Phonetics

The Physics of the Tongue: A Muscular Hydrostat

Your tongue performs incredible feats of precision for speech, all without a single bone. Discover the fascinating science of the…

3 weeks ago

The Semiotics of a Warning Siren

Ever wonder why a rising and falling wail universally signals an emergency? This post breaks down the semiotics of warning…

3 weeks ago

Auditory Masking in the City

Ever wondered why a distant siren can slice through city noise, but you can't hear a friend talking right beside…

3 weeks ago

How the Deaf Read Lips: A Feat of Phonetics

Contrary to Hollywood depictions, lip-reading is less like a superpower and more like a high-stakes puzzle with most of the…

3 weeks ago

The Failed Phoneme: When a Sound Dies at Birth

Ever wonder why you can say 'cheese' with ease but stumble over the 'ch' in the Scottish 'loch'? This isn't…

3 weeks ago

The Speech of Sleep: Is Somniloquy a Language?

Ever wondered if the mumbles and groans of a sleep-talker are just random noise? We take a linguistic deep dive…

3 weeks ago

AI’s Tone Shift: The Linguistics

The startlingly human new AI voices are more than a programming feat; they represent a breakthrough in computational prosody. Linguistics…

4 weeks ago

Hmong’s Tonal Writing System

Discover the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA), the ingenious writing system for the Hmong language. In this linguistic deep-dive, you'll learn…

4 weeks ago

Tone vs. Intonation Explained

Ever wondered why saying 'mā' in Mandarin can mean 'mother' while 'mǎ' means 'horse'? Or how the exact same words,…

4 weeks ago

The Hyperforeignism Trap

Ever wondered why some people say "mojito" with a French 'zh' sound or put on a fake accent for "foyer"?…

4 weeks ago

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