Languages of the World

The Ghost in the North: Sami’s Echo in Norwegian

While Norwegian is a Germanic language, centuries of contact have left it with linguistic "ghosts" from the indigenous Sami languages.…

4 months ago

Germany’s Word-Engine: The Logic of Compounds

Go beyond the humor of long German words and discover the powerful logic that builds them. This article deconstructs the…

4 months ago

The Uphill Verb: Grammar of the Himalayas

In most languages, you simply 'go' somewhere. But in the Himalayas, the very grammar of the language forces you to…

4 months ago

Arabizi: The Internet’s Hybrid Arabic Script

Arabizi is the internet’s hybrid Arabic script, an ingenious solution to typing Arabic sounds on Latin keyboards using numbers like…

4 months ago

The Grammar of Haiku: More Than Just 5-7-5

Many writers know the 5-7-5 syllable count of haiku, but this is merely the surface. The true grammar of the…

4 months ago

Waking a Sleeping Language: The Myaamia Story

What happens when a language’s last fluent speaker passes away? For the Myaamia people, this was not an ending but…

4 months ago

A Linguistic Map of the Pre-Columbian Americas

Long before 1492, the Americas were a kaleidoscope of linguistic diversity. The controversial "three-wave" migration theory attempts to explain this…

4 months ago

Decoding the Antarctic Dialect

For scientists and staff "wintering-over" in Antarctica, months of profound isolation have forged a unique micro-dialect. This "Antarctic English" features…

4 months ago

The Alphabet That Failed

In the 1960s, a radical new alphabet for English was born, bankrolled by the will of playwright George Bernard Shaw.…

4 months ago

The Geometry of God: Rules of Islamic Calligraphy

In Islamic art, the graceful curves of calligraphy are not a matter of artistic whim, but of sacred mathematics. This…

4 months ago

This website uses cookies.