The Dual Pronouns of Ancient Sanskrit

3 weeks ago

In our modern world, we count 'one' and 'many.' But Ancient Sanskrit had a third, forgotten category: the dual, a…

Counting People in Japanese: The ‘Nin’ Counter

3 weeks ago

Learning to count in Japanese means mastering counters, and the one for people holds a fascinating secret. While most numbers…

The Two ‘To Be’s of Irish Gaelic

3 weeks ago

Like Spanish, Irish Gaelic has two verbs for 'to be', but the logic is entirely different. Instead of temporary vs.…

The Fluid Verb: Tense and Aspect in Swahili

3 weeks ago

Swahili verbs are masterpieces of modular design, built by "gluing" prefixes for tense, person, and more onto a single root.…

The Case of the Missing ‘Is’ in Russian

3 weeks ago

In Russian, "My brother is a doctor" becomes "Мой брат – врач" (My brother – doctor). This isn't a mistake…

The Amharic ‘And’: A Verb’s Best Friend

3 weeks ago

In English, we connect actions with a simple 'and.' But in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, this conjunction is…

Forgetting the Subject: The Case of Pro-Drop in Italian

3 weeks ago

Ever wonder why an Italian speaker says "Vado al cinema" instead of "Io vado al cinema"? This linguistic magic trick…

Why Icelandic Creates New Words, Not Borrows Them

3 weeks ago

While English readily borrows words, Icelandic takes a different path, deliberately creating new terms from its Old Norse roots. This…

How Persian Lost Its Gender

3 weeks ago

Modern Persian, or Farsi, is famously gender-neutral, but its ancestor, Old Persian, was not. This post explores the fascinating linguistic…

Speaking Up, Speaking Down: Java’s Speech Levels

3 weeks ago

In the Javanese language, 'please' and 'thank you' are just the beginning. The entire vocabulary—from pronouns to verbs—changes based on…

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