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Language

  1. emergency discussion
    The Refreshing Profanity of This FoolChris Estrada’s Hulu comedy series is so specific with its use of Mexican American slang. Órale!
    By Alejandra Gularte and Savannah Salazar
  2. semantics
    The Landlords Embarrassed to Be Called Landlords“I cringe when I hear it, and when I say it.”
    By Bridget Read
  3. language
    Why Do Corporations Speak the Way They Do?The pernicious spread of garbage language.
    By Molly Young
  4. stand-up
    The Language of Stand-up ComedyTen comedians from around the world reflect on the challenges of translating their act to English.
    By Tal Pinchevsky
  5. science of us
    ‘Frumbled’ and Other Good Reasons to Make Up WordsOn “Russian blues” and the impossibility of seeing another person’s perception.
    By Katie Heaney
  6. close reads
    The Hidden Meaning Behind My Brilliant Friend’s Neapolitan DialectIf Neapolitan is the language of Lenù and Lila’s imprisoning neighborhood, then Italian is the language of social mobility.
    By Justin Davidson
  7. word search
    A Brief, Convoluted History of the Word ‘Intersectionality’How an academic term morphed into a buzzword.
    By Kory Stamper
  8. science of us
    The 300-Year History of Using ‘Literally’ FigurativelyWomen have always been much quicker than men to move ahead into new linguistic territory.
    By Kory Stamper
  9. Report: Trump Bashed Immigration From ‘Sh*thole’ Countries in Oval OfficeAnd said the U.S. should let in more people from places like Norway.
    By Adam K. Raymond
  10. Apparently, These Are the Funniest Words in the English LanguageAccording to a new study.
    By Cari Romm
  11. To Understand Why We Have So Many Languages, Look Way, Way Back in Human HistoryRainfall and warfare are just two of the many factors.
    By Michael Gavin
  12. How to Find the Word That’s on the Tip of Your TongueWhen “whatchamacallit” isn’t good enough.
    By Cari Romm
  13. Why the Internet Tilde Is the Most Perfect Piece of Snark We HaveIs there any punctuation mark more of the times?
    By Jess Kimball Leslie
  14. The Real Purpose of Uptalk Is to Get You to Shut Up and ListenLinguists argue that the much-maligned habit is a way of holding a listener’s attention.
    By Cari Romm
  15. language
    How Do You Write About Something Like Alzheimer’s?The disease resists any easy attempt at metaphors, but that doesn’t mean patients and their caretakers don’t try.
    By Jesse Singal
  16. A Linguist Breaks Down What We Really Mean When We Call Our Friends ‘Close’Friendship between women has its own language.
    By Deborah Tannen
  17. mental health
    Sometimes, Mental-Illness Destigmatization Can BackfirePeople with severe mental-health problems really are suffering, and it doesn’t make sense to scrub the language we use to pretend they aren’t.
    By Jesse Singal
  18. Why You Trust Email Way More Than You ShouldIt’s not a casual spoken conversation. So why do we treat it like one?
    By Matthew Hutson
  19. Talking in Euphemisms Can Chip Away at Your Sense of MoralityUsing “indirect speech” to describe unethical behavior helps us feel better about it.
    By Laura Niemi, Alek Chakroff, and Liane Young
  20. Use This Storytelling Technique to Make Your Bad Memories Feel More MeaningfulAnd gain some much-needed distance.
    By Cari Romm
  21. This Chart of a Baby’s First 100 Words Explains How We Learn LanguageIn the earliest stages, babies’ speech follows a certain pattern.
    By Cari Romm
  22. language
    Trump’s New National Security Adviser Pans the Term ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism’H.R. McMaster reportedly said that the conservative catchphrase is unhelpful since Muslim terrorists are “un-Islamic.”
    By Chas Danner
  23. This Finnish Word Makes Your Sad Weekend Plans Sound a Little CoolerIt’s a good night for some kalsarikannit.
    By Cari Romm
  24. Learning Sign Language Can Help You Improve Your VisionA new study found a link between sign-language fluency and “visual-processing skills.”
    By Cari Romm
  25. Why So Many Movie Villains Have British AccentsA linguist explains.
    By Cari Romm
  26. science of us
    Want Synesthesia? Try Learning a New LanguagePeople who became bilingual later in life are more likely to experience the mysterious blurring of the senses.
    By Cari Romm
  27. science of us
    Learning a Language Makes You Better at Handling AmbiguityBecause you’re not going to know everything.
    By Drake Baer
  28. Here’s How to Learn a New Language Faster Without Paying AttentionTwo recent studies suggest that trying less can actually speed up the process.
    By Molly Fitzpatrick
  29. linguistics
    Emoji Have a Dual NatureDepending on what they’re describing, people write with emoji using one of two logics.
    By Drake Baer
  30. You Can Be Lazy and Learn a New Language at the Same TimeThere are times when it’s best to put down the Duolingo.
    By Melissa Dahl
  31. Monkeys’ Mouths Are Built for Speech — Only Their Brains Are Holding Them BackA new study shows that they’re capable of noises that sound a lot like human language.
    By Cari Romm
  32. self-improvement
    When Ex-cons Change Their Vocabulary, They Stay Out of JailChange the way you speak, change the way you live.
    By Drake Baer
  33. feels
    Zadie Smith Has ‘Many Feels’ About Crazy Ex“I’m not trying to be cute when I say that I could have written 5,000 words on it.”
    By Jackson McHenry
  34. emotion
    Having Finely Tuned Emotions Will Help You Process Trump’s WinThe richer your vocabulary, the greater your resilience.
    By Drake Baer
  35. Test Your Creativity: What Do These 3 Words Have in Common?One for the puzzle lovers.
    By Ashley Wu and Cari Romm
  36. The Possessive Your Guys’ Is American English at Its Rough-Spun BestThe language evolves.
    By Drake Baer
  37. The Boy Who Woke Up From a Coma Speaking a Whole New LanguageRueben Nsemoh knew only a few words of Spanish — until a head injury made him fluent.
    By Cari Romm
  38. How We Got ‘Bark’ for Dogs, ‘Quack’ for Ducks, and Other Words for Animal SoundsNew research shows how people across the world describe animal sounds.
    By Cari Romm
  39. personality
    The World Looks Different When You’re Speaking a Second LanguageA new memoir lends a fresh perspective to one of the great mysteries of modern linguistics.
    By Melissa Dahl
  40. science of us
    Thinking in a Second Language Makes You Less MoralWe feel more, and reason less, in our native language.
    By Cari Romm
  41. A Dictionary Wants Everyone to Calm Down About Using ‘Literally’ WrongWords evolve. English will be okay.
    By Cari Romm
  42. science of us
    Blind People Gesture Like Sighted PeopleWhether or not you can see, you talk with your hands.
    By Drake Baer
  43. science of us
    The Unexpectedly Existential Roots of Adjective OrderWhy it’s a “huge fuzzy blanket” and not a “fuzzy huge blanket.”
    By Drake Baer
  44. Your Dog Is Too Smart to Be Fooled by Your Fake Happy Voice“Who’s a big dummy? Who’s a big dumb boy?”
    By Cari Romm
  45. The Race to Study a Dying Sign Language Before It DisappearsIt’s making linguists rethink what they believe about how humans learned to speak.
    By Shira Rubin
  46. science of us
    The Man Who Woke Up One Morning and Forgot How to ReadA strange case that settled a long, contentious debate about the brain.
    By Cari Romm
  47. Babies Learn Accents Before They’re Even BornTheir cries sound different depending on the language their parents speak.
    By Cari Romm
  48. Stuttering Birds Are Helping Scientists Understand How Humans Learned to TalkWhat another species’ speech impediment reveals about our own capacity for language.
    By Cari Romm
  49. The Magic Word That Makes You Seem Extra PersuasiveIt’s not please.
    By Cari Romm
  50. If You Want to Bond With Someone, Swear at ThemIt’s fun, too!
    By Drake Baer
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