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The Telegram That Named a Country

The name "Pakistan" is famously an acronym for the homelands of Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, and Sindh. But a fascinating, debated…

6 days ago

The Campaign to ‘Speak Good English’

Explore the sociopolitical story of Singlish, Singapore's vibrant creole, and its decades-long clash with the government's official "Speak Good English…

6 days ago

How ‘Spinster’ Became an Insult

The word 'spinster' didn't always evoke images of a lonely old maid. It originally meant a woman who spun thread…

6 days ago

The Dictionary’s Phantom: Story of ‘Dord’

What happens when a word that doesn't exist appears in the dictionary? For thirteen years, the non-word 'dord' lived in…

6 days ago

Autohyponymy: The Word Inside

Can a word be a specific type of itself? This article introduces autohyponymy, a fascinating linguistic quirk where words like…

6 days ago

Case Syncretism: When Grammar Gets Efficient

Ever wondered why 'you' is the same whether you're doing the action or receiving it, unlike "I" and "me"? This…

1 month ago

Linguistic Exaptation Explained

Did you know that your brain never evolved to read? Instead, it brilliantly repurposed areas meant for object recognition to…

1 month ago

The Speech of Second Selves

When a shaman or ritualist speaks in a 'spirit language', it isn't random babbling but a fascinating sociolinguistic performance. Even…

1 month ago

AI’s Sign Language Problem

We've taught AI to understand our spoken words, but sign language presents a far greater challenge that goes beyond tracking…

1 month ago

How the Deaf Read Lips: A Feat of Phonetics

Contrary to Hollywood depictions, lip-reading is less like a superpower and more like a high-stakes puzzle with most of the…

1 month ago

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