Languages of the World

The ‘Dot That Died’: Hangul’s Lost Vowel

The Korean alphabet, Hangul, is praised for its scientific design, but it once held a secret: a lost vowel called…

6 days ago

The Doctor Who Invented a Writing System

Discover the forgotten story of Dr. J. W. P. Davis, a Liberian doctor who invented a unique writing system for…

6 days ago

The Day a Volcano Silenced a Language

In 1815, the catastrophic eruption of Mount Tambora didn't just cause a "year without a summer" across the globe; it…

6 days ago

How a Priest’s Lisp Changed a Language

The famous ‘th’ sound in Castilian Spanish is often attributed to a lisping king whose court mimicked his speech. This…

6 days ago

The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker

Ever wonder why so many English surnames sound like old jobs? This dive into linguistic history reveals how surnames like…

6 days ago

How a Fish Got Into the Telephone

Why is the Finnish word for 'fish' (kala) so similar to the Hungarian word (hal), despite being spoken 1,500km apart?…

6 days ago

The Novel That Made Pidgin Literature

When Amos Tutuola published *The Palm-Wine Drinkard* in 1952, its "broken" English was celebrated abroad but scorned as a national…

6 days ago

The Fairy Tale Behind ‘Serendipity’

The delightful word 'serendipity' wasn't a happy accident itself, but a deliberate creation by 18th-century writer Horace Walpole. Inspired by…

6 days ago

The Scholar Who Built a National Epic

Meet Elias Lönnrot, the 19th-century Finnish physician who traveled thousands of kilometers on foot and ski to collect the fading…

6 days ago

The Sound Forged by Fire: Welsh’s ‘LL’

The Welsh 'll' is more than just a tricky sound for language learners; it's a voiceless fricative with a deep…

6 days ago

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