Language Policy

Japan’s ‘Hentaigana’: The Lost Characters

Before Japanese script was standardized in 1900, writers used a vast and beautiful array of variant cursive characters known as…

1 week ago

The First Language Ban: The Story of the Acadian Expulsion

The Acadian Expulsion of 1755 was far more than a military maneuver; it was one of North America's first major…

2 weeks ago

The Data Drought: Why Some Languages Are Invisible to AI

Why can AI translate French perfectly but struggles with Navajo or Swahili? The answer lies in the "data drought", a…

2 weeks ago

The Brazil-Portugal Spelling War

Imagine a civil war fought not with weapons, but with dictionaries. For decades, Brazil and Portugal have been locked in…

3 weeks ago

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…

3 weeks ago

Can You Copyright a Single Word?

Ever wondered if a company can truly "own" a word like Google? While copyright law protects creative works, it's actually…

3 weeks ago

The RAE vs. ‘Todes’: A Language Standoff

A linguistic battle is raging across the Spanish-speaking world, pitting the prestigious Real Academia Española (RAE) against a powerful grassroots…

3 weeks ago

The Upside-Down Question Mark’s Origin

Why is Spanish the only major language to use inverted question marks (¿) and exclamation marks (¡)? This unique punctuation…

3 weeks ago

Language vs. Dialect: Who Decides the Line?

What's the real difference between a language and a dialect? The answer has less to do with linguistics than you…

3 weeks ago

The Greek Language War: A Nation’s Identity Crisis

For over a century, Greece was torn apart by a linguistic civil war, a battle fought not with weapons but…

3 weeks ago

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