Who Invented Words?

Deep in the basement of the San Diego Natural History Museum, there are thousands of jars filled with preserved reptiles and amphibians. In this episode, But Why takes a tour with collections manager Adam Clause to answer your questions about lizards! How do lizards climb walls? ...  Show more

But Why turns ten years old on April 1, 2026! To celebrate this milestone, we’re listening back to our very first episode. We’ve got owls and turtles and bears. Naturalist Mary Holland gets into the details about hibernation–including the questions you may not even have thought t ...  Show more

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تولد العديد من الأسئلة من تجاربنا المؤلمة مثل:

لماذا رحل؟

لماذا عوملت بهذه الطريقة؟ لماذا أنا؟

ونظل نبحث عن إجابة تخرس السؤال الذي يضج فينا، نريد أن ننجو من دوامة التفكير به.. لكنه يحاصرنا، ويعلو صوته كلما خلونا بأنفسنا.

فكيف نتعامل مع هذه الأسئلة؟ ...

How and why do we make assumptions based on the way people speak? What is considered “proper,” or “correct” language – and who decides that, anyway? 

Where did language come from? Is it possible to know without traveling back in time? And how do babies learn to speak? Plus: We’ll hear how the word “silly” has evolved over the last several hundred years. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Have you ever noticed that when you say the same word over and over, it starts to sound funny? It’s like the word loses its meaning and just becomes weird, disconnected sounds. One of our listeners wanted to know why, and we went to linguist Shohini Battasali for the answer. Got ...  Show more