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As guardians of the English language, usually garrulous tongued UK residents are finding themselves at a loss for words. Many of their favourite phrases have been banned. Dozens of taxpayer-funded organizations in the UK are drawing black lines through dozens of common words and phrases they’ve decided are offensive. You won’t find any "gentleman’s agreements" being made in the halls of the National Gallery in London. Such bonds are now "unwritten agreements." No place is safe from being suspect – even the "master bedroom" is a problem for uber-sensitive officials at Newcastle University. But on this side of the Atlantic,...

Biologically speaking, many animals besides dogs bark, according to Kathryn Lord at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, but the evolutionary biologist also says domestic dogs vocalize in this way much more than birds, deer, monkeys and other wild animals that use barks. The reason is related to dogs’ 10,000-year history of hanging around human food refuse dumps, she suggests.

The US Department of Justice has launched an inquiry into Boston’s failure to provide necessary language instruction to thousands of students who speak limited English, a violation of federal law that has the district scrambling to hire teachers and expand programs for this fall.

Lawmakers pass bill to protect language freedom California would protect the freedom of a person to speak any language he or she chooses in a business establishment under a measure approved by the state Legislature today. The bill, authored by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, is the lawmaker's response to a controversial proposal by the LPGA last fall requiring golfers to speak "effective English." The organization scuttled the proposal after loud objections by Yee and others, and the Democrat says this legislation will ensure it does not happen again. "No one in the state of California should be compelled to...

Here's the link to the bills making English the official language. English First

A retired Norwegian linguistics professor has described Swedes as "stupid" for not being able to understand Norwegian. Norwegians have no problem with Swedish, the professor points out. Finn-Erik Vinje has caused an escalation in what is promising to become an all out language war, by publishing a post on his blog last week asking, "Why are Swedes so stupid?". The citation, Vinje writes, is taken from a publication written 60 years ago but, he claims, remains a relevant question today. The basis of Vinje's assertion is that Swedish viewers of Himmelbå, a Norwegian television series based on the British production...

An eye-opening book titled The Language Police lists about 500 words that are banned from school textbooks. Some are amusing, some stupid (probably a banned word), and some are chilling. Here is a very partial list of banned words: Founding Fathers—Banned as sexist. Replace with Founders or Framers. (Because we would not want to note that the men who wrote the documents were men) Caveman—Banned as sexist, replace with cave dweller. (Wonder if that makes the Geico Cave . . . uhhh . . . dweller feel a little better?) Disadvantaged—Banned, replace with reference to the resources or rights that...

"Indonesian Tribe adopts Hangul" I kid you not (and it kind of makes sense). But, something about this story strikes me as a bit perverse. As in, it feels as if the South Korean government is taking advantage of this poor innocent Indonesian tribe.

This picture truly is worth at least a thousand words: I am stunned that the official White House Blog published this picture and that it is in the public domain. The body language is most revealing. Sergeant Crowley, the sole class act in this trio, helps the handicapped Professor Gates down the stairs, while Barack Obama, heedless of the infirmities of his friend and fellow victim of self-defined racial profiling, strides ahead on his own. So who is compassionate? And who is so self-involved and arrogant that he is oblivious? In my own dealings with the wealthy and powerful, I...

Do you use harsh profanity in everyday speech? (i.e., do you drop the F-bomb?) A Daily Poll.