Barry Tomalin, presenter of BBC English by Radio's weekly magazine Speaking of English, recently raised some grammatical issues with DR ROBERT BURCHFIELD, Editor of the Supplement of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Punctuation marks like the comma and the question mark are fairly secure in ‘literate’ usage, but one cannot say the same for the apostrophe, whose curious and unstable history and present condition merit some thought.

Some languages when threatened receive the full protection of the law – and yet the hybrids flourish and the risks continue. French, English and franglais are a case in point.

Barry Tomalin presenter of BBC English by Radio's weekly magazine Speaking of English, talks to L G (Louis) Alexander, doyen of EFL coursebook writers.

The cliché is not loved, and usage books do not have much to say in its favour. Is it possible, however, that the 20th century is being unfair to a venerable cultural device?

1987 is the centenary year of Esperanto. English Today talks to ARNOLD PITT, editor of Esperanto Teacher, about the most famous of the world's ‘artificial’ languages and its relationship with English.

When is ‘jargon’ simply necessary technical language, and when does technical language blur into unnecessary jargon? Teachers of English can help their students not only to deal with questions like these, but also to identify authentic bafflegab when they come across it.

When new nations are created national languages and identities are often created with them. The British Caribbean in recent decades has provided opportunities to see such processes evolve and to consider their wider implications.

Together, English and Spanish head the list of multinational languages. Inevitably they meet – in Puerto Rico, California, Florida and elsewhere – and the results are kinds of ‘Spanglish’ and englañol. Here we take a look at what has happened in South Texas.

All published works in English are planned, but some are more planned than others – right down to the last word. TOM McARTHUR takes a look at the tradition of shaping words to fit an educational need.