# Linguistic Discovery
> A newsletter about linguistics, the science and diversity of language 🗣️
Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context.
Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`).

## Pages
- [About](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/about.md) - Linguistic Discovery is all about the science and diversity of the world's languages—a field known as linguistics 🗣️
- [Contact](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/contact.md) - 📲 Social Media * * * * * * * * 🎙️ Media Inquiries I’m available for interviews, guest appearances, livestreams, talks, panels, and other events. I speak on anything relating to language and linguistics, especially linguistic diversity, endangered languages, language revitalization, language chang…
- [Images](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/images.md) - Images reused across the site.
- [Snippets](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/snippets.md) - Affiliate Notice 📚The Amazon and Bookshop links on this site are affiliate links, which means that I earn a small commission from Amazon for purchases made through them (at no extra cost to you). If you’d like to support Linguistic Discovery, purchasing through these links is a great way to do so!…

## Posts
- [Storytelling around campfires may have shaped human language](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-42.md) - Also this week: AI agents invent their own language + Human speech found to follow a rhythm also found in the animal kingdom + A new book on lost languages
- [Large language models are shrinking linguistic diversity](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-41.md) - Also this week: How habitat shapes the vocal repertoire of primates + The Canadian English dictionary gets a new update + Many loathed “Americanisms” are actually British coinages
- [Choctaw Nation launches Rosetta Stone language app](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-40.md) - Also this week: Do languages become less complex with more new adult speakers? + Is it okay to let a language die?
- [Wordsmaxxing: Merriam-Webster adds 1,400 new entries to its dictionary](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-39.md) - Also this week: How children talk can indicate risk for future mental health problems + Birdsong and whalesong have both been found to follow a fundamental law of human language
- [What an ape’s laugh can teach us about human language](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-38.md) - Also this week: Why grammar snobs don’t actually like language + Bluey released in an Australian indigenous language + Enrollment in advanced language classes dropping in the UK
- [Language genes may be much older than previously thought](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-37.md) - Also this week: ConlangCrafter: The AI that invents languages + What linguists think everyone should know about language
- [The Golden Age of Language might have boasted 75,000 languages approximately 2,000 years ago](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-36.md) - Also this week: The Herculaneum scrolls are giving up their secrets + The Bantu Expansion: The mass migration that transformed sub-Saharan Africa
- [Pre-Greek: The lost language hidden within Ancient Greek](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/pre-greek.md) - Around 1,000 Greek words can’t be traced to any Indo-European language. Where do they come from?
- [Why your foreign accent sucks](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-24.md) - Also this week: Why you might not want to learn language like a child + How California “Valley Girl” talk changed the way America speaks + Statistical physics reveals how languages evolve
- [Do kids in poor families really hear 30 million fewer words by age 4?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/baby-talk-6.md) - On the “word gap” and how much you should talk to your toddler
- [Why your brain is faster at dismantling some words than others](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-22.md) - Also this week: Mom defends decision to teach her kids French despite not being a native speaker + Why English isn’t actually decaying + Baby talk is good for your child, actually
- [Is it “Iran” or “Persia”? “Persian” or “Farsi”?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/name-of-iran.md) - On Persia, Iran, Farsi, and Aryan: The many names for Iran, its peoples, and its languages
- [When words look like their meaning, we process them faster](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-21.md) - Also this week: Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome to a Eurovision Song Contest that embraces linguistic diversity + Linguists are mapping Rhode Island’s linguistic diversity
- [Lavender Linguistics: Learning to live out loud](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/lavender-celebration.md) - On Polari and the history of queer language
- [Homophones, plurals, and language “rulescucks” are roiling prediction markets](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-20.md) - Also this week: More Ukrainians are switching from speaking Russian to Ukrainian + Scientists say AI is bringing us closer to talking to animals + A new book on the world’s vanishing languages
- [The curse of knowledge (and what to do about it)](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/linguistics-commencement.md) - Inspiring words for linguistics majors
- [New study links receptivity to corporate bullshit to weaker leadership skills](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-18.md) - Also this week: New Mexico is losing a form of Spanish spoken nowhere else + Study finds that isolated human groups speak more diverse languages
- [The Ass Camouflage Construction](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/ass-camouflage-construction.md) - What this African American English expression teaches us about the world’s languages
- [New evidence that language evolved before humans did](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-17.md) - Also this week: Universals of swearing across languages + Does learning Latin improve your SAT scores? + What killed penmanship
- [The Great Men™ of Language](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/great-men-of-language.md) - Language is shaped by everyday people, not the Big Names™ of history
- [We’re losing 338 spoken words every year, linguists find](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-16.md) - Also this week: Sperm whale communication closesly mirrors human language + Why toddlers don’t understand the words “I” and “you”
- [Baby, talk to me: How children get their accents](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/why-we-talk-funny.md) - A sneak peek at Dr. Valerie Fridland’s new book, “Why we talk funny: The real story behind our accents”
- [Linguists work to create UK’s first swear map](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-15.md) - Also this week: Bumble bees show a surprising knack for rhythm + Sperm whale songs are surprisingly like human language
- [Baby talk in the languages of the world](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/baby-talk-5.md) - How parents talk to their children around the globe
- [Has forensic linguistics solved the mystery of Bitcoin’s creator?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-14.md) - Also this week: How slang works, and how Black culture is shaping Gen Z’s slang
- [Were the Ancient Greeks colorblind?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/color-term-hierarchy.md) - Why Homer uses colors so strangely in the Iliad and the Odyssey
- [Deciphering the Singapore Stone](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-12.md) - Also this week: The linguistics of Project Hail Mary + The beautiful linguistic chaos of Iran + Your dog might be eavesdropping on you (linguistically)
- [What kind of language is Eridian, question?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/project-hail-mary.md) - The linguistics of Project Hail Mary
- [Did Homo erectus have language?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-11.md) - Also this week: Did writing just get pushed back tens of thousands of years? + How slang works + We finally understand why horses whinny
- [Do all cultures use baby talk?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/baby-talk-4.md) - Or is baby talk just something that white middle class Americans do?
- [Baby chicks know their kiki from their bouba](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-10.md) - Also this week: Why human language isn’t like computer code + Why English needs “y’all” + Why do so many women’s names end in A?
- [Do these Stone Age symbols push back the origins of writing by tens of thousands of years?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/stone-age-proto-writing.md) - Nope. The real finding is even cooler.
- [How your brain separates sounds into words](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-09.md) - Also this week: How toddlers in Finland are saving an endangered Sámi language + Language learning can help lower dementia risk by 40%
- [The Wug Test: How children learn grammar](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/wug-test.md) - What can a simple word game teach us about how language works?
- [Bilingualism affects your moral decision-making](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-08.md) - Also this week: Did Kanzi the bonobo have imagination? + A better English alphabet
- [Is baby talk good for your child?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/baby-talk-3.md) - Does using baby talk make language learning easier, or does it hinder your child’s language development?
- [Swearing could give you a physical edge](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-07.md) - Also this week: How the theory of the humors shaped English + New research uncovers the cerebellum’s crucial role in human language
- [The etymology of “love”](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/love.md) - “love” and its many related words in English
- [The science of libfixes](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/libfix-2.md) - How libfixes work, where they come from, and what they teach us about language and the mind
- [Language may not be so hierarchical after all: A new study challenges 70 years of linguistic theory](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-06.md) - Also this week: Some dogs learn words like children + “How to kill a language”, a new book by Sophia Smith Galer
- [What’s the point of baby talk?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/baby-talk-2.md) - How caregivers instinctively simplify their speech for children—and how it helps
- [Honeyguide birds learn regional human dialects](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-05.md) - Also this week: People with personality disorders use language differently + Decoding the lost scripts of the ancient world. Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Why is “February” spelled with two ⟨r⟩’s?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/february.md) - Why is “February” spelled with two ⟨r⟩’s even though most people only pronounce one of them?
- [Is the dictionary dead? Or merely changing?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-04.md) - 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
- [Libfixes: When word parts go rogue](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/libfix-1.md) - What happens when parts of words declare independence
- [World’s oldest alphabet discovered](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-03.md) - Also this week: Researchers determine that bees understand morse code + ⅓ of grammatical universals stand up to rigorous testing
- [Why you should be talking to your infant](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/baby-talk-1.md) - Early exposure to language is crucial for your child’s long-term linguistic development
- [Why is the ⟨g⟩ in “longevity” pronounced twice?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/longevity.md) - How the spelling of “longevity” is playing a mental trick on you
- [The way we read in our first language influences how we read in other languages](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2026-01.md) - Also this week: AI models can now analyze language as well as humans + The first monolingual Irish dictionary is published
- [One year of Linguistic Discovery](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-review.md) - A look back at the first year of the newsletter, and what’s changing in 2026
- [Men speak with vocal fry just as much as women](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-50.md) - Also in the news this week: Merriam-Webster chooses “slop” as the 2025 Word of the Year; Gaelic and Scots now recognized as official languages in the UK; and Canada’s prime minister called out for using British spellings
- [Some dogs learn word categories like human toddlers do](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-49.md) - 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.
- [Oxford chooses “ragebait” as the 2025 Word of the Year](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-48.md) - Also this week: Whales are found to use “vowels” + 6,000-year-old Mesopotamian seals linked to the dawn of writing
- [“6-7” belongs in the dictionary, actually](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/67.md) - In defense of Dictionary.com’s 2025 Word of the Year
- [Dictionary.com announces 6-7 as the word of the year](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-45.md) - Also this week: Turkic states agree on a common Latin alphabet; and researchers decode Mandarin Chinese from brain activity
- [Curiouser and curiouser… A (short) journey through words and language](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/linguistic-curiosities.md) - Join League of the Lexicon game creator Joshua Blackburn as he follows the threads of his curiosity about keyboards
- [Have scholars finally deciphered the mysterious writing of Teotihuacan?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-44.md) - Also this week: How technological advances in language modeling have allowed researchers to develop speech recognition technology even for small, endangered languages
- [We’re finally starting to read the scrolls burnt in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-42.md) - Also this week: How playing a musical instrument helps children learn to read + Why AI is not like humans
- [Mom’s voice boosts language-center development in preemies’ brains](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-41.md) - Also this week: Smart dogs have a humanlike knack for naming new objects + Birds all over the world use the same sound to warn of threats + The Language-Lover’s Lexipedia
- [China lays claim to Austronesian languages](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-40.md) - Also this week: The Linguistics of a Showgirl: How Taylor Swift’s accent has changed over time + We will soon be able to talk with other species—but which one will be first?
- [What’s in a name?: Eponymous etymology](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/useless-etymology.md) - A sneak peek at Jess Zafarris’ new book, “Useless etymology: Word origins for curious minds”
- [Could Neanderthals handle language variation?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-39.md) - Also this week: Jane Goodall dies at 91 + Merriam-Webster adds 5,000 words to the dictionary
- [Where does the alphabet come from? And why does English use it so strangely?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/why-q-needs-u.md) - A new book takes us on a linguistic odyssey through the history of the alphabet
- [Analysis of a century’s worth of political speeches challenges our understanding of how language changes](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-38.md) - Also this week: Bilingualism is reworking this language’s rainbow + How speaking in a second language directly affects your moral judgement
- [How a deaf quarterback invented the huddle + Linguists explain the life of slang](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-37.md) - Also this week: The world’s oldest written languages, and a cool new book on etymology. Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Your cryptogram is lying to you—/t/ isn’t the most frequent consonant in English](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/english-consonant-frequencies.md) - What are the most frequent sounds across languages (and why)?
- [Birdsong exhibits a hidden feature of human language](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-36.md) - Also this week: Bilingualism is possible for people with a rare genetic condition that normally limits speech + Talk Like a Pirate Day is coming up! 🏴‍☠️ Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [New DNA data reveals the origins of the Slavic peoples](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-35.md) - Also this week: How our DNA holds the history of our language + The Cambridge dictionary adds 6,000 new words—and not everybody’s happy about it. Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Learning a second language can teach you to distinguish colors you don’t have in your first language](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-34.md) - Also this week: Gesture may have been the origin of language + A new mind-reading AI can turn imagined speech into words. Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [An experiment with the Aboriginal language Murrinhpatha suggests language influences perception](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-33.md) - Also this week: Why all languages have words for ‘this’ and ‘that’ + Antarctic leopard seal ‘songs’ are surprisingly similar to nursey rhymes. Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Researchers uncover the origins of the Uralic language family](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-32.md) - Also this week: Today is National Navajo Code Talkers Day! And the K-pop band is making Korean Sign Language famous
- [Revitalizing a dormant language from 80-year-old manuscripts](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/chitimacha-trilogy.md) - How archival manuscripts are helping revitalize the Chitimacha language of Louisiana
- [A mysterious pre-Islamic script from Oman has been deciphered, while AI helps historians complete damaged Latin texts](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-31.md) - Also this week: Does your native language affect how you feel pain? And did language evolve because of tools or baby talk? Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [What to do when someone corrects your pronunciation](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/correcting-pronunciation.md) - Some strategies for educating people about linguistics
- [The last native speaker of Caddo dies at age 95](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-30.md) - Also this week: The long-lost Chinese typewriter that changed modern computing, plus why AI doesn’t work in bars. Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [How are new languages created? The linguistics of “The Iron Dreamers”, Part 4](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/iron-dreamers-4.md) - Pidgins, creoles, and mixed languages
- [Are some languages more complex than others? The linguistics of “The Iron Dreamers”, Part 3](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/iron-dreamers-3.md) - Do languages get simpler over time? Could they get more complex?
- [Are we stuck with the same grammar for life? The linguistics of “The Iron Dreamers”, Part 2](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/iron-dreamers-2.md) - How does your grammar change over the course of your lifetime?
- [Why do languages change? The linguistics of “The Iron Dreamers”, Part 1](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/iron-dreamers-1.md) - Could a language stay frozen in time?
- [Who are better programmers—language nerds or math geeks? Can we identify extroverts by the language they use? Did the Huns speak a Yeniseian language?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-27.md) - Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Multilinguals may be more likely to take a vaccine if they read about it in English: Words shape how we process feelings and make decisions](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-26.md) - Plus, can AI decode dead languages? And how do linguists reconstruct dead languages without AI? Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Do Inuit languages really have more words for snow? And why does it matter, anyway?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/inuit-words-for-snow.md) - A new study shows that Inuit languages really do have more words for snow, but what does that tell us about language?
- [Did technology drive the evolution of language? Or was it music?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-25.md) - Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [A Paleo-Hispanic alphabet is discovered in Spain, and researchers use AI to read 2,000-year-old scrolls burnt to a crisp by Mt. Vesuvius for the first time](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-24.md) - Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Vocabulary undergoes natural selection just like species. Plus a new database on the languages of the Americas.](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-23.md) - Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [You probably missed this in Song of Achilles](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/song-of-achilles.md) - Also, here’s what Patroclus and Cleopatra have in common
- [Islands are incubators of linguistic diversity, and people are more likely to cooperate with those who use similar linguistic constructions](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-22.md) - Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Germans bemoan the “idiot’s apostrophe”, and research on using AI to communicate with dolphins wins the $100,000 Dolittle Prize](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-21.md) - Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Why do people use double negatives? And what’s the difference between a pidgin vs. a creole?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-20.md) - Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Why English needs “y’all”](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/yall.md) - Why doesn’t English just have a plural “you” like other languages?
- [The etymology of ‘one’: From Proto-Indo-European to Modern English](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/one.md) - There are over thirty English words that derive from the Proto-Indo-European word for ‘one’. This is the story of how they came to be, and what that story teaches us about how language works.
- [Inside the fiercest debate in linguistics—Universal Grammar. Plus, why your brain can process short text messages so quickly.](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-19.md) - Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Linguists unlock the grammar of music in language, and runes show that Elfdalian is its own language](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-18.md) - Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Critics hate the new French dictionary, and linguists discover the universal language of pain](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-17.md) - We’re also making progress on talking to aliens, and a new book on Proto-Indo-European is on its way. Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [The writing on a recently-discovered tablet has linguists baffled, and GPT passes the Turing Test](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-16.md) - Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [When did humans develop language? + How whistle languages work](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-15.md) - When language evolved, how whistled languages work, and what alien languages might be like. Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Bonobos combine their vocalizations the way humans combine words—a trait once thought unique to humans](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-14.md) - Bonobos challenge the uniqueness of human language, penguins learn etymology, and China adopts a new gender-neutral pronoun. Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [The sad passing of Kanzi, penguin etymology, and what “fixin’ to” / “finna” mean](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-13.md) - Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [The etymology of “penguin”](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/penguin.md) - Where does the word “penguin” come from? French, Welsh, or Latin?
- [Did Kanzi the bonobo understand language?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/kanzi.md) - Kanzi the bonobo, who learned language, made stone tools, and played Minecraft, dies at age 44. What can his remarkable linguistic abilities teach us about language?
- [How did the Indo-Europeans spread?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-12.md) - Also this week: What does conversation look like in the brain? Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Gestures can counteract subtle stereotypes introduced by language](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-11.md) - This week I discuss the growth of science communication in linguistics, plus how simple gestures can counteract subtle linguistic biases.
- [The etymology of "guacamole"](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/guacamole.md) - Where do the words “avocado” and “guacamole” come from?
- [Babies can learn multiple languages from birth—and they’ll slow the onset of dementia if they do](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-10.md) - Babies can learn multiple languages from birth—and they’ll slow the onset of dementia if they do. Here’s what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [The linguistics of Trump’s official English policy](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/trump-official-english.md) - Trump issued an executive order making English the official language of the U.S.—sort of. Here’s what that order does, and what language in the U.S. looks like today.
- [gen z loves lowercase, but they’re losing their southern drawl](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-09.md) - gen z loves lowercase, but they’re losing their southern drawl. meanwhile trump makes english the official language (sort of).
- [1,000 subscribers! 🎉 And did Proto-Indo-European have SOV word order?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-08.md) - The Linguistic Discovery newsletter just reached 1,000 subscribers! 🎉 And linguist Danny L. Bate suggests that Proto-Indo-European didn’t have Subject-Object-Verb word order after all.
- [Is AI changing language? Plus new evidence for a “language protein”](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-07.md) - A recent article argues that AI is wrecking language, and new research has found a "language protein". Here's what happened this week in language and linguistics.
- [Hawaiian only has 8 consonants—What happens when it borrows words with other sounds?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/hawaiian-loanwords.md) - The Hawaiian language only has 8 consonants. So how does it deal with sounds in words borrowed from other languages?
- [The quest for the first Indo-Europeans, and whales communicating like humans](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-06.md) - 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](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-05.md) - An analysis of the linguistics of The Three-Body Problem, and new research claiming to reconstruct Proto-Australian.
- [What alien languages can teach us about human language: The linguistics of The Three-Body Problem](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/three-body-problem.md) - 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?
- [Welcome to Discovery Dispatch!](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/2025-04.md) - 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/?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/herb.md) - Why don’t Americans pronounce herb with an /h/?
- [Renaissance on the bayou: Revitalizing the Chitimacha language](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/renaissance-on-the-bayou.md) - 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 cuneiform: How writing was invented](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/sumerian-numerals.md) - 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.
- [In Memoriam: William Labov (1927–2024)](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/william-labov.md) - William Labov was the father of sociolinguistics who pioneered the study of dialectology
- [The linguistics behind Biden's "garbage" gaffe](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/biden-garbage-gaffe.md) - Why an apostrophe might determine the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.
- [Where do writing systems come from?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/borrowing-writing.md) - Writing was invented three different times in world history—in Mesopotamia, China, and Mesoamerica. But not all writing systems derive from those three original scripts. How can this be?
- [3 things people get wrong about language](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/3-things-people-get-wrong-about-language.md) - Here are 3 things people get wrong about language.
- [Does “fruition” come from the word “fruit”?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/fruition.md) - Does "fruition" come from the word "fruit"?
- [‘dog’ vs. ‘horse’ in Native American languages](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/dog-vs-horse-in-native-american-languages.md) - Why are dogs called ‘little horses’ in some Native American languages?
- [What are language isolates?](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/isolate.md) - A language isolate is a language that is unrelated to any other known language.
- [Speaking American: How y'all, youse, and you guys talk](https://linguisticdiscovery.com/posts/speaking-american-2e.md) - A beautiful and engaging coffee table book of 122 dialect maps showing how different regions of the U.S. say different things. A wonderful illustration of dialect diversity in the United States, this book is sure to spark great conversations. A must-have for any language lover.

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