Morphology

Case Syncretism: When Grammar Gets Efficient

Ever wondered why 'you' is the same whether you're doing the action or receiving it, unlike "I" and "me"? This…

3 weeks ago

The Case for Compounding

Behold the German word Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän. Far from being a chaotic jumble of letters, this linguistic titan is a masterclass in…

3 weeks ago

Loanwords vs. Calques

Ever wondered why your French friend says "email" but calls a skyscraper a "gratte-ciel"? Languages borrow from each other in…

3 weeks ago

Grammatical Evaporation

Have you ever wondered why English grammar seems simpler than Latin or German? This phenomenon, known as grammatical evaporation, is…

3 weeks ago

The Logic of Back-Formation: From ‘Editor’ to ‘Edit’

Which came first: the editor or the edit? The answer reveals a fascinating linguistic process called back-formation, where we reverse-engineer…

3 weeks ago

The Lexicon of the Lab: Inside Scientific Latin

Ever wonder why scientists use a "dead" language to name living things? Scientific Latin is more than just a tradition;…

3 weeks ago

Grammatical Viruses: The Spread of ‘-gate’

The suffix '-gate' has become a linguistic shorthand for scandal, but where did it come from? We trace its journey…

3 weeks ago

The Sound of Size: Consonant Gradation in Finnish

Ever notice how Finnish words seem to change their consonants for no reason? This isn't random linguistic magic; it's a…

3 weeks ago

The One-Word Language Myth: Yaghan

The viral myth claims *mamihlapinatapai* is an untranslatable Yaghan word for a romantic, unspoken look. The truth, however, is far…

4 weeks ago

The Birth of Grammatical Gender in PIE

Why is a table feminine in French? The answer is thousands of years old and has little to do with…

4 weeks ago

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