Latest articles by James Harbeck
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In defense of 'anyways'
The Explainer This is not a bit of backwater American slang. In fact, it's a word with nearly 1,000 years of history.
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A brief history of royal baby names
The Explainer Will and Kate's wee one will be the seventh British king to be called George
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How advertisers trick your brain by turning adjectives into nouns
The Explainer It's all about the bisociation
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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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What language is your baby speaking?
The Explainer Your linguistic guide to baby babbling
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Why pain is expressed differently in different languages
The Explainer Pain is universal. Its expression is not.
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10 words that are badly broken
The Explainer Some words are born from strange splits that were never meant to happen
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There's a number of reasons the grammar of this headline could infuriate you
The Explainer Blame our shifting definitions of the singular and the plural
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It's all right to spell it 'alright'
The Explainer Relax, language peevers
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A linguist's guide to HULK SMASH
The Explainer Dissecting the strange, wonderful grammar of Hulkspeak
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Quiz: Drug brand or sci-fi name?
The Explainer No Google cheating!
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How to be a champagne snob
The Explainer Warning: This might require a saber
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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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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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9 compellingly strange letters you don't know about
The Explainer Meet eng, thorn, hwair, and more
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Capital letters: FTW or WTF?
The Explainer Your comprehensive, unassailable guide on when and where to capitalize
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A herstory (or mansplanation) of portpersonteau words
The Explainer From broceries to guybrarian to Galentine's Day, we often employ wordplay to poke at differences between the sexes
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A linguistic tour of a 'night out' around the world
The Explainer And how to tell if it's a Canadian or an Australian asking you out
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How languages are like food
The Explainer You've had gumbo, but have you tried Bislama?
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