Language & Culture

How Vietnam Got Its Latin Script

The Vietnamese alphabet, Quốc Ngữ, presents a fascinating paradox with its Latin letters used for a tonal, Austroasiatic language. Originally…

8 months ago

Bulls, Bears, and Black Swans: The Language of Wall Street

From the primal imagery of charging bulls and swiping bears to the stark warning of a "dead cat bounce," the…

8 months ago

Naming the Enemy: The Linguistics of Disease

The names we give diseases, from the ancient 'malaria' (bad air) to the clinical 'COVID-19,' are never just labels. They…

8 months ago

The Gestural Lexicon: When Hand Signs Become Words

We do it without thinking: a thumbs-up for a job well done, a wave to say hello. But these hand…

8 months ago

The Grammar of Propaganda: How Language Builds Tyranny

Long before "fake news," propagandists mastered linguistic manipulation, weaponizing the very structure of language to build consensus and justify atrocity.…

8 months ago

Translating Poetry’s Untranslatable Soul

Translating poetry is far more than swapping words; it's an art of re-creation. How do you capture a rhyme, a…

8 months ago

Mapping the Land with Language

Imagine a world without 'left' or 'right,' where every instruction and description is given in cardinal directions. For speakers of…

8 months ago

The Comma That Rules a Nation

The U.S. Second Amendment's meaning hinges on a single, hotly debated comma. This grammatical ambiguity has fueled a centuries-long battle…

8 months ago

How Dictionaries Decide Who Lives and Who Dies

Ever wonder how words like "rizz" become official while others fade away into obscurity? This post goes behind the scenes…

8 months ago

Thinking With Your Hands: The Unconscious Grammar of Co-Speech Gestures

We don't just talk with our mouths; our hands are constantly performing a silent ballet that helps us think, speak,…

8 months ago

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