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Language and linguistics

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Photo of an ocean sunset seen through a round window with a warm sepia tone across the sky and water.

essayLanguage and linguistics

The grammar of a god-ocean

To truly explore alien languages, linguists must open themselves to the maximum conceivable degree of cosmic otherness

Eli K P William

A man looking up from the driver’s seat of a yellow vehicle with an open window and side mirror visible.

essayPhilosophy of language

Extraterrestrial tongues

Imagining how aliens might communicate prepares us for first contact and illuminates the nature of our own languages

Nikhil Mahant

Photo of a black dog lying on a blue background with a purple button on its left and a yellow button on its right.

videoLanguage and linguistics

Do button-pushing dogs have something new to say about language?

9 minutes

A satirical painting of a giant man being fed with spoons by tiny attendants.

essayInformation and communication

Methodical banality

Like today’s large language models, 16th-century humanists had techniques to automate writing – to the detriment of novelty

Hannah Katznelson

Photo of the Phaistos Disc, an ancient clay tablet with spiral symbols, on a black background.

essayLanguage and linguistics

The lonely life of a glyph-breaker

The heroic days of deciphering hieroglyphics and cuneiform make for great stories, but will we ever see that happen again?

Francesco Perono Cacciafoco

Illustration of two people with closed eyes softly singing into a microphone, featuring simple brushstroke style.

videoLanguage and linguistics

Why Susan listens to recordings of herself speaking a language she no longer remembers

5 minutes

Black and white photo of a group of people standing outdoors on a slope by a pond with trees and bushes in the background.

essayReligion

The script creator

Pau Cin Hau dreamt of an alphabet for a language that had never been written down. So began the religion of Laipianism

Bikash K Bhattacharya

Newborn baby being held by a person wearing blue gloves, with another masked individual looking at the baby in a medical setting.

essayHuman reproduction

Baby talk

When babies are born, they cry in the accent of their mother tongue: how does language begin in the womb?

Darshana Narayanan

Illustration of two people high-fiving, with colourful abstract shapes around them representing conversation and connection.

videoLanguage and linguistics

The little Peruvian guide to public speaking that conjures up a grandiose world

7 minutes

A woman stands against a white wall, in a red top and blue jeans, extending an open hand forward. Subtitles at the bottom read ‘Let me show you.’

videoLanguage and linguistics

Closed captions suck. Here’s one artist’s inventive project to make them better

8 minutes

A black and white photograph shows a woman on the edge of a sand dune overlooking the sea leaning back into a strong wind

essayLanguage and linguistics

Cathedrals of convention

Humans have a strong impulse to see things that are arbitrary or conventional as natural and essential – especially language

Reuben Cohn-Gordon

Black-and-white photo of a man and a woman, seen from behind, on the deck of a boat, looking out to shore

essayPhilosophy of language

Metaphors make the world

Woven into the fabric of language, metaphors shape how we understand reality. What happens when we try using new ones?

Benjamin Santos Genta

A woman operates an antique phonograph next to a man wearing a traditional Native American headdress in a sepia-toned photograph.

essayLanguage and linguistics

Our language, our world

Linguistic relativity holds that your worldview is structured by the language you speak. Is it true? History shines a light

James McElvenny

Several deaf inmates sit on chairs in a circle, engaged in an ASL conversation. Room has white walls, white chairs, flags and a podium in the background.

videoHuman rights and justice

‘I know that change is possible’ – a Deaf prison chaplain’s gospel of hope

18 minutes

A black and white shot shows three men sitting on a sea wall and seen from a diminishing perspective such that they represent a scale of size

essayPhilosophy of language

The geometry of other people

Some friends are ‘close’. Others are ‘distant’. But our spatial descriptions of social life are more than just metaphors

David Borkenhagen

Close-up of an elderly Hmong man with grey eyebrows, holding a traditional instrument to his lips, and a pensive expression on his wrinkled face against a dark background.

videoLanguage and linguistics

Messages born of melody – hear the whistled language of the Hmong people

18 minutes

Watercolour painting of a deer with antlers incorporating tree branches and fruit, standing on its hind legs in a lush forest.

videoStories and literature

A French Creole folktale nearly lost to time is given new, gorgeously animated life

6 minutes

A woman and two children dressed in traditional First Nations clothing stand in front of a teepee structure

essayLanguage and linguistics

Language is medicine

For First Nations people, health is not a matter of mechanical fitness of the body, but of language, identity and belonging

Erica X Eisen

Elderly man sitting at a table in a spacious, elegant room, holding a cane and looking contemplatively to the right.

essayPhilosophy of language

Quantum poetics

How Borges and Heisenberg converged on the notion that language both enables and interferes with our grasp of reality

William Egginton

Man lying on an orange sofa reading a document with a yellow notepad, faces partially obscured background.

videoLanguage and linguistics

A master palindromist spells out his 40-year ‘love affair with reversibility’

6 minutes

Children in school uniforms reading books in a dimly lit classroom. The window is open, showing greenery outside.

essayLanguage and linguistics

The problem with English

Is Earth’s most-spoken language a living ‘gift’ or a many-headed ‘monster’? Both views distract us from the real dilemma

Mario Saraceni

A historical photo showing people and horses near a decorated archway with intricate patterns, likely an entrance gate. The background features a large wall.

essayGlobal history

After the mother tongues

Cultural exchange between Iran and India led to the creation of literary histories that inspired modern nationalism

Alexander Jabbari

Two people in winter clothing walk through a snowy landscape, with buildings and power lines in the background under heavy snowstorm conditions.

videoKnowledge

Yes, the Inuit have dozens of words for snow – but what does each one mean exactly?

6 minutes

A family inside a colourful room. A woman rolls dough. A man, child, and other women sit nearby. A young girl stands behind them wearing a knitted hat.

essayLanguage and linguistics

The polyglots of Dardistan

At the crossroads of south and central Asia lies one of the world’s most multilingual places, with songs and poetry to match

Zubair Torwali