What happens in a classroom of refugee and immigrant youngsters learning English? Their fresh approach to language can result in remarkable poetry — some of which is collected in the anthology England: Poems from a School. Also, new language among...
Susan, a librarian in Grant County, Kentucky, says her spouse, who is from the Cincinnati area, uses the expression Please? to mean “How’s that?” or “Come again?” or “Excuse me?” to get someone to repeat a...
Margaret from Denton, Texas, says that during her many years in northern New Mexico she noticed that residents with Latino roots often used the phrase landed up instead of ended up, and get down off the car rather than get out of the car. The latter...
Oh, for cute, oh, for nice, and oh, for dumb are Minnesota expressions built on oh, for plus an adjective, often to pass a quick judgment or exclamation. Jesse in Gainesville, Florida, grew up hearing them in northern Minnesota, especially from...
A highly anticipated children’s book and the epic history behind a familiar vegetable: fans of illustrator Maurice Sendak eagerly await publication of a newly discovered manuscript by the late author. And speaking of children’s...
The phrase he doesn’t know from (something), meaning “he doesn’t know about (something),” is a word-for-word borrowing, or calque, of a Yiddish phrase “Er veys nit fun.” This is part of a complete episode...