Language

Why Puppies Love Baby Talk

New research shows puppies respond strongly to high-pitched chatter, but most adult dogs could care less

The journals that scientists consider most prestigious are often in English.

English Is the Language of Science. That Isn't Always a Good Thing

How a bias toward English-language science can result in preventable crises, duplicated efforts and lost knowledge

The American holiday celebrating African traditions is 50 years old this year.

This Year Marks the 50th Kwanzaa

The week-long holiday is a celebration of African-American culture

Mersiv is worn around a user’s neck, like a necklace, and features a silver dollar-sized pendant with an embedded camera and microphone.

This Language-Teaching Device Constantly Whispers Lessons In Your Ear

A conceptual gadget called Mersiv immerses language-learners in their tongue of choice

To speak, perchance to think? A long-tailed macaque opens wide in Bali, Indonesia.

What's Really Keeping Monkeys From Speaking Their Minds? Their Minds

When it comes to language, primates have all the right vocal equipment. They just lack the brains

Don't see a word you like? Make one up!

Austria’s Word of the Year Has 52 Letters

<i>Bundespraesidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung</i> isn’t just a mouthful—it tells an annoying political story

Almost a whole page of the Dictionary of American Regional English is dedicated to "wampus," a Southern term for a variety of real creatures, such as a wild horse, and imagined ones, such as swamp wampuses and whistling wampuses.

Words from the Dictionary of American Regional English

After half a century of studying jib-jabbing, linguists have just finished the nation's most ambitious dictionary of regional dialects

The Great White Fleet of the United States Navy, 1907 -- We need a fleet of spacecraft to open “This New Ocean” of space

Let’s Argue About The Right Things

We seem to be in one of those periods in which basic reasons for doing what we do as a nation are called into question

Can a letter in your name truly affect your purchasing habits?

Does Your Last Name Affect Your Buying Habits?

Researchers claim that people with names at the end of the alphabet respond more quickly to purchasing opportunities

Marquee languages definitely serve their purposes. But when you learn a minority language, like Romansh or Sioux, you become a member of a select group.

Spoken Like a Native

Learning a minority language opens doors—and hearts

"Paionian—which was spoken in Illyria (or possibly Thrace) some 2,2000 years ago—is one of many languages that have survived only as fragments."

Fluent in 60 Seconds

Learning a new language is a breeze—as long as it's Paionian

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New Language Found in India

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"Word, Shout, Song" Opens at the Anacostia Community Museum

An American speaks to a group of French nationals and tries to purge his vocabulary of American idioms.

A Novice's Guide to Foreign Idioms

If you think learning foreign idioms is easy, just try combing the giraffe

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The World's Strangest Scientific Names

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Understanding the Lasting Allure of the Rosetta Stone

An Egyptologist explains the importance of the artifact

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In the Name of the Law

How to win arguments without really trying

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Say What?

In an era of global communications, regional dialects are hanging in there, y'all

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Global Wording

If you can't say it in English, just borrow le mot juste

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Playing by Ear

People say the darndest things. At least I think they do

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