Tag: Language

Spelling bees in my bonnet (1)

I work with language, so it goes without saying (I hope) that I care about spelling. That said, I don’t think texting heralds the death

Spelling “speling”

This morning’s “Call Kaye” programme on BBC Radio Scotland featured an interview with Richard Lawrence Wade, whose “Free Speling” campaign aims to help English “break

The demise of Borders UK

I visited Borders UK’s Glasgow store a few days ago, feeling like a vulture as I filled my basket with cut-price books (TimeOut travel guides,

Localisation, Kiwi style.

I received an email recently from BT encouraging me to sign up to the Terminate the Rate campaign. This aims to end the fee applied

The car (auto?) industry’s Poet Laureate. Or, what’s in a name.

My last post was about Britain’s Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. Today’s is about American poet Marianne Moore and her relationship with the US car

POLITICS POLITICS POLITICS

My first post on this blog, on 1 May, celebrated Carol Ann Duffy’s appointment as Poet Laureate. Her first poem since then has been published in

And the one millionth English word is…

… “Web 2.0”, according to The Global Language Monitor, which uses statistical techniques to document, analyse and track trends in language the world over, with

One million words (well, nearly)

Writing in today’s Telegraph, Simon Winchester celebrates the joys of English, “our truly global language”, which should soon number 1 million words. Here’s his eye-witness

Absquatulating snollygosters: the week in politics?

No, don’t worry – I’m not about to turn this blog political (well, maybe just a little bit). The political reference is because I’ve discovered

Of [talking] mice and men

The New York Times has been reporting on research by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Antropology in Leipzig, where scientists have genetically engineered a