The Walloon Language of Belgium
Belgium's linguistic landscape is famously divided, but beyond French and Dutch lies Walloon, a distinct Romance language with deep historical roots. This post explores its unique features that separate it…
Linguistics
Papiamento: The Caribbean Creole
Journey to the ABC islands to discover Papiamento, the unique Creole language that sings with the rhythms of its history. Born from the contact between Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and Arawak,…
The Latin Echo in Spanish ‘ll’
Ever wonder why the Spanish word for 'rain' is *lluvia* when its Latin ancestor was *pluvia*? This transformation is no accident; it's the result of a fascinating sound change called…
AI’s Low-Resource Language Crisis
AI models like ChatGPT can write poetry in English, yet they stumble over languages spoken by millions. This 'low-resource' language crisis is creating a new digital divide, silencing entire cultures…
How to Invent an Alphabet
Ever dreamed of creating your own alphabet? This guide delves into the art and science of script creation, exploring the cognitive principles that make a writing system successful. Learn the…
The Little Star: A History of the Asterisk (*)
Look at your keyboard. Tucked above the number 8 is a symbol we see every day, yet rarely think about: the asterisk (*). From marking a password field to bleeping…
The Word Inside a Word: Infixation
We all know about prefixes and suffixes, but what about the "word inside a word"? This fascinating linguistic process, called infixation, shows up for colorful emphasis in English (think "abso-freaking-lutely")…
The Ghost in the North: Sami’s Echo in Norwegian
While Norwegian is a Germanic language, centuries of contact have left it with linguistic "ghosts" from the indigenous Sami languages. From essential vocabulary for reindeer and arctic nature to potential…
Germany’s Word-Engine: The Logic of Compounds
Go beyond the humor of long German words and discover the powerful logic that builds them. This article deconstructs the grammar of German compound nouns, explaining the "head-final" rule that…
The Uphill Verb: Grammar of the Himalayas
In most languages, you simply 'go' somewhere. But in the Himalayas, the very grammar of the language forces you to specify your direction on a vertical axis. This 'uphill verb'…
Arabizi: The Internet’s Hybrid Arabic Script
Arabizi is the internet’s hybrid Arabic script, an ingenious solution to typing Arabic sounds on Latin keyboards using numbers like '3' for 'ﻉ' and '7' for 'ﺡ'. What began as…
The Grammar of Haiku: More Than Just 5-7-5
Many writers know the 5-7-5 syllable count of haiku, but this is merely the surface. The true grammar of the form lies in two crucial linguistic elements: *kigo* (season words)…
Waking a Sleeping Language: The Myaamia Story
What happens when a language’s last fluent speaker passes away? For the Myaamia people, this was not an ending but the beginning of an extraordinary journey. This is the story…
The World’s Most Dangerous Job? High-Risk Linguistics
When we think of a linguist, we picture quiet libraries, not active conflict zones. But for a small group of fieldworkers, documenting the world's most endangered languages means facing down…
Killing the Verb: How the Telegraph Changed Writing
The telegraph, with its per-word cost, forced writers to perform linguistic surgery, stripping sentences down to their bare essentials. This unique, function-word-free grammar, known as "telegrammese", didn't die with the…
What is a Language Worth? The Economics of Extinction
Can you put a price tag on a language? This article explores the emerging field of linguistic valuation, where economists and lawyers attempt to calculate the monetary value of a…
The Emperor’s Alphabet: The Story of Phags-pa Script
In the 13th century, Kublai Khan commissioned a single, official script to unite the vast, multilingual Mongol Empire. The result was Phags-pa, a unique, vertically-written alphabet designed to write everything…
Fluent Nonsense: Decoding Jargon Aphasia
Imagine speaking in perfectly grammatical sentences that are utterly meaningless. This is the world of Jargon Aphasia, a fascinating condition where speech is fluent but filled with nonsensical words. This…
The Flavor Lexicon: Why Taste Is So Hard to Describe
Ever struggled to describe a complex flavor, resorting to 'it's kind of... earthy'? This isn't a personal failing, but a quirk of cognition and language that makes taste and smell…
The Vanishing ‘We Two’: The Lost Grammar of the Dual
You know singular and plural, but what about a third option? Many languages, from Ancient Greek to modern Slovene, once had a dedicated grammatical form for exactly two of something—the…