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From self-1.md (Oct 2024 – Feb 2026)
ARPABET Wikipedia (Nov 2024) ARPABET — the phonetic transcription system developed by DARPA in the 1970s for American English speech processing — used here as a reference for comparing phoneme sets across transcription systems, particularly in evaluating Eke romanization’s coverage of Kannada phonemes relative to IPA and other schemes. en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPABET
Pronunciation Respelling for English — Wikipedia (Nov 2024) A Wikipedia article on informal pronunciation respelling conventions used in English dictionaries and popular media — relevant background for designing intuitive romanization systems for Kannada that English readers can decode without learning IPA symbols. en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_respelling_for_English
Group Promoting Latin for Japanese (Dec 2024) An article on a grassroots movement in Japan advocating for romanizing Japanese writing — arguing that Japan’s multi-script system (kanji + hiragana + katakana) is a cognitive burden that impedes literacy and digital input efficiency. The parallel to Kannada script reform debates is instructive. japantimes.co.jp — https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2024/03/06/japan/japanese-romanization-rules-change-explained/
The Shifting Linguistic Profile of India (Oct 2024) A Deccan Herald analysis of how language use is changing across Indian states — Hindi’s continued expansion through demographic growth and migration, the relative strength of southern languages in their home states, and the role of English as the actual lingua franca of educated inter-state communication. Data-driven examination of India’s complex multilingual reality. deccanherald.com — https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/the-shifting-linguistic-profile-3240806
English and the ‘bhashas’ (Nov 2024) A Deccan Herald essay on the relationship between English and classical Indian languages (bhāṣās) — arguing that English’s dominance in elite Indian discourse has stunted the modernization of Indian languages rather than complementing them, and that a healthy multilingual India would develop Indian languages into full scientific and professional registers rather than defaulting to English for all technical domains. deccanherald.com — https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/english-and-the-bhashas-3260559
Where Do Writing Systems Come From? (Oct 2024) An article on the origins and evolution of writing systems globally — covering the independent inventions of writing in Mesopotamia, China, Mesoamerica, and possibly the Indus Valley, and the more common pattern of script adaptation (borrowing an existing script and modifying it for a new language’s phonology). The Kannada script’s derivation from Brahmi is an example of the latter pattern. linguisticdiscovery.substack.com — https://linguisticdiscovery.substack.com/p/borrowing-writing
Evidence of Oldest Alphabet — Syrian Tombs (Dec 2024) Archaeological evidence for the earliest known alphabetic writing from Syrian tomb markings — potentially predating the Phoenician alphabet. The discovery contributes to understanding the invention of alphabetic writing as a key cognitive and technological breakthrough in human history, analogous to the Indus script’s place in South Asian writing history. smithsonianmag.com — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-say-these-mysterious-markings-could-be-the-worlds-oldest-known-alphabetic-writing-180985525/
Kish Tablet — Oldest Known Text (Dec 2024) The Wikipedia article on the Kish Tablet (~3500 BCE, Sumer) — a candidate for the world’s oldest known writing, predating the Narmer Palette and early Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Kish Tablet uses proto-cuneiform signs and represents the emergence of administrative record-keeping as the first motivation for writing. en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish_tablet
Colin Gorrie: English Spelling — Why It’s So Irregular (Dec 2024) Linguist Colin Gorrie’s tweet explaining the historical reasons for English spelling’s notorious irregularity — the Great Vowel Shift (changing pronunciation without changing spelling), Norman French influence, inconsistent scribal conventions, and deliberate archaizing by early printers. A useful comparative reference when explaining why Kannada’s more phonemically regular script is an asset. x.com — https://x.com/
Eggplant Etymology — Wikipedia (Mar 2025) The etymology of “eggplant” — from the white egg-shaped varieties that resemble eggs when unripe, brinjal from Portuguese berinjela from Arabic bāḏinjān from Sanskrit vātingaṇa (or possibly from a Dravidian source — Tamil vaṟutuṇai?). The word’s journey across Sanskrit, Arabic, Portuguese, and English exemplifies how trade routes transmit vocabulary alongside commodities. en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggplant
Jungle Etymology and Kannada Word jangala (Mar 2025) The word “jungle” derives from Sanskrit jaṅgala (arid/waste land, later extended to mean forest) — possibly borrowed from or cognate with Dravidian jaṅgal (jangala in Kannada). The word’s journey from Sanskrit/Dravidian through Hindi jangal and then into English through British India is a paradigmatic example of colonial-era vocabulary borrowing. en.wiktionary.org — https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jungle
Dravidian River Names — Reddit/Dravidiology (Mar 2025) A Reddit discussion thread documenting river names of Dravidian origin across India — including rivers in North India (Godavari, Kaveri, Tungabhadra, Mahanadi) and potentially the Indus/Sindhu itself — as evidence for the former geographic extent of Dravidian-speaking populations before Indo-Aryan expansion. reddit.com — https://www.reddit.com/r/Dravidiology/
Siva Derived From Dravidian Root (tweet, Mar 2025) A linguistic argument that the name “Shiva” has Dravidian rather than Sanskrit etymological roots — potentially from a Dravidian root related to “red” (civa in Tamil) or a non-Aryan deity name that was later incorporated into the Sanskrit pantheon. The hypothesis, if correct, would suggest Shaivism’s origins partly outside the Vedic Indo-Aryan tradition. x.com — https://x.com/
Dravidian Toponyms (Mar 2025) An academia.edu article on place names of Dravidian origin across the Indian subcontinent — extending from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu northward through Maharashtra, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh — providing geographic evidence for the historical distribution of Dravidian-speaking populations before they were linguistically absorbed by Indo-Aryan expansion. academia.edu — https://www.academia.edu/
Tamil Loanwords in Ancient Greek — Wikipedia (Nov 2025) A Wikipedia article documenting ancient Tamil loanwords in Greek — including words for rice (oryza from Tamil arisi), ginger (ziggiberis from Tamil inji), and pepper (péperi from Tamil pippali) — providing linguistic evidence for direct trade contact between Tamil-speaking South India and the Hellenistic Mediterranean world. en.wikipedia.org — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_loanwords_in_Ancient_Greek
Language Learning & Linguistics Channels
Artifexian (YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeh-pJYRZTBJDXMNZeWSUVA
Constructed languages (conlangs) and worldbuilding — covering phonology, morphology, syntax, writing system design, and the principles of linguistic typology as applied to creating believable fictional languages. Useful for understanding how natural language structure is perceived through the lens of design. [→ kannada-language-linguistics; conlangs]
Steve Kaufmann — lingosteve (YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCez-2shYlHQY3LfILBuDYqQ
Polyglot Steve Kaufmann (speaks 20+ languages) on language acquisition methodology — emphasizing comprehensible input, massive exposure, and resisting premature grammar study. His LingQ platform operationalizes this approach. A useful counterweight to structured grammar-first language learning. [→ kannada-language-linguistics; language-learning]
Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global (YouTube, Watch History)
Video conversation between Laura Spinney and Martin Puchner on the dispersal of Proto-Indo-European — the reconstructed ancestral language of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Germanic, Celtic, and Slavic languages. Covers how a small steppe pastoralist community’s language came to be spoken by half of humanity. [→ kannada-language-linguistics; linguistics; indo-european]
Tamil is Most Important Language for Linguistic Reconstruction — Dr. Claus Peter Zoller (YouTube, Watch History)
Lecture by a German Indologist arguing that Tamil’s archaic phonological and morphological features make it indispensable for reconstructing Proto-Dravidian and for understanding the substratum influence of Dravidian on early Sanskrit. [→ kannada-language-linguistics; linguistics; tamil]