English

The Invisible Plural: Zero-Marking in Language

One sheep, two sheep. One fish, two fish. Ever wonder why some English nouns refuse to add an '-s' for…

5 months ago

“Correcting” a Language: A Brief History

Ever wonder why we have "correct" spelling and grammar? These rules aren't timeless truths but were forged by powerful forces…

5 months ago

The Death of ‘Thou’: A Social Revolution

The disappearance of 'thou' from common usage wasn't just a linguistic spring-cleaning; it was a quiet revolution. This shift from…

5 months ago

The One-Letter Word: The Story of ‘O’

Did you know one of the most powerful words in the English language is just a single letter? From ancient…

5 months ago

When Siblings Lie: Germanic False Friends

English and German are sibling languages, but like any family, they have their misunderstandings. This article explores "false friends"—deceptive words…

5 months ago

The Word Inside a Word: Infixation

We all know about prefixes and suffixes, but what about the "word inside a word"? This fascinating linguistic process, called…

5 months ago

Decoding the Antarctic Dialect

For scientists and staff "wintering-over" in Antarctica, months of profound isolation have forged a unique micro-dialect. This "Antarctic English" features…

5 months ago

The Alphabet That Failed

In the 1960s, a radical new alphabet for English was born, bankrolled by the will of playwright George Bernard Shaw.…

5 months ago

The Grammar of ‘Went’: A Tale of Suppletion

Why isn't the past tense of "go" *goed*? The answer lies in a fascinating linguistic phenomenon called suppletion, where a…

5 months ago

The Grammar of “Chit-Chat”: Reduplication

From the simple 'bye-bye' in English to the Indonesian *wiku-wiku* (very fast), repeating words is a powerful tool found in…

5 months ago

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