The World in Words focuses on language. We cover everything from bilingual education to the globalization of English to untranslatable foreign phrases. You’ll learn how to insult someone in Icelandic, among other things. Hosted by The World’s Patrick Cox.
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The World in Words
Twanging with Lynne Murphy aka Lynneguist
A conversation with University of Sussex linguist Lynne Murphy aka Lynneguist. An American in Britain, Murphy maintains the Separated by a Common Language blog.
Podcast: Memorizing the Koran and a New ‘Speak English’ Test
A Spelling Bee for Muslim World, a language proficiency test for immigrants to Britain, and Alaskans learn an African language.
The Words that Armed Anders Breivik
How much we should blame extreme political rhetoric for the actions of Anders Breivik? Did words help pull the trigger?
Tamil Language Trying to Keep Up With the Times
The language is having trouble keeping up with the times without the help of English.
Punjabi immersion, Nigerian pidgin radio, and Annoying “Americanisms”
Top five language stories this month including: The first Punjabi public school in the US, a and a British journalist rails against the invasion of what he calls Americanisms into British English.
No Metaphors – China Miéville’s Imagined Language
In the latest World in Words podcast, a science fiction writer conceives of a language in which is impossible to lie.
Finally, Proof that Fiction is Good for You
In this week’s World in Words podcast, researchers test the supposed link between reading fiction and empathy.
The Legacy of the Bible in Translation
How the translated Bible has profoundly affected the English spoken by Jamaicans and how it may affect Jamaican Creole and Kalenjin.
What’s Assyrian for Canuck?
One of the world’s first written languages gets a new 21-volume dictionary.
Podcast: The US Government’s Metaphor Program
In this week’s World in Words podcast, new Scrabble words and spying on foreign metaphors.
Re-learning Spanish, and Super-Injunctions
In this week’s World in Words podcast, kids raised in the US are enrolling in Mexican schools, often after their parents have been deported– and they’re struggling to re-learn Spanish. Also, the politics behind the language of terms like illegal alien and undocumented worker. Plus, British gag orders aren’t working, thanks to Twitter. And, does Obama heart Britain as much as Brits heart Obama? Is the relationship still special?
Linguistic surrealism from China to Belgium
On the World in Words podcast, the trials, tribulations and silliness of living in Belgium, where most people define themselves not by nationality but by mother tongue. Also, arrested Chinese artist Ai Weiwei wrote a blog that was, if anything, even more provocative than his art. We hear from his English translator. And the latest children’s TV hit in the UK features Jamaican-British musical mice, with dialects that offend English purists.
The battle to own Bin Laden’s story
Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, a new battle has begun: the rhetorical fight to frame his legacy. The White House got off to a bad start, with its initial claims about the circumstances of the killing. We offer two stabs at this story, one from the perspective of the US government, the other from a cultural point of view. There have been many other such stabs: I especially like [...]
The butcher, the baker, and the cabbage gelder
As far as tedium goes, nothing competes with filling out a government form. How best to relieve the tedium? Invent stuff. Not out-and-out lie, just get a bit creative (OK, sometimes out-an-out lie: if I were to identify myself as a 90-year-old Azerbaijani woman or a Jedi knight, I would not be telling the truth) [...]
English-only in the US, translating tweets in Japan and satire in Egypt
The English Only movement in the United States is always active during times of high immigration. Now, the movement has got a shot in the arm from the Tea Party. It may help convince lawmakers and voters in the 19 remaining states that don’t yet have a law on their books declaring English to be the official language [...]
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