Language Families

Meet Ў: The Letter Only Found in Belarusian

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

6 days ago

Narkamaŭka vs. Taraškievica: A Tale of Two Spellings

Explore the fascinating linguistic divide in Belarus, where the choice between the official "Narkamaŭka" spelling and the classical "Taraškievica" is…

6 days ago

Why It’s ‘Feet’ Not ‘Foots’: The Logic of I-Umlaut

Why do we say "feet" instead of "foots"? It isn't a random quirk of English grammar, but the result of…

6 days ago

Wit and Git: The Lost Dual Pronouns of Old English

Old English possessed a grammatical rarity called the "dual number", using specific pronouns—*wit* (we two) and *git* (you two)—to refer…

6 days ago

Runic Roots: From the Futhorc to the Letter Thorn

While modern English relies on the Latin alphabet, our language was originally written in the angular, 33-character runic system known…

6 days ago

Germanic Sound, Semitic Look: The Unique Yiddish Writing System

Yiddish presents a rare linguistic paradox: a Germanic language, close kin to English and German, written entirely in the ancient…

6 days ago

The Appendix Probi: When ‘Bad’ Latin Won

Discover the *Appendix Probi*, a 3rd-century list of "mistakes" that unintendedly documented the birth of the Romance languages. This article…

6 days ago

The Lemnos Connection: Etruscan’s Long-Lost Cousin

While Etruscan has long been considered a mysterious "language isolate", the discovery of the Lemnos Stele in the Aegean Sea…

6 days ago

The Silver Bible: Decoding the Gothic Alphabet

Explore the history of the "Silver Bible", a 6th-century masterpiece written in silver and gold ink on purple vellum. We…

6 days ago

Surpassing Tagalog: The Massive Reach of Cebuano

For most of the 20th century, Cebuano, not Tagalog, held the title for the most native speakers in the Philippines,…

6 days ago

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