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On Sunday, citizens of Puerto Rico will have the opportunity to weigh in on the Republican nomination for president of the United States. Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth without full voting privileges in Congress or a vote for president in the general election. But 20 delegates are up for grabs this weekend, and GOP presidential hopefuls have descended on the islands to fight for supporters.

One major question has come up continuously throughout the week of campaigning: How do candidates feel about the status of Puerto Rico's statehood? Notably, Rick Santorum said: "There are other states with more than one language, like Hawaii, but to be a state of the United States, English must be the principal language."

By her own admission, Alejandrina Cabrera does not speak English very well. Yet this didn't prevent her from running for city council in San Luis, Arizona, a town where 90 percent of its resident speak Spanish. Former Mayor Guillermina Fuentes — a former friend of Cabrera's but now a political enemy — asked a court to remove her name from the ballet because of "inadequate" language skills. Cabrera subsequently failed a court-ordered English language proficiency test.

Executive editor of the American Heritage Dictionaries, Steve Kleinedler, talks about the new fifth edition and how dictionaries are changing in the digital era.

The world's current lingua franca picks up words and phrases from other languages and sends them back again. Leslie Dunton-Downer, author of The English is Coming!: How One Language is Sweeping the World, explores some of these.

We want your suggestions!  Nominate a word that should be a part of "global English" here.

Leslie Dunton-Downer, author The English is Coming!: How One Language is Sweeping the World, joins us again to explore some of the words and phrases from other languages picked up by the world's current lingua franca.

We want your suggestions! Nominate a word from another language that should be a part of "global English" here.

Leslie Dunton-Downer, author of The English is Coming!: How One Language is Sweeping the World, explores some of the words and phrases from other languages picked up by the world's current lingua franca.

Our word maven, Patricia T. O’Conner, picks the winners of our Bad Sign Language contest! And she answers your questions about language and grammar. An updated and expanded third edition of her book Woe is I has recently been published. Call us at 212-433-9692 or leave us a question.

Our word maven, Patricia T. O'Conner, answers questions about the English language and grammar.