Linguistics

For decades, linguists have been able to use the quirks of written texts to pinpoint the author. The process, called stylometric analysis or stylometry, has dozens of legal and academic applications.

A Vermont-based writer is cataloguing rare scripts that are disappearing due to political conflicts and globalization.

File these away in your brainpan.

Is it octopuses, octopi, or octopodes?

Tongue twisters have had people tripping over words for centuries.

Whether it's selling seashells by the seashore or buying Betty Botter's bitter butter, some of these difficult phrases go way back to when elocution was practiced as routinely as multiplication tables.

They're not completely interchangeable.

Your education shouldn't end when you graduate.

Half of the world’s spoken languages are expected to go extinct by the end of the century.

Their theories are based on the idea that a "universal grammar" might hold true for both aliens and humans.

Do you say "pew-litzer" or "pull-itzer"?

The mysterious text has stumped codebreakers for decades.

What experts have long suspected has been confirmed.

Puns can be divisive: Some find them irresistible, some find them groan-worthy. But for others, punning is a way of life. Here's what you should know about this ancient art.

'Ma,' 'ba,' and 'pa' are among the first sounds that children around the world learn how to make, regardless of the language they later speak.

It is a question that divides families and workplaces.

The order in which color words emerge in different languages follows a pattern.

A new dataset makes use of the fact that on Reddit, users tag their own comments as sarcastic.

Planet Word will be open to visitors of all ages and language backgrounds.

The word has evolved beyond the context of 'Star Wars.'

The "Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary" is the first work of its kind to be published in nearly 50 years.

Concepts like "nose" and "tongue" share some of the same sounds no matter what language you're listening to.

Are you a member of the grammar police, or willing to let a few typos slide? It turns out your reaction to written errors may say something about your personality.

IIIerlok_Xolms (emoji), JakeOlimb (speech bubbles)/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Bilingual jokes and puns that work in two languages, or contain multiple languages as a part of the joke, are the crown jewels of any (jo)kingdom.

You probably know a handful of medical terms—but what about Code Brown? Or incarceritis?

Can You Tell an Author’s Identity By Looking at Punctuation Alone? A Study Just Found Out.

10 Endangered Alphabets You Should See Before It's Too Late

30 Old (and Useful) Slang Names for Parts of the Body

How Do You Say the Plural Form of 'Octopus'?

The History Behind 8 Famous Tongue Twisters

Supper vs. Dinner: Is There a Difference?

15 Podcasts That Will Make You Feel Smarter

25 Endangered Languages You Should Hear Before They Disappear

Linguists Say We Might Be Able to Communicate With Aliens If We Ever Encounter Them

Here's the Right Way to Pronounce 'Pulitzer'

Researchers Claim to Crack the Voynich Manuscript Using AI, But Experts Are Skeptical

Linguistic Analysis Finds that Two Famous Jack the Ripper Letters Were Fake

10 Pun-derful Facts About Puns

Why Do We Say 'Mom' and 'Dad' Instead of Our Parents' Names?

How Do You Pronounce GIF? It Probably Depends on Where You're From

How Color Vocabularies Evolved Around the World

Computer Scientists Are Using Reddit to Teach Machines Sarcasm

A Linguistics Museum Is Coming to Washington D.C.

More People Are Using the Word Jedi in Everyday Life

English-Yiddish Dictionary Breathes New Life Into a Historic Language

Most Languages Use the Same Sounds for Certain Words, Study Finds

The Way You React to Typos Could Be Linked to Your Personality, Study Finds

7 Puns That Make Sense in More Than One Language

17 Secret Slang Terms Your Doctor Might Be Using