A world of words

Linguistics remains a discipline largely insulated from both the general public eye and other fields of scientific study. There is a dearth of avenues for regular folk to find a simple introduction to the beautiful world of languages and the discipline of linguistics, and to keep abreast with the developments in the field. In this regard, Unravel seeks to bridge the gap, making linguistics accessible while sharing our love of the world’s many languages.

We are a linguistics magazine that aims to show people, linguists and non-linguists alike, that language plays an important and world-defining role in everyone’s lives. We hope to allow them to build issues of linguistic significance or relevance into their worldview, and to construct bridges between linguistics and various other disciplines so that today’s interdisciplinary thinker or leader considers issues of language when attempting to come up with creative solutions to the world’s problems.

A pledge of sincerity

Unravel was started by students, and remains voluntarily and almost entirely student-run. We write because we are passionate about language and linguistics, and we affirm our commitment to the discipline through the quality of our writing and our content. Although we are mostly students and we sometimes fall short, you should nonetheless hold us to the highest standards you think an informative linguistics magazine should have, because we are completely sincere about achieving, and indeed surpassing them.

A voice for all

Language is everyone’s domain, and we are a linguistics magazine that tries to represent this as far as possible with a diverse range of writers and voices from around the world. Our editors and the majority of our contributors are linguistics students or enthusiasts who are frustrated with the inward-looking nature of the discipline and the opacity of linguistics in its academic form, but we have also welcomed contributions from lawyers, reporters, teachers, and many others outside the discipline, as well as language learners, polyglots and generally everyday people who are just interested in writing about language. In recognition of the fact that English is not the only lingua franca of the world, we also welcome contributions in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, and Turkish.

Linguistics is everyone’s discipline, and we constantly strive for a more common understanding of this basic, fundamental fact. Linguistics does not solely belong to academics, or professors, or scholars. It should not remain in a laboratory, or in a PDF file, or on a shelf gathering dust. Language is something that belongs to every single one of us, and should be celebrated and understood as something that unites us as human beings.

Unravel: The Accessible Linguistics Magazine
Published bi-annually.
Free, online, and accessible.