Awesome Language

From A to Z, every letter in the English language has a story behind its shape. Language expert Olly Richards digs into the origins of all 26 letters we use today, including how “E” started as a little dude with his hands in the air and how “H” was a fence flipped on its side.

In 2004, editor Matt Bucy chopped up The Wizard of Oz and rearranged every sound and word into alphabetical order. The result is the nonsensical but oddly compelling Of Oz the Wizard, or as commenter Jenny Reiswig put it even better, The Wizard of A to Z. Despite the task’s apparent complexity, he says most of the work only took about 20 hours.

English speakers have different ways of pronouncing the same letter combinations. RobWords explains why the Roman alphabet is problematic for speaking English and how an alternative alphabet known as Shavian could improve matters if people would adopt it. The 48-character alphabet was first used in George Bernard Shaw’s Androcles and the Lion.

Guinea pigs are neither from Guinea nor are they pigs. But that didn’t stop scientists from naming them that. Language expert Name Explain talks us through some other improperly-named animals, like the mountain chicken and the bearcat, and explains the origins of their monikers.

With over 1.4 billion people speaking English, it’s currently the most spoken language on Earth. But as language expert Olly Richards explains, different dialects and accents can make it difficult for some English speakers to understand others. This video will test your listening and comprehension skills with 11 of the most challenging versions of English speech.

After looking at the variety of fonts on his computer, vlogger and documentarian struthless wanted to know more about their origins. But as he started to pull at that thread, he learned so much more – about the history of written language, design, pop culture, and communication.

Have you run out of trash talk? Perhaps it’s time to dig into our past and dust off some old-timey insults like “rapscallion” and “blatherskate.” Erin from Mental Floss gives us the rundown on 16 of these classics we might be ready to bring back. Learn more about interesting words in the new book The Curious Compendium of Wonderful Words.

Have you been saying “pass mustard,” “for all intensive purposes,” or “wet your appetite?” You’re saying them wrong. Linguistic expert RobWords delves into these and other commonly misspoken phrases, which are often simply the result of mishearing words, much like that time we thought Kings of Leon were singing “Ohh, dyslexics on fire.”

The English alphabet works perfectly well for what it is, but it also is pretty inefficient at times. Cunning linguist RobWords sharpens his pencil to come up with some improvements to the alphabet that would eliminate redundancies and wasted letters, making spelling, reading, and writing more efficient.

The app Duolingo is an easy way to learn new languages. It didn’t come out until 2011, but Squirrel Monkey lives in the past and imagines what it might have been like if it ran on 1980s IBM PC hardware and shipped on floppy disks. And yes, that Covox Speech Thing really was a thing.

Gold, silver, and platinum are just a few of the 118 elements which appear on the Periodic Table. Word nerd RobWords explains the etymology of some common chemical names, why their symbols don’t always line up with their full names, and how to pronounce the word “aluminum” once and for all… maybe.

We’ve used the modern alphabet in English writing since the 16th Century. Language lover RobWords explores how every letter from A to Z got its start, the hidden meanings in each one, how they’ve changed over the years, and even where we got the word “alphabet” from. The whole U, V, W story is fascinating.

Growing up, the tongue-twister that always got us was “The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.” Erin McCarthy from Mental Floss explains the origins of this classic and seven other tricky sentences created by cunning linguists to trip up our tongues. We’re wondering how many takes it took for Erin to get through all of these.

We’ve driven through some places with weird names like Hell, Michigan and the Bong Recreation Area in Wisconsin. Lost in the Pond studied a map of America to find more strange place names, and explained the history of their unusual monikers. Though Newfoundland has them all beat.

If you’ve ever taken a German lesson, you know that they often put verbs at the end of their sentences. Football player and filmmaker Nick Alfieri has been learning the language since moving to Germany and put together this amusing video that illustrates the big differences in English and German sentence structure.

Goldthread takes us inside a factory that makes special good fortune candies, each of which has a meaningful Chinese character in its center. Using soybean, black sesame, and maltose, their artisans handmake each rope of candy by stacking contrasting layers then stretching them smaller and smaller to reveal the letters.

Calligraphy is usually associated with fancy script handwriting on party invitations. But what if you’re throwing a party for your dog? Calligraphy expert Tohgutakumi has you covered. The artist created a hand-drawn typeface where every single letter is a dog. We’re kind of partial to the “Q” and “P.” He’s got a little something for cat lovers too.

Every decade, the words we use to describe things evolve. The 1920s Channel rewinds 100 years to examine the slang words and phrases that were in vogue at the time, including classics like “whoopee,” “zozzled,” and “heebie jeepbies.” We really want to bring back “and how!”

When you want to read another language, you usually have to learn that language. But RobWords shows us a three simple tricks that English speakers can use to comprehend written words in French without having to understand the vocabulary. We wonder if other Romance languages have similar hacks.

The English language relies heavily on the use of vowels to form words. So imagine if you couldn’t use the letter “E”. Comedian Matt Colbo spoke for more than three minutes straight without using the letter, and it wasn’t easy for him to articulate his thoughts. This 1939 book proves you could tell a 50,000 word story without it.

If you’ve ever been sent on a wild goose chase, had too much of a good thing, or told a “knock-knock” joke, you can thank William Shakespeare for it. Digg Video digs into some of the many commonly-used phrases what were first uttered in Shakespeare’s writing, along with their original context.

Can’t keep up with today’s youth? It’s time to beef up your language skills with this informative deck of Slang Flashcards. Each of its 40 cards features a frequently-used slang word on one side, and an example of its use on the other. We recommend them a Hundo P.

Many tribes living in South Africa use clicking sounds as part of their languages. Sakhile Dube from Safari and Surf Wilderness Adventures offers up an informative and chill explanation of how the clicks are used in speech. He’s also posted a lesson on some conversational Zulu words that don’t use clicks.