Scientists and technicians are trying to figure out the logistics of off-Earth human bases. If that happens, there's some research that suggests the communities could end up developing their own accents.
This is our very last episode of 2023, so we’re telling the story of the final stop in our 26 letter alphabet: here’s where Z came from.
Today in 1906 a vote in Congress put an end to one of President Theodore Roosevelt’s top priorities: simplifying the way we spell words. Or, as he would have preferred, spel wurds.
Today is World Hello Day, so we explain how and when English speakers started using the word "hello" to say hello.
It's National Mother Language Day. Many of the world's thousands of languages are spoken, written and/or signed... and at least a few are whistled.
Research from the Ohio State University just found that the words we use to describe food can affect how we perceive its taste. Erin Krakow Krakowmoji GIFfrom Erin Krakow GIFs [...]
This week in 2008, local officials in Swanzey tried to get English-to-Welsh translation for a road sign they wanted to put up. They got a Welsh sentence in response, but it wasn't what they thought. Plus: today in 1969, the first network message on ARPANET goes through, though without a few key letters.
If you’ve ever been around a baby you probably heard some cooing, gurgling and babbling, as the babies try to make the sounds adults make. Some new research finds if you spend time with baby bats, you might hear them doing essentially the same thing. Plus: the YouTube channel Steadycraftin finds a pretty cool way to reuse some of those old orange plastic prescription bottles.
A project out of MIT is using artificial intelligence to scan lost languages and find rules and conventions that may help us figure out what all those words from years ago might mean.
There is at least one person in the world who's paid to be a wizard. The city of Christchurch, New Zealand, contracts with him to "provide acts of wizardry and other wizard-like-services as part of promotional work for the city of Christchurch." Plus: there's a museum exhibit in Switzerland featuring works of art that showcase imaginary or invented languages.
