Historical Linguistics

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…

1 week 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…

1 week 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…

1 week 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…

1 week 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…

1 week 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…

1 week ago

The Boontling Lingo of Boonville

Deep in a remote California valley, a community invented its own secret lingo called Boontling to gossip and joke in…

1 week ago

Designing a Keyboard for Efficiency

The QWERTY keyboard you use every day wasn't designed for speed; it was engineered to prevent jams in 19th-century typewriters.…

1 week ago

Cheshirization: The Vanishing Vowel

Named after the Cheshire Cat, Cheshirization is a fascinating phonological process where a vowel vanishes but leaves a ghostly trace…

1 week ago

Fix Your Spelling: 10 Tricky Words

Struggle with words like 'accommodate' or 'liaison'? This foundational guide breaks down 10 of the most commonly misspelled words in…

1 week ago

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