Long before English vowels did their famous shuffle, a far more ancient and dramatic event rocked its linguistic family tree.…
Ever notice how some people end statements as if they were asking a question? This rising inflection, known as "uptalk,"…
Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is a baffling and rare medical condition where a person, typically after a stroke or brain…
Have you ever wondered why a spiky shape just *feels* like a "Kiki" and a rounded one a "Bouba"? This…
Mandarin is famously a tonal language, but what many learners quickly discover is that the tones they memorize often change…
What happens when your eyes and ears receive conflicting information? The McGurk effect is a powerful illusion where seeing a…
Ever wonder why Italian opera sounds so smooth or why English dominates the pop charts? The answer lies in the…
Beyond vocabulary lies prosody—the music of speech. From the rising inflection that turns a statement into a question to the…
Ejectives are a fascinating category of consonants found in languages from the Caucasus to the Americas. Made by building up…
Human speech is a miracle of evolution, but it comes at a steep price. Our ability to form a rich…
This website uses cookies.