Unlocking the Universe of Languages
Explore Sumerian, the world's first written language and a fascinating linguistic isolate. Discovered on cuneiform tablets, this ancient tongue challenges our understanding of grammar with its agglutinative nature and mind-bending…
Discover the Romanized Popular Alphabet (RPA), the ingenious writing system for the Hmong language. In this linguistic deep-dive, you'll learn how the final consonant of a word isn't pronounced, but…
Before there was Russian, Polish, or Bulgarian, there was their common literary ancestor: Old Church Slavonic. Discover the story of the language crafted by two missionary brothers, Saints Cyril and…
While most of China uses Chinese characters, the Yi people of the southwest have their own unique writing system with a history spanning centuries. Once a complex logographic script used…
Dive into the world of Blissymbols, a fascinating ideographic writing system designed as a universal language. Explore its logical grammar, where simple symbols for "house" and "protection" combine to create…
Alphabetical order feels as natural as breathing, but this rigid system is a historical accident that silently shapes how we find and interpret knowledge. From dictionaries that separate 'apple' from…
Did you know the Cyrillic alphabet wasn't invented by a man named Cyril, or even by a Russian? The script used by over 250 million people was born from a…
Ever wondered how Russian, Polish, and Croatian can be so different yet so similar? We journey back 1500 years to the marshlands of Eastern Europe to uncover the story of…
Why do Polish and Russian look so different despite both being Slavic languages? The answer lies not just in linguistics, but in a fascinating 9th-century story of two saints, competing…
To the budding Japanese learner, the existence of three separate writing systems can feel like a cruel joke. While Hiragana and Kanji have clear roles, the sharp, angular script of…
Is Japanese truly the impossible mountain it's made out to be? We tackle the three biggest fears for aspiring learners—Kanji, grammar, and politeness levels—and show you why each 'scary' part…
Ever looked at a Japanese sentence and felt overwhelmed by the mix of characters? You're not alone. This guide demystifies Japan's three essential writing systems—Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji—showing you not…
What if the letter 'S' looked like a hiss or 'P' was shaped by the lips? We delve into the Pasilalinic-sympathetic Alphabet, a 19th-century utopian project to create a universal…
Uncover the story of the Tangut script, a complex writing system that looks like Chinese but is entirely different. Created to forge a national identity for the Western Xia empire,…
Discover the Fraser alphabet, a remarkable script for the Lisu language where letters are ingeniously rotated to represent different sounds. Created by missionary James O. Fraser and his collaborators, this…
While speakers from Delhi and Lahore can converse with ease, their national languages, Hindi and Urdu, are officially distinct. This post delves into the shared history of Hindustani and the…
How do you communicate when you can neither see nor hear? This post explores the incredible world of deafblind communication, delving into Tadoma, a method of 'feeling' speech on the…
Before Japanese script was standardized in 1900, writers used a vast and beautiful array of variant cursive characters known as 'hentaigana'. Born from the simplification of multiple Chinese characters for…
How do you write a language that isn't spoken, but seen? This post explores the fascinating quest to create a script for sign languages, diving into systems like Sutton SignWriting…
The Cherokee syllabary, invented by the brilliant Sequoyah, is more than one of history's greatest intellectual achievements. Its lesser-known secret is a profound philosophical structure that maps the Cherokee cosmos,…