Book Review: Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar by David Crystal

Crystal against crystallization by James Harbeck (Oxford University Press, 2017) How can we have crystal-clear language spoken by people with a crystal-clear understanding of how it works? For one thing, don’t try to crystallize it—just Crystal-ize. Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar, by David Crystal, is for anyone who wants to get Crystal … Continue reading Book Review: Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar by David Crystal

The Nitpicker’s Nook: December’s linguistic links roundup

The Nitpicker’s Nook is a monthly collection of language-related articles, interviews, and blog posts. If you read something that would make a good addition, email your suggestion to [email protected]. By Carol Harrison ’Tis the season for giving or gifting?: The Atlantic’s Megan Garber argues against gifting. Hey, girl! The analytics website FiveThirtyEight crunches the numbers … Continue reading The Nitpicker’s Nook: December’s linguistic links roundup

The importance of language as shown by ancient Maya civilization

By Samita Sarkar Recently, I watched an informative PBS documentary about the history of the Maya language called Cracking the Maya Code (watch it online here). Much like the other indigenous civilizations of the Americas that encountered Europeans hundreds of years ago, the Maya experienced cultural and linguistic oppression at the hands of Spanish colonizers. … Continue reading The importance of language as shown by ancient Maya civilization