Linguistic Typology

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

Nivkh’s 26 Ways to Count: A Linguistic Marvel

Explore the fascinating linguistic landscape of the Nivkh language, where counting isn't as simple as 1, 2, 3. With over…

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

Adyghe: The Language With 50 Consonants and 2 Vowels

Explore the linguistic anomaly of Adyghe, a Northwest Caucasian language that challenges phonological norms with over 50 distinctive consonants and…

5 days ago

The Greenberg Controversy: Lumpers vs. Splitters

Joseph Greenberg shocked the linguistics world in 1987 by claiming all Native American languages belonged to just three families, sparking…

1 week ago

The Hierarchy of Color: Why ‘Red’ Always Beats ‘Blue’

Why do almost all languages develop a word for "Red" before they create a word for "Blue"? This post explores…

1 week ago

The Mass-Count Distinction

Why can you count 'chairs' but not 'furniture'? This linguistic puzzle is explained by the mass-count distinction, a fundamental rule…

2 months ago

Logophoricity: The Grammar of Point of View

How do we know who "he" is in the sentence "John said he was tired"? While English leaves it ambiguous,…

3 months ago

One Slice, One Loaf: The Logic of Measure Words

Ever wondered why you can't say "one rice" in English or "one bread" in Chinese? This post dives into the…

3 months ago

Isolate vs. Dialect Continuum

While language isolates like Basque stand as mysterious linguistic islands with no living relatives, dialect continuums show us how languages…

3 months ago

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