Phonetics

The Pressure-Cooker Consonants: An Introduction to Ejectives

Ejectives are a fascinating category of consonants found in languages from the Caucasus to the Americas. Made by building up…

4 months ago

The Descent of the Larynx: How a Quirky Evolutionary Shift Gave Humans the Power of Speech

Human speech is a miracle of evolution, but it comes at a steep price. Our ability to form a rich…

4 months ago

Clicks, Pops, and Whistles: A Journey into the World’s Rarest Speech Sounds

Go beyond familiar consonants and vowels on a journey into the world's phonetic rarities, from the sharp clicks of Southern…

4 months ago

Word Avalanches: Sentences That Repeat the Same Sound

Word Avalanche: Sentences That Repeat the Same Sound In the colorful landscape of linguistics and playful word usage, a phenomenon…

2 years ago

The Southern Accent and Perceptions of Education

The question, "Why do southern accents sound uneducated?" is rooted in stereotypes and prejudices which are worth unpacking and challenging.…

2 years ago

Why Do People Have Accents?

An accent refers to a particular way of pronouncing a language, strongly associated with geographical region, social class, or ethnic…

2 years ago

A Tale of Two Accents: Exploring the American and British Divergence

English, in its colorful, versatile array of expressions and dialects, continues to evolve and shape the world's communication landscape. Today,…

2 years ago

The Great Vowel Shift: How it Transformed the English Language

The Great Vowel Shift, a term coined by the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen, is a pivotal moment in the annals…

2 years ago

Techniques for Achieving Near-Native Pronunciation

Language learning is an exciting journey filled with triumphs, challenges, and constant growth. One area that many learners find difficult…

2 years ago

This website uses cookies.