Boustrophedon is writing that changes direction with each line, right to left, then left to right, and back again, like an ox turning at the end of a furrow. The word comes from Greek bous, “ox,” and strophe, “turn.” The same ox root appears in...
Pearl, a youngster in Massachusetts, heard turmeric at dinner over kale and chickpeas and wondered whether her mother’s second-syllable stress matched ordinary dictionary pronunciations. For this spice from India, dictionaries record several...
Aru in Omaha, Nebraska, says friends and colleagues tease him about his use of prepone, usually used to mean “move an appointment to an earlier date or time.” It’s a word commonly used in Indian English, is morphologically sound, and...
A woman who relocated from the eastern United States to Evansville, Indiana, was confused when her mother-in-law there asked her to bring in some mangoes from the garden, since tropical fruits don’t grow in the Midwest. In that part of the...
In Arabic-speaking families, it’s not uncommon for mothers to address their children with the Arabic word for “mama” or for fathers to use the word for “father” when addressing their offspring. These words are used in...
Let’s play a round of linguistic Would You Rather: Would you prefer that everyone talk in language that uses only verbs or only adjectives? Grant and Martha both had the same preference. See if you agree. This is part of a complete episode...