Today’s 7,600 languages might seem like a lot, but they're just a fraction that survived a vast, ancient extinction.

These 23 words link modern and extinct languages. You would have been understood if you used them 15,000 years ago.

A new study challenges the widely accepted idea that word meanings are organized around emotion. After analyzing billions of words, scientists found that language may be shaped by something more basic: the need for safety. Researchers at the University of Vermont have found a new way to understand language, challenging a major assumption in psychology, [...]

Scientists have discovered that the brain’s sensory systems play a much larger role in speech learning than previously believed. New research suggests that learning to speak a new language, or recovering speech after injury, relies more heavily on the brain’s sensory systems than on regions responsible for controlling movement. The findings, from researchers at McGill [...]