The key to success is understanding the rules that govern how sounds fit together, says author David Shariatmadari

Purveyors of disinformation can be caught out by the particular words they use, says Guardian writer and editor David Shariatmadari

His linguistic intolerance suggests a personality that values order and obedience above all, says Guardian editor and writer David Shariatmadari

The contestants’ heavy use of ‘like’ has raised hackles. But they shouldn’t be demonised for it, says Guardian editor and writer David Shariatmadari

There’s a long history of phrases being garbled in the move from one language to another, says Guardian writer and editor David Shariatmadari

As Britain prepares to leave the EU, the gap between language and reality is widening, says Guardian editor and writer David Shariatmadari

BBC Radio 4 listeners are fuming over an ‘unwelcome linguistic epidemic’. But it goes back as far as Beowulf, says Guardian writer and editor David Shariatmadari

Influential people have always had the power to change language. The president’s late-night typo sent the internet crazy, but will it stick around?

In a surprising new study, researchers have detected powerful associations between sounds and meanings across thousands of unrelated languages

A new study shows that dolphins chatter while cooperating on a task. The line between human and animal language may not be as clear as we like to think

A new study reveals for the first time how different personality types react to spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. It’s all about arousal

I’m no friend of the Republican frontrunner. But when it comes to orthography, maybe we should cut him a break

As Oxford Dictionaries comes under fire for sexist definitions, the history of terms that refer to women shows how deep negative attitudes go

It started as a pithy way of calling out people who parade their convictions just to look good. But it’s flawed and out of control

Some made up words, like probble and dolsimp, are more amusing than others. Funniest of all are the likes of clunt, focky and dongl. Why?

It’s ‘Thou shalt commit adultery’, according to one ill-fated edition. Misprints and mistranslations are the source of much babble in the good book

We’re not being ‘overwhelmed’ by a ‘tidal wave’ of migrants. How can anyone justify this callous, misleading language?

We might think we know what a gay person sounds like. But there are caveats to the cliche — and ‘voice-shaming’ tells us a lot more about our culture than it does about the person speaking

Your guide to the uses and abuses of language in the campaign, from the calm smoothness of David Cameron to the Sturgeoncopter, via the Edstone. Hell yes

Ed Miliband has been pilloried for dropping his ‘t’s. But we should think twice before condemning this perfectly innocent linguistic tic