Morphology

How Do New Signs Get Created in ASL?

American Sign Language is a living, evolving system, not a static code. The process of creating new signs for modern…

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

The Mind That Became an Adverb

Discover the fascinating story of how Romance languages created their adverbs. The Latin word for "mind", *mens*, gradually fused with…

5 months ago

The Power of ‘-ito’: Romance Diminutives

Discover how a simple suffix like -ito or -ino can transform a word's meaning in Romance languages. This deep dive…

5 months ago

The Death of the Latin Passive

Latin once expressed complex passive ideas with a single word, like amor for "I am loved". This post explores how…

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

Germany’s Word-Engine: The Logic of Compounds

Go beyond the humor of long German words and discover the powerful logic that builds them. This article deconstructs the…

5 months ago

The Uphill Verb: Grammar of the Himalayas

In most languages, you simply 'go' somewhere. But in the Himalayas, the very grammar of the language forces you to…

5 months ago

The Vanishing ‘We Two’: The Lost Grammar of the Dual

You know singular and plural, but what about a third option? Many languages, from Ancient Greek to modern Slovene, once…

5 months ago

Eggcorns: The Brain’s Creative Errors

Ever heard someone say "for all intensive purposes" or describe a "doggy-dog world"? These aren't just random mistakes; they're "eggcorns"—logically…

5 months ago

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