vowels

Germanic Sound, Semitic Look: The Unique Yiddish Writing System

Yiddish presents a rare linguistic paradox: a Germanic language, close kin to English and German, written entirely in the ancient…

6 days ago

Aitken’s Law: The Unique Sound of Scots

Explore the fascinating mechanics of Aitken’s Law, the phonological rule that gives Scots its distinctive, choppy rhythm and sets it…

6 days ago

Visualizing Sound: The Cymatics of Speech

While we usually think of language as invisible sound, the science of cymatics reveals that speech creates tangible geometric patterns…

6 days ago

The Great Vowel Shift: Why English Spelling Is Broken

Between the 14th and 18th centuries, English speakers radically changed how they pronounced vowels, engaging in a massive linguistic game…

6 days ago

Italian of the East: Unlocking Telugu’s Melodic Secret

Discover the fascinating linguistics behind Telugu, often called the "Italian of the East" due to its unique 'Ajanta' structure where…

6 days ago

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…

2 months ago

The Chart That Mapped Our Vowels

The vowel trapezoid chart is a familiar sight to any linguistics student, but its simple shape hides a fascinating story…

2 months ago

The World’s Quietest Shift: The Great Silence of French

Move beyond the Great Vowel Shift and explore French's "Great Silence"—the massive, historical loss of final consonants. This single change…

3 months ago

Why Is Polish So Different From Other Slavic Languages?

Ever wondered why Polish sounds and looks so different from its Slavic cousins like Russian or Czech? From its unique…

3 months ago

What’s a Diphthong? (And How to Say Them)

Ever wondered what the sounds in 'boy', 'cow', and 'my' have in common? They're diphthongs—two vowel sounds smashed into a…

3 months ago

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