The ‘Dot That Died’: Hangul’s Lost Vowel
The Korean alphabet, Hangul, is praised for its scientific design, but it once held a secret: a lost vowel called the 'arae-a' (γ). This "dot from heaven" was the cornerstone…
Tag: sound change
How a Priest’s Lisp Changed a Language
The famous βthβ sound in Castilian Spanish is often attributed to a lisping king whose court mimicked his speech. This popular legend, while charming, is a myth. The real story…
How a Fish Got Into the Telephone
Why is the Finnish word for 'fish' (kala) so similar to the Hungarian word (hal), despite being spoken 1,500km apart? This isn't a coincidence, but a clue followed by linguists…
How a Phoneme is Born
Language sounds are always in flux, but where do new ones come from? This article explores the fascinating linguistic process of phonemic split, where predictable variations of a single sound…
Grammatical Evaporation
Have you ever wondered why English grammar seems simpler than Latin or German? This phenomenon, known as grammatical evaporation, is a natural process where languages shed complex features like cases…
The Sound of Size: Consonant Gradation in Finnish
Ever notice how Finnish words seem to change their consonants for no reason? This isn't random linguistic magic; it's a core feature of Finnish grammar known as consonant gradation, a…
The Failed Phoneme: When a Sound Dies at Birth
Ever wonder why you can say 'cheese' with ease but stumble over the 'ch' in the Scottish 'loch'? This isn't a personal failing, but a fascinating linguistic phenomenon involving 'marginal…
The World’s Quietest Shift: The Great Silence of French
Move beyond the Great Vowel Shift and explore French's "Great Silence"βthe massive, historical loss of final consonants. This single change is the key to understanding why modern French spelling is…
The Balto-Slavic Mystery: Are They Siblings or Cousins?
A Lithuanian and a Pole can't understand each other, so why do linguists insist their languages are close relatives? We dive into the ancient Balto-Slavic mystery, exploring the deep grammatical…
The Sound That Changed Ancient Rome
How can a single sound shift the course of a civilization? This article explores Latin rhotacism, the fascinating process where an 's' sound between vowels transformed into an 'r'. Discover…
Proving Languages Are Related
How can linguists be so certain that English and ancient Sanskrit are cousins, while neighboring Finnish is a total stranger? It's not guessworkβit's a rigorous scientific process called the comparative…
The Grammar of Nicknames
Ever wonder why William becomes Bill, but not Willam? Or how a Russian Aleksandr affectionately becomes Sashenka? Nicknames follow a fascinating, unwritten grammar, a secret set of rules that transform…
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.…
The Great Vowel Shift: How it Transformed the English Language
The Great Vowel Shift, a term coined by the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen, is a pivotal moment in the annals of English language history. This...