The real debate isn’t whether internet slang counts as “proper English”, but which words get preserved and which are left to vanish, says NUS Centre for Language Studies’ Daniel Chan.

Ask any local Hokkien speaker, and the only word they'll likely know for 'endure' is tahan, usually heard in the phrase buey ...

A new study finds that people hear familiar words as louder than nonsense words, even when both are equally loud. The results ...

Serendipitous meetings, scholarly collaborations, and an ethos of "encouraging junior faculty to think big" laid the ...

Merriam-Webster announced in September it has taken the rare step of fully revising and reimagining one of its most popular ...

The etymology of boo is uncertain. The OED compares it with the Latin boare or the Greek βοᾶν, meaning to "cry aloud, roar, ...

Take is one of the most commonly used verbs in the English language whose basic meaning is to move something or somebody from one place to another, e.g: I took him to the hospital because he was ...

Somer G. Anderson is CPA, doctor of accounting, and an accounting and finance professor who has been working in the accounting and finance industries for more than 20 years. Her expertise covers a ...

The English We Speak is your chance to catch up on the very latest English words and phrases. In under 3 minutes, we help you stay ahead of the pack by giving you 'must have' phrases that you can use ...

Excerpted with permission from the publisher Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global,‎ Laura Spinney, published by ‎William Collins.