Latest articles by Arika Okrent
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The 5 linguistic styles of exciting goal callsfeature "GOOOOOOOOOOAL!" is but one possibility
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16 reasons why putting 'twerk' in the dictionary is no big dealfeature Miley Cyrus' twerking was awful. The word's inclusion in the dictionary? Not so much.
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What makes a word the word of the year?feature A brief examination of how "science" topped Merriam-Webster's 2013 list
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6 creative uses of sentence diagrammingfeature The architecture of sentences can be quite beautiful
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Do your texts make you sound old?feature Younger generations are far more adept at textspeak, a rich and subtle form of communication
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Listen to a quartet sing while you watch a close-up of their vocal cordsfeature It's like Fantastic Voyage (without the lasers)
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13 words of the year from other countriesfeature 'Selfie' still reigns supreme
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15 weird sample dialogues from old English textbooksfeature These pieces of text are just... off
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7 ways we could tell that AP tweet was a fakefeature Take out your red pens, folks
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22 songs that write themselves, from the Songwriter's Rhyming Dictionaryfeature "Mildewy, St. Louis, chop suey" — it just needs a tune!
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LISTEN: Singing the ABCs in 8 different languagesfeature Not every country learns their ABCs to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"
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11 fun word lists to drill your vocabulary onfeature Word from Shakespearean insults, '70s songs, and more
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Should U.K. schools shame students who use regional slang?The Explainer One campus in Northeast England wants to zap phrases like "gizit ere" and "he was sat there"
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12 scientific postulates perfectly paired with rap lyricsfeature Physics meets Talib Kweli
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The strange evolution of 'because'feature Because reasons
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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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5 baffling foreign-language versions of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme songfeature "Here is my kingdom, here is where I strive. Here I will reign as Prince of Bel-Air."
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Listen to Frozen's 'Let It Go' in 25 languagesfeature English, French, German, Dutch, Mandarin, Swedish, Japanese, Polish, Hungarian...
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Why isn't 'Arkansas' pronounced like 'Kansas'?feature It goes back to two Native American tribes. And the French.
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18 apple varieties with badass namesfeature Bloody ploughman? Razor russet? These aren't your grandmother's apples.
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Fun with the interactive Algonquian language mapfeature If you don't know your Plains Cree from your Innu, this map can help
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4 shows from Norway's crazy, successful slow TV experimentfeature Norwegians embrace television that challenges them to take it all in, including a 4-hour discussion about firewood
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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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The sign language interpreter for Mayor de Blasio's press conference was deaf. How does that work?feature
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