Unlocking the Universe of Languages
Ever wonder why Chinese, Japanese, and Korean writing look so different yet interconnected? This journey explores three unique solutions to capturing language: China's ancient meaning-based characters, Japan's elegant sound-based syllabaries…
Why do we call the "Land of the Rising Sun" Japan instead of its native Nippon? This linguistic puzzle opens up a fascinating world of endonyms (what locals call their…
In the patriarchal world of rural China, women were denied a voice—so they invented their own. Uncover the story of Nüshu, a secret script that became a lifeline of solidarity,…
Ordering coffee in Seoul? You'll need one set of numbers. Telling the time? You'll need another. This might seem confusing, but Korea’s dual number system is a living linguistic fossil,…
In the 13th century, Kublai Khan commissioned a single, official script to unite the vast, multilingual Mongol Empire. The result was Phags-pa, a unique, vertically-written alphabet designed to write everything…
The ability to communicate across linguistic boundaries has always been a hallmark of human civilization. From early tribal communities to the vast empires of antiquity,...