You say puh-tay-tow, I say puh-tah-tow, but how did our ancestors use language millennia ago? Typically you’d ask a linguist, but manually reconstructing protolanguages — hypothetical early languages ...

What happens to language when two populations come together? A new study in Science Advances has sought to answer that question with the help of human genetics. In fact, in a first-of-its-kind ...

A study led by McGill University researchers challenges the theory that language change over time requires new generations to replace older generations of speakers. Rather, when words change meaning, ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American When Emperor Akihito stepped down from the ...