Once officially declared extinct after the death of its last native speaker in the 18th century, the Cornish language (Kernewek)…
Have you ever wondered why the star Betelgeuse has an Arabic name but sits in a Greek constellation? The night…
How can linguists be so certain that English and ancient Sanskrit are cousins, while neighboring Finnish is a total stranger?…
The Vietnamese alphabet, Quốc Ngữ, presents a fascinating paradox with its Latin letters used for a tonal, Austroasiatic language. Originally…
When Italy became a nation in 1861, a famous statesman declared, "We have made Italy. Now we must make Italians."…
Long before English vowels did their famous shuffle, a far more ancient and dramatic event rocked its linguistic family tree.…
At first glance, the Georgian alphabet, Mkhedruli, appears less like a set of letters and more like a collection of…
Why does French have so many letters that aren't pronounced? Far from being useless spelling relics, these "ghost" letters are…
Have you ever felt lost reading a contract full of words like "aforesaid" and "notwithstanding"? This is "legalese," a unique…
The death of a language is usually a slow fade, but Old Prussian was not so lucky. It was systematically…
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