Languages of the World

The Ancient Glitch That Makes English Irregular

Ever wonder why we have both "was" and "were", or why the plural of "mouse" is "mice" but "house" is…

4 months ago

Why “Literally” Doesn’t Mean Literally Anymore

Ever cringe when someone says they "literally died laughing"? This common complaint points to a fascinating linguistic process called semantic…

4 months ago

The Glottal Stop: A Ghost in the Machine

It’s the subtle catch in your throat in the middle of "uh-oh" or the defining feature of a Cockney accent…

4 months ago

Reading Japanese: The Brain’s 3-Script Juggle

The Japanese writing system uniquely blends three distinct scripts—Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana—often within a single sentence. This presents a fascinating…

4 months ago

Kusunda: The Ghost Language of Nepal

Once believed to be extinct, the Kusunda language of Nepal is a true linguistic ghost, with no known relatives in…

4 months ago

The Language of North Sentinel Island

On a remote island lives a people who have rejected all contact with the modern world. Their language, Sentinelese, is…

4 months ago

Linguistic Fossils: Spain’s History in Idioms

Ever wondered why Spaniards say "there are no Moors on the coast" to mean the coast is clear? Many Spanish…

4 months ago

Parsing the Unparsable: The Dhaasanac Language

Journey to the Omo Valley to meet the Dhaasanac people of Ethiopia, whose language defies easy categorization. Instead of marking…

4 months ago

Australia’s Sign Language of the Plains

Discover Warlpiri Sign Language, a complete and complex language used not by the Deaf, but by the hearing Warlpiri community…

4 months ago

The Rebirth of Cornish

Once officially declared extinct after the death of its last native speaker in the 18th century, the Cornish language (Kernewek)…

4 months ago

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