Language Acquisition

Kitchen-Table Creole: A Child’s Private Language

Ever heard a bilingual child say something that isn't quite one language or the other? This isn't a mistake, but…

7 days ago

The Reduplication Spectrum: From ‘Bye-Bye’ to ‘Chit-Chat’

Reduplication isn't just baby talk like 'bye-bye' or 'choo-choo'. This surprisingly common linguistic tool is used across the world's languages…

1 week ago

How Do Babies Learn to Hear Word Breaks?

Ever wonder how babies find individual words in the continuous stream of speech they hear? It turns out their brains…

3 months ago

The Echo Chamber of the Mind

Echolalia, the repetition of heard phrases, is often dismissed as simple mimicry, particularly in autism. But what if these echoes…

3 months ago

Fossilized Errors: The Permanent Mistake

Why do some second-language errors become permanent, even for highly advanced speakers? This phenomenon is known as "fossilization", where certain…

3 months ago

The Poet’s Gene: Language in Williams Syndrome

Williams Syndrome presents a fascinating linguistic paradox where remarkable verbal eloquence and a love for unusual words coexist with significant…

3 months ago

The Unspoken Tutor: How Games Teach Language

How do video games teach us to navigate new worlds and master complex actions without a single word of instruction?…

3 months ago

The Child Who Forgot to Speak: Childhood L1 Attrition

We often worry about losing a second language, but what happens when a child starts to forget their first? First-language…

3 months ago

Does Language Make You Better at Math?

Why do children in some countries seem to learn arithmetic faster? The answer may lie not in their schools, but…

3 months ago

Why Does ‘Mom’ Sound the Same Everywhere?

From Mandarin's 'māma' to Swahili's 'mama', the word for 'mother' is strikingly similar everywhere, but it's not a linguistic coincidence.…

3 months ago

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