Linguistics

The Man Who Taught a Gorilla to Lie

The story of Koko the gorilla is filled with moments of wonder, but none are as philosophically charged as the…

2 weeks ago

The Vowel That Saved a Kingdom

In the chaos of medieval Bruges, how could you tell friend from foe? For Flemish rebels in 1302, the answer…

2 weeks ago

The Sadesan Hoax: A Language That Never Was

In the early days of the internet, a mysterious language called Sadesan appeared, promising a lost branch of the Indo-European…

2 weeks ago

The Great Tea Divide: Cha vs. Te

Ever wonder why it's 'chai' in Moscow but 'tea' in London? The answer lies not in a dictionary, but on…

2 weeks ago

The Forger’s Bane: What is Stylometry?

Did you know your writing style is as unique as a fingerprint? Stylometry is the fascinating science of statistically analyzing…

2 weeks ago

The Final Word: Verb Chaining in Papuan Languages

Imagine a sentence that lists a dozen actions before revealing the main verb at the very end. This is the…

2 weeks ago

The Word-Eating Glitch: What is Haplology?

Ever wonder why so many people say 'probly' instead of 'probably' or 'libry' instead of 'library'? This common linguistic shortcut…

2 weeks ago

One Verb, Many Actions: The Grammar of Plurality

Some languages don't just make nouns plural; they can make verbs plural to show repeated or distributed action. This fascinating…

2 weeks ago

Japan’s ‘Hentaigana’: The Lost Characters

Before Japanese script was standardized in 1900, writers used a vast and beautiful array of variant cursive characters known as…

2 weeks ago

Re-voicing the Past: The AT-ST Project

We can read the words of Charlemagne's era, but what did they actually sound like? A groundbreaking initiative called the…

2 weeks ago

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