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- Words you didn’t know are related: gold, yellow, cholera, arsenic, yolk, and more!
The Proto-Indo-European language (the hypothesized original ancestor language of most modern languages in Europe and South Asia, hereafter abbreviated “PIE”) had a root *ǵʰelh₃- ‘yellow, green’. Aside: How can this word refer to both ‘yellow’ and ‘green’? Historically, color terms in the world’s languages referred to a broader range of colors than they do today, and focused more on the texture or brightness of the object rather than its hue. Over time, color terms gradually shift to focus on hue rather than brightness, and make more nuanced distinctions between those hues. *ǵʰelh₃- existed at a time before that shift happened.Continue reading “Words you didn’t know are related: gold, yellow, cholera, arsenic, yolk, and more!” - Why I hate conlangs
A conlang (constructed language) is one that was consciously created for some purpose—usually either fiction or global communication—rather than one that developed naturally (Crystal 2008; Wikipedia). Some well-known examples include: And I really dislike conlangs. If I’m being honest, I suppose it’s not conlangs themselves that bother me. They’re fun and playful and creative. What bothers me is how conlangs overshadow natural languages that are often highly endangered and way more interesting than what most conlangers (people who create languages) can fabricate. Let me explain. Here are the 3 main reasons why I dislike conlangs: (Prefer a video version ofContinue reading “Why I hate conlangs” - The many senses of run
How do you define the word run? You probably think of something like ‘fast pedestrian motion’, but what about the use of run in these examplanes? Those all happen to be intransitive, but what about transitive uses? Finally there are more idiomatic cases, like running the risk of something. Yikes! What’s a lexicographer to do?? How do we know what the core sense of a word is? (Prefer a video version of this post? Watch here!) One way to solve this problem is to acknowledge that every word has a range of uses and definitions, and one of the remarkableContinue reading “The many senses of run” - shrinkage
It’s winter here in Chicago, which means it’s time to talk about shrinkage (the word, that is). The -age suffix at the end of shrinkage is a common suffix for making new nouns, where the noun denotes something belonging to or functionally related to the stem: (Prefer a video version of this post? Watch here!) The suffix comes from the Latin -āticum with the same function, and so a version of that suffix exists in lots of other Romance languages as well: shrink itself derives from the Proto-Germanic *skrinkwaną ‘shrink, pull together, shrivel’, and is cognate with English shrivel, NorwegianContinue reading “shrinkage” - budgie smugglers
In Australia speedos are often jokingly referred to as budgie smugglers because the bulge from the male genitals looks like someone is trying to smuggle a budgie (a small, colorful, Australian parrot—full name “Budgerigar”) in their briefs! 🩲🦜 (Prefer a video version of this post? Watch here!) On a related note, I’ll be running in the fierce Chicago winter in nothing but a budgie smuggler this Saturday as part of the Santa Speedo Run to support the Center on Halsted! But of course it wouldn’t be any fun if I didn’t also use the event to talk about LINGUISTICS 🗣️Continue reading “budgie smugglers” - turkey
Why is it called a turkey if the bird is from North America, not the country of Turkey? (Prefer a video version of this post? Watch here!) Well it turns out it is from Turkey—sort of. Guinea fowl from Madagascar were imported into Europe through the Ottoman Empire, so most Europeans called the bird a Turkey bird, and later just turkey. When Europeans encountered turkeys in North America, they classified them as a type of guinea fowl, and used the same name. Over time, the meaning of the word turkey narrowed to refer to just the North American bird. Similarly,Continue reading “turkey” - azure
During classical antiquity the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli was mined in a place called Lāžvard around modern Afghanistan. That’s also the name of the stone in Classical Persian (لاجورد). It comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵʰelh₃- ‘to gleam, to shine’ + Proto-Iranian *varta- ‘stone’. (Watch a video version of this post below!) Other words that come from *ǵʰelh₃- include gold, yellow, felon, glow, and cholera! Medieval Greek and Medieval Latin borrowed this word as λαζούριον (lazoúrion) and lazurius respectively. Latin added the word lapis ‘stone’, yielding the phrase lapis lazulī, which English later borrowed. Now for the plot twist: ArabicContinue reading “azure” - Book List: The Linguistics Starter Pack
Curious about linguistics but not sure where you can learn more? The Linguistics Starter Pack is for you! This is a curated list of my top recommendations for getting started in linguistics. Most of the items on this list are popular science books, aimed at a general audience, and written in a non-technical way. I’ve also included a few highly accessible introductory textbooks if you’re looking for something more structured instead. Note: The links on this page are Amazon affiliate links, which means I get a small commission from any book you buy through these links (at no additional costContinue reading “Book List: The Linguistics Starter Pack” - Language and thought: Talking about directions
I love the movie Arrival but it perpetuates one of the biggest myths in linguistics: that language influences how we think about time. - Book List: Animal Communication & Cognition
A curated list of books about animal communication and cognition.