Have you ever dreamed of becoming a word? NPR’s Adam Cole has, and he’s written a song about the immortality that comes from having your name turned into a noun. But as his colleague Robert Krulwich points out, many of the people whose names are now in dictionaries would be horrified. Joseph Guillotine, for example, hated the death penalty. And James Thomas Brudenell, seventh earl of Cardigan, must be turning over in his grave: “Here’s a brave cavalry officer, who led the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War, watched his men cut down, butchered by the enemy, a man of action, a soldier, and what do we remember him for,” writes Krulwich on his blog? “Yup, by some trick of fate, he is now a sweater with buttons down the front. I mean, really…”

Wanna Achieve Linguistic Immortality? Not So Fast Cautions Animated NPR Video is a post from: Open Culture

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, a translation that influenced the development of the English language as much as it did the Christian faith. Right alongside many other anniversary celebrations taking place this year, Glen Scrivener, a minister in the Church of England, has started a blog about the linguistic impact of the text, focusing on 365 phrases that have passed in common parlance. A lot of this gets artfully distilled by Scrivener’s short video, The King’s English – 100 phrases in 3 Minutes (above).

Scrivener’s work is nicely complemented by a witty animated video taken from The History of English in 10 Minutes, a sequence created by The Open University earlier this year.

H/T Metafilter

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How the King James Bible Forever Changed English: 400th Anniversary Celebrated with Fun Videos is a post from: Open Culture

Malcolm Coulthard teaches Forensic Linguistics at Aston University, Birmingham. And, in case you’re wondering what this means, forensic linguistics is all about “taking linguistic knowledge, methods and insight, and applying these to the forensic context of law, investigation, trial, punishment and rehabilitation.” Or solving crimes, in short.  This may sound rather dry, but when Professor Coulthard talks about his work we get a fascinating glimpse into what forensic linguistics looks like in practice. In the video above, an excerpt from his inaugural lecture at Aston University (watch the full version here), Coulthard explains how the analysis of text messages helped solve a recent murder case. This puts him on the new frontier of police work.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the BBC, Tim Grant, Deputy Director at the Centre for Forensic Linguistics at Aston University, explains how his team’s analysis of documents and writings can help police with their investigations. The video does not work in all regions, but there is a transcript below the video.

By profession, Matthias Rascher teaches English and History at a High School in northern Bavaria, Germany. In his free time he scours the web for good links and posts the best finds on Twitter.

Forensic Linguistics: Finding a Murderer Through Text Messages is a post from: Open Culture

Yesterday, the Open University released ‘The History of English in 10 Minutes,’ a witty animated sequence that takes you through 1600 years of linguistic history. The Vikings gave us “give” and “take.” Shakespeare added another 2,000 words and expressions to the mix. The British Empire (see video above) then brought the evolving English language to new lands, creating new varieties of English worldwide. And so the story continues. You can find this series featuring the voice of Clive Anderson on iTunes or YouTube. We’ve included links to each YouTube chapter right below. Many thanks to Catherine for the heads up…

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The History of the English Language in Ten Animated Minutes is a post from: Open Culture

MP3 via UbuWeb Sound.

By profession, Matthias Rascher teaches English and History at a High School in northern Bavaria, Germany. In his free time he scours the web for good links and posts the best finds on Twitter.

DalíLinguistics is a post from: Open Culture

Today is National Grammar Day, and maybe it’s a stretch to lump spelling under grammar, but it’s casual Friday here on OC. So we leave you with this. Have a great weekend..

Spelling Counts… is a post from: Open Culture

Thanks to historical, cultural, and linguistic factors, English has by far the world’s largest vocabulary—leading many of us to have greater than average difficulty with words, and some of us to have greater than average curiosity about words.

Our historical and linguistic study will cover both erudite and everyday English, with special attention to word meaning and word use, to both rules and exceptions. Most words originated with an image. “Reveal” = “pull back the veil,” “depend” = “hang down from.”

Change is constant. “Girl” once meant “a young child of either sex;” an early synonym for “stupid” was “nice.” Despite resistance to change among some experts and some members of the general public, new words are entering at an accelerating rate, from “Frankenfood” to “ungoogleable.” Are there good changes and bad ones? And who gets to decide? Exploring the historical and contemporary richness of English will suggest some answers.

English and its Evolution is a post from: Open Culture

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Best Online Language Tools for Word Nerds is a post from: Open Culture

Top 10 Grammar Myths is a post from: Open Culture

We’d usually outline the pros and cons of learning languages the Mango Way. But there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. So we’re directing your attention to Jon Gordon, the host of Future Tense, whose recent broadcast took a short look at Mango’s offering. You can listen to it here (MP3 – RealAudio – Feed) and read some more here. You can also access Future Tense on iTunes.

NOTE: To get started with Mango Languages, you will need to register with the website.

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Learning Foreign Languages the Mango Way is a post from: Open Culture