Latest articles by James Harbeck
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A word to the Y's on Ukrainian and Russian
opinion Volodymyr Zelenskyy…? Volodimir Zelenskiy…? Vladimir Zelensky…!?
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Have yourself a cracking St. Patrick's Day
opinion How an English word snuck into Ireland and made itself at home
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There's no vacation from the quirks of English
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The trials and travails of 'travel'
opinion In French, work is torture. In English, travel is.
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Could your Valentine's treat be hastening the decline and fall of America?
opinion How 'decadence' came to describe empires and chocolate like
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Don't be misled or go awry with 'book words'
opinion The many ways English spelling can embarrass you
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The not-word you're always saying
opinion Tsk, tchick, tut — what?
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Is 'fiction novel' the 'pin number' of books?
opinion The dubious rise of a perhaps needless distinction
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Is an emoji a word? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
feature What should we make of Oxford Dictionaries' new word of the year?
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In the future, will the English language be full of accented characters?
The Explainer They may look funny, but they're probably here to stay
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10 signature foods with borrowed names
The Explainer Tempura, tajine, tzatziki, and other dishes whose names aren't from the cultures that made them famous
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The delicate art of using linguistics to identify an anonymous author
The Explainer The words we choose — and how we use them — can be powerful clues
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Dashes and hyphens: A comprehensive guide
The Explainer Everything you wanted to know about dashes but were afraid to ask
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The new rules of CaPiTaLiZaTiOn
The Explainer The rules for capitalizing letters are totally arbitrary. So I wrote new rules.
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The curious case of people who can't stop speaking in foreign accents
The Explainer The curious case of foreign accent syndrome
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What's not to like about 'like'?
The Explainer I like 'like'!
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How the world's languages handle thorny gender issues
The Explainer It's complicated
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Almost every language has a word for 'Christmas.' Few reference Christ.
feature How's that for a war on Christmas?
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Why so strangely Yoda speaks?
feature Hear something odd in his syntax, you do
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How 'thoughts and prayers' became the stock phrase of tragedies
The Explainer A linguistic history
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11 band names that don't mean what you think they do
feature There's no such person as Steely Dan or Pink Floyd. And those brothers weren't really named Doobie.
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A linguist's guide to HULK SMASH
feature Dissecting the strange, wonderful grammar of Hulkspeak
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Impress your fellow Americans with the patriotic etymologies of these July 4 words
feature From a spangle to a donzerly
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A phonological description of beatbox noises
feature Your guide to impressing (and alarming) your beatbox-admiring friends
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