Sacred Tongues: Language & Religion
From the intricate vibrations of Sanskrit mantras to the linguistic inimitability of the Quran, a language can become more than a tool for communication—it can be seen as the very…
Tag: sanskrit
The Middle Voice: Neither Active nor Passive
We're all familiar with the active voice ("I wash the car") and the passive voice ("The car is washed"). But what if there's a third way? Enter the middle voice,…
The Dravidian Language Family: A South Indian Enigma
Venture beyond the familiar Indo-European languages and discover the ancient Dravidian family of Southern India and Sri Lanka. From the tongue-curling retroflex sounds of Tamil to the "glued-together" grammar of…
The Shape of Nothing: How the Invention of ‘Zero’ Was a Linguistic and Mathematical Revolution
The concept of zero is more than just a number; it’s a profound linguistic and philosophical idea that had to be invented. This journey traces the word and symbol for…
The Alphabet That Isn’t: Unpacking the Logic of Abugidas and Abjads
Most of us learn the ABCs and assume all writing works this way, but that's just one piece of the linguistic puzzle. From Arabic's consonant-only script to Hindi's consonant-vowel units,…
The Ultimate Ancestor: How Linguists Reconstructed the Proto-Indo-European Language
Imagine a language that vanished over 5,000 years ago, leaving behind no written records. This is Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the mysterious ancestor of English, Russian, Hindi, and hundreds of other tongues.…
How Did People Learn Languages in the Ancient World?
The ability to communicate across linguistic boundaries has always been a hallmark of human civilization. From early tribal communities to the vast empires of antiquity,...
English Words of Suprising Origin – Part I
The English language is a kaleidoscope of cultural influence, where words from different corners of the world have found a home. With its global reach,...
Learning Ancient Languages: A Doorway to History and Culture
Languages form the cornerstone of communication and culture. They are not only means of conveying messages, but they are also the vessels of rich histories,...