LANGUAGE

What 4 New Snowclones Like 'X-ers Gonna X' Have in Common

How is language evolving on the internet? In this series on internet linguistics, Gretchen McCulloch breaks down the latest innovations in online communication.

How Past Generations' Slang Became Today's Vocabulary

What we say today shapes the vocabulary of tomorrow.

Smol: The New Social Media Word That's "Small," But Cuter

How is language evolving on the internet? In this series on internet linguistics, Gretchen McCulloch breaks down the latest innovations in online communication.

Pilcrows and other paragraph marks in Edwin Lewis’s History of the English Paragraph (1894). (Image courtesy of archive.org.)

The Evolution of Punctuating Paragraphs Through 5 Specific Markers

Before writers ever thought to separate their words with spaces or punctuate their sentences with periods, documents were routinely arranged into visible, helpful paragraphs.

Abbrevs are Def Totes Legit. But How Do They Get Their Spelling?

How is language evolving on the internet? In this series on internet linguistics, Gretchen McCulloch breaks down the latest innovations in online communication.

Babies May Need to Move Their Tongues to Understand Speech

A new study finds that babies can distinguish between sounds better if they can move their tongue.

How Taco Emoji—and Hittite Hieroglyphs—Get to Your Screen

Remember when there was all that internet racket about the taco emoji? The trending hashtag, the t-shirts, the campaigns—it was a global initiative, and it worked. And we were happy, for awhile ... at least until we realized that there was no eyeroll emoj

8 Multilingual U.S. Presidents

7. During his presidency, Herbert Hoover and his wife Lou would hold their private conversations in Mandarin to prevent their staff from listening in.

Why the Pronunciation of GIF Really Can Go Either Way

How is language evolving on the internet? In this series on internet linguistics, Gretchen McCulloch breaks down the latest innovations in online communication.

35 Creative Slang Terms for Death From the Past 600 Years

Many of these slang terms for death are still familiar, but quite a few are less known—and still delightful.

17 Computer-Generated Hipster Baby Names No One Else Has Yet

Expecting? Here's your chance to name your baby Ulssand (before it becomes cool).

Shakespeare’s Plays to be Translated into Modern English

Thirty-six playwrights will create performable translations of all 39 original plays.

Study Finds Universal Strategy for Keeping Conversations on Track

Across all languages, humans ask for clarification in conversation every 84 seconds, on average.

Beautiful 1847 Map Shows the Many Languages of France

In the 19th century, there was more than one way to say "oui."

11 Perfectamundo Phrases from ‘Happy Days’

Yowsah!

There's a Century-Old Secret Jargon Still Spoken in California

It has fewer than 100 speakers left today, but Boontling once thrived in a little corner of Mendocino County.

In Scotland, "Snaw-Pouther" Is Just One of 421 Words for Snow

The other terms include “flup,” “glush,” “goor," and "Katty-clean-doors."

This Medieval Manuscript Has Stumped Codebreakers for More Than a Century

Some scholars have dedicated decades of their lives to cracking the code.

The Word 'Huh' Might Be Universal

The word “huh” packs a lot of meaning into just one syllable.

7 Ways the Internet Is Improving Language

How is language evolving on the Internet? In this series on internet linguistics, Gretchen McCulloch breaks down the latest innovations in online communication.

Finally, an answer to where the phrase sleeping with the fishes came from!

10 Pieces of Mob Lingo You Should Know

Whether you’re obsessed with 'GoodFellas' and 'The Godfather' or are binge-watching 'The Sopranos,' this list is for you.

Chinese Rulers Once Predicted the Future With These Ancient Carved Bones

Over the years, oracle bones have provided scholars with detailed records of China's Shang Dynasty period.

screencap from the Lule-Sami website samedigge.no

How Social Media Is Helping to Save Endangered Languages

From Sami to Ayapaneco, dying languages are getting a second life thanks to social media.

19 Cromulent Words You Can Still Adopt for a Good Cause

Wordnik is an online interactive dictionary with a mission to include every English word—and for $25, you can adopt a word.

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