Language and words in the news – 17th April, 2015

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

A History of the Hot Take
Calling something a “hot take” is an increasingly popular way to dismiss the value of a piece of writing.

Global English

Do you speak Kiwinglish? New Zealand’s distinct linguistic identity
The Maori language is not only the biggest difference between Kiwinglish and British and American English, it’s also the most significant driver of linguistic and cultural differentiation.

Improve your English

Word of the Week: Gnomologist
Gnomologist first appeared in English in 1813 (“the gnomologists, or versifiers of short moral apophthegms”); the adjective gnomic showed up two years later.

Language teaching and resources

Baby went to IATEFL
Nicola Prentis not only took her one-month-old baby to IATEFL, she gave a presentation too.

IATEFL online
You can catch up with some of the main sessions from the conference, including all the plenaries, here.

Appropriate strategies for teaching grammar – a Dave Willis retrospective
A presentation by Jane Willis based on one that Dave planned to give last year. Dave takes on the prescriptivists in his e-book Winning the Grammar Wars.

Books, words and language

American dialect project in jeopardy
Unless a benefactor appears, what American Dialect Society executive secretary Allan Metcalf recently called the “greatest American lexicographical project of the latter 20th century” is scheduled to wind down in June.

5 Cherry Blossom Terms, Translated
Hanami, which translates from Japanese as “flower viewing,” is the Japanese custom of “enjoying the transient beauty of flowers,” especially cherry blossoms.