Philology

Love of mind and language is the sense of this human activity. There is no requirement for a sentimentalist flair: love is simply an elegant shape of a word. Regarding an idea ugly as a mind without natural language — love is dainty. ■More

No man, woman, child, or house, with the pie

The Proto-Indo-European "mother of tongues" does not have words for men, women, children, or houses that European languages would have in common. More→

British grammar nazis

MUCH has been written about the Second World War, including Hitler's evident lack of linguistic finesse. Therefore, I will do some pondering only, on the British who want to be grammar nazis. More→

Apples on noses

MS. de Lange's purpose was to compare monolingual and bilingual children in tests on syntax, that is, ways to put words together. She says that to speak two languages is like to have two minds. More→

Tongue entanglement

IT may have been predilection for physical factors to inspire the name "Hiberno-English", for Irish English. Ireland was named Hibernia by ancient Romans. Evidently they felt cold, yet the British do not speak "Birran English", though birrus was a word for an ancient Roman rain poncho. More→

Larry Selinker’s interlanguage

M ARK Twain spoke American "since his birth"; it is yet impossible to imagine him saying, you are not speaking as I do, therefore you are wrong. More→