Why do some completely unrelated languages seem similar? Distant cousins? Borrowed words? Your brain playing tricks? Yup, all of that. blog.duolingo.com/why-unrelate...

To truly explore alien languages, linguists must open themselves to the maximum conceivable degree of cosmic otherness aeon.co/essays/is-it...

“Hindi is nobody’s mother tongue. We gave up our own languages to create a national language.” ~ Sadanand Shahi “Once the British linked Hindi with employment, people surrendered their languages.” ~ Apoorvanand Jha

How Hindi emerged as the lingua franca of the ‘Hindi Heartland’ at the cost of other languages

An excerpt from ‘The Hindi Heartland: A Study’, by Ghazala Wahab.

scroll.in

A language is generally considered endangered when children are no longer learning it, or learning it in fewer numbers than previous generations. Ethnologue currently considers 3,193 of the world’s 7,159 languages (about 45%) to be some degree of endangered.

“For centuries, the linguistic map of England had been a geographical patchwork of local dialects, some features of which dated back to Anglo-Saxon times. The exception to this was London. [...]

Here’s a quick timeline of the German language: 1. Proto-Germanic → 500 BC-200 AD 2. West Germanic → 200 AD-750 AD 3. Old High German → 750 AD-1050 AD 4. Middle High German → 1050 AD-1350 AD 5. Early New High German → 1350 AD-1650 AD 6. Modern Standard German → 1650 AD-present

I’ve said it before, but it’s useful to know how to read other alphabets even if you can’t speak the language. At least you’ll know how things are pronounced and what they say. To that end, here’s a guide to the French alphabet from the Duolingo blog: blog.duolingo.com/french-alpha...

Your guide to the French alphabet

The French alphabet is full of surprises—let this guide tell you all about them!

blog.duolingo.com

Could Beowulf see blue? English only got the word “blue” in the 13th of 14th century. Before that, there were words for ‘blue’, but they could also be used to mean ‘gray’ or ‘green’. So what’s going on? How did colors work in Old English?

Which do you say, and where are you from? - Pop - Soda - Coke

Linguists classify writing systems into several different types based on what the characters represent:

The river Elbe has a number of names: Elbe in English and German, Labe in Czech, Łaba in Polish, and Łobjo in Sorbian. Why the variation? Linguist Danny Bate tells the fascinating linguistic history of the river here: dannybate.com/2025/06/30/t...

Criticizing mispronunciations is “hypocritical snobbery”, linguist argues www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06...

How using a period / full stop can give away your age: www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06...

Is being bilingual good for your brain? The answer may not be a straightforward “yes” as we previously thought

How do linguists reconstruct dead languages? How do they recover how words sounded thousands of years ago, before writing was even invented?

How did writing systems evolve? Why are there so many different writing systems around the world? Did they all come from the same place? If so, where? The Duolingo blog looks at the places where writing began, and the different writing systems across the world: blog.duolingo.com/evolution-of...

Alliteration is when multiple adjacent words begin with the same sound or set of sounds. In this article, linguist Michael Ferber talks all about alliteration in *speech* rather than poetry:

Speaking of Words: All About Alliteration

Kissing cousins and wrack and ruin are both alliterative phrases, despite their spellings.

indepthnh.org

What’s the difference between “idioma”, “lengua”, and “lenguage” in Spanish? The Rosetta Stone blog explains how each of these are used here: blog.rosettastone.com/language-in-...

Idioma or Lengua? Use ‘Language’ in Spanish the Right Way - Rosetta Stone

Do you know word for “language” in Spanish to use in various contexts and phrases? Know when to use idioma, lengua, or lenguaje just like a native speaker.

blog.rosettastone.com

What makes a word’s pronunciation change? Here are 5 ways sounds change in language: 1. Sounds near each other become more alike 2. Sounds near each other become more different 3. Sounds become less forceful 4. Sounds move towards the roof of the mouth 5. Sounds switch places

For generations, the Fulani have lived across Africa’s Sahel region, a semiarid belt stretching between the sands of the Sahara in the north and the continent’s forests farther south.

Animals can’t talk like humans do, but why? Recent research suggests that other primates possess an important ability for language called compositionality—the ability to combine words and phrases together into complex expressions. But this alone doesn’t seem to be enough for language.

Is Latin a dead language? What defines a dead language anyway? Is a language dead if millions of people still use it every day?

Keeping kids interested in science is a matter of language As children get older, their understanding of science and being a scientist changes. The words adults use are a critical part of keeping them engaged in discovery www.scientificamerican.com/article/keep...

An endangered language is one that is spoken by fewer speakers than previous generations. There are varying degrees of endangerment, but by one rating system, over 3,100 of the world’s 7,164 languages are endangered today.

I love reading research papers from a century ago because what do you mean there's a word "exiguous"

Hindi, Greek and English all come from a single ancient language—but how do linguists know this?

“Language is indeed a powerful guide to our perception of reality and can even shape our behaviour. However, it is not an absolute cage. Mathematical and logical thought *can* be independent of language” ~ Tim Seyrek

Louder for the people in the back! @colingorrie.bsky.social It’s almost comical how frequently people tell me or claim online that a word comes from an acronym, when acronyms are actually a fairly new source of words. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/acronym-et...

Can you distinguish a Victorian from a Queenslander? How Australian accents change from state to state theconversation.com/quiz-can-you...

Did you know that there are hidden word order rules for adjectives in English? blog.duolingo.com/adjective-or...