iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Maybe you didn't know, Creatonaut has gotten a massive overhaul, making course creating even easier!

Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

TIL Some of English's silent letters were added on purpose! 'Debt' was once spelled 'dette' and 'doubt' was 'doute'. In the 1400s and 1500s, writers added a silent 'b' to make these words look more like their Latin ancestors.

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

TIL Lingonaut works with GrapheneOS , LineageOS , e/OS/ and more ! Maybe there can be a LingoOS some day? We can keep the AI out and regular functionality in !

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

TIL A 'clue' used to mean a ball of thread. The meaning comes from the story of Theseus escaping the Labyrinth by following Ariadne's thread. So when you follow a clue in a mystery, you are still metaphorically following a thread out of a maze. I remember hearing this as a child!

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

TIL In Middle English, 'girl' could mean any child or young person, male or female. Only later did it narrow to mean a female child. Even stranger, linguists still are not completely sure where the word itself came from!

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

TIL Boston newspapers invented OK! 'OK' stood for 'oll korrect' - 'all correct'. Almost all the other abbreviations disappeared but 'OK' survived, spread worldwide, and became part of everyday language.

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

there will be a web version!

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

We’ll take a look! Would we be able to contact you for more guidance later?

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

What’s wrong with this one 😭

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Imagine this but the caption is ‘this bad boy can fit so many languages in it’ and the car is us and the salesman is also us and

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

TIL English did not originally have 'orange' as a basic colour word. The fruit came first. Before the colour name caught on, English speakers described that shade as 'yellow-red' AKA Old English 'geoluhred'! Only after oranges became familiar did the colour become 'orange'.

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

We’re thinking of ditching xhitter all together because of that actually

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Forgot to post here on the 9th! 🇮🇹Italian course update 09/06/26🇮🇹 👽Klingon course update 09/06/26👽 🇪🇸Spanish course release 09/06/26🇪🇸 🇩🇪German course update 19/06/26🇩🇪 Visit the discord to see the exact changelogs!!

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

TIL 'Arctic' means 'of the bear' , not because of polar bears, but because it was named after the northern Bear constellation. 'Antarctic' literally means the place opposite the bear!

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

TIL Ancient Egyptian was cracked with help from its last surviving form. Champollion did not solve hieroglyphs from the Rosetta Stone alone though, he also knew Coptic, the final stage of Egyptian!

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

TIL our ABCs are older than Rome! Alphabetical order as we know it already shows up in Ugaritic over 3,000 years ago. That order was kept by Phoenician, then Greek, then Latin, which is why we still say A B C D.

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

TIL English speakers usually describe smells by source - 'like cinnamon', 'like smoke'. Jahai, a language of the Malay Peninsula, has around a dozen abstract smell words used the way English uses colour words. 'Smells are hard to name' is not a human problem so much as it is an English problem!

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Welcome to February's What's new with Lingonaut! lingonaut.app/blog/the-big... We cover: * Build 50 and Android Build 5 * The bug * Overhauls to Czech, German & Finnish * Welsh, Italian and Klingon enter the ring! * New Launchpad and new management! * Android beta is now open for more tiers!

lingonaut.app

The BIG Updates + Welsh & Italian & Klingon! WNWL #10 - Lingonaut Blog

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay, we’ve got so much coming out this month it needed a bit more time in the oven. But now we’re ready, let’s get into it: Build 50 and Android Built 5 – the biggest.....

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

🇩🇪German course update 19/02/26🇩🇪 Numerous fixes Redistributed lessons to be less tail-end-heavy Entire course is now completable from start to finish! Credits: @WrenMala08, @Fuchsteufel, @Adrian7 , @ElMago, @pilvi#2140

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Welcome to January's What's new with Lingonaut! Android's out!, our video did gangbusters + new courses - WNWL lingonaut.app/blog/android... We cover: The Android Alpha Our video going gangbusters Our spreading the word last month throughout socials German + Finnish overhauls + the Spanish course

wordpress.lingonaut.app

Android’s out!, our video did gangbusters + new courses – WNWL #9 – Lingonaut

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

We track issues via a bug report channel on the discord discord.gg/lingonaut

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

www.patreon.com/posts/androi... The android alpha was released yesterday and invitation links were sent out throughout the night. As a reminder, if you have or have ever had an Earth (Terrestrial) pledge or above, you get access to alphas betas three months early!

patreon.com

Android Alpha is out! Don't forget to register (and there's still time to pledge!) | Lingonaut

Get more from Lingonaut on Patreon

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Our What is Lingonaut? video is out! Please give it a watch and a like and a subscribe perhaps 👀 www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMRk...

youtube.com

What is Lingonaut? Built to Teach, not to Profit.

YouTube video by Lingonaut

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

TIL Arabic 3-10 flip gender and take a genitive plural noun! Feminine noun becomes masculine numeral form and Masculine noun becomes feminine numeral form. Examples: 3 books = thalathatu kutubin, 3 cars = thalathu sayyaratin. 1-2 agree with the noun and 11-19 follow different rules!

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

Yeah when I started thinking about it, re do kinda have a zig zaggy look to them in my head!

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

TIL Your brain hears shapes. Across many languages, people match a spiky shape to 'kiki' and a round one to 'bouba' - a cross-cultural effect that shows up even in toddlers. New work also finds a rolled 'r' maps to jagged lines worldwide. Sounds are not fully arbitrary!

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

www.patreon.com/posts/147406... Android needs a bit more time in the oven and we're going to try and get it out by the 14th

patreon.com

Android needs a bit more time in the oven! | Lingonaut

Get more from Lingonaut on Patreon

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Welcome to December's What's new with Lingonaut! Android Alpha and New Website for the New Year! WNWL 8 lingonaut.app/blog/android... We cover: The new site The new meet the crew page The android alpha Early sign-ups for patrons Moving on from wordpress Creatonaut Improvements More!

lingonaut.app

Android Alpha and New Website for the New Year! WNWL #8 - Lingonaut Blog

Hey everyone and welcome to the last WNWL for this year! I’ll try to keep it short so you can get back to celebrating: New digs Bye bye WordPress, our Aquarius! You served us well from 2023 to the...

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

TIL Sound systems range from tiny to huge! Rotokas has about 11 phonemes - 6 consonants and 5 vowels. Taa ǃXóõ on the other hand has dozens of click series and analyses with 80+ consonants, with some counts topping 100!

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

www.patreon.com/posts/new-si... New site and Android signups for Patrons open! If you're a patron please head to lingonaut.app/patreon and enter the email you use for patreon so we'll be able to send out keys when they're ready. If you're not already, nows the chance to pledge and secure a spot!

patreon.com

(New site) and Android alpha sign-ups for Patrons open! | Lingonaut

Get more from Lingonaut on Patreon

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

TIL Zulu and Xhosa use clicks because of contact, not inheritance, their Bantu ancestors had none! They borrowed clicks from Khoisan neighbours and that spread into native words too. Both languages have three basic click types: written 'c' 'q' 'x' ! Xhosa is described as having 36 click consonants.

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

TIL Some languages have a 'mother-in-law register', in Dyirbal you switch to a special vocabulary whenever taboo in-laws are within earshot. The grammar stays the same but almost all content words change. E.g: ring-tail possum is usually called 'midin' - but 'jibuny' near MILs.

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

You wanted a roadmap, we give you a roadmap! we've un-retired the domain and now have a slick new way for you to catch up on what's what month-by month! You can also see the timeline of the project from its inception in late 2023 all the way up to now! roadmap.lingonaut.app

roadmap.lingonaut.app

Lingonaut Roadmap

See what the Lingonaut team is building next across the core web experience and Android app.

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

TIL Maltese is a Semitic language that developed from Arabic! It’s the only form of Arabic written in the Latin alphabet and has strong Sicilian influence. It’s also the only Semitic official language of the EU.

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

TIL English 'they - them - their' are Scandinavian loans. Old English used 'hie - him - heora'. After contact in the Danelaw, Norse 'þeir - þeim - þeirra' spread and displaced the native set - likely because it avoided clashes with 'he - him - her' as those forms converged!

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 30/11/2025

Lingonaut Build 36 Update is live! More beta places are out as of right now! Sign up at lingonaut.app/beta

lingonaut.app

Beta – Lingonaut

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Welcome to November's What's new with Lingonaut! -Translatonauts, Tablets and Thanksgiving!- This month is a real great read and I tried shortening it for your reading pleasure, and you can find it here: lingonaut.app/translatonau...

lingonaut.app

Translatonauts, Tablets and Thanksgiving! #WNWL 7 – Lingonaut

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Negative concord is normal in many languages! It’s only standard English (+ a few others) that ban it. Spanish - ‘no vi a nadie’ and Italian ‘non ho vista nessuno’ both mean ‘I saw nobody’. and it’s not a double negative! Even some English dialects allow it too :D

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

🇩🇪German course update 27/11/25🇩🇪 Added lots of new lessons Added images to all the skills and their notes Revised and reformatted guides Added text to speech for all the questions (preparing for real speech soon!) Tons of new content! Credits: WrenMala08, Fuchsteufel, Adrian7 , ElMago, pilvi#2140

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Some languages build ‘two’ into grammar! Slovene has dual pronouns and verb forms: ‘midva greva’ - we two vs ‘mi gremo’ - we go. Arabic marks duality on nouns and agreement: ‘kitāb’ - book vs ‘kitābān’ - 2 books (gen/acc: kitābayn) English used to have them too but I've ran out of space so byeee

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

Our Creatonaut Course creator has had a massive update! This change adds lots and fixes lots in preparation for the next language we're adding. We're basically at the point where Creatonaut is more is less complete! It's free and anyone can use it at creatonaut.lingonaut.app Changelog below \|/

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Many languages split ‘we’ into two, inclusive and exclusive. Inclusive ‘we’ includes the listener while exclusive ‘we’ doesn’t!   Tagalog: tayo vs kami Tok Pisin: yumi vs mipela Fijian: keda vs keimami Quechua: ñuaanchik vs ñuggyku English only has one we though! weeee

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

Just a reminder that if you like what we do repost and tell your friends :)

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 18/11/2025

TIL: Finnish has no separate future tense. The present covers future time. ‘Huomenna sataa’ - literally ‘tomorrow it rains’ which means it will rain tomorrow. Speakers add time words or modals when needed and the pattern is common cross-linguistically!

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Lingonaut Build 31 'Tock' Update This change is focused on fixing bugs, improving quality of life and compatibility as well as bringing the course engine in line with Creatonaut 3.4! We've also added additional places to the beta, join while there's space! lingonaut.app/beta

lingonaut.app

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

TIL ‘Robot’ is Czech! Karel Capek’s R.U.R. (1920) introduced it, from ‘robota’ meaning ‘forced labour’. His brother Josef coined the word. In the play the robots are lab-made biological workers rather than metal machines, that idea came later.

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Lingonaut @lingonaut.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Some languages don’t have exact words for exact numbers. Piraha in the Amazon uses words roughly meaning ‘small quantity’ and ‘larger quantity’ instead of ‘1' and '2’, and experiments found that speakers approximate amounts but struggle with exact quantities once sets get bigger or go out of sight!

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