Historical Linguistics

Why We Call It Japan, Not Nippon

Why do we call the "Land of the Rising Sun" Japan instead of its native Nippon? This linguistic puzzle opens…

3 months ago

The Case of the Stolen Letter: Compensatory Lengthening

In the history of language, sounds can vanish without a trace. Or can they? This post explores compensatory lengthening, the…

3 months ago

What is Diachronic Analysis in NLP?

Language is constantly evolving, and now, computers can map its journey. Diachronic analysis is the fascinating field where AI sifts…

3 months ago

The Dene-Yeniseian Bridge: A Tale of Two Continents

Could the Navajo language of the American Southwest be related to a remote Siberian tongue spoken by only a few…

3 months ago

Before English: The Echoes of Brythonic

Long before Old English was spoken, the island of Britain resonated with the sounds of another tongue: Brythonic. While the…

3 months ago

The Fossil in ‘Sing, Sang, Sung’: Ablaut

Ever wonder why we say "I sing" but "I sang" and "I have sung"? These aren't just random, annoying exceptions…

3 months ago

When ‘S’ Became ‘R’: The Story of Rhotacism

Ever wondered why the Latin word for 'honor' is honos but its other forms use the stem honor-? This isn't…

3 months ago

How Roman Soldiers Spread Their Language

The spread of Latin wasn't just the work of poets and senators; it was carried across Europe on the hobnailed…

3 months ago

When Did Latin Become French and Spanish?

There was no single day people in Paris or Madrid woke up and stopped speaking Latin. The evolution from Latin…

3 months ago

Gallo-Romance: The Tongues of Ancient Gaul

Beyond the familiar sound of Parisian French lies a hidden linguistic world born from Latin's encounter with ancient Gaul. The…

3 months ago

This website uses cookies.