All Things Linguistic

Lingthusiasm Episode 117: What makes for beautiful writing, scientifically speaking - Interview with Julie Sedivy

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 21:22:37 -0400

Lingthusiasm Episode 117: What makes for beautiful writing, scientifically speaking
Sometimes, a phrase seems to leap off the page and lodge into your mind, crisp and shining like a precious jewel. Other times, you’re reading something and it just won’t stick, your eyes wandering away no matter how hard you try.
In this bonus episode, Gretchen gets enthusiastic about what psycholinguistics can tell us about creative writing, with Julie Sedivy, who’s a psycholinguist based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and the author of two general-audience linguistics books, Memory Speaks and Linguaphile. We talk about moving from the style of scientific writing to literary writing by writing a lot of unpublished poetry to develop her aesthetic sense, how studying linguistics for a writer is like studying anatomy for a sculptor or colour theory for a painter, and how you could set up an eyetracking study to help writers figure out which sentences make their readers slow down. We also do a small linguistic experiment on air using the following words, which you can play along with: luggage, liminal, withstand, tremulous, pulchritude, zoo.
Note that this episode originally aired as Bonus 96: What makes for beautiful writing, scientifically speaking, and we’ve added an updated announcements section to the top. We’re excited to share one of our favourite bonus episodes from Patreon with a broader audience, while at the same time giving everyone who works on the show a bit of a break.

Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice or read the transcript here.
Announcements:
In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about linguistics podcasting with Helen Zaltzman, host of The Allusionist podcast! We talk about being nearly teenaged in the world of language podcasting (Lingthusiasm turns 10 later this year, and The Allusionist turned 10 last year!) and alternative careers that we had on the way to becoming podcasters (did you know Helen once worked for a reality TV show?). We also talk about breaking the kiki/bouba test, the importance of publishing “failed” experiments, the Bender Rule and the Holliday Rule (both previous Lingthusiasm guests!).
Note that this particular bonus episode is available to everyone who follows us at any level (including free!) on Patreon, so welcome if you’re joining us as an Allusionist fan (or a broke lingthusiasm fan tbh, we’re trying to give you some treats while also trying to keep the show running!!).
Speaking of which…a few people found Patreon’s new community gifting feature before we even knew what to do with it so we’ve been able to give out 7 community-supported memberships so far to people who follow us for free on Patreon. If anyone else is feeling comfortably off in this economy and wants to help both us and your fellow lingthusiasts, we’d be happy to do this again! Follow us as a free member to get announcements whenever we might have gifted memberships to distribute!
Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 110+ other bonus episodes. You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds. Plus: we’ve been posting more and more fun things for free followers on Patreon, such as helping us decide what bonus episode to unlock next and this exciting new announcement about zines!
Here are the links mentioned in the episode:
Original Patreon bonus episode ‘What makes for beautiful writing, scientifically speaking’
Julie Sedivy’s website
Julie Sedivy on Bluesky
Julie Sedivy on Twitter
'Julie Sedivy on Amplifying the Pleasure of Language’ on Lit Hub
Excerpt from 'Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love’
Lingthusiasm episode ’What it means for a language to be official’
'Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love’ by Julie Sedivy on Goodreads
'Memory Speaks: On Losing and Reclaiming Language and Self’ by Julie Sedivy on Goodreads
You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening.
To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.
You can help keep Lingthusiasm ad-free, get access to bonus content, and more perks by supporting us on Patreon.
Lingthusiasm is on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, and Tumblr. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com
Gretchen is on Bluesky as @gretchenmcculloch.com, on instagram @gretchen.mcculloch and blogs at All Things Linguistic.
Lauren is on Bluesky as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.
Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins, our editorial assistant is Jon Kruk, and our technical editor is Leah Velleman. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.

This episode of Lingthusiasm is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license (CC 4.0 BY-NC-SA).

Sexiest IPA Symbol: Pulmonic Consonants

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 15:20:49 -0400

ipa-tournament:

Sexiest IPA Symbol: Pulmonic Consonants
Round 5 match 1: [ɸ] v [β] v [ɬ]
Which IPA symbol is sexier?
[ɸ]
[β]
[ɬ]
See Results
[ɸ]
Voiceless bilabial fricative
[β]
Voiced bilabial fricative
[ɬ]
Voiceless Alveolar Lateral Fricative
To hear what these sound like, you can use an interactive IPA chart

Just wanna highlight that this one’s available for free to anyone who follows us on Patreon, just…

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 18:30:51 -0400

hedwig-dordt:

lingthusiasm:
Bonus Episode 112: The Lingthusionist - Interview with Helen Zaltzman | Lingthusiasm
Bonus Episode 112: The Lingthusionist - Interview with Helen Zaltzman
The Allusionist is a podcast that tells stories about language and the people who use it, which actually started only a year or so before Lingthusiasm but has always felt a bit like our older cousin.
In this long-awaited crossover bonus episode, your host Lauren Gawne gets enthusiastic about linguistics podcasting with Helen Zaltzman, host of The Allusionist podcast. We talk about being nearly teenaged in the world of language podcasting (Lingthusiasm turns 10 later this year, and The Allusionist turned 10 last year!) and alternative careers that we had on the way to becoming podcasters (did you know Helen once worked for a reality TV show?). We also talk about breaking the kiki/bouba test, the importance of publishing “failed” experiments, the Bender Rule and the Holliday Rule (both previous Lingthusiasm guests!), and answer a listener question, which we’ll now pose to you in the comments. Heather asks, “If you had the power to change one thing about the English language, exclusively for low-stakes reasons, such as pettiness, vibes, or aesthetics, what would you change?”

Listen to this episode about linguistics podcasting with Helen Zaltzman, host of The Allusionist podcast, for free on our Patreon! Get access to many more bonus episodes, plus our Discord server where you can chat to other language nerds, by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.
MARVEL EAT YOUR FUCKING HEART OUT - HERE’S THE CROSSOVER I WANT

Just wanna highlight that this one’s available for free to anyone who follows us on Patreon, just hit that “join for free” button, as a way to try and make it more accessible to people who are fans of one of us and don’t know the other one yet!

(We’re experimenting with more free posts on Patreon in general lately including an exciting behind the scenes announcement that went up yesterday so it might be a good time to take a peek.)

It’s always so interesting reading through the LingComm Grant applications and seeing what topics…

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 15:05:09 -0400

superlinguo:

2026 LingComm Grantees
The 2026 LingComm Grants awarded seven $300 (USD) grants, thanks to Lingthusiasm patrons, as well as Lukas Graf, Sarah Kelen, Daniel Currie Hall, enchantedsleeper, Rob Monarch, and Kirby Conrod and friends. Each grant winner was connected to a relevant lingcomm expert for advice and support. The 2026 LingComm Grants received 111 applications.

Tundealao Toyi Joshua, Tone Deaf AI: Visualizing the “Digital Divide” in African Languages
Garima Sukhwal, Menu Linguistics
Ngoungouo Yiagnigni Abass, The Sound Detectives
Cooper Bedin, Drag video essays on language and pop culture
Sabela Morais Martínez, Hugo Parra, Sabela Treinta Lomba, Marco Bravo Rodríguez, Samuel Fentanes Barrozo, Lucía Vieitez Portas, Dálle á lingua. Conversas sobre lingua na taberna
Nastasja Deretić, Lingvistasja – Linguistic Emancipation

Kirby Conrod LGBTQ+ LingComm Grant
Suvarna P, Gender and Sex In Malayalam Podcast

Commendations
Melissa Schuring, Expedition Youth language
Baqau Hassan Omotayo, CivicLingua Lab
Martina Guzzetti, Mind the Gap: A Zine for Decoding the Language of Your Body
Lacey Wade, Phil Duncan, Jeff Holliday, Utako Minai, Steve Politzer-Ahles, Adam An, Bayleigh Baldwin, Lillianna Lamagna, Language Exploration at the Library

For more on the 2026 grants, the winners from previous years, and other lingcomm resources, check out the LingComm website.

It’s always so interesting reading through the LingComm Grant applications and seeing what topics and formats people are excited about communicating at the moment. Congrats to all the winners and honourable mentions, and thank you to all the applicants for trusting us with your dreams.

Gesture: every language has them, but what do they have to do with the emoji on your phone? Lauren…

Fri, 22 May 2026 18:30:29 -0400

lingthusiasm:

Gesture: every language has them, but what do they have to do with the emoji on your phone?

Lauren and Gretchen get enthusiastic about Lauren’s new book ‘Gesture: A Slim Guide’ from Oxford University Press in our episode 'A hand-y guide to gesture’
Listen to the full episode here: https://soundcloud.com/lingthusiasm/103-a-hand-y-guide-to-gesture

Lingthusiasm Episode 116: Cross-cultural communication (in space!)

Fri, 22 May 2026 15:26:09 -0400

lingthusiasm:

Sometimes, you’re talking with someone and you just seem to click. Other times, you just can’t seem to get comfortable: they’re standing too close or too far away for comfort, making too much or too little eye contact, touching or not touching you in a way that just doesn’t quite feel right. But where do our senses of what feels comfortable in a conversation come from, and how can they be so different from each other?
In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about understanding aliens, fantastical creatures, and perhaps the trickiest group of all, other human cultures. We talk about a science fiction book called Hellspark by Janet Kagan (which was recommended by a listener!) which is a murder mystery set on a planet of cross-cultural communication gone wrong, and which sent us on a whole deep dive into the world of proxemics, aka the linguistics of personal space. We also talk about how these early roots of cross-cultural communication studies have shifted in modern-day linguistic anthropology, and compare several newer speculative fiction books about alternative structures for human societies (plus aliens and/or dragons), including What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed and To Shape A Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose.
Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice or read the transcript here.
Announcements:
Check our our updated topics page! It’s a great resource if you’re not sure what episode to listen to next or what to recommend to someone. We’ve added some new topics that let you browse, for example, which episodes analyze the linguistic elements of all the science fiction and fantasy that we’ve been reading! And we’ve kept the ability to browse episodes by linguistic structural features, which is perfect for when you’re looking for an episode to pair with a topic you’re teaching or studying.
In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about idioms! We talk about some of our favourite idioms, the interplay between idioms and metaphors, why linguists are so excited about breaking idioms by changing one word slightly, and in particular why “the shit hit the fan” was responsible for multi-hour-long discussions that Gretchen participated in during grad school. (Swear warning, because there’s really not another idiom that uh, hits the fan in the same way.)
Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 110+ other bonus episodes. You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds.
Here are the links mentioned in the episode:
Hellspark by Janet Kagan on Amazon
What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed on Amazon and Bookshop
To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose on Amazon and Bookshop
The Bluesky post from Trish B that started it all
Wikipedia entry for ‘Edward T. Hall’
Wikipedia entry for 'Proxemics’
Wikipedia entry for 'Mosuo’
'Moniquill Blackgoose: Also There Are Dragons’ on LocusMag
'An Indies Introduce Q&A with Moniquill Blackgoose’ on BookWeb.org
'A wish for something different at the frontier’ by Jo Walton for Reactor
You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening.
To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.
You can help keep Lingthusiasm ad-free, get access to bonus content, and more perks by supporting us on Patreon.
Lingthusiasm is on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, and Tumblr. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com
Gretchen is on Bluesky as @gretchenmcculloch.com, on instagram @gretchen.mcculloch and blogs at All Things Linguistic.
Lauren is on Bluesky as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.
Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins, our editorial assistant is Jon Kruk, and our technical editor is Leah Velleman. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.
This episode of Lingthusiasm is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license (CC 4.0 BY-NC-SA).

Our latest piece is live! The brilliant Soila Kenya writes about the dominance of English in fandom…

Thu, 14 May 2026 18:14:17 -0400

bookshop:

elizabethminkel:
fansplaining:
The Elation and Anxiety of Reading Fic in Your Native Tongue
Our latest piece is live! The brilliant Soila Kenya writes about the dominance of English in fandom and especially fanfiction spaces, and why for her and the fellow fans she interviewed from Kenya, Nigeria, and Burundi, this is partly about the global dominance of English-language pop culture, but especially about the legacies of colonialism:
The deep psychological imprints of this language disparity remain. And therefore, when I encountered fanfiction, it didn’t even occur to me that there were fanfics written in any language but English, let alone Swahili or any of the 42 indigenous languages in Kenya.
Click through to read the whole piece or listen to a full audio version! And if you enjoy it, please consider becoming a (free) member or especially a paying subscriber—we want to commission more pieces from Soila and other smart writers and we need your help to pay them!
(As a reminder, we have a discount rate for anyone who wants it, no questions asked—if you’re a student, educator, un/underemployed, have a lower income, or literally any other reason, just email info@fansplaining.com and we’re happy to provide!)
This piece is SO good—absolutely worth your time to read or listen (I always love hearing the writers read their work, but since the focus of this piece is language, it was especially great hearing Soila read it). If you enjoy it, please share widely: I know what Soila writes here will resonate with so many people across fandom.
Just seconding the love for this piece! It really is SO tremendously worth your time.
Soila was one of my favorite WorldCon panelists last year and here she’s written a really thoughtful but also extremely enjoyable treatise on what can sometimes be the “cringe” effect of reading—let alone writing!—fics in your native tongue.
I found this piece so engrossing, delightfully wry, provocative, and educational. It makes me so happy and proud to be a part of this era of Fansplaining.

January, February, & March 2026: Abridged sonnets and legible arrangements

Tue, 12 May 2026 17:28:18 -0400

In the first quarter of the year, I attended the Linguistic Society of America 2026 annual meeting online and admired how linguists are really great at pronouncing people’s names (phonetic transcription is a practical skill!).

I narrated the audiobook for Shakespeare’s Sonnets Abridged Beyond the Point of Usefulness by Zach Weinersmith, featuring sonnets turned into couplets like “When in…

January, February, & March 2026: Abridged sonnets and legible arrangements

Lingthusiasm Episode 115: The long shadow of Daisy Bates with This Guy Sucked

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 19:29:49 -0400

lingthusiasm:

What do you do when the only records that remain of a language were made by someone who had absolutely horrendous views of the people who spoke it?
In this episode, your host Lauren Gawne gets enthusiastic about a crossover episode with Claire Aubin of This Guy Sucked! Lauren’s Guy who Sucked is Daisy Bates, who did a lot of early 20th century work documenting over 100 Indigenous languages in western and southern Australia, while also directly adding to policies and narratives that continue to harm Aboriginal Australians to this day. We talk about Lauren’s history with the original archive, how much has changed since Daisy Bates’s day, and where linguistics (and society) still has room to improve.
Please note that this episode includes reference to deceased Aboriginal Australians, as well as reference to attitudes and actions that are harmful to the self-determination of Aboriginal Australians.
Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice or read the transcript here.
Announcements:
In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about the second half of our interview with Kory Stamper about her book on defining colour words, and this half contains spoilers!! We talk with Kory about how she learned about Margaret Godlove and many other women whose labour has been forgotten in early colour science and dictionary making.
Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 100+ other bonus episodes. You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds.
Here are the links mentioned in the episode:
This Guy Sucked
This Guy Sucked on Patreon
Daisy Bate - Dangerous Women Project
Digital Daisy Bates project
Wikipedia entry for ‘Daisy Bates (author)’
Wikipedia entry for 'Breaker Morant’
'Yarning with Youth: Our new Commissioner for Aboriginal kids’ episode of the 7am Podcast
Uluru Statement from the Heart
Wikipedia entry for 'Australian Indigenous Voice Referendum’
The Yoorrook Justice Commission
Books:
'Finding Eliza – Power and Colonial Storytelling’ by Larissa Behrendt
'The Passing of the Aborigines: A Life Time Spent Among the Natives of Australia’ by Daisy Bates on Project Gutenberg
'Daisy Bates: The Great White Queen of the Never Never’ by Elizabeth Salter on Goodreads
'Daisy Bates in the Desert: A Woman’s Life Among the Aborigines’ by Julia Blackburn on Goodreads
'Into the Loneliness: The unholy alliance of Ernestine Hill and Daisy Bates’ by Eleanor Hogan on Goodreads
You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening.
To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.
You can help keep Lingthusiasm ad-free, get access to bonus content, and more perks by supporting us on Patreon.
Lingthusiasm is on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, and Tumblr. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com
Gretchen is on Bluesky as @gretchenmcculloch.com, on instagram @gretchen.mcculloch and blogs at All Things Linguistic.
Lauren is on Bluesky as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.
Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins, our editorial assistant is Jon Kruk, and our technical editor is Leah Velleman. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.
This episode of Lingthusiasm is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license (CC 4.0 BY-NC-SA).

I’m a linguist and this is completely true.

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 18:31:12 -0400

unfavorableinstigation:

galileosballs:
real-language-facts:
one may think “language” is french or spinach for “the nguage”. this is a folk etymology myth, it is actually more like mile -> mileage. “How much language are you getting out ofthose words”
I regret to inform everyone that this is actually not that far off the real etymology. The ‘langue’ part of language comes from the latin 'lingua’, meaning 'tongue’, and the ’-age’ suffix is something the word picked up in old french as a suffix of action (like how a 'pilgrimage’ is 'that thing pilgrims do’). So really it’s more like 'what that tongue do’
Well, that’s upsetting.

I’m a linguist and this is completely true.

Also the Proto Indo-European root for tongue is cursed and needs to be brought to your attention:

late 13c., langage "words, what is said, conversation, talk,“ from Old French langage "speech, words, oratory; a tribe, people, nation” (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *linguaticum, from Latin lingua "tongue,“ also "speech, language” (from PIE root *dnghu- "tongue"). The -u- is an Anglo-French insertion (see gu-); it was not originally pronounced.

I read this post first like a month or two ago and it absolutely rewired how I thought about gender…

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 18:30:30 -0400

onlybylaura:

tetrafelino:
tetrafelino:
tetrafelino:
I’m noticing some interesting choices with regards to pronouns in Laura Pohl’s translation of All Systems Red. See, in Portuguese we don’t have object pronouns like “it/its” and neutral neopronouns like “elu/delu” are considered more analogous to the English “they/them”, so gendering Murderbot the way that it is gendered in the original was always going to be tricky. There’s also the other difficulty that adjectives are gendered in Portuguese, so whenever Murderbot describes itself or it’s emotional state or anything, necessarily it was going to gender itself grammatically in some way. What this translation does at first is that the Murderbot’s internal dialogue it genders itself in the masculine which I assumed to be just sort of defaulting Murderbot to be a masculine character, but in reflection of a different detail, I think it’s just defaulting to this formal almost archaic notion of the masculine as neutral. Now, the detail that made me rethink this is this line that I just came upon of Dr Mensah’s:
“UniSeg, preciso que você fique parada aí até eu chegar.”
[SecUnit, I need you to stay still (female form) until I arrive]
The reason that Mensah is referring to Murderbot in the feminine in this case is that it’s referring to it as a security unit, right, and the word Unidade, Unit, in Portuguese, is a feminine word. So I just went back now and I found one other previous instance in which characters refer to Murderbot in the third person and, Ratthi, he calls Murderbot by masculine pronouns but that’s when it’s being referred to as a robô, robot, which in Portuguese is a masculine word. So I guess the way that Pohl found to express Murderbot’s object pronouns is by just using whatever pronouns are in agreement with the word being used to describe it. Which to be fair makes a lot of sense for treating objects in Portuguese. If you call something a cadeira, chair, you’re going to refer to it with feminine pronouns, but if you call the exact same object a sofá, sofa, you will be using the masculine pronouns.
okay I just realized the reason Murderbot refers to itself with masculine pronouns in its internal dialogue all the time is because it’s referring to itself as a robô assasino, murderer robot, which is masculine okay this is kind of genius actually
okay okay this is so cool actually literally the next page and Murderbot is talking about other SecUnits right and it says this
“Elas não eram os robôs-assassinos mais astutos, (…)”
[They (feminine plural) weren’t the (masculine plural) most astute murder robots, (…)]
…feminine pronouns for Unidades de Segurança, SecUnits, and masculine pronouns for robôs-assassinos, murder robots…
so yeah it’s it’s literally exactly as I understood it we are simply using our own grammatical gender rules for objects… it’s so cool
hey, translator here! (: this was absolutely done on purpose. gendering Murderbot would always be a problem, so I, the copyeditors and the brazilian editors worked together to make sure that bots/constructs could be referred with both masculine/feminine pronouns, sometimes even in the same paragraph. same goes for ART in the second novella, who’s also an It in english, but varies between nave (ship, femine) and transporte (transporte, masculine). it’s an important detail and i’m happy it was noticed!

I read this post first like a month or two ago and it absolutely rewired how I thought about gender pronouns in French so thank you for that brazilian translator/editors.

That’s not what the French translation of Murderbot does though, it uses “iel” which, while the most common gender-neutral neopronoun used by nonbinary French speakers I know, is also exclusively used by people. Like, a chair, table, etc can’t be “iel”, it has to be “il/elle”. So “iel” preserves the gender-neutrality, but it’s much less dehumanizing than “it” in English, something that I think the Portuguese solution does a particularly good job at.

The Japanese one is still really good and more people need to appreciate it:

In the Japanese translation of the books, Murderbot uses the genderless neopronoun 弊機 (heiki), which means through its characters "both “bad/evil robot” and “this second-rate, humble company machine".“ It’s also a homophone for 兵器 (heiki), meaning "weapon.”
The Japanese translator is Naoya Nakahara, and her translation of the first four Murderbot novellas won a translation award in Japan in 2021.

(From this long Reddit thread comparing Murderbot translations.)

I once chatted with a guy from Hawaii, we started talking about languages. I mentioned that while…

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 18:30:31 -0400

silly-jellyghoty:

homunculus-argument:
homunculus-argument:
I once chatted with a guy from Hawaii, we started talking about languages. I mentioned that while I’ve heard very little of it and hardly seen more of it written down, the Hawaiian language seems to have extremely similar balance of vocals and consonants as Finnish does, so it’s actually pretty likely that there are some words that exist in both languages, but mean one thing in Hawaiian and a completely differen thing in Finnish - much like in Japanese.
He didn’t find it plausible, so we agreed to disagree. Later on he mentioned that his name is [firstname] Kalani Kanaele, and when I told him what that translates to in Finnish, I had to spend like 20 more minutes trying to convince him that I’m actually not fucking with him.
Okay so in finnish, “kala” means “fish” - just any fish, fish in general, and “kana” means “chicken”. “Ele” is “gesture”, as in a physical movement that an animal or human does to nonverbally communicate something. The -ni suffix is a possessive referring to oneself, essentially “my”. In finnish, compound words are of the “if it doesn’t exist yet, I can make one up on the spot” variety, so almost all nouns can be slapped together to refer to something specific.
So, broken down like this and put back together, this dude’s name translates to “the chicken-like gesture that my fish makes.”
This is pure poetry

the parallel w/ germanic bear is interesting but it must be said that “brown one” is vastly inferior…

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:30:39 -0400

rattlesnek:

uququ:
the parallel w/ germanic bear is interesting but it must be said that “brown one” is vastly inferior to “cutie pie”
my nickname “guy who doesn’t attack people” is raising a lot of questions that are already answered by the nickname

nice outfit LOSER. 1443 called but in a dialect of Early Modern English that hadn’t experienced the…

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 18:30:29 -0400

winampskinmuseum:

nice outfit LOSER. 1443 called but in a dialect of Early Modern English that hadn’t experienced the Great Vowel Shift yet so i don’t know what it said

the-lax-disciple: thatswhywelovegermany:mareebrittenford: randomgerman: linguistness: thatswhywel...

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:30:31 -0400

the-lax-disciple:

thatswhywelovegermany:
mareebrittenford:

randomgerman:

linguistness:

thatswhywelovegermany:

woolhattery:
a-german-learning-clown:
melmey-fanfics:

shiplocks-of-love:

meetinginsamarra:

shiplocks-of-love:

thatswhywelovegermany:

wildflower182:

thatswhywelovegermany:

linguistikforum:

thatswhywelovegermany:

thiswontbebigondignity:

thatswhywelovegermany:

latveriansnailmail:

thatswhywelovegermany:

Honestly, as a German I can not quite understand the obsession of the English speaking world with the question whether a word exists or not. If you have to express something for which there is no word, you have to make a new one, preferably by combining well-known words, and in the very same moment it starts to exist. Agree?

Deutsche Freunde, could you please create for me a word for the extreme depression I feel when I bend down to pick up a piece of litter and discover two more pieces of litter?

um = around

die Welt = world

die Umwelt = environment

ver = prefix to indicate something difficult or negative, a change that leads to deterioration or even destruction that is difficult to reverse or to undo, or a strong negative change of the mental state of a person

der Müll = garbage, trash, rubbish, litter

-ung = -ing

die Vermüllung = littering

ver- = see before

zweifeln = to doubt

-ung = see before

die Verzweiflung = despair, exasperation, desperation

die Umweltvermüllungsverzweiflung = …

This is a german compound on the spot master class and I am LIVING

#my german is still too basic for this but I desperately want a compound word for how much these compound words piss me off

das Monster = monster

das Wort = word

der Groll = grudge, anger, malice, rancor

der Monsterwortgroll = …

Monsterwortbildungsimitationsunfähigkeitsverzweiflungsgroll

die Bildung = formation

die Imitation = imitation

un- = un-, in-

fähig = able

-keit = -ility

die Unfähigkeit = inability

der Monsterwortbildungsimitationsunfähigkeitsverzweiflungsgroll = anger about the inability to imitate the formation of monster words

Linguistikfehdenhandschuhwurf

die Linguistik = linguistics

die Fehde = feud

der Handschuh = glove

der Fehdehandschuh = gauntlet

der Wurf = throw

der Linguistikfehdenhandschuhwurf = throwing down the linguistic gauntlet

*slowly backs in fear*

@shiplocks-of-love, @thatswhywelovegermany

Monsterwortbildungsunfähigkeitsangstverzweiflungsrückzugsecke

Monster=monster // wort=word // bildung(s)=formation

unfähigkeit (s)=incabability // angst=anxiety

verzweiflung(s)=desperation // rückzug(s)=retreat // ecke=corner

=the corner in which you retreat when you´re desperate because of your fear when being unable to form monster words

*eye twitch*

But what I want to see now is two germans arguing over the construction of one of these monster words.

@shiplocks-of-love I don’t think that will happen. The words make perfect sense. I think if German is your mother tongue you get a feeling for combining words, like a

Monsterwortbildungsgespür

Monster = monster

Wort = word

Bildung(s) = formation

Gespür = intuition

;-)

🤡

Sprachirrgartenbelustigungsbeitrag

die Sprache = language
• irren = to become lost (also: to err, to be mistaken; to wander, to stray)
• der Garten = garden
der Irrgarten = maze, knot garden
• be- = prefix with a variety of functions: ¹as part of a compound word, it denotes a processing or change of state; ²as part of a compound word, it denotes a touch; ³as part of a compound word, it denotes a more intensive preoccupation with or thematization of something; ⁴it forms from a noun an adjective with a pseudo-participle form because the corresponding verb does not exist; ⁵as a prefix, it forms a transitive verb from a previously intransitive verb; ⁶as a prefix of a verb, it shifts the focus and thus changes the sentence structure
• lustig = funny
• -ung = suffix turning an adjective/adverb into a noun
die Belustigung = amusement, entertainment, merriment
der Beitrag = contribution, article in a newspaper or magazine, posting on social media, input to a discussion

Bloody love this language <3<3<3

The thing is, since in German you have to decline/conjugate many words in relation to the noun they are refering to those monster words actually serve a purpose of making the language simpler.

A common example is a (as in any) red wine (ein roter Wein) as compaired to the compound a red wine (ein Rotwein). If rot is an adjective it has to be conjugated: der rote Wein - des roten Weins - die roten Weine - and many more. But it if rot is part of the noun you only have to decline Wein: der Rotwein - des Rotweins - die Rotweine.

So, die Verzweiflung über die Vermüllung der Umwelt is way longer than Umweltvermüllungsverzweiflung and you would have to know three grammatical genders and the words’ respective declinations. Whereas for Umweltvermüllungsverzweiflung you only need to know that Verzweiflung is grammatically feminine (die) and its deklinations.

Ok, now I want to see Germans playing Scrabble

Doomscrollaufhellungsrepost
Doom scroll // self explanatory
auf- // lit.: „up“ indicates rising, or something becoming bigger, better, healthier
hell // bright
aufhellen // to brighten something up
-ung // makes a verb a noun
-s- // the glue that keeps german compound words together
repost // self explanatory
Doomscrollaufhellungsrepost // a repost to brighten up your doom scroll

You‘re Welcome!

The thing that I always want to point out to English speakers marvelling at German compounds is that we do this too! It’s a thing that Germanic languages are especially prone to!

It’s just conventional in English to keep writing spaces in between larger compounds, whereas in German it’s conventional to remove them. But they sound the same! Grammatically, they’re identical!

You could call it the…

English-German compound word space omission overadmiration fallacy

We’re taking you on a journey to new linguistic destinations, so come along for the ride and don’t…

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 18:30:37 -0400

lingthusiasm:

We’re taking you on a journey to new linguistic destinations, so come along for the ride and don’t forget to hold on!

From ‘Welcome back aboard the metaphor train’, the episode where we get enthusiastic about our unlocked bonus episode on metaphors!

Listen to the full episode here.

I had to ask Kory Stamper about how she found out about this plot twist that she put in True Color,…

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 20:39:16 -0400

lingthusiasm:

Bonus 110: The pink-collar labour of colour words - Part II with Kory Stamper | Lingthusiasm
Bonus 110: The pink-collar labour of colour words - Part II with Kory Stamper
The dedication at the beginning of TRUE COLOR by Kory Stamper is “For Margaret”. When we started reading it, we assumed that Margaret was someone important to Kory herself. But midway through, we got hit with a paintbombshell: Margaret Godlove was also the key to the strangely evocative colour definitions in Webster’s Third International Dictionary. Like this one:
coral: a strong pink that is yellower and stronger than carnation rose; bluer, stronger, and slightly lighter than rose Delphia; and lighter, stronger, and slighter yellower than sea pink.
This bonus episode is the second half of our interview with Kory Stamper about her book on defining colour words, and this half contains spoilers! If you missed the first half, it’s available for free on our main podcast feed, and if you like to experience history spoiler-free in book form, you can pick up True Color first. But then come back here for our discussion with Kory about how she learned about Margaret Godlove and many other women whose labour has been forgotten in early colour science and dictionary making.
Listen to this episode about the secret history of colour terms with Kory Stamper, and get access to many more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.

I had to ask Kory Stamper about how she found out about this plot twist that she put in True Color, but I also didn’t want to spoil it for people reading the book for the first time, so here it is as a bonus episode to split the difference.

Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land among some morphemes

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 18:30:35 -0400

lingthusiasm:

Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land among some morphemes
From ‘Micro to macro - The levels of language’, where we took advantage of the aptly numbered 101th episode to get enthusiastic about linguistics from the micro to macro perspctive often found in Linguistics 101 classes
Listen to the full episode here.

I have been waiting for this book from Kory Stamper since I was a fan of her blog in 2014 and it…

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 21:36:22 -0400

lingthusiasm:

Lingthusiasm Episode 114: Begonia, average coral, and sea pink - Defining colour terms with Kory Stamper
begonia: a deep pink that is bluer, lighter, and stronger than average coral (see ‘coral’ 3B), bluer than fiesta, and bluer and stronger than sweet William, called also ‘gaiety’.
In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about trying to pin down definitions for colour terms with Kory Stamper, author of the new book TRUE COLOR! Kory is a lexicographer and was Associate Editor at Merriam-Webster for almost two decades. Her first book was Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, which we also loved, and now Kory is back with the fruits of her dive into the mid-20th century quest to standardize colour terms, taking us from dying fabrics to painting cars to assessing grades of maple syrup.
Click here for a link to this episode in your podcast player of choice or read the transcript here.
Announcements:
In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about childlore! We talk about our favourite bits of childlore from our own childhoods, such as skipping/clapping rhymes, counting-off rhymes, and fortune-telling. We also talk about tracking down the sources for “All Right, Vegemite!”, a compilation of Australian children’s chants and rhymes from Lauren’s childhood, selectively choosing to pass on less racist and sexist versions of the rhymes, the relationship between childlore and memes, as well as research from folklorists and anthropologists on childlore around the world.
Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 100+ other bonus episodes. You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds.
Here are the links mentioned in the episode:
‘True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color–from Azure to Zinc Pink’ by Kory Stamper
Kory Stamper’s website
Kory Stamper on Bluesky
Lingthusiasm episode ’People who make dictionaries: Review of WORD BY WORD by Kory Stamper’
You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening.
To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.
You can help keep Lingthusiasm ad-free, get access to bonus content, and more perks by supporting us on Patreon.
Lingthusiasm is on Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, and Tumblr. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com
Gretchen is on Bluesky as @gretchenmcculloch.com, on instagram @gretchen.mcculloch and blogs at All Things Linguistic.
Lauren is on Bluesky as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.
Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins, our editorial assistant is Jon Kruk, and our technical editor is Leah Velleman. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.

This episode of Lingthusiasm is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license (CC 4.0 BY-NC-SA).

I have been waiting for this book from Kory Stamper since I was a fan of her blog in 2014 and it does not disappoint.

Bonus 109: Skipping rhymes, counting chants, and fortune-telling games - Children’s oral culture

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 18:30:28 -0400

lingthusiasm:

Bonus 109: Skipping rhymes, counting chants, and fortune-telling games - Children’s oral culture | Lingthusiasm
Children have a shared culture that’s transmitted face-to-face in schoolyards, summer camps, and all sorts of places where kids do unstructured play with each other. These chants, rhymes, and games are known as childlore, and they’re one of the last vestiges of oral culture in our highly literate society.
In this episode, Lauren and Gretchen get enthusiastic about childlore! We talk about our favourite bits of childlore from our own childhoods, such as skipping/clapping rhymes, counting-off rhymes, and fortune-telling (Gretchen runs the MASH fortuneteller game on Lauren with a linguistics twist). We also talk about tracking down the sources for “All Right, Vegemite!”, a compilation of Australian children’s chants and rhymes from Lauren’s childhood, selectively choosing to pass on less racist and sexist versions of the rhymes, the relationship between childlore and memes, as well as research from folklorists and anthropologists on childlore around the world.

Listen to this episode about childlore, and get access to many more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon. You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord where you can share some of your own childlore, and see how much it differs from other lingthusiasts!