For more on the science and social function of small talk, this episode has been consistently popular among our autistic listeners

leveled up with this explanation, cos as an autistic person i pride myself on reacting appropriately to animals, to signal harmlessness, so why wouldn't i want to do this for human animals? never occurred to me to stop listening to the words and instead recognise the BEHAVIOUR.

Some good keywords to look up as a start might be codeswitching and translanguaging!

This is a fun puzzle game that teaches you how to solve cryptic crossword clues! Minute Cryptic - 7 February, 2026 "Anagram indicator? Yes - here, every single word is!" (10) 🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣 🏆 0 hints – 2 under the community par (40,588 solvers so far). www.minutecryptic.com?utm_source=s...

Some historians posit that similarities between languages with Twitteric, Tumbleric, and Redditish origins and vague references in the literature imply the existence of a now-extinct proto-Internet language developed in a location or locations called “forums”

For the deep lore on Proto-Blueskexian, also known as Twitteric, may I suggest Because Internet? gretchenmcculloch.com/book

reminder of cryptogyny, the hiding of women's contributions to science, technology, engineering, and medicine: "although three men received the Nobel Prize for penicillin, women participated significantly in the team effort that brought the drug to medical usefulness." www.jstor.org/stable/jj.55...

Btw, if you're the kind of person who likes knowing about things before other people, this particular bonus episode might be of particular interest to you, I'm just saying 👀

What I like to call the "ontogeny recaputulates phylogeny" fallacy of book recommending

Btw, if you're the kind of person who likes knowing about things before other people, this particular bonus episode might be of particular interest to you, I'm just saying 👀

I would say that "even" in this context is probably what linguists call a Negative Polarity Item (retweeting in case any other linguists have a more specific name for it) I wrote a post about NPIs and Mean Girls here: allthingslinguistic.com/post/1139074...

The full clip, including McKellen's setup of the scene, is here, along with info about the riots (Evil May Day) and the text of the speech itself. kottke.org/26/02/the-st...

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

Listening to Overinvested, @gavia.bsky.social mentions Timmy Shimmy, so of course I must search for hexasyllabically

This book looks like it might be useful for academic linguists trying to do more #lingcomm!

Our director @charlottevaughn.bsky.social has a new paper out this week, "Your Research Is Public Engagement: A Case for More Intentional Science Communication in Research With Human Subjects," in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 🎉 It's free to read! psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...

linguistics.

I like TETRIS February:

New article in Language and Linguistics Compass: Who Listens to Linguistics Podcasting? A Survey of Lingthusiasm Listeners It was so great to work with some of the prod team: Martha Tsutsui Billins, Sarah M. Dopierala, Leah Velleman and (of course) @gretchenmcculloch.com doi.org/10.1111/lnc3...

Do I know anyone who's attended this conference before? I'm thinking of it, especially since it's in Montreal this year

I saw some people calling it Rectangular February

We agreed that it was important to explicitly address the political climate Weird Pride Day is taking place in this year. Weird Pride is a celebration, but also, always, an act of defiance - perhaps now more than ever. Credit to David @neurohubcommunity.org for suggesting this. #StayWeird, folks.

you've unlocked a whole series of @lingthusiasm.com episodes! surprise/mirativity: lingthusiasm.com/post/8033180... aspect: lingthusiasm.com/post/7563903... evidentials: lingthusiasm.com/post/1849287... tense: lingthusiasm.com/post/1909370... imperatives/mood: lingthusiasm.com/post/6434998...

Did we pick this example so I could shamelessly make a shoutout to No Such Thing As A Fish, one of my favourite podcasts which @superlinguo.bsky.social got me into? Shhhh

PLEASE free thesis idea

We're starting a @lingthusiasm.com experiment with short video posts of excerpts from the podcast that standalone fairly well, in case that's what gets people to try a new podcast now? (Probably not bluesky people so much but since we've made them anyway, here you go!)

She's paying more attention to intonation and rhythm than typical "seniors do Gen Z" videos I've encountered, which is interesting to me as a linguist

as a linguist I am definitely I HAVE SOMETHING TO COMMUNICATE

We're starting a @lingthusiasm.com experiment with short video posts of excerpts from the podcast that standalone fairly well, in case that's what gets people to try a new podcast now? (Probably not bluesky people so much but since we've made them anyway, here you go!)

Linguistics.

We've had sf authors tell us that @lingthusiasm.com is one way they enjoy getting more linguistics-y story ideas, though in the interests of not sending everyone to the exact same place perhaps I should direct you to our megapost instead: lingthusiasm.com/post/7741520...

This for linguistics too, there are so many cooler things happening in modern linguistics than outdated stuff from the 1940s to build your scifi on!!

This month, I tell you about some of my favorite popular #linguistics YTs, blogs, and books! (Naturally it's got @gretchenmcculloch.com and @lingthusiasm.com!)

This is a fun nested thread to read all the replies on

This for linguistics too, there are so many cooler things happening in modern linguistics than outdated stuff from the 1940s to build your scifi on!!

Fun fact: the Agaricus bisporus is *the* domesticated mushroom. As a baby mushroom you know it as the cheap white button mushroom, as a kid mushroom it's called a cremini, as an adult it's called a portabella. Same mushroom. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agaricu...

Today in linguists are not kidding when we say that your knowledge of language includes the ability to understand and create sentences you've never seen before.

I am not watching Heated Rivalry (yet?) but I did very much enjoy this person on tumblr's linguistic analysis of Connor Storrie's Russian accent (Not written by me but linking via my reblog so you can read without logging in) allthingslinguistic.com/post/8065762...

My own ideas around this topic are shaped by my personal experiences with colonial history, settle in for a bit of story time if you want to follow along this tale of three parts. 1. How to say “tired” in Bislama Bislama is the national language of Vanuatu. 1/x

The LingComm Grants are back! These grants started in 2020, as "hey let's help get lingcomm projects going during lockdown" They've since run in 2022 and 2024, and thanks to generous folks we've always given out more than expected But they only work if people apply!!! Please share this!!

Last term I tried an experiment: I walked into my Tech and Design Ethics class, admitted that I had *no idea* what to do about ChatGPT - so I would let them figure it out. As in: their first project was to decide and write the ChatGPT policy for the class. Here's what happened:

The LingComm Grants are back! These grants started in 2020, as "hey let's help get lingcomm projects going during lockdown" They've since run in 2022 and 2024, and thanks to generous folks we've always given out more than expected But they only work if people apply!!! Please share this!!

"Well, Child, yesterday I used one from Superbad, from 13 years before you were born, to reference a complaint about copper ingots from 3790 years before you were born".

Also then they can mock us mercilessly for being like, ‘well, I’m a classicist, I like “all your base are belong to us” from 19 years before your birth.’ The equivalent of my parents being into something from 1959

I don’t know that this is my favorite but it does feel like the only correct answer to this assignment

Today I learned that apparently kids in school are being given the assignment "go home and ask your parents what their favourite meme is and write a report about it"

Great news from people I've long enjoyed reading/listening to for insightful takes about fandom

It's slang and wordplay, for starters. But the repeated formula (multiple clipping + y-suffixation) makes me wonder if it's a snowclone too – see snowclones.org/about/ The split pattern (see my next post) gives me pause. Any #linguistics folk want to chime in? I may have to write about this. [1/3]