Members-Only Articles

Why English spelling actually does make sense

English spelling is optimal, from a certain point of view

Mar 11 • Colin Gorrie

Why the worst idea in linguistics won’t die

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is mostly wrong

Feb 25 • Colin Gorrie

1066 didn't change English (but 1250 did)

How all those French words actually got into English

Feb 11 • Colin Gorrie

What if Beowulf had been written by Shakespeare?

The Tragedie of Beowulf, Prince of Wethermark

Jan 31 • Colin Gorrie

Were Old Norse and Old English a single language?

I say hām, you say heimr, let's call the whole thing off.

Jan 17 • Colin Gorrie

Why people fail at learning languages

And how you can do it better in 2026

Jan 3 • Colin Gorrie

European languages are exotic

Blame it on the “Dark Ages”

Dec 20, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

The wild world of grammatical gender

Beyond masculine, feminine, and neuter

Dec 6, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

The English language’s wild century

And those who tried to resist it

Nov 22, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

How the letter E almost ruined English poetry

Time erodes all things, even Chaucer

Nov 8, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

How to end a sentence with style

Cadence in English prose from Gibbon to Orwell

Oct 25, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

How iambic pentameter really works

And why it works so well in English

Oct 11, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

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