Despite centuries of efforts to make standardised French the language of all of France, Occitan, which is intrinsically tied to the local culture, could not be suppressed.

What if walkie-talkie people named everything? A stamp would be called a licky-sticky. A defibrillator would be a hearty-starty. A bumble bee is a fuzzy-buzzy, and a pregnancy test would be a baby, maybe. A bra is a breastie-nestie, and a fork is a stabby-grabby. A hippo is a floatie-bloatie, and a nightmare a screamy-dreamy.

Taiwan will adopt a top-down approach to promoting bilingualism centered on Chinese and English as soon as next year in a bid to boost international competitiveness, said Premier William Lai. In an interview with UDN, Lai remarked that the government is heeding public calls to help improve English proficiency for the people of Taiwan, citing a proposition regarding the issue jointly submitted by some members of the Academia Sinica to President Tsai Ing-wen.

Procter and Gamble wants to trademark three-letter acronyms including 'LOL' and 'WTF' to use in an unlikely category: dishwashing detergents and soap. P&G, owner of brands such as Febreze, Tide and Mr Clean, has applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to use 'LOL' (which stands for Laughing Out Loud), 'WTF' (What The F---), 'NBD' (No Big Deal) and 'FML' (F--- My Life).

Colin Marshall examines English speakers’ relationship to the French language, which is the subject of a growing number of books.

The Cocteau Twins

After Brexit, the use of English is likely to be even more common.

Bahasa Indonesia was adopted to make communication easier across the vast Indonesian archipelago, but its simplicity has only created new barriers.

Latvia is actively preparing for one of the most important political event of the year. Parliamentary elections will take place in October 6, 2018. Submissions of the lists of candidates for the 13th Saeima elections will take place very soon – from July 18 to August 7, 2018. But the elections campaign as well as all political life in the country faces some problems which require additional attention from the authorities. And these problems spoil the image of Latvia as a democratic state which might respect the rights of its people.

A bill snaking its way through the Duma on the teaching of native languages has representatives of Russia's so-called ethnic republics up in arms, arguing that Moscow's intention is to "make everyone Russian."

All over the country all but 20 of the 250 Indigenous languages are highly endangered or, as some describe, in a deep sleep. But now they are waking up thanks to the word detectives, a dedicated group of linguists and teachers determined to make language revival a success. Desmond Crump is one of them.

Researchers have discovered male bottlenose dolphins can retain individual vocal labels – or “names” – to help them recognise each other in their social network, much like humans.

A partnership between Google and Australian linguistic researchers could see AI play a role in digitising and preserving dozens of threatened languages.

Chinese Curse? Austen Chamberlain? Frederic R. Coudert? Joseph Chamberlain? Diplomatic Staff? Albert Camus? Arthur C. Clarke? Robert F. Kennedy? Hillary Rodham Clinton?

Chocolate Factory unwraps developer style guide, squibs the thorny ISO date debate

And while we’re at it, what is an official language, anyway?

Research shows that the more skills children bring with them to kindergarten – in basic math, reading, even friendship and cooperation – the more likely they will succeed in those same areas in school. Hence, “kindergarten readiness” is the goal of many preschool programs, and a motivator for many parents.

Obviously, there needs to be a standard. But do we really want to leave it to science?

Around every second migrant in Germany fails the language test at the end of integration courses, a newspaper reports. It suggests a lack of adequate attendance could be one factor in the low success rate.

The Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan is changing its alphabet from Cyrillic script to the Latin-based style favoured by the West. What are the economics of such a change?