Language and words in the news – 5th December, 2014

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.

Language change and slang

No, Muhammad Isn’t the Top Baby Name In England. But…
Ignore any screaming headlines you see claiming that Muhammad is now the U.K.’s #1 name for boys.

Global English

You’re welcome
Is “you’re welcome” an Americanism? One thing I can say for sure is that it’s a recent-ism.

From a language point of view, what’s happening in Iraq, Syria, and environs has revived words that have not been common for many years. – See more at: http://www.cjr.org/language_corner/language_corner_063014.php?utm_content=buffer811d0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#sthash.WQopCEDs.dpufFrom a language point of view, what’s happening in Iraq, Syria, and environs has revived words that have not been common for many years.From a language point of view, what’s happening in Iraq, Syria, and environs has revived words that have not been common for many years..

Language teaching and resources

Social Enterprise in ELT – The E3 Project
The primary aim of the E3 Project is to engage those with the lowest levels of spoken English, particularly women over the age of 30, who are isolated within diaspora communities but committed to living in the UK.

Books, dictionaries, words and language

Half of the world’s languages will disappear by the end of the century
According to UNESCO figures, 96 percent of the languages in existence today are together spoken by only 3 percent of the world’s population.

Getting it all wrong
What Heller wrote [about Steven Pinker’s A Sense of Style] is a monstrous fruitcake of flat-out wrongness, misunderstandings of both terminology and facts, and unexpressed (and confused) assumptions about language.

What Happens to English When You Subtract the Letter ‘E’
Gadsby, a 50,000-word novel written in 1939 by American author Ernest Vincent Wright is mainly known for having been written without “e,” the most common letter in the English language.

The holidays loom
Splendid bah-humbuggery from The Baltimore Sun’s John E. McIntyre.

Apostrophe Protection Society’s founder to be “Mr. October” in Dull Men of Great Britain calendar
“The word ‘dull’ is used only because some people might consider our interests dull or boring. It does not mean we are dull, but just that one aspect of our life might be considered dull by other people.” As a lexicographer I say amen to that.

China bans wordplay in attempt at pun control
See what they did there? With the headline I mean, not the attempts to stamp out linguistic fun.