Language helps with information transfer, and that includes a lot of information about ourselves. With Valerie Fridland, author of "Why We Talk Funny". Full episode: becauselanguage.com/133-why-we-t...

The US Southern accent is becoming a marker of ideology. With Valerie Fridland, author of "Why We Talk Funny". Full episode: becauselanguage.com/133-why-we-t...

Life is extremely kiki right now and I would really like it to be just a little more bouba

New Cambridge Element, Aviation English as a Global Lingua Franca, by Hyejeong Kim, out now! Read for free for the next 2 weeks at https://cup.org/4aJ494I #LangSky

How did the kids feel about 6-7 at the #WotY2025 vote? Kelly Wright is the data czar for @americandialect.org, and she tells us all about it. Whole episode: becauselanguage.com/132-woty-202...

Listener Flo tells us about "weeaboo", an enthusiast for Japanese culture. But what about someone who's into French stuff? With Kelly Wright! Whole episode: becauselanguage.com/132-woty-202...

Unexpected antifa

Time for the worst #WotY2025. Words are a proxy for the communities that use them, so who do they hate this year? Let's see. African-Americans, as always. Business types, yes. Oo, children! That's new. Also Australian and British English speakers catching strays. www.lssu.edu/resources/ab...

Trust issues with everyone forever is my takeaway

Today is the first day of #Hawaiian #Language Month dod.hawaii.gov/hiema/news-r... (H/T @becauselanguage.com)

About right

This is going at the top of my 101 class. Serious.

Love this! I wonder about other languages.

underbus #WordOfTheWeek Lots more room under that bus btw

symbolic compliance #WordOfTheWeek

dual state #WordOfTheWeek

File under: ambiguity h/t @scarequotes.com

So much fun to chat about so the words — and give some spicy takes! 😛 Thanks @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social and Trent and @savithry.bsky.social !

Pleased to say I called this (as an individual, not as a show) @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social

Slop is the 2025 Word of the Year! #woty2025

News is slow out of #WotY2025 #WotY25 but not getting concerned yet

Pretty new — Green's has an entry for CHOPPED but it's in the sense of "drunk", not "ugly". greensdictofslang.com/search/basic... #WotY2025 #WotY25

I love this one because it's got a sense of much-needed skepticism about GenAI #WotY2025 #WotY25

SLOP is a heavy hitter this year for sure

Masons of the world rejoice! #WotY2025

Completely off my radar, but congrats to the reheated nachos

Excited for the @americandialect.org #WotY2025 vote! Looking to hear from correspondents on the ground.

The time is once again upon us. Upon *you* #WotY25

nuremberg (verb) #WordOfTheWeek

In celebration of Mamdani's first day in office, the map from our 2016 NYC atlas celebrating Queens as the most linguistically diverse place on earth. (800 languages spoken in NYC, according to NY's Endangered Language Institute, which collaborated with us on this map.

And the BL Word of the Week of the Year, as voted by listeners: temu (derog.): a cheap or knock-off version We think it reflects a complicated relationship with companies we do business with. Even as we use them, we feel the shadiness. See or hear this episode becauselanguage.com/131-wotwoty-...

Patrons! Our live show is happening in but a few hours. We'll be counting down our #WordsOfTheWeekOfTheYear2025 . This post has the link, and all patrons can attend, even free ones. We'd love to see you. www.patreon.com/posts/link-b...

I thought Chomsky's signature on the Harper's Letter was some weird anomaly for him, but apparently

I have just learned that "bicep" is also a false singular! The -S was part of the Latin adjectival suffix, not English plural -S. Other false singulars here: www.etymonline.com/search?q=%22...

Last day to vote for the Because Language WotWotY! And watch this space for a link to the patron-only live show where we reveal the winners.

New research shows how automated speech-recognition technologies routinely fail to understand Aboriginal English, leaving many Indigenous Australians excluded from the everyday convenience others take for granted. 🔗 tinyurl.com/bdf2xfzd 🧵👇 #langsky #languagediscrimination #AboriginalEnglish

The voting for our #WordOfTheWeekOfTheYear2025 is going apace. You can vote, but you can also come to the live show if you're a patron — even a free one. Just follow this link to find out when it is, and sign up. Thanks to all our patrons for your support. www.patreon.com/posts/145354...

file under: metaphors of time

🚨 OFFICIAL MEGATHREAD 🚨 It's our annual Word of the Week of the Year competition. Likes are votes, and you can upvote as many as you like. Or leave your own words in the replies. They can win, too. Listen for the winners in our live episode! Coming soon. #WordOfTheWeekOfTheYear2025

Related or not? CAST and CASTER You know, those wheels on a bed. Surely you didn't want that bed to stay where it is. From our episode 130: Back to the FTR becauselanguage.com

We have a shop and you can go shop there for all your shopping shops. Shop. becauselanguage.com/shop/

Linguistic galaxy brain! Asking Annemarie Verkerk and Hedvig Skirgård of @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social: what makes you go "Whoa"? From our episode 130: Back to the FTR becauselanguage.com

Yes, but what's the question? h/t James

It’s a really good word. We’re probably going for just -bait in all its forms

Another thing Australian English got right was getting rid of full stops after abbreviated terms of address, like Mr, Mrs, and Dr. Okay, British English as well. www.stylemanual.gov.au/grammar-punc...

bossware #WordOfTheWeek

Are you trying to make this meme passé? Because that's how you make this meme passé.

Fun #linguistic fact for World Linguistics Day: If North America had the same linguistic diversity as New Guinea we’d expect Indigenous Americans to speak ~28,000 languages.

Happy World Linguistics Day! We'll be posting stuff all day, and you can too