Geneva Smitherman ended up in speech therapy in her freshman year at Wayne State University in the 1950s, when she failed a test to screen incoming teaching students for possible speech problems. The ...

This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, make a donation to power our newsroom today. Listen 47:34 American English has ...

“Dr. Holt, I need you to come listen to one of my second graders. This is one of my best students, but I’m worried I might be overlooking a speech or language disorder—I’m just not sure,” the teacher ...

“Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ’Round” is a crowd favorite for the Northwest African American Museum’s African American Choir Ensemble. Based on the spiritual “Don’t You Let Nobody Turn You ’Round,” ...

America declared independence from British rule in 1776, so why are we still speaking “English” in 2026? As the nation’s 250th birthday approaches, President Donald Trump and Congress can leave a ...

With each version of large language models like ChatGPT, developers have gotten better at filtering out racist content absorbed through sources like the internet. But researchers have discovered more ...

Linguists believe Black English might have originated from West African or Creole languages. Getty Images Later, I emigrated to the U.S. to teach linguistics at Wayne State University and began ...

This year, marking the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, discussions have resurfaced in some quarters of the United ...

American English has many forms. It’s evolved over 400 years to match this country’s dynamic history. Humanities professor Ilan Stavans says that because it’s so adaptable, American English can unify ...