Linguaphile / Articles
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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 →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.
Read the story →In Swahili and Zulu, a noun does more than name something. It gives the rest of the sentence clues to follow.
Read the story →A tiny sound can turn a statement into a question. Japanese and Turkish show how much work a particle can do.
Read the story →“We’re having dinner” can be an invitation—or news about other people. Some languages make the difference explicit.
Read the story →Laz opens a bigger question: a recording can preserve a voice, but what makes room for the next conversation?
Read the story →The letters on a Tbilisi street sign are part of a longer story—one that also lives in manuscripts and everyday writing.
Read the story →From Esperanto and Volapük to English and French: the dream of a common language that unites people, and the questions that dream raises.
Read the story →Language diversity
Reading about language futures, connections between generations and the communities keeping languages in use.
Articles appear here when they include an Article Language selected by the editor for this corner.
Laz ↗Laz opens a bigger question: a recording can preserve a voice, but what makes room for the next conversation?
Read the story →The letters on a Tbilisi street sign are part of a longer story—one that also lives in manuscripts and everyday writing.
Read the story →Choose a language. Discover its stories.
Points are representative locations, not language boundaries. Many languages are spoken across borders and by diaspora communities. Natural Earth.
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