linguistics
Twists of the tongue
When competing languages collide, demography eventually supersedes prestige
2022: What can we say?
Weaponised words can only decrease in value
For whom the road tolls
Did turnpike roads transform travel in the 18th century? Or were they a means for rent-seeking?
Kilkenny’s golden age
A fascinating exploration of Irish history could have been better and more comprehensively illustrated
NatCon lives on
The conference has gone ahead in Brussels despite protests and police action
Unpacking neurodivergence and gender identity
Neurodivergent teenagers are in danger of having their struggles miscategorised
The callousness of the virtue signallers
The response to a young singer’s death exposed the cruelty of the self-consciously virtuous
God save The Kinks
How did four ornery lads rearing up from the post-war English underclass become national treasures?
The unromantic truth about tortured poets
Taylor Swift is idealising the grim realities of the lives of poets
Saltburn and the significance of sound
Why has Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor” caught the world’s attention again?
Dissent is not hatred
We must resist the idea that disagreement with modish beliefs is reducible to ill-feeling
All small talk
Dwarf uprisings, Daleks and disreputable handymen
Netherworld
The Dutch golden age could be anything but for the painters
