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Featured highlights ...
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Word Improvisation
Investigations of slang by J. E. Lighter, the editor of the Random House Dictionary of American Slang.
Word Watch
A selection of terms that have newly been coined, that have recently acquired new currency, or that have taken on new meanings, compiled by Anne H. Soukhanov, the U.S. general editor of The Encarta World English Dictionary (1999).
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In the April Atlantic ...
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The Puzzler
By Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon
[More Puzzlers from The Atlantic]
Word Court
"Reduce" versus "lower" ... The correct usage of "carrot and stick" ... and more. By Barbara Wallraff
Recent columns by Barbara Wallraff ...
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Word Fugitives
Mar "wishful linking" ... "devious ex machina" ... and more. By Barbara Wallraff
[Submit a word fugitive]
Word Court
Jan/Feb "Robin's-egg blue" or "robin's-egg brown"? ... Is "ice cream" a word? ... and more. By Barbara Wallraff
[More by Barbara Wallraff]
Articles from The Atlantic ...
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INNOCENT BYSTANDER
Need to Know
Mar Updating an elementary lexicon. By Cullen Murphy
Dances With Daffodils
Apr Can postmodernist antics salvage one of the author's least favorite poems? By Phyllis Rose
MANNERS
Civility vs. Civilité
Oct No matter what the dictionary says, "politeness" and "rudeness" aren't easily translated. By Alice Furlaud
CENTERPIECE
Word Imperfect
May How a polymath named Peter Mark Roget brought forth one of the most influential—and lamentable—reference works of all time. By Simon Winchester
The Culture Did It
Dec A semantic innovation gets us all off the hook. By Cullen Murphy
What Global Language?
Nov English isn't managing to sweep all else before it—and if it ever does become the universal language, many of those who speak it won't understand one another. By Barbara Wallraff
Nominal Authority (February 2000)
The world is in the midst of the largest outbreak of new names in history. By Cullen Murphy
Told You So (September 1999)
The writing on the wall—and the bottle, the box, the stroller, the doe... By Cullen Murphy
Anticipation (November 1998)
The early bird pre-gets the worm. By Cullen Murphy
The Case Against Bilingual Education (May 1998)
Research confirms what America's immigrants have been trying to tell us: teaching children in languages other than English does little to help them learn English or anything else. By Rosalie Pedalino Porter
The Reading Wars (November 1997)
An old disagreement over how to teach children to read—whole-language versus phonics—has re-emerged in California, in a new form. Previously confined largely to education, the dispute is now a full-fledged political issue there, and is likely to become one in other states. By Nicholas Lemann
New-Alphabet Disease? (July 1997)
It's tough suddenly changing from one alphabet to another. Azerbaijan is on its third one this century. By Toby Lester
The Positive Negative (June 1997)
Saying no with a smile. By Ian Frazier
Should English Be the Law? (April 1997)
Language is tearing apart countries around the world, and the proponents of "Official English" may be ready to add America to the list. By Robert D. King
A War That Never Ends (March 1997)
The laws of grammar may be arbitrary, as those who would simply dismiss them assert. But arbitrary laws are just the ones that need enforcement. By Mark Halpern
The Spirit of Cotonou (January 1997)
Finally, some helpful advice to the French on how to enhance the role of their language in the world. By Cullen Murphy
Elegant Variation and All That (December 1996)
A modernized edition of a venerable classic of English usage brings changes that are vast and controversial—and almost always sensible. By Jesse Sheidlower
The E Word (September 1996)
Why euphemisms warrant a statistical index all their own. By Cullen Murphy
The Great Debate Revisited (December 1994)
Contention between proponents of the "meaning first" and the "phonics first" approaches to literacy goes back more than a century. That the former is now in the ascendant, the author argues, should be cause for concern. By Art Levine
To Be in Their Bonnets (February 1992)
A matter of semantics. By Cullen Murphy
Masters of the Tiles (June 1987)
Even to initiates, Scrabble has yet to yield up all its secrets. By Barry Chamish
The Decline of Grammar (December 1983)
"Is the English language—or to put it less apocalyptically, English prose writing—really in a bad way? How would one tell?" By Geoffrey Nunberg
A Dissolving View of Punctuation (August 1906)
"The writer on the 'laws' of punctuation must begin by admitting that no two masters of the art would punctuate the same way; that usage varies with every printing-office and with every proofreader." By Wendell Phillips Garrison
An American Primer (April 1904)
"The Americans are going to be the most fluent and melodious voiced people in the world—and the most perfect users of words. Words follow character,—nativity, independence, individuality." By Walt Whitman
For more on language you can browse back issues of The Atlantic or use the form below to search the site. Click here for search tips.
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FLASHBACKS
The Battle over Bilingual Education
Dec 11 Should non-native-speaking children be taught in English or in their own languages? Three articles offer varying perspectives on this divisive issue.
Word Police (January - June 2000)
Do you have what it takes to be a Word Police officer? Test your grammar skills in this special interactive feature by Atlantic senior editor Barbara Wallraff, author of Word Court (2000).
Word Fugitives [Classic Edition]
"Is there a word for ...?" Here, in the original Web-only version of Word Fugitives—which ran in Atlantic Unbound from November, 1998, through December, 1999—Barbara Wallraff invited readers to help her track down words that don't yet exist, but should.
For more by Barbara Wallraff, see The Court Record.
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