Kennings: The Metal-Crushing Metaphors of Old English

6 days ago

Explore the metal-crushing metaphors and poetic riddles of Old English known as Kennings. From the "whale-road" to the "bone-house", discover…

Malapropisms: The Linguistics of the Wrong Word

6 days ago

Named after the character Mrs. Malaprop from a 1775 play, malapropisms are linguistic errors where a speaker substitutes a correct-sounding…

Ostraca: The Post-It Notes of the Ancient World

6 days ago

Long before paper became affordable, the ancient world ran on ostraca—broken pottery shards used for everything from grocery lists and…

Hapax Legomenon: The Mystery of Unique Words

6 days ago

What happens when a word appears only once in the entire written history of a language? These unique occurrences, known…

The 7th Case: Why Ukrainian Retains the Vocative

6 days ago

While many Slavic languages have simplified their grammar over the centuries, Ukrainian has steadfastly retained the Vocative case—the "7th case"…

The Banned Letter: The History of Ukrainian’s ‘Ґ’ and ‘Ї’

6 days ago

Explore the fascinating political history of the Ukrainian alphabet, where a single letter can act as a revolutionary symbol. This…

The Ezana Stone: Decoding Ethiopia’s Rosetta Stone

6 days ago

Long before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, the Kingdom of Aksum produced the Ezana Stone, a trilingual monument inscribed…

Pasporta Servo: The Original Analog Couchsurfing

6 days ago

Decades before Airbnb or Couchsurfing existed, Esperanto speakers built a global, offline hospitality network called Pasporta Servo. By using a…

Incubus: The Horror Cult Classic Filmed in Esperanto

6 days ago

Explore the bizarre history of *Incubus* (1966), the horror cult classic starring William Shatner that was filmed entirely in Esperanto.…

Meet Ў: The Letter Only Found in Belarusian

6 days ago

Discover the "Short U" (Ў), a unique Cyrillic character found exclusively in the Belarusian alphabet. We explore the linguistics behind…

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