Language

The adoption of some Arabic words into colloquial English came from British soldiers stationed in the Middle East and north Africa

The name of the ship is well known these days, but the etymology of the Cotswolds village from which it took its name is less certain

The Americans have already had their big turkey meal of the year – and Thanksgiving owes a debt to Greece and to harvest festivals

New England has many place names that must have been taken across the North Atlantic by homesick English people in the 1600s

Philosophers have rarely written about swearing - until now

Small islands have evolved vocabularies based on topography – including one place where you can go ‘east’ while heading west

English has a number of words borrowed from Urdu-Hindi, many of which arrived when British Indian Army soldiers returned to ‘Blighty’

The adventures of one carpenter and several British soldiers helped English become the native language on two isolated islands

This term for house or property might sound like it belongs to one region – but like many others, it’s in use across England

The opening of the International French Language Centre embraces the evolution of the language in a globalised world

Macron says “non”

How the raising of cattle by a mixture of Mexicans, African-Americans and Americans gave rise to a distinctive vocabulary

After Columbus made landfall in the Bahamas in 1492, as many as 40,000 Taino natives were enslaved in the Caribbean

Many of us now use words imported from across the pond, like ’truck’ instead of ’lorry’. But the traffic isn’t only one-way...

In parts of Sweden and Finland, the practice of changing your surname to make it sound more learned goes back to the 1600s

A new book of bizarre phrases in European languages aims to counter a rising tide of nationalism

The Dutch language survived in North America for many decades after the English had taken control of the formerly Dutch-controlled area

The official titles of our feathered friends have been replaced throughout history with affectionate nicknames that a child might use

The translations of familiar film and book titles into different languages can be fascinating, comical and often downright bizarre

This Danish colloquialism for menstruation is just one of countless slang terms and phrases – often demeaning – that apply to women

From ‘crispbread phoners’ to ‘Cheryl Coles’, many of the latest slang terms around the world have been coined by technology and global events

A tour of British and European slang of the past begins with old terms for drinking too much.. and feeling the effects afterwards

How direct contact with Welsh and Gaelic speakers left its mark on the migrant tribes who moved into what is now Germany

The linguistic makeup of the British Isles was partly determined by three battles – in Yorkshire, Builth Wells and Culloden

English had been rooted in the northern hemisphere for centuries – until the transportation of convicts in the 1700s

The Angles and the Saxons came to these shores across the North Sea and gave their names to the different areas they settled in

The world does not speak Esperanto. But the continent’s neutral language gives you the key to polyglot Europe

If your name becomes an adjective, you will achieve immortality; but beware, it may not be the kind that you want

Discriminating against people on the basis of how they speak is very common, despite the push for diversity in other areas

The language can be found in some unexpected places, none more so than medieval “New England” on the Crimean peninsula

The standard form of English used in the media contains a number of grammatical oddities not found in other dialects of the language

Communities can switch language – like the Irish who gradually gave up Gaelic for English – but they retain parts of the old one, too