NEW DELHI - Hollywood star Nicole Kidman has revealed that she accepted Baz Luhrmann's offer for 'Australia' without even going through the script. 'Baz just called me up and said, 'I'm thinking about this film' and I was like, 'I'm in.

December 29th, 2008 MUMBAI - Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali says he always wanted to work with Hrithik Roshan and he's doing exactly that in his new venture that also stars his favourite actress - Aishwarya Rai. The two have already created wonders together in 'Dhoom-2' and 'Jodhaa Akbar'.