Current Linguistics
Deciphering the Singapore Stone
Also this week: The linguistics of Project Hail Mary + The beautiful linguistic chaos of Iran + Your dog might be eavesdropping on you (linguistically)
Current Linguistics
Did Homo erectus have language?
Also this week: Did writing just get pushed back tens of thousands of years? + How slang works + We finally understand why horses whinny
Newsletter
Do these Stone Age symbols push back the origins of writing by tens of thousands of years?
Nope. The real finding is even cooler.
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
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
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.