Latest articles by James Harbeck
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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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Why pain is expressed differently in different languages
The Explainer Pain is universal. Its expression is not.
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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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10 annoying sounds you need to stop making
The Explainer You definitely make some of these noises, even if you don't realize it
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The perplexing pronunciations of words with X's and Q's
The Explainer Blame the Romans
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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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Capital letters: FTW or WTF?
The Explainer Your comprehensive, unassailable guide on when and where to capitalize
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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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Quiz: Drug brand or sci-fi name?
The Explainer No Google cheating!
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A linguist's guide to HULK SMASH
The Explainer Dissecting the strange, wonderful grammar of Hulkspeak
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It's all right to spell it 'alright'
The Explainer Relax, language peevers
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A brief history of African click words
The Explainer In much of southern Africa, it can be more polite to click
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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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9 compellingly strange letters you don't know about
The Explainer Meet eng, thorn, hwair, and more
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The curious linguistic history of pineapples and butterflies
The Explainer One word is a historical outlier; the other a descendant of mythology
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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 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 to be a champagne snob
The Explainer Warning: This might require a saber
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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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