phonology

Tone Spreading in African Languages

Ever wonder how a single word can have multiple meanings based only on its melody? This post explores "tone spreading",…

9 months ago

Allomorphy: The Chameleon Word

What do the 's' in 'cats', the 'en' in 'oxen', and the vowel change in 'feet' have in common? They…

9 months ago

The Rounding Harmony of Turkic Languages

Have you ever mastered vowel harmony, only to find another layer of rules? Enter labial harmony, the fascinating system in…

9 months ago

The Ghost Phonemes of Irish

Why does the "s" in the Irish word "sláinte" sound like an "sh"? The answer lies in slender and broad…

10 months ago

The Glottal Stop’s Secret Life in English

Think the glottal stop is just for Cockney accents? Think again. This unwritten consonant is hiding in plain sight in…

10 months ago

East vs. West vs. South Slavic: What’s the Difference?

The Slavic languages are a sprawling family, divided into East, West, and South branches. But what does that split actually…

10 months ago

The Unseen Work of a Speech Pathologist

Go beyond the classroom stereotype and into the complex world of the Speech-Language Pathologist. This article uncovers the unseen science…

1 year ago

Why Portuguese Sounds Like Russian to Some

Ever listened to European Portuguese and felt a strange sense of déjà vu, thinking it sounds a bit like Russian?…

1 year ago

The Dravidian Language Family: A South Indian Enigma

Venture beyond the familiar Indo-European languages and discover the ancient Dravidian family of Southern India and Sri Lanka. From the…

1 year ago

The Case of the Stolen Letter: Compensatory Lengthening

In the history of language, sounds can vanish without a trace. Or can they? This post explores compensatory lengthening, the…

1 year ago

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