How far would you go to be able to smile?
Smiling is one of the fundamental ways people communicate, so what happens if your face can’t do it?
10 untranslatable words that describe home
“Home isn't a place... It's a feeling” wrote Irish novelist Cecilia Ahern. As homeownership becomes a distant dream to many, and Brexit beckons – stoking a national identity crisis in the UK – [...]
Ignored by Google, Faroese islanders set up their own online ‘translate’ service
With no Faroese on Google Translate, residents of the Faroe Islands have created a community-led service to help visitors decipher the local lingo
Emojis: adding depth, not dumbing down
Emojis are often blamed for destroying our ability to use language, but people have communicated using symbols for centuries. Are they simplifying the way we communicate, or actually adding nuance?
A sign of things to come: emojis’ place in human communication
Decoding pictures is at the root of written language. What came before emojis?
Why aren’t ‘organic carrots’ just called ‘carrots’?
How we describe something can transform how we view it. Lauren Bravo wraps her tongue around the small linguistic tweaks that can have a big impact
The language of love: 10 untranslatable words that express what English can’t
Love can leave us feeling lost for words, but sometimes it's the limitations of our mother tongues that let us down. Here are 10 words from around the world for when 'I love you' just won't cut it
The last word: protecting our vanishing languages
With half of the world’s languages expected to vanish by the end of the century, the race is on to document them. We meet those working to save the world’s endangered tongues, treasure troves of [...]
10 inspiring words you may never have heard
As our latest cover feature explores, some 7,000 languages are spoken around the world. In celebration of this rich diversity, we’ve collected 10 of our favourite inspiring words
#OurWorldIsBeautiful: Positive News celebrates languages
Issue 87 celebrates the power of words by reporting on efforts to preserve the world’s endangered languages
Our wor(l)d is beautiful
Editor-in-chief Seán Dagan Wood introduces issue 87 of Positive News
The Catalan language once banned is now thriving
Catalan was banned during the Franco-era, but the language survived and now the Spanish region could be closer than ever to gaining independence
Helping refugees integrate through language learning
How can countries help refugees integrate? The question looms large in Europe, which is experiencing a refugee crisis many are calling the biggest since World War II. In Ireland one organisation [...]
Nature writing resurges despite dictionary cull
As authors protest nature-related words being cut from the Oxford Junior Dictionary, a new breed of writers and publications are using language, and new perspectives, to reinvigorate our [...]
World favours happy words
The Pollyanna hypothesis, which claims that most people, regardless of cultural or sociolinguistic background, use positive words more often than negative words has been backed up by a new study
