Viewers are taking to Twitter to display their prejudice about Islanders’ accents.
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Articles on Linguistics
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An unspoken class war has long been waged around the pronounciation of the letter “h” - is it haitch or aitch? Despite a snobbish leaning to the latter, haitch makes more sense.
The short answer is that the accent you have depends on the people you grew up with and the history of the place that you live in.
I analysed 15 million words written by major oil companies and found their usage of ‘climate change’ peaked a decade ago.
There have been many theories that try to explain where language came from. None prevailed or even came close to the position of the Darwinism theory in biology or the Big Bang theory in physics.
Not all false beliefs arise from malicious misinformation. Some legal precedents rest on the status of everyday ‘common knowledge’, since shown to be false, but embedded in our law nonetheless.
British colonial rule of Iraq led to some intriguing language swaps.
Marijuana has a rich linguistic tradition. But drive by dispensaries like ‘Advanced Medical Alternatives’ or ‘Alameda Wellness Center,’ and you might think you’re passing the office of a physical therapist.
A corporate apology is always connected to the benefits it brings to the company. It is not a personal apology, it is a form of institutional positioning.
We’re often less careful when talking to people we know well than we are when we talk to strangers. That can be a mistake.
Language attrition can happen to people who live in a foreign context – and it can be embarrassing.
Each discipline tells us only part of the story. And so the truest picture of prehistory comes from triangulating these independent lines of evidence.
Irish influence on Australian English is much like the influence of the Irish on Australians themselves — less than you’d expect on the surface, but everywhere once you start looking.
Spoken language evolves differently and faster than written language, and there are good reasons why this is the case.
The origin of around 300 of Australia’s Aboriginal languages lies in Queensland, about 6,000 years ago.
Software tools for South Africa’s Nguni languages may assist with redress and effective communication.
Sarcasm thrives in ambiguous situations, which makes it especially ripe for misinterpretation.
The word only appears 14 times in the UK’s parliamentary record between 1803 and 2005. Now it is everywhere.
New research suggests that hints left in Creole languages can identify where the original speakers came from – even hundreds of years after they migrated and mixed together.
Ursula le Guin gave us an anarchist society on another world; we brought it back to Earth.
Top contributors
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Kate Burridge is a Friend of The Conversation.Professor of Linguistics, Monash University
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Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Monash University
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Associate Dean and Professor of Psychology, University of Memphis
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Associate Professor in Linguistics, Macquarie University
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Professor of Linguistics, University of York
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Lecturer in Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex
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Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford
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Research fellow in Linguistics, Monash University
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Professor of Psychology, Cornell University
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Reader in Discourse Studies, Lancaster University
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Course coordinator, The University of Queensland
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Professor, Charles Darwin University
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Professor of Linguistics and English, Florida International University
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Professor of Linguistics
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Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of Essex
