Germanic

Terms of Venery: A Murder of Crows

Discover the fascinating history behind terms like a "murder of crows" or a "parliament of owls." We explore how the…

6 days ago

Kulning: The Swedish Art of Herding Calls

Explore the acoustics and phonetics behind Kulning, the hauntingly high-pitched Swedish herding call. This article delves into how women historically…

6 days ago

E-Prime: What Happens When We Delete “To Be”?

Uncover the fascinating linguistic constraint of E-Prime (English Prime), a version of English that completely eliminates the verb "to be."…

6 days ago

The ‘Dummy Do’: English’s Weirdest Grammar Quirk

While most European languages form questions by simply swapping the subject and verb (like the German "Trinken Sie?"), English requires…

6 days ago

The Great Vowel Shift: Why English Spelling Is Broken

Between the 14th and 18th centuries, English speakers radically changed how they pronounced vowels, engaging in a massive linguistic game…

6 days ago

Cockney Rhyming Slang: A Criminal Code?

Explore the fascinating linguistics behind Cockney Rhyming Slang, from its murky origins as a Victorian cryptolect designed to confuse the…

6 days ago

Why “Ye Olde” is Actually “The Olde”: The Story of Thorn

Ever wondered why we say "Ye Olde" to sound medieval? It turns out we've been reading it wrong for centuries.…

1 week ago

Hanseatic League: The Medieval Trade Tongue

Before English dominated global commerce, Middle Low German was the essential language of the North, driven by the powerful Hanseatic…

1 week ago

The Capital “I”: Ego or Typography?

English is the only major language that capitalizes the first-person singular pronoun "I", a quirk that many assume stems from…

1 week ago

The Buffalo Sentence: Grammar Pushed to the Edge

This post breaks down the famous linguistic puzzle: "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." We explore how a…

1 week ago

This website uses cookies.