Language Stories

Articles in the Language Stories series

Ostraca: The Post-It Notes of the Ancient World

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

5 days ago

Pasporta Servo: The Original Analog Couchsurfing

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

5 days ago

Incubus: The Horror Cult Classic Filmed in Esperanto

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

5 days ago

English Words Borrowed From Tamil: More Than Just Curry

While most people know the word "curry" hails from India, few realize that everyday English words like "mango", "catamaran", and…

5 days ago

Drawing Snakes with Feet: The Storytelling Power of Chengyu

Mandarin chengyu (four-character idioms) act as "cultural zip files", compressing complex historical tales into compact phrases like "to draw a…

5 days ago

From Army Camps to Poetry: The Surprising Origins of Urdu

Discover the fascinating linguistic evolution of Urdu, a language that began as a practical means of communication in Mughal army…

5 days ago

When Scots Was King: A Royal History

Trace the rise and fall of the Scots language, from its golden age as the official tongue of kings and…

5 days ago

From Maykop to Kfar Kama: The Global Journey of Adyghe

Discover the fascinating linguistic journey of Adyghe, a complex Northwest Caucasian language that traveled from the Russian city of Maykop…

5 days ago

Crimean Gothic: The Dialect That Cheated Death

Discover the fascinating story of Crimean Gothic, a Germanic dialect that survived in isolation on the Black Sea coast for…

5 days ago

Hanacaraka: The Legend Behind Javanese Script

Unlike the arbitrary order of the Latin ABCs, the Javanese script (Hanacaraka) is organized into a perfect poem recounting a…

6 days ago

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