The Day a Volcano Silenced a Language
In 1815, the catastrophic eruption of Mount Tambora didn't just cause a "year without a summer" across the globe; it completely annihilated the Tambora people…
All Articles
Explore our complete collection of linguistic insights
How a Priest’s Lisp Changed a Language
The famous ‘th’ sound in Castilian Spanish is often attributed to a lisping king whose court mimicked his speech. This popular legend, while charming, is…
The Telegram That Named a Country
The name "Pakistan" is famously an acronym for the homelands of Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, and Sindh. But a fascinating, debated theory suggests it may have…
The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker
Ever wonder why so many English surnames sound like old jobs? This dive into linguistic history reveals how surnames like Smith, Baker, and Cooper emerged…
How a Fish Got Into the Telephone
Why is the Finnish word for 'fish' (kala) so similar to the Hungarian word (hal), despite being spoken 1,500km apart? This isn't a coincidence, but…
The Chart That Mapped Our Vowels
The vowel trapezoid chart is a familiar sight to any linguistics student, but its simple shape hides a fascinating story of scientific discovery. Journey back…
The Loneliest Song: The 52-Hertz Whale
For decades, a mysterious call has echoed through the Pacific—a single voice at a frequency no other whale uses. This is the story of "52…
“Hello World”: The Birth of a Coded Ritual
The phrase "Hello, World!" is more than just the first program most coders write; it's a universal rite of passage with a fascinating origin. Tracing…
The Forbidden Experiment: Feral Children
From an Egyptian pharaoh to a Holy Roman Emperor, history is dotted with cruel attempts to discover humanity's "natural" language by raising children in silence.…
The Novel That Made Pidgin Literature
When Amos Tutuola published *The Palm-Wine Drinkard* in 1952, its "broken" English was celebrated abroad but scorned as a national embarrassment in his native Nigeria.…
The Campaign to ‘Speak Good English’
Explore the sociopolitical story of Singlish, Singapore's vibrant creole, and its decades-long clash with the government's official "Speak Good English Movement." This is more than…
The Man Who Mapped India’s Languages
In 1894, one man embarked on a seemingly impossible quest: to map every language on the Indian subcontinent. Discover the epic story of Sir George…
The Fairy Tale Behind ‘Serendipity’
The delightful word 'serendipity' wasn't a happy accident itself, but a deliberate creation by 18th-century writer Horace Walpole. Inspired by a Persian fairy tale about…
A Study in ‘H’: The London Docklands Story
Ever wonder why some people say ''ouse' instead of 'house'? In the 1970s, sociolinguist Peter Trudgill conducted a groundbreaking study in Norwich, revealing a stunningly…
The Teachers Who Invented Scientific Speech
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is the gold standard for writing down sounds, but its origins are surprisingly humble. Discover the story of Paul Passy…
A Computer Learns ‘Amo, Amas, Amat’
Long before AI could write a poem, the pioneers of computational linguistics took on a monumental task: teaching a room-sized computer grammar. This is the…
The Keyboard That Looked Like a Piano
Before QWERTY conquered the world, the first typewriter prototype had keys arranged in two simple rows like a piano. This is the "what if" story…
The Scholar Who Built a National Epic
Meet Elias Lönnrot, the 19th-century Finnish physician who traveled thousands of kilometers on foot and ski to collect the fading oral poems of his people.…
The Sound Forged by Fire: Welsh’s ‘LL’
The Welsh 'll' is more than just a tricky sound for language learners; it's a voiceless fricative with a deep history, represented by the IPA…
How ‘Spinster’ Became an Insult
The word 'spinster' didn't always evoke images of a lonely old maid. It originally meant a woman who spun thread for a living—a respected and…