The same gesture can mean different things, or have different names in different languages. In this Lingthusiasm zine, @superlinguo.bsky.social gets enthusiastic about these "emblem gestures" For more lingthusiastic zines: lingthusiasm.com/zines

Here are two shapes. If you had to assign the name "bouba" to one and "kiki" to the other, which name would you give to which? In this Lingthusiasm zine, @gretchenmcculloch.com gets enthusiastic about these two linguistically famous shapes Print it yourself here: lingthusiasm.com/post/8223518...

Can we teach dogs to express their needs better by pressing buttons? How about bonobos? What have we learned from the first-ever recording of a sperm whale birth? In this episode we get enthusiastic about how people use technology to enhance our communication with these three animals!

118: Using tech to chat with bonobos, dogs, and whales

Can we teach dogs to express their needs better by pressing buttons? What about the studies trying to teach bonobos and other primates to communicate through buttons or signs? What have we learned abo

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yes. teach the dogs to express their needs better by pressing bonobos. (but for real this episode is a really great one)

Lingthusiasm@lingthusiasm.com · 3w ago

Can we teach dogs to express their needs better by pressing buttons? How about bonobos? What have we learned from the first-ever recording of a sperm whale birth? In this episode we get enthusiastic about how people use technology to enhance our communication with these three animals!

He just like me fr fr

Lauren Gawne@superlinguo.bsky.social · 3w ago

Ahead of #WorldEmojiDay tomorrow you can see the new emojis coming to you with Unicode 18.0 later this year! If some of these look familiar to you already, @jenniferdaniel.bsky.social has the lowdown on the @unicode.org blog! blog.unicode.org/2026/07/why-...

Ahead of #WorldEmojiDay tomorrow you can see the new emojis coming to you with Unicode 18.0 later this year! If some of these look familiar to you already, @jenniferdaniel.bsky.social has the lowdown on the @unicode.org blog! blog.unicode.org/2026/07/why-...

Remembering Desmond Morris (and, the only time anyone has a good story about obtaining copyright permission for reusing an image in a publication) www.superlinguo.com/post/8219721...

Remembering Desmond Morris (and, the only time anyone has a good story about obtaining copyright permission for reusing an image in a publication)

Desmond Morris was a zoologist, surrealist painter, and his website is the best of what the internet looked like in the late 1990s. I was a teenager who purchased weird books from charity shops and re...

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please remember to adopt a medium posture today in the middle of the day and go uhhh for World Schwa Day from our episode about real and silly linguistics holidays www.patreon.com/posts/142860...

A small balm in the face of the fragmenting and decaying internet of the early millennium. @michaelerard.bsky.social has pulled together decades of his writing about language into one volume.

Michael Erard@michaelerard.bsky.social · last mo.

THE LANGUAGE BEAT is here. For more than two decades, I wrote reportage, profiles, essays, and reviews about language. This book, which collects some of those pieces, is on sale now: amzn.to/4aokz3c (I'll announce when it goes onto other platforms.)

I've been having so much fun testing zines on people irl and figuring out what we should tweak before we launch them publicly for anyone to print off and share the linguistics joy! If you want to give comments on the drafts, there's still a little while left to see them before anyone else!

Lingthusiasm@lingthusiasm.com · 2mo ago

if you're the kind of person who likes finding out things before other people, you can see inside a fun new project we're working on by becoming a member at any level, including free! (they'll all be free to print off eventually though, that's the goal!) www.patreon.com/posts/160191...

The Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights is being updated and relaunched, and any institution, entity, group, or community anywhere in the world that works for the defense, promotion, and equality of languages ​​can register to participate in the process: www.dudling.org/en/participa...

Very grateful to Gerald for leading the linguistics team at La Trobe on this submission to the inquiry into racism, hate and violence directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It's important for linguists to use what we know about language to advocate against linguistic racism.

Gerald Roche @geraldroche.bsky.social · last mo.

In response to the current inquiry into racism, hate and violence directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, my colleagues and I made a submission focusing on linguistic racism. Link for the full submission in the next post.

Where to publish research on #lingcomm: www.superlinguo.com/post/8207037... An annotated and non-definitive list of some suggestions. If you have other suggestions I'd love to add them!

Where to publish research on lingcomm

I love seeing linguistics communication work, and the wonderful ways people do lingcomm to bring linguistics to new audiences. I do lingcomm as part of my job as an academic, which means that I also l...

superlinguo.com

We're getting close to a satisfyingly round number of free members on Patreon, and this month is an especially good time to join! A bonus episode specially unlocked for all members, paid and free! Plus, see ZINE DRAFTS before they're public 👀 Can you help us get a step closer?

Lingthusiasm — creating a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics!

Get more from Lingthusiasm on Patreon. creating a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics!. Support Lingthusiasm and get exclusive access to their work.

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We've unlocked this episode so I can make all the academics who are trying to write a pop book listen to it

Lingthusiasm@lingthusiasm.com · 2mo ago

Sometimes a phrase just leaps off the page and lodges in your mind. Other times your eyes wander away from the words In this episode we get enthusiastic about what makes for beautiful writing from a psycholinguistic perspective, with @juliesedivy.bsky.social author of Memory Speaks and Linguaphile

Sometimes a phrase just leaps off the page and lodges in your mind. Other times your eyes wander away from the words In this episode we get enthusiastic about what makes for beautiful writing from a psycholinguistic perspective, with @juliesedivy.bsky.social author of Memory Speaks and Linguaphile

117: What makes for beautiful writing, scientifically speaking

Sometimes, a phrase seems to leap off the page and lodge into your mind, crisp and shining like a precious jewel. Other times, you're reading something and it just won't stick, your eyes wandering awa

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Love to convert my non-academic parasocial friendships (podcasts) into academic parasocial friendships (citations)

Lauren Gawne@superlinguo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Was creeping the AI Con website and found out it's going to be available in paperback in October - so excited that @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social can find even more readers. www.penguin.com.au/books/the-ai...

Was creeping the AI Con website and found out it's going to be available in paperback in October - so excited that @emilymbender.bsky.social and @alexhanna.bsky.social can find even more readers. www.penguin.com.au/books/the-ai...

We've made this bonus episode free for anyone who follows us on Patreon, so whether you're a longtime fan of @allusionistshow.bsky.social or are more on our side of the crossover, this is a fun place to start!

Lingthusiasm@lingthusiasm.com · 2mo ago

In this long-awaited crossover bonus episode, we get enthusiastic about linguistics podcasting, career changes, and the importance of "failed" experiments with @helenzaltzman.bsky.social, host of @allusionistshow.bsky.social Listen to this episode for free on Patreon!

We have been having so much fun with this new project that occasionally I have to remind @gretchenmcculloch.com that @lingthusiasm.com is actually still a podcast and we probably need to record something:

Lingthusiasm@lingthusiasm.com · 2mo ago

if you're the kind of person who likes finding out things before other people, you can see inside a fun new project we're working on by becoming a member at any level, including free! (they'll all be free to print off eventually though, that's the goal!) www.patreon.com/posts/160191...

(chanting softly) zines zines zines zines

Lingthusiasm@lingthusiasm.com · 2mo ago

if you're the kind of person who likes finding out things before other people, you can see inside a fun new project we're working on by becoming a member at any level, including free! (they'll all be free to print off eventually though, that's the goal!) www.patreon.com/posts/160191...

In this long-awaited crossover bonus episode, we get enthusiastic about linguistics podcasting, career changes, and the importance of "failed" experiments with @helenzaltzman.bsky.social, host of @allusionistshow.bsky.social Listen to this episode for free on Patreon!

Bonus Episode 112: The Lingthusionist - Interview with Helen Zaltzman | Lingthusiasm

Bonus Episode 112: The Lingthusionist - Interview with Helen Zaltzman by Lingthusiasm on Patreon. Join Lingthusiasm's community for exclusive content and updates.

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Oh hi I heard we're posting linguistics shirts! Did you know you can cut the sleeves off and go PR your deadlift in them?

Lingthusiasm@lingthusiasm.com · 8mo ago

"Ask Me About the general concept of Pronouns" If you missed Lingthusiasm guest @kirbyconrod.bsky.social's pronouns t-shirt when it was on the Gender Reveal podcast merch store for a limited time, we've now brought it to ours! Proceeds help support the Kirby Conrod LGBTQ+ LingComm Grant

More people have read the tweet about this shirt than I have www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Mo...

"More people have read the text on this shirt than I have (White text)" Essential T-Shirt for Sale by Lingthusiasm

Wait, what? This wearable/portable version of the classic comparative illusion sentence "More people have been to Russia than I have" is sure to make people give you a double-take. • Millions of uniqu...

redbubble.com

Elizabeth Bear@matociquala.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Here's @johnchu.bsky.social rocking the most commented- upon t-shirt of the Pittsburgh Book Festival, which he tells me is @lingthusiasm.com merch. ( @scalzi.com had a great one too but I missed taking a photo.)

Universities: no/almost no funding for conference travel Travel: increasingly wildly expensive, unsafe for many Conferences: oh no, there's no remote option the disjuncture is not great

The call for papers is out for the 2026 Annual Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society! We'll be at UWA in Perth this year. als.asn.au/Conference/2... ( @auslingsoc.bsky.social ) #ALS2026

In which we discuss that genre of sf containing fantastical creatures but where the real mystery is other human cultures! Featuring Hellspark by Janet Kagan, What We Are Seeking by @lateonsetgirl.bsky.social and To Shape A Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

Lingthusiasm@lingthusiasm.com · 3mo ago

Sometimes a conversation just clicks. Other times, not so much. Where do our senses of what feels comfortable in a conversation come from, and how can they be so different from each other? In this episode we get enthusiastic about understanding aliens, fantastical creatures, & other human cultures!

Today was a good day at work.

Gretchen McCulloch@gretchenmcculloch.com · 3mo ago

I stopped the @lingthusiasm.com production meeting to make @superlinguo.bsky.social listen to These Are The Daves I Know when she was talking about several people named Dave because somehow she hadn't heard it before? So in case that's you, BOY do I have a CanCon classic for you to enjoy

Live from Lingthusiasm HQ, audio editing is undergoing an important quality control audit from the big boss (please say hi to Gremlin the cat!)

Peer Observation of Teaching - a structured worksheet template www.superlinguo.com/post/8156302...

Peer Observation of Teaching - a structured worksheet template

This post links to a template for a peer observation of teaching activity. It’s been designed for university teaching, but is flexible enough to be applied to other contexts too. Peer observation can ...

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