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 how the final consonant of a word isn't pronounced, but…
Tag: alphabet
OCS: The First Slavic Literary Language
Before there was Russian, Polish, or Bulgarian, there was their common literary ancestor: Old Church Slavonic. Discover the story of the language crafted by two missionary brothers, Saints Cyril and…
Hawaiian and the Phonemic Principle
With only eight consonants and five vowels, the Hawaiian alphabet is a perfect example of the phonemic principle, where each letter consistently corresponds to a single sound. This elegant simplicity,…
The Tyranny of the Alphabet: How We Order Knowledge
Alphabetical order feels as natural as breathing, but this rigid system is a historical accident that silently shapes how we find and interpret knowledge. From dictionaries that separate 'apple' from…
The Men Who Invented an Alphabet: Cyril & Methodius
Did you know the Cyrillic alphabet wasn't invented by a man named Cyril, or even by a Russian? The script used by over 250 million people was born from a…
Why Is Polish So Different From Other Slavic Languages?
Ever wondered why Polish sounds and looks so different from its Slavic cousins like Russian or Czech? From its unique nasal vowels—a precious relic of ancient Proto-Slavic—to a complex spelling…
The Origins of Slavic: A Journey Back in Time
Ever wondered how Russian, Polish, and Croatian can be so different yet so similar? We journey back 1500 years to the marshlands of Eastern Europe to uncover the story of…
Cyrillic vs Latin: The Great Slavic Alphabet Divide
Why do Polish and Russian look so different despite both being Slavic languages? The answer lies not just in linguistics, but in a fascinating 9th-century story of two saints, competing…
The Pasilalinic-sympathetic Alphabet
What if the letter 'S' looked like a hiss or 'P' was shaped by the lips? We delve into the Pasilalinic-sympathetic Alphabet, a 19th-century utopian project to create a universal…
The Deafblind Alphabet: Tadoma and Lorm
How do you communicate when you can neither see nor hear? This post explores the incredible world of deafblind communication, delving into Tadoma, a method of 'feeling' speech on the…
The Art of Omission: Writing Without E
This post explores the lipogram, a daunting form of wordplay where an author intentionally avoids a specific letter—often "e." We'll uncover the fascinating history of this ultimate writer's game, from…
Type on the Brain: Font Psychology
Ever wondered why some fonts just feel trustworthy while others seem playful or aggressive? This isn't just a matter of taste; it's font psychology. We explore the fascinating science of…
The Sound of a Kiss: Etymology of ‘XOXO’
Ever wondered why 'X' means kiss? The answer is a fascinating journey back to the Middle Ages, where illiterate citizens would seal legal documents with an 'X' and a literal,…
Homophonic Substitution: Beating Frequency Analysis
Discover the homophonic substitution cipher, a clever cryptographic method designed to thwart simple code-breaking. By assigning multiple symbols to common letters like 'E', this cipher flattens the statistical fingerprint of…
The Zodiac Killer’s Ciphers: A Mind in Code
The Zodiac Killer's ciphers were more than just puzzles; they were a chilling form of communication and psychological warfare. By analyzing his mix of simple and complex cryptographic methods, the…
Bacon’s Cipher: The Binary of Typography
Imagine a secret message hidden not in the words you read, but in the very shape of the letters themselves. This is the genius of Bacon's Cipher, a 17th-century method…
The Copiale Cipher: A Society’s Secret Rituals
For over 250 years, the Copiale Cipher baffled historians with its mix of abstract symbols and Roman letters. When linguists finally cracked it in 2011, they uncovered a brilliant deception:…
The Dorabella Cipher: Elgar’s Musical Mystery
Dive into the mystery of the Dorabella Cipher, an 87-character encrypted note from famed composer Edward Elgar that has baffled experts for over a century. This article explores the leading…
Gematria: The Hebrew Word-Number Cipher
Discover Gematria, the ancient Hebrew practice of finding hidden meaning by assigning numerical values to letters. More than a simple cipher, this fascinating system reveals a world where language and…
The Vigenère Cipher: A Linguistic Key
For centuries, the Vigenère cipher was known as 'the indecipherable cipher', a testament to its clever use of a linguistic keyword to scramble messages. Yet, it was this very reliance…