Welcome to Linguistic Discovery!
Linguistic Discovery explores the science and diversity of language, a field known as linguistics.
Hawaiian only has 8 consonants—What happens when it borrows words with other sounds?
The Hawaiian language only has 8 consonants. So how does it deal with sounds in words borrowed from other languages?
The linguistic history of "love"
The etymology of the word "love" and all its related words in English.
The quest for the first Indo-Europeans, and whales communicating like humans
New DNA evidence emerges in the hunt for the first speakers of Indo-European, and researchers discover that whalesong shares a property of human language never before found in the animal kingdom.
Honest aliens and yet another attempt at Proto-Australian
An analysis of the linguistics of The Three-Body Problem, and new research claiming to reconstruct Proto-Australian.
What if we could hear each other's thoughts? The linguistics of The Three-Body Problem
Imagine if every word you thought could be heard by everyone around you. In this world, thinking would be the same as communicating. What would language—and society—be like?
February
Why is “February” spelled with two ⟨r⟩'s even though most people only pronounce one of them?
Welcome to Discovery Dispatch!
Discovery Dispatch is a weekly roundup of the latest language-related news, research in linguistics, interesting reads from the week, and newest books and media!
Why do the British pronounce “herb” with an /h/?
Why don’t Americans pronounce herb with an /h/?
Renaissance on the bayou: Revitalizing the Chitimacha language
The Chitimacha language was once thought to be extinct, but today is undergoing a renaissance as young people learn the language again.
From counting to language: How writing evolved
The earliest version of cuneiform wasn't used to write language at all—it was used to count! And that Sumerian system of counting still influences our counting systems today. Here's the story of Sumerian numerals.
William Labov (1927–2024)
William Labov was the father of sociolinguistics who pioneered the study of dialectology.
The linguistics behind Biden's "garbage" gaffe
Why an apostrophe might determine the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.