Linguistics After Dark

Wherein we finish the podcast in under four hours! Jump right to: 5:43 Language Thing Of The Day: Transitivity 34:55 Question 1: Are accents predictable? That is, there are specific accents people have based on the languages they have learned, and often these have specific-enough features to have stereotypes. But would a native speaker of Parisian French have the stereotypical “French accent” when speaking English even if they had grown up in a cultural vacuum or learned English from a book? Further, if this is predictable like this, is it sufficient to predict the accent a native speaker of Quenya or Lojban might have when they were learning English the first time? 51:37 Question 2: Have you noticed people using [ts] instead of [t] at the beginning of words, and why might that happen? 1:04:34 Question 3: How do songs in tonal languages work? How do the speakers distinguish between the melody and the tone? 1:13:01 The puzzler: Change one letter each in the names of two rival NFL teams to get synonyms for the name of a third NFL team Covered in this episode: Transitivity vs. intransitivity and ergative vs. accusative verbs Why you can give a mouse a cookie but you cannot sleep a sandwich Standard phonological mistakes A rat whose name is not Cheese-teeth Political allegiances of the Noldor Too vs. tsoo and Tuesday vs. Tyuesday vs. Chewsday English is a tonal language “Trash” and “ashtray” are (we hope) not the names of beverages Links and other post-show thoughts: Pseudo-reflexive verbs in Romance languages (i.e. “i bathe myself” etc)? In re hypothetical tri-transitive verbs: Wikipedia suggests “bet” and “trade”, citing a paper we couldn’t actually access, but you can try to dig it up if you want to read more. Not everyone agrees, though “Complex transitive verb” can mean different things and not everyone agrees on that, either Unaccusative vs. unergative intransitive verbs in English (depending on which argument is missing) Valency), aka the real word for the marble slots we talked about Mary Spender’s youtube channel Chris Punsalan and his grandma of Chooseday fame (Grandma has passed away since we recorded this episode, but there is an extensive backlog of her being very sweet if that's your thing) ⟨Triangle⟩ spelled as ⟨chriego⟩ because kids are very good at phonetics actually Okay, in retrospect, it should have been more obvious that Chinese media using hardcoded subtitles more often than English media relates as much or more to the HUGE number of topolects in their media market than difficulty hearing tones (even in music) Old/Classical/Archaic Chinese is now suspected to be atonal, but Middle/Ancient Chinese aka Qieyun did have tones and overlaps the written record of Chinese music, including the establishment of Yayue and Chinese opera which does appear to make use of tones. (This is extremely complex and if you’re interested, you should do a lot more digging yourself! Our post-production research is still limited ^^;) Ask us questions: Send your questions (text or voice memo) to questions@linguisticsafterdark.com, or find us as @lxadpodcast on all the usual socials. Credits: Linguistics After Dark is produced by Emfozzing Enterprises. Edited by Luca, captioned by our new intern Harrison, and show notes by Sarah and Jenny. Our music is "Covert Affair" by Kevin MacLeod. And until next time… if you weren’t consciously aware of your tongue in your mouth, now you are :)

Wherein we KISS-FIST linguistics. Jump right to: 3:15 Linguistics Thing Of The Day: Garden path sentences 25:05 How do [in/formal] registers change over time; do they stairstep as we invent new informal registers and then everything bumps up a notch and the old formal registers fall off as “staid”, or is it nonuniform? 37:21 Audio question! Is linguistics a science? Is it a prestigious science? Why or why not? 58:03 What are your favorite words that don’t have an English equivalent or cannot be translated into English? 1:16:20 Listeners, what are your favorite words that haven't been fully un-italicized into English yet? 1:18:18 The puzzler: Think of an informal term for a beverage. Now say it in pig Latin, and you'll have an informal term for another beverage. What two beverages are these? Covered this episode: The beverage fandom The euphemism treadmill Real-time language processing How Sarah likes syntactic ambiguity more than most people Linguists are not (necessarily) translators Linguistics is not physics Yoinking words from language to language Are toilets pieces of furniture? Links and other post-show thoughts: The headline “Violinist Linked to JAL Crash Blossoms” was actually spotted by American editor Mike O’Connell and shared to a linguistics forum, where another member, Dan Bloom, suggested “crash blossoms” as a term, as summarized on the Language Log and expanded on by the New York Times XKCD #435: Purity about applied sciences XKCD #2381: The True Name Of The Bear about the euphemism treadmill That diagram Sarah mentioned about all the branches of linguistics McGill professors Lisa deMena Travis and Jessica Coon’s offices were used as references for Arrival as described on the Language Log here, here, here, and here SciComm people we named who you should look up: Vihart, Matt Parker, Numberphile for math. Brian Green, Michio Kaku, Brian Cox for physics. Language Log, John McWhorter, Gretchen McCulloch, Lauren Gawne for linguistics. English usage, Brian Garner and Grammar Girl. Ask us questions: Send your questions (text or voice memo) to questions@linguisticsafterdark.com, or find us as @lxadpodcast on all the usual socials. Credits: Linguistics After Dark is produced by Emfozzing Enterprises. Edits by Luca, transcript by Jenny, show notes by Sarah. Our music is "Covert Affair" by Kevin MacLeod. And until next time… if you weren’t consciously aware of your tongue in your mouth, now you are :)

Wherein we spin a shitpost question into linguistics gold. Jump right to: 0:58 Mailbag; revisiting our treatment of linguistic typology 12:14 Language Thing of the Day: The Comparative Method 32:32 Question 1: Is English a creole? 40:34 Question 2: Are Old English and Modern English the same language? 51:07 Question 3: Is there any part of language that isn’t just slang and jargon that’s made it into the mainstream? 1:07:47 Last week’s puzzler answer 1:08:33 The puzzler: Take the name of an old communication technology, add a letter, and mix the letters around. You should get the name of a new communication technology — what is it? Covered in this episode: How a language's words and syntax can fall into different places on the typology spectrum We're not Fractions After Dark, but we do like PIE Why Grimm's Law should be called Rask's Rule Star Wars spoilers via linguistic sound changes A linguistics hot take with merit The deterioration of the institution of marriage via etymology Time is the cement mixer of language A defense of business jargon Links and other post-show thoughts: Morphological Typology Sir William Jones's speech, with a quote presaging the comparative method Example of a Swadesh list Examples of Grimm’s Law Examples of English and German post-Grimm shifts English Is Not Normal: A Case for English as a Semi-Creole Germanic, by John McWhorter (The article doesn’t appear to be accessible online, unfortunately.) We tried to answer the question “how many Romance languages are there?” and the answer is both “a lot, more than you might think” and “the number varies depending on what counts as a language” which, honestly, we should have seen coming. The History of English Podcast and the Saga Thing podcast Lenition chart Bill Labov's study about women being the agents of language change comes from Principles of Linguistic Change, Volume 2: Social Factors, in particular chapters 8-11. We couldn’t find a PDF available anywhere. The beacons are lit! Marketing calls for aid! Ask us questions: Send your questions (text or voice memo) to questions@linguisticsafterdark.com, or find us as @lxadpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Credits: Linguistics After Dark is produced by Emfozzing Enterprises. Edits: Luca; transcript: Luca/Jenny; notes: Jenny/Eli. Our music is "Covert Affair" by Kevin MacLeod. And until next time… if you weren’t consciously aware of your tongue in your mouth, now you are :)

Wherein we find an excuse to recommend a bunch of music to you.Jump right to:2:26 Language Thing of the Day: Filler words14:17 Question 1: How did we get nicknames that don't seem to make sense? Like how did "Peggy" come out of "Margaret"?25:26 Question 2: Why do singers' accents almost always become less intense in their singing voices as opposed to their speaking voices?37:30 Question 3: How do we change the meaning of a sentence just by changing vocal pitch? Typed-out transcripts can lose the information conveyed by vocal pitch.1:04:32 Answer to last week's puzzler 1:07:39 The puzzler: (Too long for Spotify! Check the post on our site!)Covered in this episode:Filler words in different languages (English, Japanese, ASL), and their discourse functionNames and their nickname equivalents: Margaret/Peggy, Theodore/Ted, Richard/Dick, John/Jack Backformed names (e.g. if Nate is short for Nathan, then Kate is short for Kathan)How nicknames are formed in different languages (Russian, Polish, Chinese)What are children if not longitudinal linguistic studies?The Beatles, Whitney Houston, Blink-182, the RamonesOur future as an advice podcastGilbert & SullivanEffect of language exposure before birth on babies' linguistic behaviorNetspeak and netiquette in the 2000sgr8, gr9, T9Because Internet and its audiobook versionCourt transcript style guides of the future How to destroy a stuffed sheep with a lightbulb Links and other post-show thoughts: Number One brand Thai iced tea (available loose or bagged) History of English podcast episode about first namesvlogbrothers video about the names John and HankPop punk accent article blink 182: "I'm an American guy faking an English accent faking an American accent," Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong told Rolling Stone in 1994.History of Punk docuseriesGilbert & Sullivan Modern Major General has excellent patter and limited lyrical. It was tough to find a G&S clip that had both by the same singer in back to back moments.Sondheim (Not) Getting Married Today has good patter vs lyrical.We couldn't find the My Cousin Vinny clip or Chinese nickname thread. If you find some, send them our way! The first five minutes: A sample of microscopic interview analysis by Pittenger, Hockett, and Danehy, which is a book from 1960 analyzing in minute detail the intonational meaning and paralinguistics of the first five minutes of a psychiatric interview.Ask us questions:Send your questions (text or voice memo) to questions@linguisticsafterdark.com, or find us as @lxadpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.Credits:Linguistics After Dark is produced by Emfozzing Enterprises. Luca edits, Jenny Sarah transcribed this one, and Sarah Eli did the show notes. Our music is "Covert Affair" by Kevin MacLeod. And until next time… if you weren't consciously aware of your tongue in your mouth, now you are :)

Wherein we #GiveLinguistsSwords. (Please note that this recording cut out a lot of background noise and claps/cheers, so if there is a weird volume jump up or down, that might be why.) Jump right to: 00:04:42 Is syntax fake? 00:10:14 Favorite and least favorite words 00:23:48 How has profanity evolved with language? 00:34:40 What are the rules for onomatopoeia and how do they differ across languages? 00:41:13 What is lenition? 00:47:56 How do puns work in other languages? 01:02:15 What are fricatives? 01:02:33 The LxAD backstory 01:06:19 The first time we bring up L’Académie 01:08:12 Dead languages work poorly on the internet 01:12:44 Best stories of word mix-ups 01:18:12 How do colors work in different languages? 01:29:01 “It’s all Greek to me” 01:29:55 Where did the word orange come from? 01:31:36 Dialect-dependent homophones 01:34:56 What’s the most useless part of language? 01:40:29 Why is English spelling wonderful? 01:59:42 Sarah has to pronounce the hardest IPA sounds 02:07:30 The Thing At The End Covered in this episode: ⁠Kewpie mayo⁠ That feeling you get when someone else is suffering and you’re just glad it’s not you How to be rude and insulting but still G-rated Translator love SWORDS On a scale of dead to Amish… How to accidentally come on to someone in Spanish and ASL Cappuccinos Moose ⁠Dessus vs. dessous⁠ Links and other post-show thoughts: Due to our link shortener going down, please click through for the ⁠full list of additional links⁠. Ask us questions: Send your questions (text or voice memo) to questions@linguisticsafterdark.com, or find us as @lxadpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, & Facebook. Credits: Linguistics After Dark is produced by Emfozzing Enterprises. Luca edits, Sarah does show notes, transcription is a team effort. Our music is ⁠“Covert Affair” by Kevin MacLeod⁠. Join us at ⁠linguisticsafterdark.com/volunteer⁠! And until next time… if you weren’t consciously aware of your tongue in your mouth, now you are :)

Wherein we #GiveLinguistsSwords. (Please note that this recording cut out a lot of background noise and claps/cheers, so if there is a weird volume jump up or down, that might be why.) Jump right to: 00:04:42 Is syntax fake? 00:10:14 Favorite and least favorite words 00:23:48 How has profanity evolved with language? 00:34:40 What are the rules for onomatopoeia and how do they differ across languages? 00:41:13 What is lenition? 00:47:56 How do puns work in other languages? 01:02:15 What are fricatives? 01:02:33 The LxAD backstory 01:06:19 The first time we bring up L’Académie 01:08:12 Dead languages work poorly on the internet 01:12:44 Best stories of word mix-ups 01:18:12 How do colors work in different languages? 01:29:01 “It’s all Greek to me” 01:29:55 Where did the word orange come from? 01:31:36 Dialect-dependent homophones 01:34:56 What’s the most useless part of language? 01:40:29 Why is English spelling wonderful? 01:59:42 Sarah has to pronounce the hardest IPA sounds 02:07:30 The Thing At The End Covered in this episode: Kewpie mayo That feeling you get when someone else is suffering and you’re just glad it’s not you How to be rude and insulting but still G-rated Translator love SWORDS On a scale of dead to Amish… How to accidentally come on to someone in Spanish and ASL Cappuccinos Moose Dessus vs. dessous Links and other post-show thoughts: Due to our link shortener going down, please click through for the full list of additional links. Ask us questions: Send your questions (text or voice memo) to questions@linguisticsafterdark.com, or find us as @lxadpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, & Facebook. Credits: Linguistics After Dark is produced by Emfozzing Enterprises. Luca edits, Sarah does show notes, transcription is a team effort. Our music is “Covert Affair” by Kevin MacLeod. Join us at linguisticsafterdark.com/volunteer! And until next time… if you weren’t consciously aware of your tongue in your mouth, now you are :)

We've gone live for #CrossingsCon! ...two years ago. And before we fell further into our unintended hiatus, we forgot to post this episode anywhere besides YouTube. Oops!! So here is this, and a promise that we are back! Full show notes will be added here and uploaded to https://linguisticsafterdark.com when we get them written, and we have a bonus episode from 2022 ready to post later this month, plus more regular episodes finally being edited! So without further ado, call into our live show with your burning language questions and our two linguist hosts will answer them for you. Just one catch: we can’t do any research before answering. So if your language is making a funny noise, we’ll get to the bottom of it, with some rowdy discussion, bad nerdy jokes, and a lot of linguistics along the way. If you enjoyed the show, send us a tip at https://ko-fi.com/emfozzing. And if you *really* liked the show, you can support us on Patreon at https://patreon.com/emfozzing. For more information about CrossingsCon, visit https://crossingscon.org!

Hello, and welcome to Linguistics After Dark! I'm Sarah, and this not really an episode—it's another teaser for next week's live show at CrossingsCon: Slipping Sideways. At 7pm New York time, Tuesday August 3rd, we'll be doing a live episode with real questions from real audience members! That's you! The convention is free to attend, and throughout the rest of the week, your beloved podcast team (that's us!) will be participating in several other cool events as well! On Wednesday August 4th, at 8pm New York time, Eli will be running a pub-quiz-style general knowledge trivia game for anyone who wants to attend. On Friday August 6th, at 6pm New York time, Eli will also be joining writers CB Lee, Ursula Vernon, and Cat Valente to play Baron Munchausen, a wild and ridiculous semi-cooperative story-telling game. Then I'll be hosting and Jenny will be appearing on a panel about the creation and use of conlangs, currently scheduled for 8pm New York time on Friday August 6th. That one might change, so keep an eye on the website. And finally, as promised in our last live show, Eli and I will join our friend Dash to talk about the linguistics and archaelogy of the game Heaven's Vault. We'll be doing that on Saturday August 7th, at 7pm New York time. We hope to see you at as many of these events as possible, and we welcome you to check out crossingscon.org/events to get a full run-down of the whole convention. Thanks! And if you weren't consciously aware of your tongue in your mouth… now y'are :)

Check out the events from #LingFest 2021 at https://lingcomm.org/lingfest/, and get hype for CrossingsCon 21: Slipping Sideways, running from August 1-8 on Gather, with more information at https://crossingscon.org/. Our show has not been assigned a time slot yet, but we'll make sure to announce it as soon as we have one! ⁌⁍ ⁌⁍ ⁌⁍ Wherein we are LIVE. Jump right to: coming soon! Covered in this episode: coming soon! Links and other post-show thoughts: coming soon! Ask us questions: Send your questions (text or voice memo) to questions@linguisticsafterdark.com, or find us as @lxadpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Credits: Linguistics After Dark is produced by Emfozzing Enterprises. Eli  edits, Sarah and Jenny transcribe and do show notes. Live captioning for  this episode was done by Kelli Murphy from eCaptions. Our music is "Covert Affair" by Kevin MacLeod. And until next time… if you weren’t consciously aware of your tongue in your mouth, now you are :)

Hi everyone! We have two big Linguistics After Dark announcements for you. The first announcement is: we're still here! We have two episodes that are in fact recorded and waiting to be edited, so look for those in the next little bit. The second announcement is that we'll be doing a live show! We'll be taking questions from all of you while streaming on April 24th at 3pm Eastern. All of this is a part of LingFest, an online festival with some really cool linguistics events happening. Go to https://linguisticsafterdark.com/lingfest for more info and to get the link to the stream. Thanks for sticking with us and we hope to see you in the stream on April 24!

Wherein we talk a LOT. Jump right to: 1:50 The International Phonetic Alphabet 30:59 Corrections 36:08 Question 1: Computer languages: Are they languages (in a linguistic sense)? They have rules, syntax, even dialects. They can express certain complex ideas better than English, but they cannot (easily) express arbitrary ideas. 44:50 Question 2: What causes a compound word like ‘bluebird’ (a bird that is blue) to become bahuvrihi like ‘Blackbeard’ (not a beard that is black, but someone who has a black beard)? 58:31 Question 3: If you could snap your fingers and know a new language, what would it be? (Like taking a point in D&D linguistics, you know the language as if you were a native speaker.) No rules, no restrictions (unless you want to pick one per category: real, commonly used; real, uncommonly used; real, dead; fake movie language; conlang). 1:10:55 Last week’s puzzler’s answer 1:12:50 The new puzzler: Three incandescent lightbulbs in a room, three lightswitches outside the room. You can look inside the room once and only once, after which you must decide which lightswitch controls which lightbulb. Covered in this episode: The IPA (developed by the IPA) ≠ an IPA, although Eli occasionally enjoys the latter too ɹ, ə, æ, ʃ, Ʒ, ŋ, œ Apple’s consistent failing of linguists Cursive IPA, which apparently exists How to learn IPA “Bendy banana vowels” Diphthong? Dip-thong? Dip-tong? It’s up to you, really Computer languages have semantics but not pragmatics A return of Gricean maxims having relevance (so to speak) Compound words in Dutch versus in English The gradual squishing-together of English compound words “Website” is a single word, congrats to the AP style guide on finally joining the 21st century Grilled cheese is not made on a barbeque Agglutinative vs polysynthetic mostly means “where do you put the spaces” Producer Jenny with the LOTR linguistic hot take Producer Jenny with the (basic) elvish linguistic history Zulu is neat and has interesting noun classes/gender-that-isn’t-gender Sign languages are awesome and should have more research done on them!! Also ASL is just a very useful second language in the US This podcast exists because of Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series on multiple levels and y’all should read it (or listen! The audiobooks are so good!) Links and other post-show thoughts: IPA chart the Summer Institute of Linguistics cursive IPA totally was a thing typeit.org, and the Patreon Agglutinative vs polysynthetic languages and more! The Elvish languages mentioned: Quenya, Sindarin, and their shared ancestor, Common Eldarin (i.e., basically, “language of the elves”) Native Listening The Car Talk puzzle source Ask us questions: Send your questions (text or voice memo) to questions@linguisticsafterdark.com, or find us as @lxadpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Credits: Linguistics After Dark is produced by Emfozzing Enterprises. Eli edits, Sarah and Jenny transcribe and do show notes. Our music is “Covert Affair” by Kevin MacLeod. And until next time… if you weren’t aware of your tongue in your mouth, now you are :)

Wherein we frequently get off topic and get angry at Les Immortels. Jump right to: 1:08 Things Sarah Is Mad About Once She Did the Show Notes 3:39 Linguistic Thing of the Day: Borrowing! 8:00 L’Académie Française is annoying 22:27 Are there languages other than Irish that have the concept of helping vowels? 33:51 How do linguistic rules emerge? 51:36 Canadian raising! What actually is it? 1:09:00 The puzzler: Why are these birds flying in from different directions? Covered in this episode: A very hardcore church named All Souls Parish Calques vs loanwords Sarah mispronouncing the Spanish word for “avocado” Epenthetic schwa and syllabic consonants Should linguists get swords? L’Académie Française does not know how language works Anglish Languages are not mathematical constructs How phonetic inventories and stress patterns differ between languages Lenition isn’t lazy, it’s economical! Pidgins are not pigeons (though neither has syntax) Linguistic redundancy Adopting children and/or giving them piggyback rides Vowels are like a shopping cart, or maybe a trombone Whitney Houston Emordnilaps Links and other post-show thoughts: Louisiana sort of has the Mary/marry/merry merger ⟨scooch⟩ predates ⟨skosh⟩ and is not related! Nor is either related to ⟨skoosh⟩. All about Anglish! And all about physics in Anglish: Uncleftish Beholding Epenthesis, and more about its presence in Ireland and the UK. The “Castilian lisp” is indeed not out of deference to a king, nor is it actually a lisp, but that folk-explanation apparently dates back to the late 1300s. ⟨hƿæt⟩/⟨hwæt⟩ gives us ⟨what⟩ and also some Discourse Native Listening (the book where Sarah read about that Spanish/English/Dutch word-stress study) Some online things related to that Lenition of consonants follows reliable patterns. Eli said a quote wrong! It should have been "Eventually, you sell enough fish together, you decide to have a kid." -Tom Purnell, Eli’s sociolinguistics professor Gretchen McC on the basic English vowel cart Canadian raising diagrams and audio examples We’re grateful that you could bear with us Ask us questions: Send your questions (text or voice memo) to questions@linguisticsafterdark.com, or find us as @LxADpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Credits: Linguistics After Dark is produced by Emfozzing Enterprises. Eli edits, Jenny transcribes, and Sarah does show notes. Our music is "Covert Affair" by Kevin MacLeod. And until next time… if you weren’t consciously aware of your tongue in your mouth, now you are :)

​Wherein we make wugability happen and invoke rule three. Jump right to: 3:40 The Part Where We Say The Title 20:22 Are clicks consonants? 30:22 Why do people like some words and hate others? 43:53 An uncharacteristically serious discussion about conversational styles and their relation or lack thereof to gender 65:18 The puzzler: What do the words ASSESS/BANANA/DRESSER/GRAMMAR/POTATO/REVIVE/UNEVEN/VOODOO have in common? Covered in this episode: The parts of linguistics we secretly don’t like The ablaut of yeet An inadvertent All The Stations shoutout Jenny just says Walrus Send us law questions! The official LxAD Linguistics Hot Takes Clicks, Ingressives, Ejectives, and... the other ones Aaron/Erin is the new Mary/marry/merry Phonesthemes Bubu and Kiki Our show notes have research! Words are fake, but there’s a spectrum of reality It’s like chai, but coffee Meta language is important even for laypeople! High school teachers know the dank memes of today—sometimes If you say the food "herb" with an "h" you're wrong but valid Optimality theory easter egg? Links and other post-show thoughts: The original Wug Test by Jean Berko Gleason So far Sarah has not found the German study that she referenced, but has learned a lot about The Discourse around what constitutes irregularity in German. If you have information about this, let us know! ⟨snuck⟩ is indeed newer than ⟨sneaked⟩ Ohio 2 Choose your favorite wug plural JBG’s Wug Store Vowels are still a hot mess The Other Consonants are called pulmonic consonants, which means that technically ejectives and ingressives are also not made using air from your lungs. We learned a thing. Phonesthemes are super cool! Bubu and kiki are also super cool! Another optimality theory joke There are new episode-specific highlights on our Instagram, with fancy highlight art! Ask us questions: Send your questions (text or voice memo) to questions@linguisticsafterdark.com, or find us as @lxadpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Credits: Linguistics After Dark is produced by Emfozzing Enterprises. Eli edits, Jenny transcribes, and Sarah does show notes. Our music is “Covert Affair” by Kevin MacLeod. And until next time… if you weren’t consciously aware of your tongue in your mouth, now you are :)

Wherein we discuss how linguistics is everywhere but linguists are nowhere, and introduce the concept of the unsolicited etymology swear jar. Jump right to: 01:33 “Universal” word lists, bad puns, and university “field work” stories 07:25 What composes an accent? What counts as a dialect? What about “little kid speak”? 24:16 What are the most valuable ways linguistics can improve society? 45:45 Favorite ridiculous etymologies 54:31 The puzzler: What do the words JOB, POLISH, and HERB have in common? Covered in this episode: We love Car Talk Dialects and accents often overlap but are not the same thing Dialects and registers also often overlap but are not the same thing Obligatory “A language is just a dialect with an army and a navy.” Linguistics After Dark has no official positions on contentious geopolitical issues Understanding the value of descriptivism and the reality of language evolution Hot takes on regional identity in the UK vs North America vs California Why don’t journalists know that linguists exist? A story that has nothing to do with financial advising, and everything to do with geese OK is the only acronym etymology that’s all correct Links and other post-show thoughts: Swadesh’s first name was Morris Mutual intelligibility on the Deutsch/Dutch border More mutual intelligibility, including Scandinavia, from an A++ YouTube channel Victor Mair, coiner of the word topolect All sorts of ways linguists and linguistics benefit society BBC and Received Pronunciation Here are some diagrams about the overlap between linguistics and other fields (this last one is the one Sarah had in mind) The Unsolicited Etymology Trivia Jar Etymologies of canary, easel, and lettuce The full story of what the fuck, geese (spoiler alert: 356≠390) And yes, ⟨mint⟩ (where money is printed) is also related to ⟨moneta⟩ Etymologies of island, isle, OK, and lox (which has a dialectical variation still spelled "lax"!) Ask us questions: Send your questions (text or voice memo) to questions@linguisticsafterdark.com, or find us as @lxadpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Credits: Linguistics After Dark is produced by Emfozzing Enterprises. Eli edits, Jenny transcribes, and Sarah does show notes. Our music is “Covert Affair” by Kevin MacLeod. Thanks for listening!

Our very first episode, answering real language questions from real listeners! And boy do we live up to our no-research policy. (What is the truth about bubblers? TEACH THE CONTROVERSY!) Jump right to: 00:43 Thing of the Day: Ambiguity (...or is it?) 04:28 In the English word ⟨scent⟩, is the ⟨s⟩ or the ⟨c⟩ silent? 11:50 Has our study of linguistics caused us to consciously change how we talk? 25:48 How should you pluralize superhero names? 34:37 Can "informal" mean "giving information to the reader" along with "not formal"? 39:30 The Puzzler: Can you find a word that has three double letters in a row? Covered in this episode: Fun with affixes! English “soft c” spelling rules Awkward teenage spelling reform phases A hot take not taken Obligatory (incorrect) citation of the Martha’s Vineyard accent study How to tell if you should study linguistics Obligatory mention of “bubbler” Why is “bubbler” localised SO SPECIFICALLY? Everyone needs to see Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Hot takes on Spider-Men, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Attorney General In-laws and Sinlaws Obligatory Latin-based explanations ⟨bassoon⟩ and ⟨balloon⟩ are basically the same word Links and other post-show thoughts: We have no link to back up Sarah’s assertion that ⟨sc⟩ makes an [ʃ] sound in Late Latin and modern Italian, despite a wide search. However, ⟨conscious⟩ is an English word where ⟨sc⟩ makes an [ʃ] sound, so that's almost as good. The Nantucket study, which was actually done in Martha’s Vineyard (no research, y'all) Confirmed: Kohler is a town named after the company named after the founding family Bubbler is related to a Kohler trademark  Bubbler is not related to a Kohler trademark  I don't know what to think about bubbler anymore (They exist in Portland, OR, too!) Fun fact: Sarah heard “Spider-Mans” in the wild the week after we recorded this podcast, explaining that "Into the Spider-Verse" has six total “Spider-Mans”. Native speaker intuition for the win! Etymologies of inform versus informal Turns out that ⟨informative⟩ ALSO used to be an inflammable-style contranym! (Well, sort of. It used to mean ⟨formative⟩. What even.) Ask us questions: Send your questions (text or voice memo) to questions@linguisticsafterdark.com, or find us as @lxadpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Credits: Linguistics After Dark is produced by Emfozzing Enterprises. Eli edits, Jenny transcribes, and Sarah does show notes. Our music is "Covert Affair" by Kevin McLeod. Thanks for listening!