code-switching

The Thaana Script: Why Maldives Writing Looks Like Math

Discover the linguistics behind Thaana, the unique writing system of the Maldives, where the alphabet is literally built from numbers.…

5 days ago

Euro-English: The New Dialect of Brussels

English is the undisputed lingua franca of the European Union, but without the UK to police the grammar, it is…

5 days ago

Code-Switching on Paper: How Japan “Hacked” Classical Chinese

Japanese scholars spent centuries using Classical Chinese as their formal written language, despite the two languages having completely incompatible grammar…

5 days ago

Inside Kannywood: The Engine of a West African Lingua Franca

Explore how the vibrant film industry of Kano, known as Kannywood, serves as the primary engine for standardizing and spreading…

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

The Two Arabics: Understanding Diglossia

Arabic speakers live in a state of linguistic duality known as diglossia, navigating between the formal "Modern Standard Arabic" used…

6 days ago

Hindi vs. Urdu: Sister Languages or the Same Entity?

While Hindi and Urdu rely on completely different writing systems and divergent formal vocabularies—drawing from Sanskrit and Persian respectively—they share…

6 days ago

From Army Camps to Poetry: The Surprising Origins of Urdu

Discover the fascinating linguistic evolution of Urdu, a language that began as a practical means of communication in Mughal army…

6 days ago

From Maykop to Kfar Kama: The Global Journey of Adyghe

Discover the fascinating linguistic journey of Adyghe, a complex Northwest Caucasian language that traveled from the Russian city of Maykop…

6 days ago

From Chutzpah to Glitch: The Yiddish Words You Already Speak

While everyone knows "bagel", few realize that technical terms like "glitch" and emotive words like "schlep" are Yiddish loanwords that…

6 days ago

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