Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics

Explore the varied sounds of C and G in different languages and why they can be hard or soft. Discover the influence of palatalization on pronunciation, including the case of T and D. Learn about the spelling quirks of Irish and Scottish Gaelic names and the challenges of spelling clipped forms. Uncover the linguistic connections between cheese in various languages. Bonus episode on surviving academic conferences.

The hosts discuss the concept of 'real words' and the subcategories of words that people argue are not real. They explore the stigma and persistence of 'ain't' in English, and the stigmatization of 'not real' words. They question the criteria for determining what is or isn't a word and the language policing involved. The influence of personal beliefs on determining word authenticity is also explored.

Dr. Hilaria Cruz, a linguist and native speaker of Chatino, talks about her work in creating resources for underrepresented languages. They discuss challenges in transcribing audio data and developing ASR models, language-agnostic tools for tonal languages, and creating durable cloth books for babies to preserve language.

The hosts discuss the importance of pauses in conversation, the impact of pauses in language learning, stops and glottal stops in linguistics, the limitations of breaking down words into meaningful parts, null morphemes and their role in conveying meaning, Panini's contribution to language analysis, analyzing sentence structures, and the significance of 'nothing' in language.

In this episode of Lingthusiasm, the hosts discuss the fascinating world of determiners. They explore the meaning and role of determiners in language, including how they influence the meaning and relationships of nouns. The hosts also delve into topics such as the adjectival properties of names, pluralization of proper names, and the use of determiners with superhero names and mythical creatures. Throughout the podcast, they highlight the importance and significance of determiners in understanding language.

Most of the time, a word is an arbitrary label: there’s no particular reason why a cat has to be associated with the particular string of sounds in the word “cat”, and indeed other languages have different words for the same animal. But sometimes it may not be so arbitrary. Take these two shapes: a sharp, spiky 🗯 and a soft, rounded 💭 and these two names: “bouba” and “kiki”. If you had to assign one name to each shape, which would you pick? (Here’s a pause to let you think about it.) If you said that the spiky shape was kiki and the round shape was bouba, you’re like 90% of English speakers who answer this question. But does this work the same way for speakers of other languages? What about languages that don’t have a /b/ or a /k/ sound, or that have other features, like tone? In this episode of Lingthusiasm, your host Lauren Gawne talks with guest linguist Dr Suzy Styles about how language interacts with your other senses like vision and touch, and doing research across different cultures and languages. Suzy is an Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and runs the BLIP (Brain Language Intersensory Processing) lab. This month’s bonus episode on Patreon is about forensic linguistics. Gretchen and Lauren discuss the reasons why you might see a linguist in a courtroom, and whether Gretchen could write a note and convince people it was from Lauren. The least crime-filled crime podcast episode you’ll ever listen to! Listen and support the show at patreon.com/lingthusiasm We also announced two new Patreon funding goals, the first ($2,000) is to film our first video episode, taking a look at gesture. The second ($2,500) is to film at least one video interview discussing signed languages with a deaf linguist. We’re excited by the possibility of making these video episodes about linguistic topics that are a bit hard to convey in audio-only form! To see images of the bouba/kiki test and more links related to this episode, go to the shownotes page at https://lingthusiasm.com/post/175127239183/21-what-words-sound-spiky-across-languages

Hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch, along with guest Lynne Murphy, delve into the relationship between Canadian and Australian English and the dominant British and American varieties. They touch on topics such as the history and formation of Australian English, differences in language usage and spelling pronunciation in Canadian English, and the unique language distinctions between the national varieties. They also explore the semantic differences of words like 'soup' and 'frown' in UK versus North American usage.

Explore the concept of presuppositions in language, how they shape our understanding of sentences, and their implications in everyday conversation and court proceedings. Learn how 'why' questions can introduce presuppositions and create misleading headlines. Discover the connection between philosophy and linguistics in understanding presuppositions.

This podcast explores the challenges of translating untranslatable words and the fascination behind them. They discuss the complexities of translating texts across languages and cultures, as well as the concept of mate ship in Australian English. The discussion also touches on the difficulties of translating articles, the importance of euphemisms, and the tension between denotation and connotation in translation.

Say, “aaaaaahhhh…..” Now try going smoothly from one vowel to another, without pausing: “aaaaaaaeeeeeeeiiiiiii”. Feel how your tongue moves in relation to the back of the roof of your mouth as you move from one vowel to the next. When you say “ahhhh” like at the dentist, your tongue is low and far back and your mouth is all the way open. If you say “cheeeeese” like in a photo, your tongue is higher up and further forward, and your mouth is more closed: it’s a lot harder for the dentist to see your molars. In this episode, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch explain how the position of our tongue when we make vowels can be described in the shape of a trapezoid: it can go up and down, forward towards the teeth and backwards towards the throat, and there’s a bit more space for movement higher up towards the roof of your mouth. Vowels don’t just exist in a trapezoid, they move around inside it: sometimes they squish up against their neighbours, sometimes they expand into less-occupied corners of the trapezoid for more elbow room. These vowel gymnastics explain so many things: why is the first letter in the alphabet named “ay” in English, but “ah” in most other languages that use the Roman alphabet? Why is “e” in “coffee” pronounced one way and “cafe” another, when they’re clearly related? Why is English spelling so difficult? What’s the difference between a California accent and a Kiwi accent? This month’s Patreon bonus episode is about constructing languages for fun and learning. To listen to bonus episodes and support the show, visit patreon.com/lingthusiasm. To see this episode's shownotes, including an incredible animation of your mouth as a pink trombone and vowel trapezoid art, visit http://lingthusiasm.com/post/170920044226/lingthusiasm-episode-17-vowel-gymnastics-say