Orwell’s 6 Rules for Writing Clear English
In his famous essay 'Politics and the English Language', George Orwell laid out six rules for powerful, clear prose. This post explores his timeless advice on avoiding clichés, cutting needless…
Tag: language and thought
How Shakespeare Changed the English Language
Ever used the word 'fashionable' or found yourself 'in a pickle'? You have William Shakespeare to thank. This post explores the Bard's incredible linguistic legacy, from coining over 1,700 words…
A Conlang Civil War: The Loglan vs. Lojban Schism
Explore the dramatic schism that split the world of logical languages in two. This post uncovers the story of Dr. James Cooke Brown's Loglan, its 'civil war', and the subsequent…
Linguistic Taphonomy: Word Decay
Just as paleontologists study fossils to understand ancient life, we can explore the fossils in our own language. Linguistic taphonomy reveals how words and grammar decay over centuries, leaving behind…
Counting on Your Body: Papuan Numerals
What if '27' wasn't an abstract number, but a specific place on your body like 'the other-side little finger'? Journey to New Guinea to explore the fascinating logic of body-part…
AI’s Language Puzzle: Who Has the Telescope?
Consider the classic riddle: "I saw a man on a hill with a telescope." This simple sentence, which can mean two very different things, perfectly illustrates syntactic ambiguity. It's a…
Typo Disasters: When Bad Fonts Cost Fortunes
Can a font choice really cost a company millions? From a single misplaced letter that nearly bankrupted a business to a logo redesign that sparked global outrage, typography is a…
The Denali Name War: A Mountain’s Identity
For over a century, North America's tallest peak was at the center of a linguistic and cultural war. This is the story of how the indigenous name "Denali" fought against…
The Sailor Who Mistook a Word for an Island
Explore the strange case of "I-da-no", a phantom island that appeared on Japanese maps for decades. This wasn't a sailor's mirage but a fascinating linguistic error, born from a simple…
Neurolinguistics
Augmentative And Alternative Communication (Aac)
Language Stories
Psycholinguistics
The Man Who Spoke Only in Numbers
Following a severe stroke, a brilliant Russian scientist lost his ability to speak—but found a new voice in the language of numbers. This incredible true story is more than an…
The Brontës’ Secret Language of Gondal
Before the world knew them as the authors of *Jane Eyre* and *Wuthering Heights*, the Brontë siblings were rulers of a secret fantasy kingdom called Gondal. This sprawling world, born…
A Grammar of Whalesong: The Humpback’s Dialect
Beyond the familiar sounds of the ocean lies a complex world of communication, where humpback whales sing in distinct, evolving dialects. Discover the incredible story of how a single "hit…
The Day a Radio Play Caused a Panic
On Halloween Eve 1938, Orson Welles didn't just tell a scary story; he masterfully manipulated the language and structure of radio news to convince thousands of Americans that Martians had…
The Color That Didn’t Exist
Did you know that for most of human history, the color orange didn't have a name? Ancient languages often described sunsets and autumn leaves as "yellow-red" or simply a shade…
The Man Who Taught a Gorilla to Lie
The story of Koko the gorilla is filled with moments of wonder, but none are as philosophically charged as the time she ripped a steel sink from a wall. When…
The Final Word: Verb Chaining in Papuan Languages
Imagine a sentence that lists a dozen actions before revealing the main verb at the very end. This is the world of verb chaining, a fascinating feature of Papuan languages…
One Verb, Many Actions: The Grammar of Plurality
Some languages don't just make nouns plural; they can make verbs plural to show repeated or distributed action. This fascinating grammatical feature, known as "pluractionality", allows speakers to distinguish between…
The Telltale “I”: Unlocking the Mind
Ever notice how a simple shift from "You make me angry" to "I feel angry when..." can change a whole conversation? That’s not just a communication trick; it's a profound…
Ottoman Ciphers: Turkey’s Secret Script
Journey back in time to uncover Siyakat, the secret script of the Ottoman Empire. This deliberately complex and stylized writing system was used to guard the Sultan's most sensitive financial…
The Comanche Code: A Linguistic Fortress
While the Navajo are rightly famous, the Comanche Code Talkers of WWII's European Theater created an equally unbreakable code. Based on the language's unique polysynthetic structure and a clever coded…