Stuttering John’s Lost Language
In the 10th century, an envoy named John of Gorze adopted a radical language-learning strategy: two years of total silence to master Arabic. But when he finally spoke, he was…
Tag: tu
“Hello World”: The Birth of a Coded Ritual
The phrase "Hello, World!" is more than just the first program most coders write; it's a universal rite of passage with a fascinating origin. Tracing back to a 1974 Bell…
The Novel That Made Pidgin Literature
When Amos Tutuola published *The Palm-Wine Drinkard* in 1952, its "broken" English was celebrated abroad but scorned as a national embarrassment in his native Nigeria. This is the story of…
The Hidden ‘Event’ in Every Verb
Have you ever wondered how a simple action can be described with endless detail? The secret lies in a hidden layer of meaning within every verb, a concept from linguistic…
The Typo That Survives Extinction
A scribe's error in a single manuscript can be so influential it gets copied for centuries, becoming the "correct" version. Journey into the world of paleography and discover the linguistic…
The Lexicon of the Lab: Inside Scientific Latin
Ever wonder why scientists use a "dead" language to name living things? Scientific Latin is more than just a tradition; it's a precise, universal, and surprisingly creative grammatical system that…
Why Tocharian Was an Anomaly
Imagine discovering a lost language in Western China that looks far more like Latin or Irish than its immediate neighbors, Sanskrit and Persian. The extinct Tocharian languages presented linguists with…
The Unmoved Lip: Phonetics of Ventriloquism
The magic of ventriloquism isn't just misdirection; it's a masterclass in applied phonetics. Performers overcome the challenge of lip-based sounds like /b/, /p/, and /m/ by using linguistic substitution, swapping…
Augmentative And Alternative Communication (Aac)
Language Stories
Psycholinguistics
Neurolinguistics
The Man Who Spoke Only in Numbers
Following a severe stroke, a brilliant Russian scientist lost his ability to speak—but found a new voice in the language of numbers. This incredible true story is more than an…
A Grammar of Whalesong: The Humpback’s Dialect
Beyond the familiar sounds of the ocean lies a complex world of communication, where humpback whales sing in distinct, evolving dialects. Discover the incredible story of how a single "hit…
What’s the Difference: ‘Você’ vs. ‘Tu’
Ever been stumped by the Portuguese 'tu' vs. 'você'? This great pronoun divide separates not just countries, but regions within Brazil itself. We break down where each is used and,…