"I grew up speaking a language I was ashamed of."⁠ ⁠ In this new article, Louis Gomis, a speaker of Guboï from Guinea-Bissau, shares the story of how growing up away from his language never stopped him from loving it - and how he now works to keep it alive. endangeredlanguages.com/story/langua...

🎥 Call for videos! ELP is gathering video messages to share on August 9, the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples - we invite you all to share some greetings and good wishes for other Indigenous communities on this day. ⁠ ⁠ Want to share a video? Here's how to contribute:⁠ 🧵

#Humanities Forward is out and it’s all 🔓 thanks to funding from AHRC. Therein we ( @inmfl.bsky.social ) we offer a manifesto for #linguistics in UK-based #language teaching off the back of work we have done with teachers ! www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.... @hetanshah.bsky.social

Humanities Forward | Home

Opportunity, Innovation, Policy in the 21st Century

liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk

If you’ve seen this article, you may be sitting with anger, pain, or just exhaustion at dealing with another helping of colonial nonsense. We feel a responsibility to speak back when these colonizing narratives show up, yet again, in such a prominent venue. endangeredlanguages.com/story/respon...

The New Yorker@newyorker.com · 2w ago

The idea that we have a special duty to prevent the death of languages is instantly compelling to anyone who loves languages. But is it true? www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

I have a new paper out in Science today with colleagues Damian Blasi, Marcus Hamilton, and Russell Gray. www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

The rise and fall of language diversity through the Holocene

Characterizing the factors that have shaped linguistic diversity is fundamental for understanding human history, culture, and cognition. In this study, we combined statistical and social computational...

science.org

The arguments against language reclamation haven't changed much in the nearly 20 years I've been working in this field: "It costs too much." "People are choosing to abandon their languages, so let them." "They have no practical use." "It's just sentimental nostalgia." Fuck All That, a thread:

Sometimes It’s O.K. to Let a Language Die

When cultural preservation comes at the expense of speakers’ decisions, sometimes it's O.K. to let a language die.

newyorker.com

For several years now, @timoroettger.bsky.social and I have been working on an online course on how to effectively communicate data. It's shaping up nicely and we can't wait to share it soon. Sign up for our mailing list to not miss the launch: making-numbers-meaningful.github.io

Timo B. Roettger@timoroettger.bsky.social · 2w ago

What does Semmelweis's story mean for how we present data today? That's exactly what @bodowinter.bsky.social and I will discuss in our planned course on “Making Numbers Meaningful”. Get updates and be the first to know when the course launches 🧵5/5 making-numbers-meaningful.github.io

#Accents (ou bien #glottophobie) in the news: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Mocking regional accents is last form of acceptable discrimination, says MP

MPs debated how prejudice against strong regional accents could affect social mobility in Westminster Hall.

bbc.co.uk

‘Thousands of university job cuts in humanities and social sciences are creating widespread cold spots for languages, classics and theology degrees, the British Academy has warned’ www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Humanities among degrees being ‘extinguished’ by hard-up universities

Exclusive: Experts fear rise in education ‘cold spots’ and social immobility as 4,000 academic posts lost in one year

theguardian.com

It’s safe to say I won’t be batting people away with a stick in a deluge of requests but just in case 🤣

Dr David S Anderson@dsaarchaeology.bsky.social · 4w ago

In case you missed it, here's Count Binface's appearance on the BBC this morning.

Have a languages project in mind? Apply for a UCFL Small Grant! 📢 Deadline 17 July 2026 university-council-for-languages.org/our-research...

Small Grants | University Council For Languages

UCFL has made available small-scale grant funding to facilitate projects that support the languages mission and values of the organisation.

university-council-for-languages.org

One more week to apply for this 3-year postdoc position on the syntax of interactive linguistics: deadline 10 July. Come work with me! careers.universiteitleiden.nl/job/Postdoct...

reminder that despite valiant efforts and alternative proposals, the University of Essex now only offers Spanish & French to new students — cutting German, Portuguese and Italian + our all non-credit language classes many of our students are local & many are the first in their families to go to uni

Onni Gust@onnigust.bsky.social · last mo.

www.theguardian.com/education/20...

This smells of Turton and Schleef! #linguistics

North West Bylines@northwestbylines.co.uk · last mo.

Research shows the way Mancunians pronounce the final sound in words such as happy and city has remained remarkably stable despite decades of social change | Manchester University

BBC #QuestionTime was in #Exeter this week and inevitably the cuts to the deep university/ #Humanities came up. Completely uninspiring responses. Our elected clearly still do not have a plan, or even an idea for the sector (at least that they are willing to articulate).

We are having our Peppa Pig moment.

Michael Savage@michaelsavage.bsky.social · last mo.

NEW: Masha and the Bear is a wildly popular show - one episode has been viewed *4.6bn* times on YouTube. Yet a group of c.50 MPs want ministers to examine its broadcast - alleging it contains a cuddly form of Russian propaganda. Its makers reject this: www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

What a job Johan has done too!

@glossa-linguistics.bsky.social · last mo.

Public service announcement: Tieu, Lyn & Vera, Gabriel Martínez. 2026. Passing the torch. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 11(1). pp. 1–3. DOI: doi.org/10.16995/glo...

This was a fun year-end CLSS event! More in the next! #linguistics #London

Presumably we're going to call the Northern No 10 Winterfell?

Support colleagues in Exeter by signing petition c.org/yKcx6Zr29H! Reduction in staff is disproportionately focused on roles in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Affected subjects include English, History, Philosophy, Sociology of Health, and Modern Languages. c.org/TZyHCcn47V

Sign the Petition

Stop Redundancies at the University of Exeter

c.org

NIH grants have been under political scrutiny since early 2025. But what does the screening process actually look like? What is being flagged? I spent a month digging into leaked docs and emails. We've published the 235-word list that are being flagged by an internal AI tool. And so much more. 🧵

Inside the new political screening that’s stalling NIH grants

Mandatory reviews by top health officials and checks for 235 disfavoured terms have left hundreds of vetted grant applications in administrative limbo.

nature.com

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Children embrace Cornish language as it enjoys ‘remarkable resurgence’

Go Cornish Celebration engages younger generation as council finalises strategy to boost everyday use of Kernewek

theguardian.com

I made a tutorial on how to plot grambank data with R for my grad students, thought I'd share while I'm at it. If I get around to doing part 2 (adding the second data set, highlighting one language), I'll keep you posted.

Creating a typological map with R

In this tutorial, we learn how to create a typological map with R, in R studio. This is the first part, in which we plot data from Grambank to a map of Cameroon

media.hhu.de

The targeted attack on the #Humanities continues, this time at #Exeter www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

University of Exeter in talks to cut about 150 members of staff

The university says it is consulting with colleagues over "limited and specific potential changes".

bbc.co.uk

A BUMPER issue of the Journal of #Sociolinguistics is out just in time for your summer reading list! We have articles on #AAVE & 'TikTok' language; #uptalk; #genderinclusive language; & #raciolinguistics, along with a brilliant dialogue on #ethics, a response to our book symposium, & 2 interviews!

Our project member @saschastollhans.bsky.social (@lcsleeds.bsky.social) has penned an informative piece on the use of gender-neutral pronouns in language exams and the way in which language teaching responds to linguistic change: theconversation.com/gender-neutr... @uk.theconversation.com

Gender-neutral pronouns in French exams: how language classrooms respond to linguistic change

Should language teaching describe how a language is used, or how it should be used?

theconversation.com

Sascha Stollhans@saschastollhans.bsky.social · last mo.

Allowing #gender-#inclusive and gender-neutral forms in exams reflects the evolving nature of #languages and the need to balance standardised #teaching with responsiveness to societal change: theconversation.com/gender-neutr... @uk.theconversation.com #linguistics #MFL #French #German #language

Our new book on sign language linguistics (adapted from the 2007 Auslan linguistics book) isn't out until next month, but over 500 clips of BSL and ASL sign examples from the book can be downloaded now! Take a look at the resources section on the book's webpage. www.cambridge.org/highereducat...

Sign Language Linguistics | Cambridge Aspire website

Discover Sign Language Linguistics, 1st Edition, Adam Schembri, HB ISBN: 9781107077140 on Cambridge Aspire website

cambridge.org

Before and after.

18month fixed .9 post in #Chinese Studies (broadly construed): vacancies.westminster.ac.uk/vacancies/20...

Lecturer in Chinese Studies (50074983) in Central London | University of Westminster

View details and apply for this Lecturer in Chinese Studies (50074983) vacancy in Central London. This post is part-time and fixed-term for 2 Years, working 31.5 hours per week. The salary state...

vacancies.westminster.ac.uk