If you read an autobiography or a personal journal, you likely assume that you are reading the words as the author intended them. If the work has been translated, surely the content sticks as close as possible to the original, right? You may be surprised. Translation comes with risks, and one of the most salient is the threat [...]
Selfies are a nearly ubiquitous part of modern society. Even if you spend time in tiny coffee shops and less-used public streets, you likely won’t have to go far to find someone in that characteristic pose: arm stretched in front of them, smiling for the camera in their hand. Images of ourselves have always been a way [...]
If you have ever paid for something from another country or used currency conversion at the airport, you probably saw some terms you’re not familiar with. Lakh. Man. Yì. You have a concept of how big a million is, but what about these other terms? They all describe a large quantity, but not in the same way. Even [...]
If you’re familiar with the story of Robin Hood, you’ve probably heard of Nottingham. Likewise, sports fans will recognize Manchester, home of the Manchester United Football Club. While these town names may seem unrelated, they share one thing in common: an English suffix that reveals something about the place’s history. In fact, many English town and city names [...]
Though you may not recognize the name, you’re almost certainly familiar with it. The NATO Phonetic Alphabet is a historically established set of 26 words, each assigned to a letter of the English alphabet. The purpose of these words is to eliminate confusion when people are trying to spell words aloud over the telephone or radio. The alphabet [...]
If you’ve ever seen the Georgian alphabet, you probably noticed that its letters look unlike those of any other language. Its rounded, flowing letters don't resemble Latin, Greek, or Cyrillic, the alphabet used for Russian. These are the scripts most familiar in Europe and the Western world. What makes Georgian stand apart both linguistically and visually among a [...]
The Language of a Uniform Throughout history, uniforms have communicated significant information without words: where a person comes from, what their job is, and even what you are supposed to think when you see them. In the modern day, this type of non-verbal language is highly curated. Rank A person’s rank in the military describes how they relate to [...]
Long before paper archives or digital databases, an empire stretching across the Andes governed millions of people using nothing more than cords and knots. At first glance, a quipu looks unremarkable. But embedded in its strings is a system of memory that challenges what we think language, writing, and record-keeping can be. What a Quipu Is, and What It [...]
The Language of a Uniform Historically, uniforms around the world have served to identify not only where an individual came from but also the role they performed. Over time, they also acquired additional layers of meaning, signaling social status and, in some cases, aspects of personal identity. Rank One of the most common features of a military uniform is [...]
Every November, millions of Americans sit down to a feast where the turkey takes center stage. But if you were to travel to Turkey, the country, and ask for a "turkey," you wouldn’t get far. The bird we now associate with Thanksgiving is native to North America, not Turkey. So why the name? The answer lies in a tangled web [...]
