People born or descended from Spanish-speaking nations are still debating if any of the ethnic labels used to identify them in the United States feel right.
A partnership between members of the Passamaquoddy tribe and the Library of Congress to transcribe wax cylinder recordings from 1890 is bringing the tribe's language back to life.
Whether you're extremely online, or still confused by how a simple period can be interpreted as passive-aggressive, linguist Gretchen McCulloch has a guide to how our on-screen speech is morphing.
In Hawaii today, nearly everyone knows how to speak a few words and phrases of Hawaiian. But the practice of primarily speaking the Hawaiian language from birth nearly died two generations ago.
This week we focus on the behavior of the youngest members of the human race. We try to translate the mysterious language of babies. And we ask, when should we step back and just let our children be?
Many Latvians believe they need to protect themselves against cultural and political assimilation by their giant neighbor. But the country's Russian speakers say the new law is discriminatory.
This week on the Hidden Brain radio show, we explore how the constantly evolving nature of languages can give us different ways of understanding ourselves as well as the world we live in.
To us non-babies, babbles like "ah-gah" and "dadadadada" can sound like cute gobbledygook. But they don't have to be such a mystery. We'll get a primer on how to decipher the dialect of tiny humans.
Each year, a smaller proportion of Latinos in the United States speaks Spanish. But for many, the language is still a fundamental marker of their identity.
Why talk when you can say it with an emoji or a GIF? "Instead of me telling someone how good I look, I can just send them a picture of Beyoncé in a queen's outfit," Youth Radio's Robert Fisher says.
Tiny filler words in human rapid-fire conversation hold the key to understanding how language is unique, according to a new book. But anthropologist Barbara J. King raises some questions.
Many separatists say their Catalan language is what makes them feel most different from the rest of Spain. The language was prohibited during years of dictatorship, but now it's ubiquitous in schools.
A recent study emphasizes what researchers have noted for years: As children, Spanish-speaking English learners take longer to become proficient than nearly any other group. Here are theories why.
Yes, President Trump's words tend to be simple and oft-repeated. The real question, says anthropologist Barbara J. King, may be what happens when we adopt them.
Movies are full of loquacious chimps, but could nonhuman apes really use language? NPR's Skunk Bear sorts through the disturbing history of research on ape language to sort fact from wishful thinking.
Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are studying how music and rhythm activities could help children who struggle with grammar and language development.
When anthropologist Renato Rosaldo went to live with a Philippine tribe that was known for beheading people, he couldn't grasp the emotion that fueled this violence. Then his wife suddenly died.
