Saying "expresso" is wrong, but not as wrong as you might think. Every barista who's silently judged you for saying "expresso" might want to look away now. Shots fired. #espresso #coffee #expresso #etymology #educational

Marshmallow, marshmellow, or Marshmello? One's a candy, one's a mistake, and one's a DJ. "Marshmallow" comes from the marsh mallow plant. A mallow that grows in marshes. Except "mallow" is a rare word, so many land on "mellow" instead. #marshmallow #etymology #linguistics #didyouknow #educational

I know I pronounce phở wrong but I still think I'm right. A vowel that doesn't exist in English, tones that can turn lunch into the world's oldest profession, and two competing origins. "Foe" the love of God, watch this "fuh" king video! #pho #vietnamese #linguistics #educational #etymology

Doctors hate this simple trick to a happier, healthier you. #joke #neurodivergent #selfcare #masking #skincare

Getting diagnosed with #ADHD as an adult sucks, even in Canada's socialized #healthcare system with options ranging from "hard" to "almost impossible". Big thank you to Jokes Please for having me on. #joke #standupcomedy #doctor

Nancy and Agnes are the same name. Kind of. It's complicated. Like Nancy Drew, you need to follow the clues. Language isn't designed. It just accumulates mistakes. #linguistics #etymology #name #language #educational

Did you know Enrique and Henry are the same name? Here's why they look nothing alike. A Germanic name, a dead language, and the sound rules of Spanish and French. All hiding in plain sight in a pop star's first name. #linguistics #etymology #spanish #educational #name

Diego is the Spanish James. Except it’s not. It’s a mistake going back over 1000 years. The connection between Diego and James is a folk etymology that's been repeated so much it was accepted as fact, But the timelines don't match up. #linguistics #etymology #educational #name #didyouknow

Ian is John. So are Evan, Ivan, Sean, and Shane. How can one Hebrew name change so much? 2000 years of borrowings and pronunciation and spelling changes through Greek, Latin, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, French, Old Church Slavic, and more. #linguistics #etymology #name #educational #didyouknow

it's the type of insult that takes a while to register. There's only 5 DEFCON levels so I'm off the charts #roast #rating #attractive #insult #appearance

The single-use plastics ban is turtle propaganda meant to prepare us for the coming invasion. We shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight them on the landing grounds, we shall fight them... only those two places. They're turtles, not tortoises. #turtles #garbage #plastic #conspiracy #joke

Emotional tones are hard enough. Chinese tones are harder. So naturally I did an entire week on Mandarin. Luckily, I'm a hand talker. ❌ Pronouncing tones ✅ Conducting them #mandarin #languagelearning #language #tone #joke

Want to learn Mandarin? There's more than one! How Mandarin varies across regions. In honour of Asian heritage month, let's cap off our look at Mandarin with an exploration of its linguistic diversity. #mandarin #chinese #linguistics #languagelearning #educational

You may have noticed that the word for ‘night’ in many languages appears to be that language’s word for ‘eight’ with an ‘N' in front of it. English: N + eight = Night German: N + acht = Nacht French: N + huit = Nuit Spanish: N + ocho = Noche Italian: N + otto = Notte Portuguese: N + oito = Noite ⬇️

Why does China have one language when it used to have hundreds? It's politically advantageous. In honour of Asian heritage month, we're continuing our deep dive on Mandarin. #mandarin #linguistics #chinese #educational #languages #history #didyouknow

Mandarin's secret 5th tone: because 4 wasn't scary enough. It's less a tone and more the absence of one. The neutral tone (轻声) is the forgotten middle child of the Middle Kingdom: no fixed pitch and no respect. #mandarin #linguistics #languagelearning #educational #didyouknow

Chinese writing's easy once you understand how it works. My last video said Chinese writing was logographic, NOT pictographic, but here's irrefutable proof that's 100% wrong. Take it from a guy who doesn't know Chinese. #learnchinese #linguistics #educational #chinesecharacters #languagelearning

I wrote some dumb jokes about one of the even dumber recent video game discourses. Excited for weird people online to be super normal about it.

Chinese writing isn't pictographic, it's logographic. Here's why that matters. Most people learn that Chinese characters are pictures of the things they represent. That's wrong, and this video explains why. #linguistics #chineselanguage #educational #chinesecharacters #mandarin

This #MothersDay I'm reflecting on something a very wise woman one told me. I don't think she thought that one through. #mom #selfown #roastyourself #mother

"Grooming & Day Care" is a concerning combination. I'm not sure if it's worse if they knew what they were doing or if they didn't. I'm just out for a walk and for 30 seconds I'm wondering if I need to call the cops. #dog #doggrooming #smallbusiness #branding #fail

The word "assassin" and the drug "hashish" are etymologically related. And the story behind that connection is wilder than you'd expect. #etymology #linguistics #educational #language #words #history #wordhistory #wordorigins #assassin #hashish #medieval #arabic #persian #islamichistory

You probably don't have a clue what the etymology of "clue" is It originally meant "ball of yarn", making that red string on every conspiracy board surprisingly appropriate. The modern meaning follows a thread from Greek mythology #etymology #linguistics #educational #language #words

"I write sins, not goat songs": the bizarre etymology of "tragedy" It's a compound of the Greek words for "goat" and "song" (probably). Why? The ancient Greeks weren't even sure. #etymology #linguistics #language #words #educational #wordorigins #greek

Working out to make your mice bigger: the surprising etymology of “muscle” #linguistics #language #etymology #words #educational

Ignorance us bliss but it used to be nice. The word "nice" had one of the strangest journeys in English. Small incremental changes that took it from "ignorant" to today. The individual steps make sense but the overall result doesn't #etymology #linguistics #language #words #educational

I don't get nervous on stage but sometimes I get nervous getting there. It doesn't help that all the staff at the club say it's haunted. #haunted #ghost #creepy #newwestminster #backstage

Audience member swears they're sober. For their sake, I hope they're lying. #drunk #crowdwork #standup #comedian #adlibs

Ain't no rest for the wicked, nor the wickedly funny. Not sure why I have so many gigs, though. Still, I'll be sad if you don't come to at least one! Unless you don't live in or near Vancouver...

The human brain is amazing at perceiving language, even when it’s not really there. Just ask Judas Priest. #pareidolia #linguistics #language #psychology #educational

Scuse me while I kiss this guy. Mondegreens are mistaken lyrics because we hear what we want to hear. #linguistics #language #educational #psychology #misheardlyrics

How can trying to “recognize speech” “wreck a nice beach”? Oronyms arise because your brain is constantly guessing where one word ends and the next begins because speech doesn’t have spaces. And sometimes it gets it wrong. #linguistics #language #educational #psychology #cognition

Have you ever been saying a phrase wrong your whole life but your version actually makes MORE sense? That's called an eggcorn, and they're as fascinating as they are humbling. #linguistics #language #education #etymology #words

Fading into Bolivian: how using the wrong word teaches us about the brain. Malapropisms are similar-sounding words mistakenly used instead of an intended one. They follow surprisingly consistent rules based on how the brain retrieves information. #linguistics #language #educational #words #brain

I was the first guy on a "ladies first" line up. When the three comics before me all said that #male comics only talk about their dicks, I knew what I had to do. If I thought people cared about my dick, my 20s would have been very different. #standup #improv #crowdwork #gender

If this works on you, you have #ADHD I also am surprised that I have managed to convince people to go on dates with me. #dating #pickupline #joke #neurodivergent

John Duns Scotus is a Middle Ages Rick and Morty. Once respected but ruined by their fans. The theologian used to be mentioned in the same breath as Thomas Aquinas but now is known as the inventor and namesake of the #dunce cap. #linguistics #etymology #history #language

Robert Bork was so brutally discredited during a confirmation hearing, it changed his name’s meaning. And it couldn't have happened to a worse person. It's a fun word to say but probably not fun to go through. #linguistics #etymology #names #meaning #language

The word #gerrymandering is a combination of 1800's politician Elbridge Gerry and a salamander. The twisted electoral map signed into law by Gerry was said to resemble a mythic beast, an Elbridge horror. #etymology #politics #linguistics #language

#boycott is named after a person. Not the person doing the boycotting but the one being boycotted. While most eponyms are in someone's honour, this is more of a name and shame. Erne earned the ire of the Irish but, boy, Boycott bore the burning brunt. #linguistics #etymology #language #words

In honour of 4/20, the #etymology of #marijuana : from unknown origins to xenophobic propaganda. The use of “marijuana” (the word) was meant to make the use of marijuana (the drug) seem more dangerous. #linguistics #words #420 #drugs #words #weed

On balance, male #privilege is pretty sweet but sometimes I just want to live my best #WinnieThePooh life. Society just isn't ready for it. #standup #joke #DonaldDuck

Sometimes #family can be too close. I don't really believe they're #siblings but maybe step siblings... #standup #crowdwork

#language #AI part 5: LLMs are stupidly brilliant. The tech isn't new but the scale is. Large Language Models are LARGE. 10k times more training data than earlier models. 50k times more neural network parameters. And context windows that are at least 400x larger. #linguistics #computerscience #LLM

#language #AI part 3: word embeddings encode word meaning AND relationships between #words . They solved a lot of the problems of bag-of-words and ngram models but still have issues with polysemy. #linguistics #computerscience

Do you know how much time and tape it took to get that microphone grill to stick to my nose? And in the end, it just looks like I photoshopped it on. Please come to a show so I don't feel like my effort was all in vain.

#language #AI part 2: bag-of-words and ngram language models are simple but powerful. More complex word representations exist but these are usually a good first attempt. #linguistics #computerscience

#Language #AI part 1: What's "natural" about Natural Language Processing? #NLP is the AI subfield related to language. #linguistics #computerscience

Sometimes I ask myself which I hate more: being single or making the #bed My #girlfriend doesn't hog the #blankets so much as banishes them to the shadow realm. I wake up shivering, she's burritoed in my duvet, top sheet's MIA, and my weighted blanket is thrown across the room #sleep #relationship

I know that #intelligence and liking #wrestling are completely unrelated but I'm not sure other people do. Sorry for having diverse #hobbies . Would you rather I watch hockey? That doesn't even have storylines! Wrestling is theater and acrobatics and strength rolled into one. What's not to like?