writing systems

Ancient Graffiti: Curses & Complaints

Forget sterile museum displays of emperors and epic battles. The true, unfiltered history of humanity is scrawled on the walls…

1 week ago

Why Is English Spelling So Weird?

Ever wonder why 'knight' has a 'k' or 'island' has an 's'? The answer isn't that English is illogical, but…

1 week ago

The Interrobang’s Brief, Glorious Life

What do you get when you combine a question mark and an exclamation point? In the 1960s, frustrated ad man…

1 week ago

The Forbidden Language of the Inca Court

The Inca emperors, divine rulers of a vast Andean empire, held a powerful secret—a language spoken only among themselves. This…

1 week ago

The POW Tap Code: A Language of Knocks

In the crushing silence of Vietnamese POW camps, American prisoners forged a lifeline from a simple 5x5 grid of letters.…

1 week ago

Japan’s ‘Hentaigana’: The Lost Characters

Before Japanese script was standardized in 1900, writers used a vast and beautiful array of variant cursive characters known as…

1 week ago

Designing a Keyboard for Efficiency

The QWERTY keyboard you use every day wasn't designed for speed; it was engineered to prevent jams in 19th-century typewriters.…

1 week ago

Cheshirization: The Vanishing Vowel

Named after the Cheshire Cat, Cheshirization is a fascinating phonological process where a vowel vanishes but leaves a ghostly trace…

1 week ago

What Countries Speak Mandarin? The Answer May Surprise You

When you think of Mandarin, you probably think of China. But the world's most spoken language is also an official…

2 weeks ago

A Guide to Sino-Tibetan Languages

Journey into the Sino-Tibetan language family, a vast linguistic world of over 400 languages spoken by 1.4 billion people. From…

3 weeks ago

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