It’s a pandemic. Look it up.
Dave Hunt/EPA
Do you know your antigen from your endemic?
Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Getty stock image
A group of scientists studying Madagascar’s natural treasures also wanted to respect the island’s language.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault, right, chats with Louise Mushikiwabo, secretaire generale de la Francophonie, Tuesday, June 11, 2019 in Quebec City.
CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
On the month of the Francophonie’s 50th anniversary, it’s time to think about the untold story of French connections across the Canada-U.S. border
Yayayoyo/Shutterstock
Forensic linguists are called as expert witnesses in court cases to provide linguistic analysis of legal documents and other forms of oral and documentary evidence – including emojis.
A trans Pride flag crosswalk in Calgary was defaced in August 2019 with a violent message, which was later covered with fresh paint and positive messages were left written with chalk. Anti-trans activism from feminists remains a challenge for transgender people.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dave Chidley
TERF is not a slur. Instead, we should use words that accurately describe how some feminists are actually anti-trans activists.
Hands up if you have been offended on social media.
pathdoc/shutterstock
It’s all about context.
From Indigenous languages to how migrants stay connected, mother languages are becoming the norm.
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On International Mother Language Day, Canadians can celebrate multilingual heritage by recognizing flexible uses of languages.
Depending on where you’re from, you say words like ‘basil’ a specific way.
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Accents differ depending on where we’re from, even in the same country.
Peter Clarke
We created a reading-machine that finds poetry hidden in plain sight in popular books. In doing so, we are exploring Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning and reading in a digitised world.
If only there were one that fit.
Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images
Irony is a slippery concept. Sometimes it’s used in speech, other times it’s used to describe a situation – oh, and it can also characterize an attitude. Is its versatility its downfall?
EPA/Alex Plavevski
The official naming of COVID-19 has the tone of a committee decision. Historically, names for diseases have not been quite so well thought out and were more likely to offend.
Protesters in Manchester, U.K., 1988.
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In the 1950s, ‘coming out’ meant quietly acknowledging one’s sexual orientation. Today, the term is used by a broad array of social movements.
African American Vernacular English is part and parcel of Black identity. Its distinctive linguistic features are
denigrated — wrongly.
(Shutterstock)
African American Vernacular English is part and parcel of Black identity. Its distinctive linguistic features are — wrongly — denigrated.
There are many ideas about why languages evolve – and all of them are likely to contain an element of truth.
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Languages are always changing and evolving- largely because humans have alwasy been on the move.
The graffiti in the men’s toilets tends to be more competitive while in the women’s it is more supportive.
Kostsov/Shutterstock
From crude drawing to advice and support, the scrawlings on toilet walls reveal differing communication patterns between the sexes
Though its use has grown in the last decade, the Anthropocene concept has been around since the 19th century.
John Cobb/Shutterstock
The term Anthropocene - previously known only to geologists and academics - has hit the mainstream. Now it’s being tweeted as shorthand for the negative effects humans have had on the planet.
Shutterstock/MVolodymyr
The words used to describe the natural world are dwindling - some are even being hijacked and given modern new meanings.
‘I want to produce such an impression of utter weariness and ennui that my readers will imagine the book could only have been written by a cretin,’ Flaubert wrote.
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Is a 19th-century French author’s cosmic joke turning into a real-life global nightmare?
The American Dialect Society chose ‘they’ as its ‘Word of the Decade.’
abstract_art7/Shutterstock.com
Pronouns rarely, if ever, change. Then along came the gender nonbinary ‘they,’ which was just anointed ‘word of the decade.’
What started as a SpongeBob meme took on a life of its own in 2019.
Alexander Oganezov/Shutterstock.com
As the year winds down, we’ll get you up to speed. Plus, there’s no better way to kill a trend than to bring it up at the dinner table in front of your kids.