The Ghost of Spanish in the Philippines
For over 300 years, Spanish was the official language of the Philippines, but today it is a linguistic ghost. Its spirit survives not in widespread fluency, but in the unique…
Tag: grammar
The Lost Gender: What Happened to Latin’s Neuter?
Classical Latin had three grammatical genders, but its modern descendants like Spanish and French only have two. This article investigates the great grammatical reorganization that saw the neuter gender vanish,…
The Hidden Grammar of Emojis
Far from being simple digital decorations, emojis follow a complex and unwritten grammar that dictates their meaning. The order of emojis can tell a story, their context can completely change…
Reading Japanese: The Brain’s 3-Script Juggle
The Japanese writing system uniquely blends three distinct scripts—Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana—often within a single sentence. This presents a fascinating neurolinguistic puzzle: how does the brain simultaneously process logograms for…
Kusunda: The Ghost Language of Nepal
Once believed to be extinct, the Kusunda language of Nepal is a true linguistic ghost, with no known relatives in the world. Spoken by only a handful of people, its…
Parsing the Unparsable: The Dhaasanac Language
Journey to the Omo Valley to meet the Dhaasanac people of Ethiopia, whose language defies easy categorization. Instead of marking nouns for their role, Dhaasanac bundles subject and object markers…
The Art of Strategic Ambiguity
In the high-stakes world of diplomacy, clarity can be the enemy of progress. This post explores "strategic ambiguity", the art of being intentionally vague to forge peace treaties and resolutions.…
The Grammar of Respect: Navigating Honorifics
While English speakers use 'sir' or 'ma'am', many languages embed respect directly into their grammar. This post explores the fascinating honorific systems of Japanese, Korean, and Javanese, where changing a…
Media Lengua: The Split-Brain Language
Journey to the highlands of Ecuador to discover Media Lengua, a remarkable "split-brain" language that combines the grammar of indigenous Quechua with the vocabulary of Spanish. This process of relexification…
The Syntax of Sheet Music
We often speak of music as a "universal language", but beyond the metaphor lies a tangible, non-verbal writing system of incredible power. This article deciphers sheet music as a linguistic…
The Loglan Project: A Logical Language
Could a language built on pure logic change the way we think? This article explores the ambitious Loglan project and its successor, Lojban, which were designed to test the famous…
When a Community Has No Language
Before established sign languages, how did deaf children in isolation communicate? This post explores "home sign," the remarkable gestural systems they invent from scratch. Discover how these personal languages reveal…
The Sound That Changed Ancient Rome
How can a single sound shift the course of a civilization? This article explores Latin rhotacism, the fascinating process where an 's' sound between vowels transformed into an 'r'. Discover…
The Linguist Who Caught the Unabomber
For 17 years, the Unabomber was a ghost, but his most powerful weapon—a 35,000-word manifesto—became his undoing. This is the story of how FBI linguist James Fitzgerald deciphered the unique…
When English Met French
The Norman Conquest of 1066 wasn't just a military victory; it was a linguistic collision that created a centuries-long class divide in England. This pivotal event forced the Germanic tongue…
Hey Siri: The Unwritten Grammar of Voice Commands
Have you ever noticed you talk to Siri differently than you talk to a person? We've developed a unique "Machine Speak"—a stripped-down, command-based language that reveals a lot about our…
Know Your Type: A Language Learning Hack
Is your target language a "Lego" language or a "sculpture" language? This practical framework introduces language typology (isolating, agglutinative, fusional) to help you understand your language's fundamental design. By knowing…
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, known as L2 to L3 interference, is a common hurdle…
The Power of “Um”: Decoding Filler Words
Often dismissed as verbal stumbles, filler words like "um," "like," or "pues" are far more than just speech errors. They are sophisticated linguistic tools that help us manage conversations, signal…
The Language of Numbers Stations
Tune your shortwave radio to the right frequency, and you might hear it: a disembodied voice reading strings of numbers into the void. These are numbers stations, one of the…