July 2021: fun facts and fricatives

I asked people for their favourite fun fact about linguistics and ended up with a delightful thread of replies! (Click through to read them.)

Linguists and ling fans, what's a linguistics fact that blew your mind when you learned it or which blows people's minds when you tell them?

I can think of some that people tweet us about from @lingthusiasm episodes, but I honestly just take so many for granted now – help!

— Gretchen McCulloch (@GretchenAMcC) July 12, 2021

The main episode of Lingthusiasm was A Fun-Filled Fricative Field Trip (transcript), and the bonus episode was on language under the influence of alcohol and other substances. We also released new Lingthusiasm merch! You can now ask people which shape is kiki and which one is bouba from the comfort of your own scarf, tshirt, mug, and other items. And…did we do a whole episode on fricatives just so that we could release “what the fricative” merch? In the immortal sounds of another fricative: Shhhhhhh.

Selected tweets:

• “you may injure…” new favourite example of deontic vs epistemic modality
• writing gifs by hand on paper
• bouba vs. kiki outfits
• tell Duolingo to add IPA

Selected blog posts:

• On standard dialects
• Beatboxing in IPA
• I reposted a classic “how to twitter” (from a social perspective) post of mine from 2016, which people tell me they still refer to occasionally

This month’s image is a delightful miniature tea and book display from a tea shop in Montreal.