How far back in time can you understand English? deadlanguagesociety.com/p/ho…
Why are some languages spoken faster than others? New research suggests that different tongues, regardless of speed, transmit information at roughly the same rate.
economist.com/graphic-detail…
“I dropped my toothpaste,” said Tom, crestfallen.
Nothing like a Tom Swifty for a hot July day!
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_…
You’d think we’d know where the word ‘bird’ came from… think again! phys.org/news/2024-07-common…
You’ve probably been discombobulated at one point or another, but have you ever been recombobulated? onmilwaukee.com/articles/rec…
Writing has been inexorably intertwined with language for thousands of years, and Unicode is the system used by modern computers to encode all the characters used by all the world’s writing systems. But nobody knows where one of them (⍼) came from!
ionathan.ch/2022/04/09/angza…
The usage of the word ‘boilerplate’ has a fascinating history that descends through many layers of adopted meanings. buttondown.email/hillelwayne…
Language is intimately associated with writing, and orthography is the nuts and bolts of writing. Did you know English used to have two different lowercase S’s? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_s
Great discussion on regional variations in grammar like ‘I’m done the files’ and ‘Might could do that’ as well as Black American Sign Language: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
It’s not easy to tell what language someone speaks just by looking at them! youtube.com/watch?v=AC6OJA2r…
Hop down the rabbit hole with me of how Trafalgar Square in London got its name… 🐇
reddit.com/r/etymology/comme…