cognates

The Siberian-American Language Bridge

Could a nearly extinct language from Siberia be related to Navajo and other Native American languages? The fascinating Dené-Yeniseian hypothesis…

3 weeks ago

Language Ghosts: L2 to L3 Interference

Ever tried to speak your third language, only for a word from your second language to slip out? This phenomenon,…

3 weeks ago

English Doublets: Words That Deceive

** Have you ever wondered why *shirt* and *skirt* sound so similar? They are "etymological doublets"—words from the same root…

3 weeks ago

Language Carbon Dating: The Science of Glottochronology

Ever wonder how linguists estimate when languages like Spanish and French split from their common ancestor? The answer lies in…

3 weeks ago

Proving Languages Are Related

How can linguists be so certain that English and ancient Sanskrit are cousins, while neighboring Finnish is a total stranger?…

3 weeks ago

The Great Germanic Sound Shift

Long before English vowels did their famous shuffle, a far more ancient and dramatic event rocked its linguistic family tree.…

3 weeks ago

The World’s Most Isolated Languages: A Journey into Linguistic Isolates

While most languages belong to vast family trees, some stand utterly alone. These linguistic isolates, like the mysterious Basque of…

3 weeks ago

Herein, Aforesaid, Notwithstanding: Why Legal Language Is a Language of Its Own

Have you ever felt lost reading a contract full of words like "aforesaid" and "notwithstanding"? This is "legalese," a unique…

3 weeks ago

The Great Bantu Migration: How a Language Family Shaped Half a Continent

Over several millennia, a wave of migration spread a single language family from West-Central Africa to cover nearly the entire…

3 weeks ago

The Language of Salt: How a Single Commodity Carved Paths Across the Lexicon

Long before refrigeration, salt was a mineral so valuable that Roman soldiers were paid in it, giving us the word…

3 weeks ago

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