Historical Linguistics

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…

5 days ago

How Dr. Seuss Invented ‘Nerd’

Where did the word 'nerd' come from? The answer lies not in a dusty dictionary, but in the whimsical pages…

5 days ago

The Treaty That Had Two Meanings

New Zealand's founding document, the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, exists in two languages—but it tells two different stories. A crucial…

5 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…

5 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…

5 days ago

The Telegram That Named a Country

The name "Pakistan" is famously an acronym for the homelands of Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, and Sindh. But a fascinating, debated…

5 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…

5 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?…

5 days ago

The Chart That Mapped Our Vowels

The vowel trapezoid chart is a familiar sight to any linguistics student, but its simple shape hides a fascinating story…

5 days ago

The Forbidden Experiment: Feral Children

From an Egyptian pharaoh to a Holy Roman Emperor, history is dotted with cruel attempts to discover humanity's "natural" language…

5 days ago

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