If youโre reading this sentence, you have at least some level of literacy. But did you know that learning to read is more than just a skill? When you learned how to parse the letters on the page, your brain was quietly reorganizing itself, not just conceptually, but at the physical level. This is demonstrable in brain imaging, but we [...]
Someone in Buenos Aires might sing a song that first became popular in Italy, then was adapted in the UK, and later rewritten in Spain. And yet despite these vast changes across cultures around the world, everyone knows the words immediately, no sheet music required. How does this happen? Football chants are unique among both music and speech in that [...]
Weโve talked about football kits and the anthems youโll hear at the World Cup, but those arenโt the only things you might notice. If you listen to the crowd, you may hear talk of tiki-taka or the G.O.A.T on the field, and you might not know what to make of these terms. Football is so popular worldwide that [...]
Communication can cross borders in an instant nowadays, but it has not always been that way. How do people communicate when they speak different languages? Some choose to learn, but at sea, where sailors might encounter anyone of any nationality, it is simply not feasible to study enough languages. Instead, maritime crews developed an international communication system made [...]
Before every World Cup match, youโll see the entire stadium rise for the national anthems of the countries taking part. What you might notice is the differences in approach: South Africaโs national anthem switches languages mid-song (from Xhosa to Zulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans, and then English). Conversely, Spanish people fall silent during their anthem (because it has no [...]
English is an ever-changing language, and the words we choose are far from the only elements that are added or dropped over time. Punctuation is just as integral to written communication, and it too has been invented, temporarily adopted, and then phased out (to be replaced, or not). Have you ever heard of an interrobang or a [...]
If you have been following along with our selfie series, you already know that selfies have changed significantly over time, and the word itself has seen changes over many years, too. Nowadays, a โselfieโ is an image taken of at least the head and shoulders, typically with the arm extended in frame as the person captures themselves. This [...]
In our previous article on the history of the selfie, we traced humanity's journey from its first unconscious self-representation to the modern concept of self-portraiture. But the form of the selfie is not the only thing that has changed over that time. In fact, the word โselfieโ itself is a very modern adjustment, and it reflects how language [...]
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 [...]
The terms used for money (and counting in general) are shaped by deep cultural, historical, and value-based influences across many regions of the world. We discussed this further in this seriesโ first entry on the linguistic origins of money terms. But did you know that the language of money goes even deeper? Think of the difference between ten [...]
