Archaeologists find them; linguists try to read th...  ...ritings are indecipherable. Some are from unknown languages , others were written in code. All are baffling. A...  ...akers have managed to at least ascertain that the language involved consists of 42 letters and over 200 diff...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIol1_ktcP...  ...'t go on Pretending day by day That we know our language works in the brain. We are all a part of God's...  ...are available in the YouTube pulldown box.  Via Language Log, where there is some relevant commentary.

Animals communicate with each other in ways we can...  ...raffiti looks at five animals that have their own languages . For example, some frogs chatter away in a language we can't even hear! The frogs’ calls have to c...

There are many familiar terms you read on the internet, but if they came up in conversation, you might not pronounce the words the same as other people do -because you've only seen them typed! Geekosystem has a pronuncia...

Ben Zimmer has an article at The New York Times ad...  ...ss of the majestic plural, or royal we, shared by languages of Western Europe since the days of ancient Roman...

by Bethany Halford (“BH”) with an Introduction and Commentary by Steve Nadis (“SN”) Followed by a Rejoinder by the Aforementioned BH EDITOR’S NOTE: The unusual format and to some degree the content of this...

The use of Ms. as a title for a woman who is either married or not goes back a lot further than you may think. The Oxford University Press found an example printed in a newspaper in 1885. Ever since “Ms.” emerged as...

(YouTube link) Every time we blog about an octopus, or rather, more than one octopus, we can count on a debate in the comments about the proper plural form for the animal. Here's the real scoop from Kory Stamper, who...

Do you pronounce "often" with the "t"? Boston Globe columnist Jan Freeman noticed that although the "t" fell silent in the 15th century, it appears to be coming back, at least among college students. It may sound pretent...

Many words are born from the name of the person associated with what that word means. An eponym is a word derived from a person’s name, whether real or fictional. In this Lunchtime Quiz from mental_floss, you'll be giv...