The only thing I am better at, than spotting typos, is making yhem.

All the dictionaries of South East Solomon languages have failed to collect the word "chicken" except for Toqabaqita. They are all excellent dictionaries and I am thankful to the authors! But this gap in data highlights the need for continued documentation efforts!

How do I find fans of Austronesian/Historical Linguistics? #solomonislands

I came across a nice example of metathesis today. The Bugotu word talugu which is a reflex of PMP *takuRu "back."

guice (rhymes with juice)

you exist in the physical world regardless of the validation of the digital one

RIP to my friend, teacher, and mentor, Haj Ross, who passed away last week. Haj left his fingerprints all over the field of linguistics, coining many terms including: islands, sluicing, pied piping, and conspiracy (in the phonological sense).

keke nguzunguzu bule one nguzunguzu peace #zinamaroviana #kwaio #lau #solomonislands #pacific #pacificart

my fav pastime is reanalyzing French idioms in English or as the French say, "Lavy"

Why am I always stuck in space on Earth Day and stuck on Earth on Space Day?

you're telling me this on EARTH DAY?

it's like my grandma used to say, "Squatting 225 lbs for 5 reps a day keeps the doctor away"

if you dont want me at my be that as it may you dont deserve me at my nevertheless

keke nguzunguzu seke one of my favorite nguzunguzu, made of queen ebony bought in Solomon Islands from the carver #zinamaroviana #pacificart #solomonislands

i wonder if anyone is better at cracking themselves up than me even if you are pretty good at solo chuckling, i bet i can crack yourself up more than you can

the leaf blower is a great invention if you want the leaves in your yard to be in your neighbor's yard instead

let the record show that the witness claims my client was "acting unhinged," but they themselves could not think of a single thing that would have qualified as a "hinged reaction" in the same circumstances

a lot of people talk only about themselves because that is what they have spent the most time thinking about

keke nguzunguzu bule one nguzunguzu peace #zinamaroviana #kwaio #lau #solomonislands #pacific #pacificart

vea si goi? how absolutive you? #zinamaroviana

munumunu leana #zinamaroviana #nguzunguzu

gani = eat (crude) hena = eat (polite) ginani = food #zinamaroviana

munumunu leana #zinamaroviana #nguzunguzu

i love all languages but if i had to pick a facorite it would be Roviana from Western Province, Solomon Islands in the language it is called Zinama Roviana zama = speak zinama = language Zinama Roviana = Roviana Language

i am forever fascinated with the enigma of human language

i try to maintain agnosticism on Universal Grammar, but seeing L1 acquisition up close makes me extremely sympathetic to the notion for eg my kid often uses possessive pronouns as a sort of evidential "my spiderman is here" doesnt mean its his spiderman, it means its within his field of vision.

people prefer a solution they understand over a solution that works

kids absorb whatever seems privileged in their ambient environment. this is quite visible in language acquisition but applies to everything. if you want your child to have a certain habit, you milist consistently perform the habit!

im supposed to stop but i cant 😤 (two new books from the local used book store) #solomonislands #oceanicart

I'll be teaching a course called "Modeling Linguistic Networks" at the LSA Institute this summer in Oregon center.uoregon.edu/LSA/2025/pro...

One of the delights of my life is telling my friends and family the Austronesian origin of certain words in English

Of course, I agree with OPs central claim! But, the biggest obstacle to enacting a global movement is figuring out how to make this problem relevant to people outside of the language conservation movement. The solution requires investment from powerful entities (govts, billionaires, etc).

Proto Austronesian *kuCux 'louse' became Proto Malayo-Polynesian *kutu, a form preserved in Indonesian as "kutu" before being borrowed into English and spread across English langauge elementary schools as "cooties"

what if understanding the architecture of human language is essential for achieving AGI? in that case, the economic value of linguistic diversity would be in the trillions

munumunu leana qua baere #zinamaroviana

Another interesting fact about the C.C clusters that do emerge in Roviana reduplicstion is that they form near -but incomplete- natural classes with notable gaps as well as a few admissible C.C clusters that seem almost random

Conditions on consanant sequences created through reduplication in Roviana. The Emergence of the Unmarked predicts that reduplication will be a less marked phonological environment than the rest of the grammar, yet, in Roviana, it appears to be the opposite. www.langlxmelanesia.com/_files/ugd/4...

Most ppl dont know it, but linguists predict that up to 90% of the world's languages will not have any speakers by 2100 (Krauss 1992). Yet, only about 5% of the world's languages have been "adequately" described (Polinsky). The need to document and conserve these languages is urgent. Get studying!

most languages prefer codas that are demure, mindful, cutesy

syntacs and semantics

Did Austronesian people use boats with outriggers to sail from Taiwan to the Philippines? Some linguists have argued that the innovation of the outrigger was critical for crossing the strait and was responsible for the expansion of Austronesian people and their languages out of Taiwan.

when you cant tolerate codas 🤢, you can either delete or insert my fav method, of course, is echo vowel insertion as Tyler describes in Japanese like many W Oceanic languages, Roviana (Solomon Islands) has echo vowels Proto Oceanic: *ma-takut 'fear' Roviana: mataγutu #zinamaroviana

Are you working to revitalize your language - or do you want to get started? Would you like to be part of a supportive learning cohort for this work? Applications are now open for Ready to Revitalize, ELP’s free online course in #languagerevitalization ! 🧵 Apply by December 2: bit.ly/rtr2025

a lot of formal linguistics is just discreet mathematics

Does Rukai have glides? I think it does. Check out my comment article "The Reality of Rukai Glides" in Theoretical Linguistics: doi.org/10.1515/tl-2.... (DM for a pre-print if you don't have access)

to be a black belt in the gi is to be a blackbelt in laundry

studying islands in spoken language in languages spoken on islands

when it comes to Well's vowels, o is the GOAT

syntacs and semantics