The City’s Echo: Forensic Dialectology
A voice on a recording might be the only clue in a criminal case. Forensic dialectology is the fascinating field where linguists analyze accents, word choice, and grammar to trace…
Language And Law
Latin: The DNA of Modern Science
Far from being a linguistic relic, Latin is the essential operating system for modern innovation. This post moves beyond its influence on language to explore its critical, living role in…
The Dictionary’s Phantom: Hunting for Mountweazels
What if some of the words in your dictionary were complete fabrications, planted by clever editors as copyright traps? These phantom words, known as "mountweazels", have haunted the pages of…
The Copyright That Wasn’t: The Klingon Language Lawsuit
Can you own a language? This very question was at the heart of a high-stakes lawsuit when Paramount sued the creators of a Star Trek fan film, claiming copyright over…
Can You Copyright a Single Word?
Ever wondered if a company can truly "own" a word like Google? While copyright law protects creative works, it's actually trademark law that allows a corporation to claim a word…
Herein, Aforesaid, Notwithstanding: Why Legal Language Is a Language of Its Own
Have you ever felt lost reading a contract full of words like "aforesaid" and "notwithstanding"? This is "legalese," a unique linguistic fossil born from a historical mixture of Law French,…