What's behind the Australian habit of nicknaming and abbreviating everything? Nicknames may just reveal how Australians see themselves and relate to each other.

By the time the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, did colonial Americans still sound like their British counterparts?

Although studying the language known as “Anglo-Saxon” helped women advance in the academy, the subject is fraught with racist associations.

Melvil Dewey, of the Dewey Decimal system, thought we should have spelling reform.