Languages of the World

The Yi Script: China’s Living Logogram

While most of China uses Chinese characters, the Yi people of the southwest have their own unique writing system with…

1 week ago

Pashto’s Split Ergativity

Ever thought the 'subject' of a sentence was a fixed, simple concept? In Pashto, the grammatical role of the 'doer'…

1 week ago

The Georgian Consonant Clusters

Georgian is famous for jaw-dropping consonant clusters like `gvprtskvni` ("you peel us"), which seem to defy the rules of pronunciation.…

1 week ago

The Altaic Debate: A Family Feud

Are Turkish, Mongolian, Korean, and Japanese distant cousins? The Altaic hypothesis proposes they descend from a single ancient tongue, but…

1 week ago

The French R: An Aristocratic Sound?

The guttural French "R" is one of the most iconic sounds in the world, but it's a surprisingly recent development.…

1 week ago

The Three Genders of Dyirbal

Ever heard of a language that groups women, fire, and dangerous things into a single grammatical category? Dive into the…

1 week ago

The Great ‘Bet/Vet’ Split in Hebrew

Ever stumbled over whether to say 'bet' or 'vet' in Hebrew? This seemingly random choice is a window into a…

1 week ago

The Inuktitut “Word-Sentences”

Imagine a language where "I don't hear very well" isn't a sentence, but a single, perfectly grammatical word. Welcome to…

1 week ago

The Social Meaning of H-Dropping

H-dropping, the act of saying "'ouse" instead of "house", is far more than a simple pronunciation quirk. This feature of…

1 week ago

Writing Your Voice: The Blissymbols System

Dive into the world of Blissymbols, a fascinating ideographic writing system designed as a universal language. Explore its logical grammar,…

1 week ago

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