Why can you say "three dogs" in English, but speakers of Chinese, Japanese, and Mayan languages must use a special…
What do the "cran" in cranberry and the "luke" in lukewarm have in common? They are "cranberry morphemes"—fossilized word parts…
Did you know the future tense in languages like French and Spanish is a linguistic fossil? It didn't evolve from…
Classical Latin had three grammatical genders, but its modern descendants like Spanish and French only have two. This article investigates…
How would you describe a "big red ball" in a language with no words for "big" or "red"? Many languages…
Discover the secret behind Arabic's vast vocabulary: the triliteral root system. This elegant 'word skeleton' method allows a single 3-letter…
Ever wonder how "Google" went from a company name to a common verb in our dictionary? This article explores the…
Have you ever felt a longing for a place you've never been, or the bittersweetness of a fleeting moment you…
Ever wonder why William becomes Bill, but not Willam? Or how a Russian Aleksandr affectionately becomes Sashenka? Nicknames follow a…
In languages like Inuktitut or Mohawk, a single, complex word can convey a thought that requires a full sentence in…
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