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Colonisation disrupted the passing of languages between generations. Across Australia, communities are rebuilding those connections—and the latest survey shows why the full story is more than a speaker count. A language becomes endangered when the everyday chain of learning and speaking it is interrupted. In Australia, that interruption has a history: colonisation,…
Read the story →In Swahili and Zulu, a noun does more than name something. It gives the rest of the sentence clues to follow. Put one book on a table. Now add a second. In English, you change book to books. In Swahili, the change can ripple beyond the noun. A tiny prefix becomes a…
Read the story →A tiny sound can turn a statement into a question. Japanese and Turkish show how much work a particle can do. You know every word in a sentence, yet you miss that someone has asked you a question. The clue may be neither a new verb nor a dramatic change in word…
Read the story →“We’re having dinner” can be an invitation—or news about other people. Some languages make the difference explicit. A friend says, “We’re having dinner at eight.” Do you reach for your coat, or wish them a good evening? Before you decide, you need to know who belongs to that little word we.
Read the story →Laz opens a bigger question: a recording can preserve a voice, but what makes room for the next conversation? Imagine a grandparent telling a story in a language the youngest person in the room understands but rarely speaks. The story has an audience. Does the language have a future? The answer cannot…
Read the story →One heart. Many writing systems.
linguaphile noun — a lover of languages.
Meet Linguaphile02 / Language spotlight
Norwegian has two written standards, Bokmål and Nynorsk, alongside many spoken dialects. This recording features Emily speaking Norwegian as an additional language.
A short natural speech excerpt · Replay anytime
Norway and diaspora communities
Representative locations; communities extend beyond these points. Natural Earth.Speaker figures are approximate; definitions and dates vary by source. Facts source
Emily; Wikitongues (additional-language speaker) · 12-second excerpt from 75s; extracted and converted to mono MP3 by Linguaphile. · Original recording · CC BY 3.0 · Played as a short excerpt.
01 / Etymology corner
Colonisation disrupted the passing of languages between generations. Across Australia, communities are rebuilding those connections—and the latest survey shows why the full…
In Swahili and Zulu, a noun does more than name something. It gives the rest of the sentence clues to follow.
A tiny sound can turn a statement into a question. Japanese and Turkish show how much work a particle can do.
“We’re having dinner” can be an invitation—or news about other people. Some languages make the difference explicit.
Laz opens a bigger question: a recording can preserve a voice, but what makes room for the next conversation?
The letters on a Tbilisi street sign are part of a longer story—one that also lives in manuscripts and everyday writing.
From Esperanto and Volapük to English and French: the dream of a common language that unites people, and the questions that dream…
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Points are representative locations, not language boundaries. Many languages are spoken across borders and by diaspora communities. Natural Earth.
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