Words provide the data, but paralinguistics provide the manual on how to interpret them. This article explores how volume, pitch,…
Mel Gibson’s *Apocalypto* did more than deliver high-octane action; it immersed global audiences in the sounds of Màaya t'àan (Yucatec…
Walk through the bustling markets of Palermo, perhaps the famous Ballarò or Vucciria, and close your eyes. The sounds washing…
Does the landscape dictate how we speak? The "Acoustic Adaptation Hypothesis" suggests that languages in hot, leafy jungles favor vowels…
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is the gold standard for writing down sounds, but its origins are surprisingly humble. Discover…
The Slavic languages are a sprawling family, divided into East, West, and South branches. But what does that split actually…
Imagine a secret message hidden in plain sight, concealed within a perfectly ordinary letter. The Cardan grille, a simple sheet…
Claude Shannon's information theory provides a mathematical lens to view language's predictability, a concept known as entropy. This predictability, or…
When you think of Mandarin, you probably think of China. But the world's most spoken language is also an official…
If 'agua' ends in -a, why do we say 'el agua'? This common Spanish grammar question isn't an exception to…
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