The Roma in Romania have long been called Tigan or Gypsy. Now, the country has made Roma the official term and hopes to reduce stereotypes and discrimination.
‘Squeezed middle’ beats out ‘occupy’, ‘Arab Spring’ and ‘tiger mother’ to win the OED’s word of the year
Hengeilivable! Nonsensical English words and phrases are all the rage among young Chinese.
Why human translators aren’t afraid of machine translators. Also, a history of translation, and a new novel that draws on The Iliad.
Corporations love to tinker with spelling, often with disastrous consequences. Also, a film explores fears about Chinese.
An interview with writer and actor Stephen Fry, who has made a series on language for BBC TV.
Podcast: Almost no place on earth is remote any more, as a linguist discovers when he spends a year in an Inuit village.
Should diplomats learn the languages of the countries they’re assigned to? And how easy is it to learn a foreign musical language?
In this week’s World in Words podcast, what happens after a state bans bilingual education? And toilet talk with a US vs UK English expert.
A conversation with University of Sussex linguist Lynne Murphy aka Lynneguist. An American in Britain, Murphy maintains the Separated by a Common Language blog.
There’s concern that the tourism industry in London could be hurt by the bad publicity surrounding the riots.
Brooms are becoming a symbol of people’s disapproval of the riots in London
A Spelling Bee for Muslim World, a language proficiency test for immigrants to Britain, and Alaskans learn an African language.
How much we should blame extreme political rhetoric for the actions of Anders Breivik? Did words help pull the trigger?
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.