Are Hurricanes Changing How We Talk?
Linguists have figured out a lot about the many different regional dialects of American English. They know why Brooklynites say “cawfee,” for example, and why Bostonians say “Hahvahd Yahd.” They’ve traced the history of our accents and phrases: how migration patterns influenced their development, and how technology shaped their recent evolution. But what do they know about how Americans will talk in the future…
The super typhoon we ignored
In news storm, even a super typhoon can’t break through.
It packed 180 mph winds, and only four recorded storms have struck land with greater force. It was the strongest storm to hit the U.S. since 1935.
It killed one person, injured more than 100 and may leave parts of the northwestern reaches of the United States — home to 55,000 residents — without power for months. President Trump approved a major disaster declaration.
On Thursday, Super Typhoon Yutu hit the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a chain in the western Pacific Ocean past Hawaii, near Guam. By late Friday, the news on the mainland about the typhoon was hard to find. The networks had moved on to the capture of a Trump supporter charged with mailing bombs to, among others, two former presidents, a vice president and CNN. By Saturday, TV stations went live tracking the mass shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue in which 11 people were killed and six injured, including four police officers…
