English language

Back in the 17th century, there was a move to create rules for English, based on Latin. The man behind it, poet John Dryden, thought that Shakespeare and others had turned English into an unruly mess. Dryden failed to establish an English “academy” to impose rules. And that failure may have helped make English the worldwide language it is today.

You might think world leaders care a lot about the words they choose and how powerfully they deliver them. Guess again. Sometimes all that matters much less than deciding whether to speak English or not.

Historic recordings by West African musicians are compiled in a new CD called “Living is Hard: West African Music in Britain, 1927 – 1929.”

Beatboxers make sounds most of us think we can’t make. Sounds that native English speakers usually have trouble making. Sounds sometimes borrowed from other languages. So say researchers at the University of Southern California.