Language Policy

Sütterlin: The Handwriting That Divided Generations

In the early 20th century, Ludwig Sütterlin designed a unique handwriting script that became the standard in German schools, only…

5 days ago

The Banned Letter: The History of Ukrainian’s ‘Ґ’ and ‘Ї’

Explore the fascinating political history of the Ukrainian alphabet, where a single letter can act as a revolutionary symbol. This…

5 days ago

Narkamaŭka vs. Taraškievica: A Tale of Two Spellings

Explore the fascinating linguistic divide in Belarus, where the choice between the official "Narkamaŭka" spelling and the classical "Taraškievica" is…

5 days ago

Why China Abandoned the “Latin of the East”

For over two millennia, the Sinosphere was united by a written language completely divorced from spoken speech—a "Latin of the…

5 days ago

The Aras River Divide: One Language, Two Writing Systems

Separated by the Aras River and two centuries of divergent history, the Azerbaijani language exists in a unique sociolinguistic split:…

5 days ago

A Century of Change: Azerbaijani’s 4 Script Swaps

In the 20th century, Azerbaijani speakers were forced to change their official alphabet three times—from Perso-Arabic to Latin, to Cyrillic,…

5 days ago

Cyrillic Persian: Why Tajik Scripts Changed 3 Times

Tajik is the only variety of the Persian language officially written in Cyrillic, a result of turbulent 20th-century Soviet policies…

5 days ago

Surpassing Tagalog: The Massive Reach of Cebuano

For most of the 20th century, Cebuano, not Tagalog, held the title for the most native speakers in the Philippines,…

5 days ago

One Language, 17,000 Islands: The Rise of Indonesian

Discover the fascinating linguistic history behind the world's fourth most populous nation. We explore how the 1928 "Youth Pledge" united…

6 days ago

The Bloody Origins of International Mother Language Day

Did you know that International Mother Language Day was born from a massacre? Discover the moving history of the 1952…

1 week ago

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