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Contemporary concerns over climate change and the threat of extreme weather conditions may not be entirely new. Researchers attempting to decipher the runic inscriptions on the Rök stone from Scandinavia now believe it may refer to fear of an impending climate crisis. They suggest that the 9th century stone alludes…

Vocal fry has been my latest experience of frequency illusion, or the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, as it is sometimes known. In other words, the experience of learning about something new then encountering references to it absolutely everywhere. Maybe this blog post will trigger a similar experience for you. Anyway, back to…

When reading accounts of seismic historical events, I have always been struck by the extent to which ordinary people go about their daily business in a way that is remarkably unchanged. As we witness exactly this kind of tumultuous period in real time, I am sure the same observation will…

Humans are inherently tribal. We seek out other people like us and our sense of belonging is often reinforced by the language we use to communicate with our chosen group. This is the premise for Susie Dent’s wonderful exploration of the language used by Britain’s “Modern Tribes”. Whether these groups…

  English is a global language and inevitably has influenced vocabulary in other languages. For whatever reason, there often seems to be a certain cachet associated with English phrases and lexical items. In German, marketing texts in particular have a fondness for lobbing in English vocabulary. Unfortunately for the translator,…

  In 2002 David and Ben Crystal published “Shakespeare’s words: a glossary and language companion”, a detailed linguistic analysis of Shakespeare’s texts, giving up-to-date definitions of vocabulary and links to source quotations. Professor Jonathan Bate praised the book as “the most comprehensive guide to Shakespeare's astonishing linguistic inventiveness”. The book…

  Over the Christmas season this blog debated politically correct seasonal greetings, reflecting on a phenomenon that has been referred to a as a “manufactroversy” or manufactured controversy (or more pithily perhaps a “nontroversy”). Both these lexical items are fine examples of the portmanteau, “a linguistic blend of words, in…

  According to a recent YouGov survey, a quarter of the British population report being “very or fairly bothered” when they hear those from a non-English speaking country talking to each other in their own language when in the UK. It’s hard to know where to begin with an assessment…

“Liberty … means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear” George Orwell   This week’s blog considers freedom of speech and the right to hold unpopular opinions. As the world waits to see how the coronavirus outbreak will unfold, the extent to which the virus…

  My previous blog on the differences between languages in the way they categorise the colour spectrum prompted an exploration of the etymological origins of colour words in English. Maybe you’ve always wondered which came first: the colour orange or the fruit*, at any rate, this week’s blog should expand…