Slang’s literary origins are widespread and ever-expanding. Its social roots, however, are narrow and focused: the city. If, as has been suggested, the story of standard English is that of a London ...

This research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in the form a Tier I Canada Research Chair and several standard research grants. University of Ottawa ...

Clarence Major, Dictionary of Afro-American Slang (1970), The Queen's Vernacular: A Gay Lexicon, San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books (1972), and Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler with Ann Russo, A ...

I didn’t mean to watch this entire thing, but dammit if I didn’t sit through all ten minutes (alright, technically 11 minutes and 20 seconds) of this fantastically witty, animated history of the ...

This article is excerpted from the new book, "The Language Wars: A History of Proper English" from Farrar, Straus and Girous. No language has spread as widely as English, and it continues to spread.

For more than 600 years, English speakers used because as a conjunction meaning “for the reason that,” dutifully following it with a full clause of explanation (or at least the word of). Then, a few ...

The Department of English Language and Literature aims to teach all students to write and speak well and to read skillfully, thoughtfully and with pleasure. We offer many courses that stress literary ...

Trump's newest executive order also rescinds a Clinton-era mandate that required federally funded organizations to offer language assistance to non-English speakers Anna Moneymaker/Getty Donald Trump ...