Morphology

Beyond Nominative: 10 Coolest Grammatical Cases

If you think cases are just for Latin or German, think again. This listicle dives into ten of the most…

3 weeks ago

The Law of Vowel Harmony

Ever wonder why languages like Turkish or Finnish sound so uniquely melodic? The secret lies in a hidden linguistic rule…

3 weeks ago

My Hand, My Self: Inalienable Grammar

In English, you can talk about "a hand" as a detached object. But in many languages, the rules of grammar…

3 weeks ago

The Language of Scrabble: A Game of Morphemes

How do competitive Scrabble players memorize tens of thousands of words? The secret isn't a photographic memory, but a deep…

3 weeks ago

The Grammar of ‘Some’: The Partitive Article

Ever been baffled by French speakers saying *du pain* for "some bread" or Italians asking for *del vino*? This special…

3 weeks ago

A Thousand Grains of Rice: The World of Classifiers

Why can you say "three dogs" in English, but speakers of Chinese, Japanese, and Mayan languages must use a special…

3 weeks ago

The Ghost in the Word: Cranberry Morphemes

What do the "cran" in cranberry and the "luke" in lukewarm have in common? They are "cranberry morphemes"—fossilized word parts…

3 weeks ago

The Hidden Verb in the Romance Future Tense

Did you know the future tense in languages like French and Spanish is a linguistic fossil? It didn't evolve from…

3 weeks ago

The Lost Gender: What Happened to Latin’s Neuter?

Classical Latin had three grammatical genders, but its modern descendants like Spanish and French only have two. This article investigates…

3 weeks ago

Can a Language Have No Adjectives?

How would you describe a "big red ball" in a language with no words for "big" or "red"? Many languages…

3 weeks ago

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