slang

Hypercorrection: The Tragedy of “Whom Shall Go”

Hypercorrection is the linguistic tragedy of trying so hard to be right that you end up wrong. From the awkwardness…

5 days ago

Eye Dialect: The Visual Accent of “Wimmin”

Eye Dialect is a literary technique where authors use non-standard spelling (like "wimmin" or "sez") to represent standard pronunciations, typically…

5 days ago

Tag Questions: The Grammar of Uncertainty

Explore the hidden complexity of tag questions, those little end-of-sentence checks like "isn't it?" or "don't you?" This article dives…

5 days ago

Euro-English: The New Dialect of Brussels

English is the undisputed lingua franca of the European Union, but without the UK to police the grammar, it is…

5 days ago

Ostraca: The Post-It Notes of the Ancient World

Long before paper became affordable, the ancient world ran on ostraca—broken pottery shards used for everything from grocery lists and…

5 days ago

The 7th Case: Why Ukrainian Retains the Vocative

While many Slavic languages have simplified their grammar over the centuries, Ukrainian has steadfastly retained the Vocative case—the "7th case"…

5 days ago

The Banned Letter: The History of Ukrainian’s ‘Ґ’ and ‘Ї’

Explore the fascinating political history of the Ukrainian alphabet, where a single letter can act as a revolutionary symbol. This…

5 days ago

Wit and Git: The Lost Dual Pronouns of Old English

Old English possessed a grammatical rarity called the "dual number", using specific pronouns—*wit* (we two) and *git* (you two)—to refer…

5 days ago

Inside Kannywood: The Engine of a West African Lingua Franca

Explore how the vibrant film industry of Kano, known as Kannywood, serves as the primary engine for standardizing and spreading…

5 days ago

Karma, Guru, Avatar: The True Meanings of Sanskrit Loans

While we casually use words like 'Avatar' and 'Karma' in daily English, their journey from the ancient Vedas involves a…

5 days ago

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