Want to hear the difference between English as spoken in Chicago and Liverpool, or Delhi and Alabama? The University of Edinburgh's Sound Comparisons lets you listen to a variety of English accents from around the Anglophone world. It's an eye-opening trip through the diversity of World English.

Passionate about food and language? These online epicures have got your number.

Polyglot Vegetarian

New York City Food and Drink

The Food Timeline

Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages

This month in the Lounge we've been having a think about whether it's a hack to turn a verb into a noun. Here's our take on it.  Continue reading...

Whether your abbreviation of choice is ESL or EFL, here are some great blogs on teaching English to non-native speakers.

ESL Podcast Blog

TEFLtastic

ESL Trail

EFL Geek

Continuing our political theme this week, columnist Nancy Friedman takes a look at the buzzwords of the current campaign season. Her background in developing names and brands gives her a unique perspective into how new political coinages bubble to the surface.  Continue reading...

Last week we presented the first part of our interview with New York Times columnist William Safire about the latest edition of Safire's Political Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2008), a thoroughgoing guide to the nuances of American political lingo. In part two, Safire explores how the discourse of politics has changed since the previous edition of the dictionary was published in 1993. It's a peculiar terrain full of moonbats and wingnuts, where pork-busters decry the bridge to nowhere.  Continue reading...