Current Linguistics
How your brain separates sounds into words
Also this week: How toddlers in Finland are saving an endangered Sámi language + Language learning can help lower dementia risk by 40%
Current Linguistics
Language may not be so hierarchical after all: A new study challenges 70 years of linguistic theory
Also this week: Some dogs learn words like children + “How to kill a language”, a new book by Sophia Smith Galer
Current Linguistics
Is the dictionary dead? Or merely changing?
Also in this week’s digest: Why Morse Code didn’t work for Chinese + Words affect us based on how they sound + Your brain processes language more alike to AI than we previously thought
Current Linguistics
World’s oldest alphabet discovered
Also this week: Researchers determine that bees understand morse code + ⅓ of grammatical universals stand up to rigorous testing
Current Linguistics
Some dogs learn word categories like human toddlers do
Also this week: The California Language Archives receives a treasure trove of new materials on Pomoan languages. Here's what happened this week in language and linguistics.
Current Linguistics
Oxford chooses “ragebait” as the 2025 Word of the Year
Also this week: Whales are found to use “vowels” + 6,000-year-old Mesopotamian seals linked to the dawn of writing
Newsletter
Curiouser and curiouser… A (short) journey through words and language
Join League of the Lexicon game creator Joshua Blackburn as he follows the threads of his curiosity about keyboards
Current Linguistics
We’re finally starting to read the scrolls burnt in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius
Also this week: How playing a musical instrument helps children learn to read + Why AI is not like humans
Newsletter
Where does the alphabet come from? And why does English use it so strangely?
A new book takes us on a linguistic odyssey through the history of the alphabet
Current Linguistics
gen z loves lowercase, but they’re losing their southern drawl
gen z loves lowercase, but they’re losing their southern drawl. meanwhile trump makes english the official language (sort of).
Newsletter
From counting to cuneiform: How writing was invented
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.