American English folk, meanwhile, tend to prefer the more plain Anglo-Saxon way of speaking and spelling. Welcome, once again, to the world's oddest linguistic couple.

Black Americans have long contributed to the ways in which the English language is used, and now a new research project aims to compile the first Oxford Dictionary of African American English.

From James Baldwin, to the first settlers in the Plymouth Colony, to beat poets, to hip-hop artists, American English in all its forms has become a global, and imperial language. "Words are never ...

Oxford University Press has announced a large-scale study that will culminate in the Oxford Dictionary of African American English, the brainchild of historian Henry Louis Gates that will focus on ...