Latest articles by Arika Okrent
-
Watch the Surf Punks explain the latest slang in this 1980s news reportfeature Radical, dude
feature -
16 simple concepts made simpler on Simple Wikipediafeature Wikipedia is great for getting a quick overview of a subject. But did you know you can get it boiled down even further?
feature -
LISTEN: Singing the ABCs in 8 different languagesfeature Not every country learns their ABCs to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"
feature -
4 good reasons why people say 'I could care less'feature No, you couldn't
feature -
How ABC gave viewers a taste of what it's like to be deaffeature Switched at Birth took a big risk — and it paid off
feature -
Was the sign-language interpreter at the Mandela memorial faking it?feature The interpreter on stage with Obama was signing nonsense, according to South Africa's deaf community
feature -
7 ways to be ready next time news breaks in Latinfeature If only you'd studied Latin, maybe you could have broken the story of Pope Benedict's resignation
feature -
The 5 linguistic styles of exciting goal callsfeature "GOOOOOOOOOOAL!" is but one possibility
feature -
22 songs that write themselves, from the Songwriter's Rhyming Dictionaryfeature "Mildewy, St. Louis, chop suey" — it just needs a tune!
feature -
The strange evolution of 'because'feature Because reasons
feature -
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.
feature -
How Kongar ol-Ondar sang two notes at oncefeature He helped us hear the world a little better
feature -
7 ways to maximize your online dating profile with the power of wordsfeature Men who used the word "whom" get 31 percent more contacts
feature -
How the U.S. made war with the language of peacefeature Poor, poor Esperanto
feature -
9 common words that come from words for heatfeature Temperature has a surprising effect on language
feature -
17 overly optimistic book titlesfeature Despite the names of many how-to guides, you actually can't make a Stradivarius violin, master life, or be happy with dental plates
feature -
12 things made collectible thanks to spelling errorsfeature When "oops" turns into opportunity
feature -
9 reasons we adore this little girl's sign language version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas'feature We dare you not to say, "Awwww"
feature -
Check out these fascinating experiments in Ngram artfeature Words are strange creatures that do not necessarily behave as you would expect when graphed over time
feature -
4 crazy, early foreign language versions of Beatles songsfeature Spoiler: The Russian interpretation of "Let it Be" is not exactly inspirational
feature -
What online dictionaries are learning about usfeature They've been tracking your word lookups for nearly two decades. And the results are striking
feature -
Do your texts make you sound old?feature Younger generations are far more adept at textspeak, a rich and subtle form of communication
feature -
Listen to a quartet sing while you watch a close-up of their vocal cordsfeature It's like Fantastic Voyage (without the lasers)
feature -
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
feature
