Sütterlin: The Handwriting That Divided Generations
In the early 20th century, Ludwig Sütterlin designed a unique handwriting script that became the standard in German schools, only to be abruptly banned by the Nazis in 1941. This…
Tag: identity politics
The 7th Case: Why Ukrainian Retains the Vocative
While many Slavic languages have simplified their grammar over the centuries, Ukrainian has steadfastly retained the Vocative case—the "7th case" dedicated solely to direct address. This article explores how this…
The Banned Letter: The History of Ukrainian’s ‘Ґ’ and ‘Ї’
Explore the fascinating political history of the Ukrainian alphabet, where a single letter can act as a revolutionary symbol. This post delves into why the Soviet Union banned the letter…
Meet Ў: The Letter Only Found in Belarusian
Discover the "Short U" (Ў), a unique Cyrillic character found exclusively in the Belarusian alphabet. We explore the linguistics behind its playful "w" sound, its role in creating the melodic…
Narkamaŭka vs. Taraškievica: A Tale of Two Spellings
Explore the fascinating linguistic divide in Belarus, where the choice between the official "Narkamaŭka" spelling and the classical "Taraškievica" is more than just grammar—it's a political statement. This article delves…
The ‘Ə’ Factor: How Azerbaijani Differs from Turkish
While Turkish and Azerbaijani are mutually intelligible linguistic cousins, they are far from identical. This deep dive explores the defining features of Azerbaijani—from the ubiquitous "schwa" (ə) sound to the…
The Aras River Divide: One Language, Two Writing Systems
Separated by the Aras River and two centuries of divergent history, the Azerbaijani language exists in a unique sociolinguistic split: one language spoken by millions but written in two completely…
A Century of Change: Azerbaijani’s 4 Script Swaps
In the 20th century, Azerbaijani speakers were forced to change their official alphabet three times—from Perso-Arabic to Latin, to Cyrillic, and back to Latin. This article explores the political maneuvers…
Cyrillic Persian: Why Tajik Scripts Changed 3 Times
Tajik is the only variety of the Persian language officially written in Cyrillic, a result of turbulent 20th-century Soviet policies that saw the script change three times in two decades.…
Retro-Engineering: How Sanskrit Shaped Modern Hindi
Unlike languages that evolve naturally, Modern Standard Hindi was deliberately "retro-engineered" in the 19th century to establish a distinct identity from Urdu. This post explores how scholars utilized "Tatsamas"—unmodified Sanskrit…
Surpassing Tagalog: The Massive Reach of Cebuano
For most of the 20th century, Cebuano, not Tagalog, held the title for the most native speakers in the Philippines, dominating the Visayas and Mindanao. We explore the history of…
The Bride of Scripts: Why Urdu Uses Nastaʿlīq
Explore the visual and linguistic allure of Urdu's "hanging" script, Nastaʿlīq. This article delves into why Urdu defies the flat baseline of standard Arabic computer fonts in favor of a…
Hindi vs. Urdu: Sister Languages or the Same Entity?
While Hindi and Urdu rely on completely different writing systems and divergent formal vocabularies—drawing from Sanskrit and Persian respectively—they share an identical grammatical skeleton known as Hindustani. This article explores…
When Scots Was King: A Royal History
Trace the rise and fall of the Scots language, from its golden age as the official tongue of kings and courts to its decline following the Union of 1707. We…
From Maykop to Kfar Kama: The Global Journey of Adyghe
Discover the fascinating linguistic journey of Adyghe, a complex Northwest Caucasian language that traveled from the Russian city of Maykop to the Middle East during the 19th-century Circassian exile. We…
Cypriot Syllabary: Greece’s Forgotten Script
Before the Greek alphabet conquered the Mediterranean, the island of Cyprus used a unique, puzzle-like script derived from the Bronze Age to write Greek. Discover the story of the Cypriot…
One Language, 17,000 Islands: The Rise of Indonesian
Discover the fascinating linguistic history behind the world's fourth most populous nation. We explore how the 1928 "Youth Pledge" united 17,000 islands by rejecting the majority language in favor of…
Manipravalam: The Historic Fusion of Malayalam and Sanskrit
Discover the fascinating history of Manipravalam, the "Ruby-Coral" linguistic blend that turned medieval Kerala into a literary powerhouse. This post explores how the seamless fusion of Dravidian vocabulary and Sanskrit…
The Irony of ‘Hindi’: A Persian Name, A Sanskrit Soul
The name "Hindi" is a Persian exonym meaning "of the Indus", yet the modern formal language is defined by a rigorous purging of Persian and Arabic vocabulary in favor of…
Hindi and Urdu: Twins Separated by a Script
Hindi and Urdu represent a fascinating linguistic paradox: they are mutually intelligible in conversation yet largely incomprehensible to one another in writing. This article explores the history of "Hindustani", the…