Category Archives: Language

What I’m reading: Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through its languages

Peggy Mohan’s Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through its languages is a fascinating history of the languages of India. There are two key, intersecting themes: one is the idea that existing local language form a forming a substratum, … Continue reading

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An Interview with Vyvyan Evans, author of The Babel Apocalypse

Vyvyan Evans is an expert on language and digital communication. He holds a PhD in linguistics from Georgetown University, and has taught linguistics in Asia, Europe, and North America. His popular science essays and articles have been featured in The … Continue reading

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What I’m reading: Frederick J. Newmeyer’s American Linguistics in Transition

One of the benefits of retirement–a permanent sabbatical–is more time to more time to read, and I’m hoping to post more reaction to what I’m reading here. Today, a snowy end to February, is American Linguistics in Transition. When I … Continue reading

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What’s your word of the year?

What words epitomized 2022? Earlier this month, the attendees at the American Dialect Society selected –ussy as the Word of the Year for 2022. It’s a word part, a suffix, that according to linguist Ben Zimmer, who emcees the Word … Continue reading

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