Linguistics

The ELIZA Effect: Why We Talk to Chatbots Like They’re Human

Have you ever found yourself saying "please" and "thank you" to a chatbot or voice assistant? This is the ELIZA…

5 months ago

The Graveyard of Words: Who Decides When a Word Is Officially Dead?

For every new word that enters the dictionary, thousands of others fall into disuse and disappear into the graveyard of…

5 months ago

Who Owns Slang? The Complexities of Linguistic Gentrification in the Digital Age

From "on fleek" to "slay," words born in specific communities—particularly AAVE—often travel into the mainstream, where they're adopted by brands…

5 months ago

The Shape of Nothing: How the Invention of ‘Zero’ Was a Linguistic and Mathematical Revolution

The concept of zero is more than just a number; it’s a profound linguistic and philosophical idea that had to…

5 months ago

The Outrigger and the Noun Phrase: How the Austronesian Language Family Conquered the Pacific

How did one language family colonize a third of the planet, from Madagascar to Easter Island? The answer lies in…

5 months ago

The Emperor’s Fading Echo: The Precarious Survival of the Manchu Language

Once the official language of China's last imperial dynasty, Manchu is now on the verge of extinction with only a…

5 months ago

Hearing with Your Eyes: The McGurk Effect and the Illusions of Speech Perception

What happens when your eyes and ears receive conflicting information? The McGurk effect is a powerful illusion where seeing a…

5 months ago

When a Language Won’t Awaken: The Hard Truths of Linguistic Revitalization

While the revival of Hebrew is a celebrated success, the path of language revitalization is often fraught with failure. The…

5 months ago

The World’s Smallest Languages: When a Language Has Fewer Than 10 Speakers

What happens when a language's entire world can fit into a single room? We explore the most extreme cases of…

5 months ago

The Phonetics of Pop: Why Some Languages Are More “Singable” Than Others

Ever wonder why Italian opera sounds so smooth or why English dominates the pop charts? The answer lies in the…

5 months ago

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