LANGUAGE

What Would English Sound Like If Its Rules Were Consistent?

The answer: Really bizarre.

Mark Ramsay, Flickr // CC BY-ND 2.0. Cropped.

Attention Nintendo Fans: You're Pronouncing 'NES' All Wrong

This is bound to upset some people.

Buy Books and Never Read Them? There's a Japanese Word for That

It sounds a lot nicer than "hoarding."

Tongue twisters have had people tripping over words for centuries.

The History Behind 8 Famous Tongue Twisters

Whether it's selling seashells by the seashore or buying Betty Botter's bitter butter, some of these difficult phrases go way back to when elocution was practiced as routinely as multiplication tables.

How to Sing 'Happy Birthday' Around the World

Candles not included.

Supper vs. Dinner: Is There a Difference?

They're not completely interchangeable.

50 Collective Nouns for Groups of Animals

What's the correct way to describe a group of your favorite animal? A "bunch of worms" may sound like a lazy descriptor, but it's correct.

How Do Linguists Pronounce GIF?

The debate rages on.

A New App Interprets Sign Language for the Amazon Echo

Abhishek Singh just made Amazon Echo a lot more accessible for the hearing impaired.

How to Craft the Perfect Comeback, According to Experts

Winston Churchill had it down cold.

Why Do Americans Call It ‘Soccer’ Instead of ‘Football’?

It may rankle purists, but American English isn’t the culprit.

How a Deaf-Blind Person Watches the World Cup

Brazilian Sign Language interpreter Hélio Fonseca de Araújo hit the hardware store, rigged up a tabletop model of the field, and enlisted a friend to provide extra interpretation for all the complex information that needs to come through in a game.

Watch Koko the Gorilla Use Sign Language in This 1981 Film | National Geographic

5 Fascinating Facts About Koko the Gorilla

The celebrity ape, who passed away in her sleep on June 21, changed what we knew about language.

Before you go bananas, know the theories for where the phrase comes from.

The Curious Origins of 16 Common Phrases

Chances are, you use some of these expressions in conversation frequently—maybe even every day. But where do they come from, anyway?

From Snoopy to Shark Bait: The Top Slang Word in Each State

There’s a minute, and then there’s a “hot minute.”

Sagar.jadhav01, Wikimedia Commons // ;CC BY-SA 4.0

New 'Eye Language' Lets Paralyzed People Communicate More Easily

The illustrated language guide is free to download.

Have You Heard? Trading Gossip Can Be Good for You

TMZ rejoices.

Why Macedonia Is Getting a New Name

The new title may help the Balkan nation finally join the EU.

25 Endangered Languages You Should Hear Before They Disappear

Half of the world’s spoken languages are expected to go extinct by the end of the century.

12 Different Ways to Say 'Doughnut' Across the U.S.

Celebrate National Doughnut Day with this regional slang for the tasty treat, brought to you by the Dictionary of Regional American English (DARE).

Google Translate Error Accidentally Insults Flat-Earthers

Oops.

Why Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Was Hero Turtles in the UK

British censorship led to ninjas, nunchucks, and sausages all being banned.

Linguists Say We Might Be Able to Communicate With Aliens If We Ever Encounter Them

Their theories are based on the idea that a "universal grammar" might hold true for both aliens and humans.

From Camreigh to Kayzleigh: Parents Invented More Than 1000 New Baby Names Last Year

Eleven babies were named after Cersei of <em>Game of Thrones</em>.

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