Language

From “ouch” to “aïe” to “yakayi,” languages across the world exclaim pain using similar-sounding words, hinting at a common origin

Play this crossword inspired by the December 2024 issue of Scientific American

Play this crossword inspired by the November 2024 issue of Scientific American

Play this crossword inspired by the October 2024 issue of Scientific American

In the 1970s a young psychologist challenged a popular theory of how we acquire language, launching a fierce debate that continues to this day

What makes a word survive or go extinct?

It’s hard to know whether a toddler needs help with early speech. Here are some tips and guidelines

Ursula Bellugi was fixated on how we learn language. Her groundbreaking research on sign language demonstrated the connection between language skills and biology

Linguists and archaeologists have argued for decades about where and when the first Indo-European languages were spoken and what kind of lives those first speakers led

The Tsimane’ language divides the rainbow into blackish, reddish and whitish. But bilingual Spanish and Tsimane’ speakers are changing that

Most machine-learning models rely on mountains of data to replicate human text, but new research suggests the recipe for learning language might be simpler

The best fiction, nonfiction, history and sci-fi books Scientific American staff read in 2023