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With so much recent focus on how women are treated, we need to look first at how we use language. And for a long time, it has been used to belittle and silence women.
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How words are used change over time and insisting that their original meaning be adhered to is pretty silly.
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There are plenty of reasons why our road signs should be in both te reo Māori and English. And no, bilingual signs don’t cause accidents.
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Medicine’s linguistic history in English is rich indeed, peppered with borrowings from French. But the Old English renderings retain a certain charm.
Quotation slips for the first Oxford English Dictionary.
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A new book, which weaves fiction into the origin story of the Oxford English Dictionary, was declared a hit even before its release. Readers will judge whether it lives up to the hype.
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Have you been pulled up by a “grammar Nazi”? Now you can correct them back.
Philip Pullman thinks this coin needs another comma. What do you think?
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Philip Pullman’s call for a boycott against the new 50p coin is just the latest Oxford comma controvery.
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‘Greengrocer’s’ may be in mourning, but the rest of us can sigh with relief.
Trump: there was no quid pro quo.
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The history of the Latin phrase at the centre of the impeachment investigation into Donald Trump.
The mysterious world of His Dark Materials.
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Behind the magical tale is a deep layer of linguistic meaning.
Stark naked? Not quite…
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Pedants should reach for their red pens now.
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The former journalist raised eyebrows recently when he lapsed into Nonstandard English which is frowned upon in his National Curriculum.
It’s a simple word with a strange history.
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The word ‘OK’ has only been around for 180 years, but it’s become the most spoken word on the planet.
In Wordslut, Amanda Montell deconstructs gendered language.
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The book promises to help reclaim language used against women, exploring the origins of gendered slurs. But its use of contemporary slang and lack of an index undermines its credibility.
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Britons are notoriously bad at learning other languages. Here are some of the things that they find difficult.
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Vulnerable groups are being excluded from society due to their lack of ability to speak national languages.
Early education based on a child’s mother tongue gives them a head start in their literacy and language learning.
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Research shows that mother tongue teaching is the most ideal tool for early child education.
Ruby Murray is celebrated in her hometown of Belfast.
Albert Bridge
Ever wondered why curry is named after a pop singer from post-war Belfast? So have we.
English spelling is not an illogical burden there to make life difficult for our children.
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Teaching children how to break down words into their meaning and origin can help them be better spellers.
Senator Pauline Hanson says Australia’s immigration policy has led to “culturally separate communities” in Australian cities.
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Senator Pauline Hanson raised concerns about immigration and social cohesion, saying ‘more than a million people’ in Australia ‘cannot speak English well or at all’. Let’s look at the numbers.