We’ve all heard of "false friends"—words that look the same in different languages but mean different things. But what about…
Long before digital encryption, the ancient Spartans secured their military secrets with a simple but ingenious device: the Scytale. This…
Hiding a message in plain sight is the art of steganography, and the acrostic is its most literary tool. From…
We can read the sounds of the ancient Minoan script, Linear A, but we have no idea what the words…
Deep within modern Germany, a Slavic language called Sorbian holds onto a grammatical feature lost by almost all others: the…
Ever dreamed of creating your own alphabet? This guide delves into the art and science of script creation, exploring the…
Look at your keyboard. Tucked above the number 8 is a symbol we see every day, yet rarely think about:…
You know singular and plural, but what about a third option? Many languages, from Ancient Greek to modern Slovene, once…
Grimm's Law neatly explains many sound changes from ancient Proto-Indo-European to Germanic languages, but puzzling exceptions remained a mystery for…
Before keyboards or even paper, the very material a scribe wrote on dictated our linguistic conventions. From the wedge-shaped efficiency…
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