-
Johnson: Is there a single Ukraine?
Is the modern Ukraine one nation? The question is not meant to be provocative. But it is worth asking, since Ukraine is deeply divided on its international destiny: roughly speaking, does it belong more closely to the European Union or to Russia? Political divides cut Ukraine into eastern and western halves. The last two presidential…
-
Close but Not Quite
-
Too many excuses for an apology
-
Avoiding the abyss
-
No English word for it? Make up your own, like Shakespeare. Or steal one | Mind your language
If you want a single word that describes wandering around the house wearing a shirt and no trousers, ask a Hungarian Endlessly encyclopaedic as it seems, there are times our beloved English language fails us. Ironically, there are various terms for wordiness: loquacious, garrulous, verbose, voluble, prolix. But when we want our language to be…
-
Johnson: What might have been
THE English poet William Barnes (pictured) is no household name. But that is almost a shame, because he represented a strand that we don’t otherwise see much of: English purism. Imagining what would have happened if he had been more influential makes for an interesting thought experiment. Any language in contact with other languages borrows…