Tag Archives: Linguistics

Ask or aks? How linguistic prejudice perpetuates inequality

Amanda Cole, University of Essex; Ella Jeffries, University of Essex, and Peter L Patrick, University of Essex Teacher and artist Sunn M’Cheaux has been posting on social media about “linguicism” after a reader asked him about the word “ax”, saying: “Why did we struggle saying ‘ask’? Like when I was little, I always said ‘ax’. Like I couldn’t say the …

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Five life-affirming words we should bring back into use

The Oxford English Dictionary tries to include all words in English (particularly British and American English) from 1200 onwards. dollar gill | unsplash, FAL Sara Pons-Sanz, Cardiff University Lexicographer and TV personality Susie Dent recently embarked on a curious, self-appointed mission. She is determined to bring the word “respair”, last used around 1525, back into common usage. “Respair”, Dent explains, …

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Mispronunciation: why you should stop correcting people’s mistakes

J.K2507/Shutterstock Jane Setter, University of Reading A recent survey of 2,000 adults in the UK identified the top ten “mispronunciations” people find annoying. Thankfully the majority (65%) of annoyed people do not feel comfortable correcting a speaker in public. But leaving aside the fact that 2,000 is hardly a representative sample of the UK, with its population of over 66 …

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One skill that doesn’t deteriorate with age

Reading and writing can prevent cognitive decline. AJP/Shutterstock.com Roger J. Kreuz, University of Memphis When Toni Morrison died on Aug. 5, the world lost one of its most influential literary voices. But Morrison wasn’t a literary wunderkind. “The Bluest Eye,” Morrison’s first novel, wasn’t published until she was 39. And her last, “God Help the Child,” appeared when she was …

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One skill that doesn’t deteriorate with age

Reading and writing can prevent cognitive decline. AJP/Shutterstock.com

Reading and writing can prevent cognitive decline. AJP/Shutterstock.com Roger J. Kreuz, University of Memphis When Toni Morrison died on Aug. 5, the world lost one of its most influential literary voices. But Morrison wasn’t a literary wunderkind. “The Bluest Eye,” Morrison’s first novel, wasn’t published until she was 39. And her last, “God Help the Child,” appeared when she was …

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How COVID-19 is changing the English language

The coronavirus forced the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary to break with tradition. Illustration by Anurag Papolu/The Conversation; dictionary photo by Spauln via Getty Images and model of COVID-19 by fpm/iStock via Getty Images , CC BY-SA

The coronavirus forced the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary to break with tradition. Illustration by Anurag Papolu/The Conversation; dictionary photo by Spauln via Getty Images and model of COVID-19 by fpm/iStock via Getty Images , CC BY-SA Roger J. Kreuz, University of Memphis In April, the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary did something unusual. For the previous 20 …

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The strange tales behind how some English words found their way into the Iraqi dialect of Arabic

The strange tales behind how some English words found their way into the Iraqi dialect of Arabic

shutterstock. gvictoria via Shutterstock Ahmed F Khaleel, University of York The British “Mesopotamian Campaign” of World War I took almost three years to get to Baghdad – and the occupying force faced many challenges once it arrived. In fact, Britain’s overwhelming predominance over Iraq from 1917 to 1947 was a time of rough and violent political and economic “communication”. But …

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