Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

The Keyboard That Looked Like a Piano

Before QWERTY conquered the world, the first typewriter prototype had keys arranged in two simple rows like a piano. This…

6 days ago

Lexical Gaps Across Languages

Ever wonder why German has a word for taking pleasure in someone else's misfortune (*Schadenfreude*), but English doesn't? This post…

6 days ago

Language and Spatial Cognition

Your native language does more than just give you words for "left" and "right"; its very grammar shapes how you…

6 days ago

One Slice, One Loaf: The Logic of Measure Words

Ever wondered why you can't say "one rice" in English or "one bread" in Chinese? This post dives into the…

1 month ago

The Two ‘Haves’ of Irish: Possession as a State

Unlike English, the Irish language doesn't have a single verb for "to have." Instead, to say "I have a book",…

1 month ago

The Fourth Person: Obviation Explained

Ever get confused when a sentence has too many "he"s or "they"s? Some languages have a brilliant built-in solution for…

1 month ago

The Grammar of Your Thoughts

Did you know the way you structure a sentence can reveal your deepest cognitive patterns? Our language isn't just for…

1 month ago

5 Tips to Beat Writer’s Block

Stuck staring at a blank screen? Writer's block isn't a failure of imagination—it's a linguistic puzzle waiting to be solved.…

1 month ago

The Three Genders of Dyirbal

Ever heard of a language that groups women, fire, and dangerous things into a single grammatical category? Dive into the…

1 month ago

The ‘We’ of Two vs. The ‘We’ of All

Most languages count one and many, but what about a number for precisely two? Discover the "grammatical dual", a lost…

1 month ago

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