Babel: The Language Magazine

Babel is a quarterly language magazine that brings you state-of-the-art linguistic research in an accessible and vibrant format. Topics covered include the past, present and future of language, languages of the world, practical applications for linguistic research, explanations of linguistic theories and methods, book reviews, puzzles and much more. Written by linguists for the interested general reader, Babel: The Language Magazine brings linguistics to life.

Welcome

Babel: The Language Magazine

Inbox • Babel is now on Bluesky! You can follow us @babelzine.bsky.social

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Lucky dip back issues offer

Language in the news • THE KING’S SPEECH

Universal Language & Universal Grammar • Mireia Llinàs-Grau looks at Zamenhof’s and Chomsky’s motivations and concerns

Did Tommy Cooper’s fez really come from Morocco? • Peter Trudgill looks at how the origin of the hat’s name comes from the location of berries used to dye its felt

Learning a second language: Here’s what you need to bear in mind • Ever wondered why some people speak a foreign language more proficiently than others? Gabriela Valenzuela’s study of 40 Spanish speakers learning English aims to answer these questions

Planet Word • A museum of words and language for Washington, D.C.

Diary of a linguist

Victoria Alexandra Fromkin (1923—2000) • Andreea Calude explores the life and work of the linguist behind one of the most popular textbooks of linguistics of all time

Danny Bate: Writer THE PROFESSIONALS

Infographic: Digital language support and the most used sign languages

Mind your grammar • Linguistic structures of impoliteness

KILL THE JOKE • Alice Haines on funny names

The word hoard • Our resident etymologist, Simon Horobin, on runes

Languages of the world URARTIAN • Robin Meyer introduces a language of ancient Anatolia, Urartian, and some of its mysteries

Speaking out! JANE SETTER, UNIVERSITY OF READING • Inside UCL’s iconic Summer Course in English Phonetics

[q] tips • Puzzled by plosives, foxed by fricatives, bamboozled by bilabials? Dom Watt is here to help you master the myriad squiggles and curlicues of the International Phonetic Alphabet

What has rhetoric ever done for us? CHARACTER AND STYLE • Michael Burke looks at the virtue of rhetoric

Joe Cowan Experimental pragmatics

Glarking Hackish • Tristan Miller University of Manitoba

Reviews

GOBSMACKED! THE BRITISH INVASION OF AMERICAN ENGLISH

LANGUAGE GAMES ANSWERS

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