Hmong’s Tonal Writing System
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…
Tag: asia
The World’s Tonal Atlas: Where Pitch is Meaning
Imagine if saying "horse" with a rising pitch turned it into "mother." For over half the world's population, this isn't imagination—it's communication. This post maps the global hotspots of tonal…
The Inward Breath: The World of Implosive Sounds
While most consonants are made by pushing air out, a fascinating category of sounds called implosives does the exact opposite. Found in languages from Vietnamese to Zulu, these sounds are…
The Grammar of Respect: Navigating Honorifics
While English speakers use 'sir' or 'ma'am', many languages embed respect directly into their grammar. This post explores the fascinating honorific systems of Japanese, Korean, and Javanese, where changing a…
Where is Esperanto Spoken?
Esperanto, the most successful constructed international auxiliary language, was invented in the late 19th century by L. L. Zamenhof with the intention of fostering harmony...