language and thought Archives

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563), public domain

Do different languages change the way we think?

by Sophie Harrison December 4, 2025December 3, 2025

Telltaylor: By a Lancashire Farm Shop, I Sat Down and Wept

Alicia Taylor Dec 4, 2025 9 min read

An image of the Radcliffe Camera against a sunset sky, with the text 'TELLTAYLOR' written in front.

“I was always a muse, a magician’s trick, bending my own image to enhance his own. He seemed to compliment me only if the words fit…

Do different languages change the way we think?

Sophie Harrison Dec 4, 2025 5 min read

According to the legend of Babel, the existence of different languages on Earth began as a punishment. Humanity, daring to build its tower skyward, was…

Meta-Whorf-asis: on litost and translated fiction

Orla Case Dec 3, 2025 6 min read

‘The term depicts a feeling “as infinite as an open accordion, a synthesis of grief, sympathy, remorse, and indefinable longing”, which begs the question –…

Having a bath: it’s time to come clean

Matthew Donnelly Dec 3, 2025 4 min read

Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Embedded in British culture is a conspiracy of silence around what must be domestic life’s most overrated activity. Mention baths in polite company and faces…