Landmarks of English

We’ve had our say in 'A History of the English Language in 100 Places'. From Peterborough to Poldhu; from Lichfield to Liverpool; from Bruges to Boston USA; from Salford to Singapore there are many places across the world which we consider are landmarks for the English language. Now we want you to share your landmark places, the locations where you see linguistic footprints connected to English today.

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April: Agent Nouns

Agent Noun: ‘a noun (in English typically one ending in -er or -or) denoting someone or something that performs the action of a verb, as worker, accelerator, etc.’ [OED]

When we hear or read the words printer and speaker and runner, do we think of a woman or a man? The word allows us to think of either, but, in practice, we may find ourselves thinking of a man. To say that we are thinking may not be accurate. We may be engaging one of the short cuts of fast speech since we have to decode what we hear as fast as speakers encode what they say.

On 17 March 2018, a headline on the front page of The New York Times read: ‘Draw a Leader. What’s She Like? Trick Question?’ ... READ MORE

Latest Location Lingo

Torbados (Locality: Torbay)
Beastly Eastleigh (Town: Eastleigh)
Hooligan (Village: Illogan)
Cambodia (Town: Camborne)
Cardboard Bay (Village: Carbis Bay)