Latest articles by Arika Okrent
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Can y'all be used to refer to a single person?feature The singular y'all is the Loch Ness Monster of dialect study
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11 places to visit on a tour of the English languagefeature Experience the places where our ancestors recorded the first English word, sentence, and conversation
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18 academic papers about '90s TV showsfeature If we can learn about the ancient Romans by studying their drinking songs, surely we can learn about ourselves by studying our TV shows
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9 scientific experiments that used '90s TV shows to manipulate subjectsfeature Power Rangers really can make you want to punch things
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9 common words that come from words for heatfeature Temperature has a surprising effect on language
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29 adorable slang terms for sex (from the last 600 years)feature When it comes to the ol' houghmagandy, a little mystery goes a long way
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Here's how crazy-long German words are madefeature An animated guide to creating Rhababerbarbarabarbarbarenbartbarbierbierbarbärbel
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11 facts yü should know about the umlautfeature Ever wonder why the plural of "mouse" is "mice"? Blame umlaut.
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How eavesdropping was punished in medieval timesfeature The problem of eavesdropping dates back to the 1370s, according to one historian
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18 complicated scientific ideas explained simplyfeature Using a custom-made text editor, scientists describe complicated ideas using only the 1,000 most frequently used words in English
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14 fascinating language facts from the U.S. Census bureaufeature Americans speak more than 300 languages
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The grammar rules behind 3 commonly disparaged dialectsfeature All dialects, from the very fanciest to the ones held in lowest esteem, are rule-governed systems. That includes Appalachian English, Southern American English, and Ebonics
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Impress your friends with these 18 fancy words for specific shapesfeature There's even a word for horseshoe-shaped (though it takes just as long to say as "shaped like a horseshoe")
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6 grammar points to watch out for in Christmas songsfeature What does "round yon virgin" mean, anyway?
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3 fascinating facts about English's most adorable suffix, -lingfeature Surely you've heard of ducklings. But what about viperlings, frumberdlings, and deathlings?
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17 town welcome signs you won't see anywhere elsefeature "Welcome to Earth, Est. 1924"
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21 creative TV edits of naughty movie linesfeature Movies feature a whole lot of language that can't be used on TV
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7 fun facts about the Dothraki language from Game of Thronesfeature The words that the characters on the HBO speak aren't mere gibberish. Someone created a whole Dothraki dictionary
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Where do U.S. coin names come from?feature It's all about fractions, raw materials, and history
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7 words that came about from people getting them wrongfeature The word "pea" was originally "pease" and it was singular but confused for a plural
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Why do people say 'um'?feature It's not because they're nervous
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6 creative uses of sentence diagrammingfeature The architecture of sentences can be quite beautiful
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Argle bargle: 5 meanings of word reduplicationfeature You may have a hoity toity degree from a fancy schmancy school, but blowing a gasket over certain kinds of hanky panky makes you an old fuddy duddy
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Bella, Cha Cha Man, Boogles, Fido, Mopsulus: Dog-naming trends through the agesfeature Forget naming your pup Max. Pets in the middle ages were named things like Zaphyro and Smylfeste
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