Language

The party’s ex-chair used the word ‘dumb’ to describe a colleague’s comments. But the word is usually employed in Britain to mean ‘unable to speak’

The chancellor's straight-talking has, unexpectedly, boosted his popularity

The Australian football manager's name tells of his family’s history of relocating

Claret really is an English word, not French. The best French translation of English claret is probably vin rouge de Bordeaux.

How can it be that if we go far enough back in the history of the English language, these two words were originally one and the same word?

To be in Europe is to live without boundaries. The Irish have chosen that path, and their national identity has soared

Why did Queen Elizabeth I, in her famous speech at Tilbury in 1588, use two words with almost identical meanings to describe herself?

A large Scandinavian Viking army landed on the East Anglian coast in 865, giving places names which remain to this day

Children have an innate ability to learn foreign accents that is lost as they grow up... but is it always an advantage?

The original inhabitants of the popular Mediterranean archipelago were renowned for their use of catapults and slingshots as weapons

Both terms were applied to people living in rural settings, outside urban Christian religious communities

A respected linguistic society has hit back at Donald Trump’s attempt to make the US a monolingual country

Is the increasing influence of American linguistic usages in Britain making us stiff-upper-lip types more ‘touchy-feely’?

The relationship of English to the Germanic language family meant that we once used the ‘verb-second rule’, now only rarely used

Our speech is a living, breathing thing, influenced entirely not just by who we are but also by who we talk to

While English does not use the vocative case, many other languages do

Just because a phrase is relatively recent doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a long or distinguished history

The country has long had strong political and cultural ties with France, which are reflected in the language

While the UK has its own home-grown bigots, the word itself may have come to England from France in the 16th century

Felony has meant many things in the past, from crime, wickedness and sin to deceit and villainy. Just ask Donald Trump

The Sun claimed the number of people in Britain who can't speak English is in seven figures. Unsurprisingly, it's not true

How the world of cricket promises another pleasing rhyming headline in the not-too-distant future

Cornish was doomed after Latin was banished from church services in favour of English during the 1500s

When is a cabbage not a cabbage? When it’s a kool sla. How Dutch influence shaped both ‘coleslaw’ and ‘cookie’ in American English

If Donald Trump really wants to take control of this Danish territory, he’ll need to get to grips with Inuit or Old Norse

Istanbul has had many names over time – including Greek, Latin and Byzantine versions – before settling on its Turkish incarnation

This year’s non-word of the year, ‘Bio-deutsch’ (biological German) has caused much controversy

English spelling is notoriously difficult to learn; how might we benefit by reforming it – and what would we lose?

There is usually a way to translate supposedly untranslatable words into English – even if it does take a bit longer

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has reignited fears in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia

Aberdeen may be in Scotland, but its name derives from the Welsh for river mouth. Why?

Pet names, known technically as hypocoristics, often use abbreviation, rhyming, and vowel changes to express familiarity and fondness