Hmong’s Tonal Writing System
Discover the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA), the ingenious writing system for the Hmong language. In this linguistic deep-dive, you'll learn how the final consonant of a word isn't pronounced, but…
Unlocking the Universe of Languages
Discover the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA), the ingenious writing system for the Hmong language. In this linguistic deep-dive, you'll learn how the final consonant of a word isn't pronounced, but…
Discover the Fraser alphabet, a remarkable script for the Lisu language where letters are ingeniously rotated to represent different sounds. Created by missionary James O. Fraser and his collaborators, this…
Mandarin is famously a tonal language, but what many learners quickly discover is that the tones they memorize often change in mysterious ways during conversation. This isn't a mistake—it's a…
Ever wonder why Italian opera sounds so smooth or why English dominates the pop charts? The answer lies in the "phonetics of pop"—the specific sounds, rhythms, and structures of a…
Beyond vocabulary lies prosody—the music of speech. From the rising inflection that turns a statement into a question to the sarcastic tone that flips meaning on its head, the unspoken…
Learning a new language is always a rewarding yet challenging endeavor, and Mandarin Chinese is no exception. Touted as one of the most difficult languages...