This post contains a selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English, language change, education in general, and language learning and teaching in particular.
Feel free to contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include, or just add a comment to the post, with the link(s) you’d like to share.
Global English
What Makes the Special Olympics “Special”?
Special has meant “having physical or mental deficits” for at least 125 years, and special needs has been around just as long.
Language change and slang
Fresh Air on “policing” young women’s voices
Journalist Jessica Grose is no stranger to criticism of her voice. When she was co-hosting the Slate podcast, the DoubleX Gabfest, she would receive emails complaining about her “upspeak”.
Young women, give up the vocal fry and reclaim your strong female voice
Naomi Wolf weighed in, urging young women to change the way they talk …
Naomi Wolf slammed after telling young women to drop ‘vocal fry’
… with predictable consequences.
Books, dictionaries, words and language
How to memorise an entire foreign dictionary (and become a Scrabble world champion)
New Zealand’s Nigel Richards, who doesn’t speak French, has won the French-language Scrabble world championships.
Poem
Demisemicolonisation
A poem about the forced eviction of the semi-colon from the English language following the Pedants’ Revolt.
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