In 1866, the topic became so controversial that the Société de Linguistique de Paris banned discussions about language origins altogether.
Articles on Language
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‘Soccer’ originated as a slang term in the 1880s and continues to be used around the world today. So why are some people squeamish about the term?
Chad’s language policy has inherent potential for conflict.
When someone offends us, mood has a much stronger influence than personality over how we react.
Exaggerating phrases and talking in a sing-song way can actually help, not make it harder, for young children to master speaking a language.
What should we call the words that this ultramodern technology produces? For clues, a professor looks to some of the world’s earliest authors.
There’s a difference between using a tool to assist you, and using one to replace cognitive effort.
Bubble, hoop, wiggle, bed: Some words bear an uncanny resemblance to the shape of the object or action they describe. And we tend to process them faster.
Automated speech recognition is a powerful tool – but it comes with a host of assumptions.
‘Typoglycemia’ is often shared online as a quirky insight into how our brains work. But this viral claim is only part of the story.
Lingua franca refers to any language used between people who have no other language in common.
Throughout the history of the language, what has been considered ‘bad’ speech often becomes ‘proper.’ You just have to give it time.
In ‘1984,’ George Orwell envisaged a world in which books were a mass-produced commodity no different from ‘jam and bootlaces.’
For some Sephardic Jews today, holidays provide a rare opportunity to hear the now-endangered Judeo-Spanish language.
A linguist explains what makes human English human, and why you shouldn’t overdo it with large language models.
Writing is a relatively recent invention layered on top of something much older and more fundamental.
Judgements of politeness go beyond language and culture – they are also deeply tied to emotion and moral intuition.
If a baby doesn’t show a clear response at a particular age, it does not necessarily mean they have stopped learning or missed an important step.
Some years ago, my linguistic research team and I started to develop a computational tool aimed at reconstructing the text of the Singapore Stone. Now that software is ready.
The proposed English Language Bill assumes a problem. In reality, English dominates public life while many heritage languages struggle to survive.
Top contributors
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Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Monash University
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Professor of Linguistics, Monash University
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Roger J. Kreuz is a Friend of The Conversation.
Associate Dean and Feinstone Interdisciplinary Research Professor, University of Memphis
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Honorary Associate Professor in Writing, The University of Queensland
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Professor of Linguistics, University of York
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Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford
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Associate Professor in Linguistics, Macquarie University
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Professor of African Language Studies, University of the Western Cape
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Senior Research Fellow of Linguistics, University of Colorado Boulder; Griffith University; University of New England
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Associate Professor of Linguistics and Director of Language Lab, The University of Western Australia
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Associate professor, Universidad Nebrija; UCL
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Associate Professor in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of Canberra
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Postdoctoral research fellow (Forensic Linguistics/ Language and Law), University of the Western Cape
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Professor of Linguistics and English, Florida International University
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Director, Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing, University of Pittsburgh