Familects – home dialects in which words are given private meanings – reveal that everyone has a creative and playful linguistic story Hearing a couple I know ask each other to pass the “splinkers” – their word for sweeteners – reminded me of the English Project’s collection of family slang, Kitchen Table Lingo, the blurb […]

The vocabulary and grammar of spoken South African English are coated in a fine layer of Afrikaans dust. It’s been there so long that most of us no longer notice The first English lesson I ever gave was in a little language school in a sprawling Taiwanese city. The theme was Fruit, a subject about […]

The people who brought us jeggings, skorts and coatigans have decided the letter S is no longer fashionable I love fashion. I mean really love it. I can become obsessive about the cut of an ankle boot, I dream of one day hunting down the perfect silk blouse in just the right shade of oyster, […]

For a supposedly dead language, Latin exerts an enduring appeal. You can even make love in it That a journalist’s knowledge of Latin enabled her to break the news of the pope’s resignation suggests reports of its death may have been exaggerated. A BBC article, Who speaks Latin these days?, quickly returned to the default […]

A riposte to homophobia from the poppy end of hip-hop may be the most profound song either genre has produced I was never one of those “I’m, like, so cool I listen to bands that haven’t even formed yet” types. It was pop all the way – camp, often ridiculous and always cheesy. This left […]

Sometimes only cockney rhyming slang will do. But get it wrong and you can end up looking a berk Among the hundreds of languages and dialects spoken in east London, there is one that should have a preservation order slapped on it. Spoken by a small and dwindling minority, surely it must be eligible for […]