Language Families

Running Amok: Surprising English Words of Malay Origin

Did you know that "ketchup" isn't an American invention, but a word borrowed from the Spice Islands? In this deep…

1 week ago

One Language, 17,000 Islands: The Rise of Indonesian

Discover the fascinating linguistic history behind the world's fourth most populous nation. We explore how the 1928 "Youth Pledge" united…

1 week ago

Nova Scotia’s Secret: The Gaelic of Cape Breton

Explore the fascinating linguistic history of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where a unique dialect of Scottish Gaelic has survived for…

1 week ago

Beyond Outlander: The Real Language of the Highlands

While fans of *Outlander* fell in love with possible Gaelic phrases, the true history of the language involves a dramatic…

1 week ago

The ‘Dummy Do’: English’s Weirdest Grammar Quirk

While most European languages form questions by simply swapping the subject and verb (like the German "Trinken Sie?"), English requires…

1 week ago

The Great Vowel Shift: Why English Spelling Is Broken

Between the 14th and 18th centuries, English speakers radically changed how they pronounced vowels, engaging in a massive linguistic game…

1 week ago

The Freising Manuscripts: The Oldest Slavic Latin Texts

Dating back to roughly 1000 AD, the Freising Manuscripts (Brižinski spomeniki) hold the title of the oldest surviving texts in…

1 week ago

Cockney Rhyming Slang: A Criminal Code?

Explore the fascinating linguistics behind Cockney Rhyming Slang, from its murky origins as a Victorian cryptolect designed to confuse the…

1 week ago

39 Letters of Faith: The Story of the Armenian Alphabet

Travel back to 405 AD to discover how the monk Mesrop Mashtots engineered the 39-letter Armenian alphabet to save a…

1 week ago

Decoding -yan: The History Behind Armenian Surnames

Explore the fascinating linguistics and history behind the iconic Armenian "-ian" and "-yan" surnames. This article breaks down the etymology…

1 week ago

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