I didn’t mean to watch this entire thing, but dammit if I didn’t sit through all ten minutes (alright, technically 11 minutes and 20 seconds) of this fantastically witty, animated history of the ...

This article is excerpted from the new book, "The Language Wars: A History of Proper English" from Farrar, Straus and Girous. No language has spread as widely as English, and it continues to spread.

In honor of International Mother Tongue Day coming up on February 21st—and I’m not making that up; the Day is recognized by the United Nations—today’s Word Odyssey is going to give you the history of ...

This video explores the Battle of Hastings through a Google Earth reconstruction, showing how the clash between William of Normandy and King Harold in 1066 reshaped English history. By following troop ...

Clarence Major, Dictionary of Afro-American Slang (1970), The Queen's Vernacular: A Gay Lexicon, San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books (1972), and Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler with Ann Russo, A ...

Speech, much like the world, is in a constant state of flux. The way that wars alter the world, they also modify the way we speak and redefine the way we think. As troops have invaded nations, slang ...

Last week, we told how the English language developed as a result of several invasions of Britain. The first involved three tribes called the Angles, the Jutes and the Saxons. A mix of their languages ...

Slang’s literary origins are widespread and ever-expanding. Its social roots, however, are narrow and focused: the city. If, as has been suggested, the story of standard English is that of a London ...