Aristotle coined the term “enthymeme” to refer to arguments, words and ideas that are broadly accepted among the people of a nation. So what happens when enthymemes start to disappear?
Tasmania’s Aboriginal languages were decimated during the state’s colonial violence. But members of the original community have reconstructed a language, palawa kani, which is now being used more widely.
Concerns about non-English-speaking migrant populations leading to “parallel communities” are not well founded. Third-generation migrants are typically monolingual in English.
An unspoken class war has long been waged around the pronounciation of the letter “h” - is it haitch or aitch? Despite a snobbish leaning to the latter, haitch makes more sense.
Dehumanizing insults have become more common in political discourse. Psychology research has shown that they can prime us for violence – and even change our brains.
Australia has no policy designating English as the official language, but an explicit ‘English first’ policy for shop signs would treat speakers of every other language as second-class citizens.
Coverage of a new study suggests it’s impossible to become fluent in a foreign language after age ten. But that’s deeply misleading – and not what the study found.