linguistics
When an American says 'sure' to a Brit, does it mean yes or no?
When American Lynne Murphy says "sure" to her British husband, he thinks she means "not really."
Will blind people use Braille in the future?
The correspondence of Jean Sibelius and his wife Aino is a bilingual love story
One simple word defines Germans, but Germans don't agree on what it means
'What a total God shot!' Understand that? Then you speak Christianese.
American soft power has helped this Kenyan man's efforts to ensure a future for his mother tongue
Ekegusii is spoken by about two million Kenyans but has been losing ground to Swahili and English. Now it is taught in some schools, thanks to local language activists assisted by American linguists.
The first cousin of the English language is alive and well in the Netherlands
You may have never heard of Frisian. But it is spoken by more than 300,000 people, and its revitalization is a model for other small, struggling languages.
Olivier Had It Wrong: Shakespeare’s Original Pronunciation
What if Hamlet didn’t sound like a proper English bloke, but more like someone from the American South?
How Shakespeare Came Alive for Me — and Stays Alive Today
Shakespeare shouldn’t be lost on anyone, but how much should the text be changed?
The Standing Rock Sioux are also fighting for their language
Standing Rock is more than a movement for clean water rights. It's also where the Lakota language is re-inventing itself.
Should kids be learning in more than one language? Californians just decided "yes."
We know much more about bilingualism now than we did 18 years ago, when Californians voted to ban bilingual education. So what does the research tell us?
How do you revive a language if tribal elders don't want you to?
The Keres language, spoken by the Laguna Pueblo of New Mexico, is dying. When younger tribal members tried to revive it, they were blocked by elders fearful that spiritual essence of the language would be lost.
How the Miami Tribe got its language back
What happens when the last native speaker of a language has died? Is that language "dead" or just "sleeping?" And can it be woken up again?
A new generation of Canadians are learning this language, and not all of them are tribal members
Many Ktunaxa lost their native tongue when they were sent to church-run boarding schools. Now the Ktunaxa language is making a modest comeback at a local school where both First Nations and white students study it.
The World in Words live: From Ainu to Zaza
Listen to The World in Words' live performance at the New York Public Library, with stories on how language activists around the world are trying to revive their mother tongues.