In 2001 the Council of Europe and the European Union jointly organised The European Year of Languages. This was successful in involving millions of people across 45 countries. Its activities celebrated linguistic diversity in Europe and promoted language learning. Following the success of the Year of Languages, the Council of Europe declared a European Day …
I sit here with my cup of tea and chocolate wafer snack, pondering the fact that in less than two months’ time, Britons are off to the polls to make a big decision regarding our future in (or out of) the European Union, and yet no-one seems to be asking what is surely the biggest …
How many hours of my life have I spent – first as a language student and then as a professional linguist – tediously flipping through dictionaries and grammar books looking up arcane accents and idiosyncratic spellings in French? It’s a rhetorical question, obviously. However, if I were able to put a precise figure on my …
How would you feel if someone asked you to refer to them not as “he” or “she”, but instead as “ze” or “ey”? Or if they asked you not to speak about them using any third-person pronouns at all, but just their name? As this recent article contends, it’s probably something we’ll all be asked …
Is there a word for the embarrassed disappointment you feel when, to prove a fascinating fact you’ve proudly announced at a social gathering, you google it on the Internet only to find out it’s an urban legend? If so, I could certainly have used that word over Christmas. You see, I’ve been quoting the word …
