Latest articles by James Harbeck
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4 very old words for very new things
The Explainer Camera? Internet? Those words are 6,000 years old.
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The fascinating linguistic legacy of the Crimean War
The Explainer You can thank a 160-year-old battle for a famous poem, distinctive headwear, and cozy sweaters
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English spelling is terrible. Other languages are worse.
The Explainer Many languages use an alphabet borrowed from a different language. It's like building a dining room set using an IKEA kit for a dresser.
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How and when to use 'whom' instead of 'who'
The Explainer 'Whom' is just like 'who' with a bowtie on it
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How did 'expletive,' 'explicit,' and 'exploit' become such sleazy words?
The Explainer The original, often innocent meanings of words that begin with expl are being overshadowed by naughtier ones
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A linguistic dissection of 7 annoying teenage sounds
The Explainer Voiced alveolar stop and breathy-voiced low back unrounded vowel — better known as duhhh
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Everything you wanted to know about danglers but were too afraid to ask
The Explainer Is it ever ok to dangle your participle in public?
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What's the point of baby talk?
The Explainer The science is divided over the efficacy of motherese
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Kill the apostrophe!
The Explainer We would all be better off without it
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Don't buy into nonsensical etymologies of the F-word
The Explainer Or any other imagineered claims that common words were derived from winking acronyms
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How to read your shampoo bottle
The Explainer Don't be stumped by the ingredients in your beauty products
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6 quests to fix English's messed-up spelling
The Explainer Some succeeded. Some failed. Some made things worse.
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Why is the 'mor' in 'Voldemort' so evil-sounding?
The Explainer Voldemort, Mordor, Moriarty — exploring literature's most sinister syllable
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You're using that dash wrong
The Explainer A comprehensive guide to our language's horizontal lines — from the humble hyphen to the three-em dash
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The Netherlands, Holland, and the Dutch: Why some countries have so many different names
The Explainer Chalk it up to the vagaries of time, and a Germanic tribe or two
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'You and I' vs. 'You and me'
The Explainer Figuring out when to use which is actually very simple
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Why so strangely Yoda speaks
The Explainer Hear something odd in his syntax, you do
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Why linguists freak out about 'absofreakinglutely'
The Explainer They don't even really know what to call it
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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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Linguistic invasion! The foreign influence of English's political and military words
The Explainer It might seem like our language is under attack. But in reality, we're the ones taking linguistic prisoners
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How languages are like food
The Explainer You've had gumbo, but have you tried Bislama?
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14 exotic city names that sound boring when translated
The Explainer Kuala Lumpur just doesn't sound as magical when you translate it to Muddy Confluence
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9 confusing ways to pluralize words
The Explainer Why must we make everything so complicated?
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The science of making a guitar sound like a human voice
feature Or what puts the "wah" in the wah-wah
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