Unlocking the Universe of Languages
Articles in the Language Stories series
This article explores the fascinating linguistic journey of the Romani language, tracing its roots from Sanskrit in India through the Persian Empire and Byzantium into Europe. By analyzing loanwords and…
Have you ever wondered why candy is sometimes called a "sweetmeat", or why we "starve" from hunger but the word's roots simply mean "to die"? This blog post explores Semantic…
In the 10th century, an envoy named John of Gorze adopted a radical language-learning strategy: two years of total silence to master Arabic. But when he finally spoke, he was…
Discover the forgotten story of Dr. J. W. P. Davis, a Liberian doctor who invented a unique writing system for the Bassa language in the early 20th century. This tale…
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 and their language. This is…
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 Blue", the world's loneliest whale,…
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 back to a 1974 Bell…
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 three observant princes who made…
L. L. Zamenhof may have invented Esperanto, but he didn't bring it to life alone. This is the story of the Zamenhof family and the first pioneers who transformed a…
What happens when a word that doesn't exist appears in the dictionary? For thirteen years, the non-word 'dord' lived in the pages of Webster's Second New International, defined simply as…
Which came first: the editor or the edit? The answer reveals a fascinating linguistic process called back-formation, where we reverse-engineer new words into existence by removing parts of older ones.…
Did you know the Cyrillic alphabet wasn't invented by a man named Cyril, or even by a Russian? The script used by over 250 million people was born from a…
In 1974, UNESCO declared the Manx language extinct with the death of its last native speaker, Ned Maddrell. Yet, this was not the end but the beginning of an extraordinary…
Ever tried to say you're 'close' in Galicia and ended up implying you're 'tight'? This post explores the hilarious and heartwarming linguistic tripwires between Galician, Spanish, and Portuguese. Discover how…
Explore the strange case of "I-da-no", a phantom island that appeared on Japanese maps for decades. This wasn't a sailor's mirage but a fascinating linguistic error, born from a simple…
Following a severe stroke, a brilliant Russian scientist lost his ability to speak—but found a new voice in the language of numbers. This incredible true story is more than an…
What do you get when you combine a question mark and an exclamation point? In the 1960s, frustrated ad man Martin K. Speckter answered that question by inventing the interrobang…
Discover the story of the Ems Dispatch, a royal telegram that sparked the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. See how master manipulator Otto von Bismarck used a few simple linguistic edits…
On Halloween Eve 1938, Orson Welles didn't just tell a scary story; he masterfully manipulated the language and structure of radio news to convince thousands of Americans that Martians had…
In the crushing silence of Vietnamese POW camps, American prisoners forged a lifeline from a simple 5x5 grid of letters. This is the story of the POW Tap Code, a…