Peter Trudgill
24 February 2022
Silent witnesses to pomposity
Unpronounced letters in a word are often nothing to do with tradition, and merely the creation of snobbish scholars
Read the full article17 February 2022
A tribe lost in myths of time
The Picts, their practices and their fate are supposedly shrouded in mystery. The truth is somewhat different
Read the full article10 February 2022
Toffs didn’t learn the lingo
The Grand Tour offered the privileged a taste of Europe’s treasures, yet they failed to embrace foreign languages
Read the full article03 February 2022
Lingering effects of lingua franca
PETER TRUDGILL on how people with no common native language once communicated, and how that gave birth to the secret slang Polari
Read the full article27 January 2022
Rule by the few, not the many
PETER TRUDGILL examines the origins of words about who governs us, and finds the oligarchy has been around longer than you’d think
Read the full article20 January 2022
Don’t duck the Peking question
PETER TRUDGILL on why cities have different names... and how using one or the other doesn’t necessarily identify you as a vile colonialist.
Read the full article13 January 2022
Julian of Norwich, the jewel of East Anglia
PETER TRUDGILL on the East Anglian hermit thought to be the first woman to write a book in English
Read the full article06 January 2022
Changing times cloud the issue
PETER TRUDGILL on a word with many different meanings in the past 700 years
Read the full article16 December 2021
The reign of Spain is far from plain
PETER TRUDGILL on the rich seam of history behind Costa Rica’s languages.
Read the full article09 December 2021
The suffixes that gave women a bad name
PETER TRUDGILL on a law that displeased many people in the Czech Republic.
Read the full article02 December 2021
For Australians and New Zealanders, the proof is in the Pavlova pudding
PETER TRUDGILL on the origins of a tasty dessert – and the disagreement it causes in parts of the Southern Hemisphere.
Read the full article25 November 2021
Where the Greek language lingered
Alexander the Great spread the language far and wide. But where did it last the longest?
Read the full article18 November 2021
The false negatives the English language just can’t handle
PETER TRUDGILL on the linguistic device common in many European languages that can only go so far in English.
Read the full article11 November 2021
Let’s be smart, and reach out to Americanisms
PETER TRUDGILL on the seemingly unstoppable use of US words and phrases in our daily lives.
Read the full article04 November 2021
Vital signs: The story of Britain’s other language
The struggles, and triumphs, of British Sign Language.
Read the full article28 October 2021
Romancing Romanian and Moldavian tones
For political reasons, Moldovan and Romanian were considered separate languages. In fact, they are largely identical
Read the full article21 October 2021
The linguistic legacy of the buccaneering spirit
PETER TRUDGILL on a coastline and a corner of Colombia that seems forever English-speaking
Read the full article14 October 2021
What’s in a name? For these locations, an entire history
The English place names that offer revealing clues to the progress of invaders of these islands.
Read the full article07 October 2021
How Jamaican Patwa became the first language of whispering death
PETER TRUDGILL on the cricketer Michael Holding and Jamaican Patwa
Read the full article30 September 2021
One tiny tweak to subvert a tyrant
A minor change to the spelling of the Belarusian president's name would offer a subtle challenge to his authority.
Read the full article23 September 2021
The many accents of Afghanistan
The country has a reputation for being remote and reclusive, yet is home to a remarkably multilingual society, as well as one of language's greatest mysteries, writes PETER TRUDGILL
Read the full article16 September 2021
How Yiddish is a language shaped by adversity
PETER TRUDGILL on the many chapters of Yiddish
Read the full article09 September 2021
Why European language isn’t always black and white
Not all languages use the same terms to describe skin colour, writes PETER TRUDGILL.
Read the full article02 September 2021
Why Viennese public transport is on the hunt for more colourful language
PETER TRUDGILL on a recent decision to drop a common Austrian phrase due to racial sensitivities
Read the full article26 August 2021
Having a ponder over yonder
The disappearance of this archaic term represents a genuine loss for the English language, says PETER TRUDGILL
Read the full article19 August 2021
The Sami people and their nine different tongues
The Sami people are divided by several different languages and thousands of kilometres of inhospitable terrain. What does it all tell us about this remotely dispersed population?
Read the full article10 August 2021
Digby Jones’ attack on Alex Scott’s accent wasn’t just snobbish, it was wrong
Why Lord Digby Jones's claims that Alex Scott's commentary ruined the Olympics are ill-founded
Read the full article27 July 2021
Where did J R R Tolkien’s surname come from?
The roots of author J R R Tolkien’s name are almost as tangled as his fantasy fiction.
Read the full article
