Historical Linguistics

From LEGO to Hygge: The Danish Words You Already Know

From the nursery to the design studio, Danish words like LEGO and Hygge have infiltrated the global consciousness, yet their…

5 days ago

Math or Magic? Decoding the Danish Number System

Among Germanic languages, Danish stands alone with a counting system that seems more like a math riddle than a vocabulary…

5 days ago

The Case of the Missing Consonants: Mandarin’s Evolution

Unlike its southern relatives such as Cantonese, standard Mandarin has completely lost the "entering tone" and the clipped final stops…

5 days ago

From Army Camps to Poetry: The Surprising Origins of Urdu

Discover the fascinating linguistic evolution of Urdu, a language that began as a practical means of communication in Mughal army…

5 days ago

Nivkh: The Mysterious Isolate of Sakhalin Island

Discover Nivkh, a mysterious language isolate indigenous to Sakhalin Island and the Amur River that has survived centuries of pressure…

5 days ago

When Scots Was King: A Royal History

Trace the rise and fall of the Scots language, from its golden age as the official tongue of kings and…

5 days ago

Kalmyk: The Only Native Mongolic Language in Europe

Nestled near the Caspian Sea, the Republic of Kalmykia is home to the only native Mongolic language spoken in Europe.…

5 days ago

Left-to-Right & Vertical: Mongolian’s Writing Orientation

While most of the world writes horizontally, and East Asian scripts traditionally flow vertically from right to left, the traditional…

5 days ago

From Chutzpah to Glitch: The Yiddish Words You Already Speak

While everyone knows "bagel", few realize that technical terms like "glitch" and emotive words like "schlep" are Yiddish loanwords that…

5 days ago

Frisian: The Closest Living Relative to English

Discover why linguists consider Frisian to be the closest living sibling to the English language. This article explores the Anglo-Frisian…

5 days ago

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