Portuguese: The Language of a Maritime Trading Empire
Portugal has always been a small country. Yet for several centuries, it commanded one of the world’s most powerful empires. The kingdom built an enormous global trading network, supported by a formidable seafaring fleet that transported goods and people, and established the Portuguese language across several continents.
Rongorongo: The Lost Script of Rapa Nui
On Rapa Nui, a handful of wooden tablets preserve rows of carved signs. We know they were meaningful. We know they followed rules. We may even have evidence that the system predates European contact. But its readers have disappeared.
The Inuit: Languages and People of Arctic Canada
In Inuit Nunangat, the broad swathe of land and ice across Arctic Canada, language and community life have been shaped by one of the most demanding environments on Earth. Inuit languages of Canada, alongside remote traditions and unique knowledge, made life in the Arctic possible. Yet, despite the damage caused by past government policies, Inuit communities continue to preserve their language and culture and to adapt their traditions in parallel to modern life as it evolves thousands of miles away along the densely populated southern border of the country.
Catalan: From Medieval Kingdoms to Modern Europe
Catalan is the language of Catalonia in Spain. It is not a dialect of Spanish. It is a distinct language that stemmed from Vulgar Latin, influenced by French and later also by Spanish. It developed along its own linguistic trajectory. Spoken across four countries in several regional varieties, it has endured through political suppression, institutional revival and a continuing debate over its place beside Spanish.
The Voynich Manuscript: An encrypted alchemy codex or a diary written in a lost language?
A beautiful and bizarre 15th century manuscript of uncertain origin, contains more than two hundred pages filled with an unknown script, strange plants, astronomical diagrams, bathing figures, anatomy-like drawings, and what looks like recipes or pharmaceutical instructions. Six centuries later, it remains unread, waiting in Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, catalogued as MS 408 and available for anyone to examine.
Sign Languages: Soundless Visuospatial Systems
Sign language is iconic, physical and often intensely expressive to convey meaning without sound. It is not a visual representation of its homeland’s spoken language. Sign languages are fully developed natural communication systems with their own grammar and cultural context.
The Accent from Nowhere: How “Received Pronunciation” Became the Voice of Britain
You may not know the term Received Pronunciation, but you have almost certainly heard it. Once considered the “correct” way to speak British English, RP implied better education, authority and elite social class. Today, its modern descendant sounds very different from the voice that once ruled public communication and entertainment.
How to Adapt Proverbs Without Changing What You Measure: A PANSS Case Study
When a proverb becomes part of an assessment, it retains its role as a cultural expression, but it also becomes a measurement stimulus. An item designed to generate evidence about a particular aspect of cognitive functioning: abstract thinking.
The Mayan Script: How Linguists Rediscovered the Maya Ancient Civilization
From the reconstruction of the Proto-Mayan language to the decipherment of ancient glyphs, reverse-engineering through modern Mayan languages unlocked one of the richest historical records in the Americas. It revealed people, cities, arts, sciences, and the vibrant culture behind one of history’s most fascinating civilizations.
How Proverbs Connect Language, Culture and Cognition
Proverbs sit at the intersection of language, culture and cognition. They preserve collective memory, vary in the level of abstract reasoning, and reflect the cultural contexts that formed them, offering enduring wisdom as well as insight into past ways of life, values and survival.
