Tag: English

For International English Language Day, the story of the most unusual guide to the language ever published, the one called “English As She Is Spoke.”

This is our very last episode of 2023, so we’re telling the story of the final stop in our 26 letter alphabet: here’s where Z came from. 

Today in 1906 a vote in Congress put an end to one of President Theodore Roosevelt’s top priorities: simplifying the way we spell words. Or, as he would have preferred, spel wurds.

Amazingly, the English alphabet added its last letter in 1524, and no, that letter wasn't Z. We'll explain how an Italian grammarian convinced the world to add one more letter to the list.

Noah Webster's “An American Dictionary of the English Language” defined American English as people actually spoke it, but it also included some words that haven't exactly stayed with us.