Language and words in the news – 11th January, 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.

Global English

Drop these ugly Anglicisms ASAP, urge French language police
Académie Française condemns use of abbreviation of as soon as possible, and adoption of score as a verb.

The 2013 Golden Flannel awards for corporate guff
The first category is “Best euphemism for firing people”. Companies did a lot of firing last year and were more imaginative than ever in telling it like it is not. Most famously, HSBC “demised” its managers, Reuters caused staff to be “transitioned out of the company”, while other businesses “disestablished” or even “completed” roles.

Language change and slang

The Disappearing Accent in Pop Music
The phenomenon of “accentless” singing most frequently involves pop vocalists who speak with British or British-influenced accents but sing pop or rock music with American vowel pronunciations. This sounds like an absence of accent to an American listener, and is usually assumed to be intentional.

Books, science, dictionaries, words and languages

13 Words of the Year from Other Countries
You’ve heard about selfie, science, and because. But we aren’t the only ones who like to try to capture the spirit of the year in a word. Here are some Words of the Year chosen by 13 other countries.

Words of 2013 round-up
And another round-up in this round-up, this one about Words of the Year selected by dictionaries, language bloggers and enthusiasts.

Cartoons

Early writing in the comics

Punctuation

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