Ever wonder why it's 'chai' in Moscow but 'tea' in London? The answer lies not in a dictionary, but on…
Deep in a remote California valley, a community invented its own secret lingo called Boontling to gossip and joke in…
Journey to the great island of Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot floating off the coast of Mozambique. You might assume its…
Ever tried to use your knowledge of one Slavic language in another, only to be met with a confused stare?…
From 'boycott' to 'sandwich', our language is full of words that were once people's names. This fascinating guide to eponyms…
Why do Japanese arigatō and Portuguese obrigado sound so similar? While it's tempting to invent a story of ancient contact,…
Every word has a family tree, but what about the "orphan words"—linguistic mysteries like *dog*, *bad*, and *quiz*—that appear in…
A null cipher is a clever form of steganography where a secret is hidden within an ordinary-looking text. Instead of…
Can you own a language? This very question was at the heart of a high-stakes lawsuit when Paramount sued the…
What happens when the tongue, our primary tool for speech, is lost? This article explores the linguistic miracle of glossectomy…
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