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Is Spanish Hard to Learn? The Brutally Honest Truth

We won't lie: verb conjugations are tough. But from phonetic spelling to familiar vocabulary, some parts of Spanish are surprisingly…

2 weeks ago

The Sound That Separates Scottish and Irish Gaelic

They were once a single language spoken across Ireland and Scotland, but a crucial phonetic split sent them down different…

2 weeks ago

How Dogs Bark Around the World

Why does an English-speaking dog say "woof" while a Japanese dog says "wan wan"? The answer isn't in the dog,…

2 weeks ago

How to Read a Phonetic Transcription

What do all those weird symbols in a dictionary entry mean? This beginner's guide to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)…

2 weeks ago

The Sound of ‘Th’: A Rare Phoneme

The "th" sounds in "think" and "that" feel utterly ordinary to English speakers, but they are linguistic superstars on the…

2 weeks ago

The Problem with Voice-to-Text

Ever dictated a simple message only to have your phone produce utter nonsense? The frustration is real, but the reasons…

2 weeks ago

The Sound of a Vowel: What Are Formants?

Why does an 'ee' sound so different from an 'oo', even when sung at the exact same pitch? The secret…

2 weeks ago

How Does Stress Change a Word’s Meaning in English?

What's the difference between 'a rebel' and 'to rebel'? Just a tiny shift in emphasis. This seemingly small detail, known…

2 weeks ago

The Sound of Old English: How Was Beowulf Spoken?

We can read the words of Beowulf, but what did this ancient ancestor of English actually sound like? By using…

2 weeks ago

The Internet’s New Accent

You know that robotic, strangely chipper text-to-speech voice narrating countless online videos? It’s more than just a convenient feature; it's…

2 weeks ago

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