Writing is technology. Like the mating displays of birds-of-paradise and the pheromone trails of ants, it is a form of communication. However, unlike communication systems governed by genetic ...

Recent advances in generative AI and machine learning have evolved technological communication to levels beyond what was previously comprehensible. The recent and rapid rise of Large Language Models ...

A new linguistic study sheds light on the nature of languages spoken before the written period, using computational modeling to reconstruct the grammar of the 6500-7000 year-old Proto-Indo-European ...

Janina Brutt-Griffler says she's always been interested in the interaction of different cultures and languages. "I grew up in a bicultural context," says Brutt-Griffler who joined the UB faculty in ...

of California at Berkeley linguist John McWhorter, who adores metaphors. The one original language, created by the first people 150,000 years ago in Africa, has branched into 6, 000 today, through ...

Writing evolves to become simpler and more efficient, according to a new study based on the analysis of an isolated West African writing system. The world's very first invention of writing took place ...

The Oxford comma. “Ask” instead of “aks.” There, their, and they’re. The legitimacy of “ain’t” and “y’all.” These are familiar, if sometimes contentious, issues in the usage of the English language.

Example of recurrent change. Still images from video dictionary entries that illustrate the phonological pattern of thumb extension. Both signs are produced with four fingers extended, but the sign ...