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Peter Trudgill

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

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How Yiddish is a language shaped by adversity

PETER TRUDGILL on the many chapters of Yiddish

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Why European language isn’t always black and white

Not all languages use the same terms to describe skin colour, writes PETER TRUDGILL.

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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

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Having a ponder over yonder

The disappearance of this archaic term represents a genuine loss for the English language, says PETER TRUDGILL

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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?

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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

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Where did J R R Tolkien’s surname come from?

JRR Tolkien, the South African-born philologist and author of 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord Of The Rings'. Photo by Haywood Magee/Getty Images

The roots of author J R R Tolkien’s name are almost as tangled as his fantasy fiction.

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Bethlehem to Bedlam: What links bywords for peace and mayhem

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The quirks of Ps and Qs

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How sound switch nearly caused a farewell to alms

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The language that got frozen out

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Yet another way to aggravate language pedants

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A common surname and its surprising roots

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The fight against the homogenisation of the British Isles

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It’s alright to be wrong about all right

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How Singapore learned to speak with many tongues

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Why the English could understand the Vikings

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The slow death of Channel Islands Norman

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The English language’s U-turn

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Giving a v-sign to language pendants

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The long and short of language

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How our words turn whiffy

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The slow death and recent revival of the Cornish language

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Not a real language? You’ve Scot to be joking

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The evolution of Joseph Stalin’s mother tongue

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The language of leaping to conclusions

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The season that didn’t always spring to mind

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How Robert Maxwell had such a way with language

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The Swiss secret that could keep Britain together

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Aussie accents on the march

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The vocabulary of the Vikings

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