Long before AI could write a poem, the pioneers of computational linguistics took on a monumental task: teaching a room-sized…
Ever wondered why 'you' is the same whether you're doing the action or receiving it, unlike "I" and "me"? This…
Ancient scripts were often written as an unbroken stream of letters, a practice known as scriptio continua. This placed an…
A scribe's error in a single manuscript can be so influential it gets copied for centuries, becoming the "correct" version.…
Forget stuffy royal decrees. Ancient graffiti offers an unfiltered glimpse into the lives of everyday people, from lovelorn Romans to…
How can 'ghoti' possibly be pronounced 'fish'? This famous linguistic riddle isn't just a party trick; it's a gateway to…
You hear it constantly in Italy, punctuating every conversation: 'Allora...'. But what does this quintessential Italian word actually mean? We…
In the history of language, sounds can vanish without a trace. Or can they? This post explores compensatory lengthening, the…
Ever wondered why a table (`la mesa`) is 'female' in Spanish, but a map (`el mapa`) is 'male'? The rules…
Ever wonder why the Spanish word for 'rain' is *lluvia* when its Latin ancestor was *pluvia*? This transformation is no…
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