Top posts from 7 years of All Things Linguistic
Cross-posted from All Things Linguistic.
It’s my seven year blogiversary! Wow! Let’s celebrate by looking back at some of my favourite posts from the past year:
Wired Resident Linguist column
I started a column about internet linguistics at Wired this year! Here are my columns so far:
Internet linguistics
Emoji Grammar as Beat Gestures (paper by me and Lauren Gawne)
I started fact-checking a book about emoji and the book was so hilaribad it turned into a thread-review (blog post summary).
Other linguistics
Why teaching phonics is an important part of learning to read
Folks, there’s nothing left from the linguistics division. (On the Brazil National Museum fire)
Debunking the idea that apes might have learned a sign language
Things about languages
Heaven’s Vault, a videogame about decoding an ancient language
Mayan languages like K’iche’ and Mam in the US immigration court system
Court stenographers often misunderstand African American English
Using machine learning to decipher ancient Sumerian cuneiform
New Zealand government pushes for Maori in all primary schools by 2025
This young girl uses “los,” “las” and the gender-neutral “les” — watch her explain why.
Memes and humour
Symbols of the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) as brands of IPA (India Pale Ale): a thread
New favourite example of pragmatic ambiguity: have you seen my cat?
Today’s Creative Use of English Swear Word Morphosyntax Award
New favourite example of semantic ambiguity: let this be the hour that we draw swords together
Wug cookies and a 3D-printed wug cookie cutter and colourful IPA cookies
Linguistics jobs
Linguistics + X career advice post (updated)
Lists and how to
How to type the International Phonetic Alphabet on your phone (iOS or Android), newly updated
How to teach yourself linguistics online for free, revised and updated
28 tips for doing better in your intro linguistics course, revised and updated
Long list of pop linguistics books and lingfic, revised and updated
A very long list of linguistics youtube channels and other free online videos about linguistics
Lingthusiasm
We had another year of Lingthusiasm episodes!
What words sound spiky across languages? Interview with Suzy Styles
Making books and tools speak Chatino – Interview with Hilaria Cruz
Why do C and G come in hard and soft versions? Palatalization
The verb is the coat rack that the rest of the sentence hangs on
Pop culture in Cook Islands Māori – Interview with Ake Nicholas
And another year of Lingthusiasm bonus episodes:
How the internet is making English better (liveshow from Melbourne)
How do radio announcers know how to pronounce all the names? With guest Tiger Webb
Talking with dogs, horses, ravens, dolphins, bees, and other animals
We also released more Lingthusiasm merch: scarves with tree diagrams and esoteric symbols on them, all the scarf designs as notebooks and mugs, Space Babies, and linguist baby onesies!
Book: Because Internet
Many exciting announcements related to Because Internet, my book in defence of internet language, happened this year!
An early review of BECAUSE INTERNET (“me reading this was basically galaxy brain”)
Thoughts from reading the audiobook of Because Internet: on pronouncing gif, lol, and keysmash
Because Internet will be coming out on July 23 — that’s only 2 months away! You can make it appear as a delightful surprise for your future self (and signal to the publisher that people are interested in linguistics so they should print lots of copies) by preordering it here.
Haven’t been with me this whole time? You can see my favourite posts of year one, year two, year three, year four, year five, and year six. For shorter updates, follow me on twitter as a person or as my blog, or for a monthly newsletter with highlights, subscribe at my website.