Why your foreign accent sucks

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Linguistic Discovery digest, a weekly roundup of the latest language-related news, research in linguistics, interesting reads from the week, and newest books and other media dealing with language and linguistics!

📢 Updates & Announcements

Announcements and what’s new with me and Linguistic Discovery.

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ Polari and the history of queer language: Learning to live out loud

Happy Pride! The video from my commencement speech at the Lavender Celebration at the College of William & Mary is now live! You can watch here:

🗞️ Current Linguistics

Recently published research in linguistics.

Why your foreign accent sucks

Did you know that your foreign accent is a lot worse than you think it is? It is. You just can’t hear how awful you sound. This is the finding from a study published back in 2020, with some reporting in Fast Company:

• Linguistics have discovered why your foreign language accent sucks: You can hear your friends’ bad accent just fine but not your own (Fast Company)
• Mitterer, Eger, & Reinisch. 2020. My English sounds better than yours: Second-language learners perceive their own accent as better than that of their peers. PLOS One. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227643.

Statistical physics reveals how languages evolve

Models based on the principles of statistical physics can provide useful insights into how languages change through contact between speakers of different languages. In particular, the analysis reveals how unusual linguistic forms are more likely to be replaced by more regular ones over time.

Statistical physics reveals how languages evolve

Models based on the principles of statistical physics can provide useful insights into how languages change through contact between speakers of different languages. In particular, the analysis reveals how unusual linguistic forms are more likely to be replaced by more regular ones over time.

Phys.orgSamuel Jarman

• Luck & Mahta. 2023. Evolution of grammatical forms: Some quantitative approaches. The European Physical Journal B 96(19). DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1140/epjb/s10051-023-00488-0.

📃 This Week’s Reads

Interesting articles I’ve come across this week.

Would it be better to learn new languages like a child does?

Maybe not! Adults have all sorts of metacognitive and explicit learning abilities they can bring to bear on the task of language learning that children do not. Moreover, children have a great deal more neural plasticity than adults do. It might be better to embrace what makes us good learners as adults than try to imitate the way children learn language.

Here’s a good article on the topic from Babbel magazine:

Would It Be Better To Learn A New Language Like A Child Does?

Is it possible to learn a new language like a child learns their first? Maybe, but it’s not necessarily the best approach.

BabbelBabbel

What is that voice in your head when you read?

Called your ‘inner voice,’ it develops along with your reading skills.

The ConversationBeth Meisinger

Incidentally, one of the tricks to reading faster is to stop these “subvocalizations”, as they’re called. This has been shown to drastically increase a person’s reading rate. I learned this trick from this (very full-of-itself but nonetheless very helpful) book:

Other reads for your week:

Learn about the linguistic quest to understand the ʻokina

New York University linguistics researchers Lisa Davidson and Kevin Roon spoke with HPR’s Maddie Bender about the pronunciation of ʻokina at the beginning of words.

Hawai'i Public RadioMaddie Bender

What Language Is Spoken in the Netherlands? - Rosetta Stone

Discover what language is spoken in the Netherlands, if English is a common language there, and what other languages to expect.

Rosetta StoneJennifer Gunner

Speaking of Words: Latest News from the Hittites

The Hittites were once a powerful kingdom that, at its peak around 1300 BCE, dominated Anatolia (now Turkey) and even reached as far south as Aleppo (now in modern Syria); they fought a major battle with the Egyptians, led by Ramesses the Great, at Kadesh in 1274

InDepthNH.orgMichael Ferber

How California’s ‘Valley Girl’ talk changed the way America speaks

What started as a stereotype stuck around and evolved.

California PostMatt Elias

📚 Books & Media

New (and old) books and media touching on language and linguistics.

How to keep your language alive

If you’re trying to preserve your heritage language and pass it on to your kids and future generations, you’ll want to check out this book:

Study skills for linguistics

If you or a college-aged person in your life are studying linguistics or thinking about studying linguistics, I highly recommend picking up a copy of this book. It’s got some great advice for linguistics students: it gives you overviews of basic concepts in the field, walks you through how to do a research project, and even talks about what you can do with your linguistics degree when you graduate.

🗃️ Resources

Maps, databases, lists, etc. on language and linguistics.

Early Indo-European Online

Do you think ancient languages are freakin’ cool? Yeah, same.

Then you should check out the incredible Early Indo-European Online course, a completely free online course that tours you through all the attested early Indo-European languages. You’ll analyze original texts from each of these languages and learn all about the details of Indo-European grammar.

Early Indo-European Online: Introduction to the Language Lessons

UT Austin

👋🏼 Till next week!

If I were a prehistoric linguist I’m not sure whether this would have been really nice or just really boring.