anthropology

Waking a Sleeping Language: The Myaamia Story

What happens when a language’s last fluent speaker passes away? For the Myaamia people, this was not an ending but…

3 weeks ago

The World’s Most Dangerous Job? High-Risk Linguistics

When we think of a linguist, we picture quiet libraries, not active conflict zones. But for a small group of…

3 weeks ago

Building a Dictionary from Silence

Imagine a language that has never been written down, a rich tapestry of human thought existing only in sound and…

3 weeks ago

A Linguistic Map of the Pre-Columbian Americas

Long before 1492, the Americas were a kaleidoscope of linguistic diversity. The controversial "three-wave" migration theory attempts to explain this…

3 weeks ago

Decoding the Antarctic Dialect

For scientists and staff "wintering-over" in Antarctica, months of profound isolation have forged a unique micro-dialect. This "Antarctic English" features…

3 weeks ago

The Verbal Compass: How Rivers Define Direction

Forget North and South. For speakers of some languages, the entire world is oriented not by a magnetic pole, but…

3 weeks ago

The Language of Avoidance: In-Law Tongues

Imagine having to learn a completely separate vocabulary just to be in the same room as your mother-in-law. For speakers…

3 weeks ago

My Hand, My Self: Inalienable Grammar

In English, you can talk about "a hand" as a detached object. But in many languages, the rules of grammar…

3 weeks ago

Knock on Wood: The Grammar of Superstition

Why do we command actors to "break a leg" or whisper "speak of the devil"? These aren't just quaint expressions;…

3 weeks ago

Digging for Words: Linguistic Paleontology

How can we know what prehistoric people talked about without any written records? The answer lies in linguistic paleontology, a…

3 weeks ago

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