Ahmed, a native speaker of Arabic who also speaks French, wonders how he should pronounce words from those languages when speaking English. For example, should he model the pronunciation for the name of the writer Kahlil Ghibran the country of Qatar...
Rafaella in Wausau, Wisconsin wonders about unwritten rules of etiquette regarding when it is okay as something of an outsider to talk about certain subjects within a family. The rules depend in part on in-group and out-group dynamics within the...
Monica in Tallahassee, Florida, says that while reading the book Flossie and the Fox to her children, she wondered: What’s the right way for a parent to render dialect if the dialect is not one’s own? This is part of a complete episode...
A Corpus Christi, Texas, man named Luis is exasperated when people insist on pronouncing his name LOO-iss rather than loo-EES, which is the way he prefers and which reflects his Spanish-speaking heritage. He’s well within his rights to correct...
Auntie and uncle are often used beyond the family tree as respectful terms for older adults who are close to the family but not blood relatives. Listeners reported this pattern in Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon, South Africa, India, the Philippines...
When is it appropriate to use the word late to describe someone who has died? Late, in this sense, is short for lately deceased. There’s no hard and fast time frame, although it’s been suggested that anywhere from five to 30 years is about right...
