How Finns From Around Finland Say “I”. The Formal Form Is “minä” And Default Informal Form Is

constantly torn between "i wish I could magically learn this language immediately and speak it perfectly" and "part of language acquisition is the process, and learning it immediately wouldn't have as much meaning or significance to me"

My favorite jokes are about mispronouncing philosophers' names but I'm afraid it's a nietzsche subgenre

Source

… it’s inewgh!

101 places to get enthusiastic about linguistics

In honour of Lingthusiasm's 100th episodiversary, we've compiled this list of 101 public-facing places where linguists and linguistics nerds hang out and learn things! 

17 podcasts about linguistics

Lingthusiasm — A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics! 

The Vocal Fries — Language discrimination and how to fight it

The History of English — From Proto-Indo-European to Shakespeare in 180 episodes (and still running!)

A Language I Love Is — Guests (some linguists, some not) talk about languages they love and why

En Clair — Forensic linguistics and literary detection

Because Language — New guests every episode discuss their linguistic interests

The Allusionist — Stories about language and the people who use it 

Subtitle — A podcast about languages and the people who speak them

Field Notes — Five seasons on linguistic fieldwork 

Tomayto Tomahto — Language meets cog sci, politics, history, law, anthropology, and more

Word of Mouth — A long-running and wide-ranging linguistics program on BBC 4.

Words Unravelled - A new and very well edited etymology podcast with popular creators RobWords and Jess Zafarris

Something Rhymes with Purple — Learn the background behind another word or phrase each episode

Lexitecture — A classic etymology podcast with a huge back catalogue

A Way with Words — A "lively and upbeat" public radio call-in show about language and culture

Språket — A radio program in Swedish answering listener questions about language. We don't speak Swedish, but this was the most-mentioned non-English content in our listener survey!

Living Voices — A podcast in Spanish about endangered languages of the Amazon

12 nonfiction books about linguistics

Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch (Amazon; Bookshop) — A linguist shows how the internet is transforming the way we communicate

How Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning and Languages Live or Die (Amazon; Bookshop) by David Crystal — A journey through the different subsystems of language 

That's Not What I Meant!: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships by  Deborah Tannen (Amazon; Bookshop) — A pioneering researcher on conversations gives advice on how they can go wrong

Memory Speaks: On Losing and Reclaiming Language and Self by Julie Sedivy (Amazon; Bookshop) — Scientific and personal reflections on nostalgia, forgetting, and language loss

The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves to Sand Worms, the Words Behind World-Building by David J Peterson (Amazon; Bookshop) — an accessible guide to making your own conlang 

Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don't Rhyme—And Other Oddities of the English Language by Arika Okrent (Amazon; Bookshop) — The history behind English's many oddities

Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell (Amazon; Bookshop) — A well-researched pushback on sexist language ideology

Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper (Amazon; Bookshop) — A lifelong lexicographer discusses the job and the things she's learned along the way 

Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages by Gaston Dorren (Amazon; Bookshop) — A quick, funny tour of the quirks of 60 European languages

Bina: First Nations Languages, Old and New by Felicity Meakins, Gari Tudor-Smith, and Paul Williams (Amazon; Bookshop) — The story of Australian indigenous languages' resistance and survival

Says Who?: A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words by Anne Curzan (Amazon; Bookshop) — A writers' style and grammar guide focused on real usage, not made-up rules

The Language Lover's Puzzle Book: A World Tour of Languages and Alphabets in 100 Amazing Puzzles by Alex Bellos (Amazon; Bookshop) — Solve puzzles about writing, grammar, and meaning drawn from real and fictional languages

Poems from the Edge of Extinction: An Anthology of Poetry in Endangered Languages (Amazon; Bookshop) — An anthology of poems in endangered languages, with commentary

6 linguistically-inspired novels

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang (Amazon; Bookshop) — Imagine a world where linguistics was as vital — and as ethically compromised — as engineering is in ours

True Biz by Sara Nović (Amazon; Bookshop) — Love, friendship, and struggle at a residential high school for the Deaf

Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by by Mark Dunn (Amazon; Bookshop) — "A progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable" full of wordplay and weirdness

Semiosis by Sue Burke (Amazon; Bookshop) — Human space colonists communicate with sentient plants

Translation State by Ann Leckie (Amazon; Bookshop) — What does life look like for a perfectly genetically engineered alien–human translator? (Spoiler: weird, that's what.)

Stories of your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (Amazon; Bookshop) — Includes the long short story that became Arrival, plus other reflections on humanity and change

13 linguistics youtube channels

Crash Course Linguistics — A whole linguistics course in 16 videos

Tom Scott's Language Files — Pithy language facts explained quickly and clearly

NativLang — Language reconstruction and the history of writing

Geoff Lindsay — Facts (and some scholarly opinions) about regional English pronunciation

The Ling Space — An educational channel all about linguistics

langfocus — A language factoid channel that digs deeper than many

K Klein — Language quirks, spelling reform, and a little conlanging

biblaridion — Teaching about conlanging and worldbuilding, with lots of linguistics along the way

RobWords — "A channel for lovers and learners of English"

Otherwords — "the fascinating, thought-provoking, and funny stories behind the words and sounds we take for granted"

LingoLizard — Widely spoken languages and their quirks, comparisons, and history

linguriosa — Spanish linguistics (in Spanish), including learning tips and linguistic history

human1011 — Quick accessible facts about linguistics (and sometimes other things) 

Simon Roper — Language evolution and historical English pronunciation

10 shortform video channels about linguistics (tiktok/reels)

etymologynerd — Internet speak, etymologies and more! (reels)

linguisticdiscovery — Writing systems, language families, and more (reels)

jesszafaris — Fun facts about words, etymologies, and more (reels)

cmfvoices — An audiobook director talks about the linguistics of voice acting (eels)

mixedlinguist — A linguistics professor comments on the language of place, identity, politics, technology, and more (reels)

landontalks — Linguistic quirks of the US South (reels)

sunnmcheaux — Language and culture from Harvard's first and only professor of Gullah (reels)

dexter.mp4 — Talks about many branches of science, but loves linguistics enough to have a linguisticsy tattoo (reels)

danniesbrain — Linguistics and psychology from a researcher who studies both (reels)

wordsatwork — Quick facts on languages, families, and linguistic concepts (reels)

the_language — The Ojibwe language — plus food, dancing, and more

Broo learning a more obscure language is so hard because there is both so little and so much to work off of. Like I’m trying to figure out where to start with Tibetan, I can barely find any resources due to so much Chinese imperialism within Tibet making Tibetan as a language rare as hell, and each time I think I start to figure out the bare bone basics, I find something that opens more questions than answers. Like what the fuck is a post-postscript? Or a postscript for that matter? And are they different from the standard Tibetan alphabet? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENT ALPHABETS?! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS, ENGLISH?!

strangely common misconception that words have basically the same meanings in every langauge and that translation is just a matter of identifying which exact word in the target language corresponds to the word in the original language

I have this paradoxical emotional process where listening to music in a language I don't understand is immensely appealing and pleasant to me, and it immediately makes me want to study the language, essentially taking away the reason why I was listening

I just wanted to give my answer in the comments, but I thought that replying in another post would be more practical, and it might also help other people :) So, I'll try my best to explain, don't hesitate to tell me if it's not clear! First of all, in your list, only "Qui est-ce ?" can be used as a question in this form. For the others, you need to add other words. Also : - que = what and que + est = qu' - qui = who and qui + il = qu' • Qu'est-ce que... ? This is used to ask "What is..." with a direct object - Qu'est-ce que c'est ? — What is it?/What is this? - Qu'est-ce que tu fais ? — What are you doing? - Qu'est-ce que tu veux faire ce soir ? — What do you want to do tonight? → You can replace "qu'est-ce que" with "quoi" as a direct object (more informal form) - Qu'est-ce que c'est ?/C'est quoi ? - Qu'est-ce que tu fais ?/Tu fais quoi ? - Qu'est-ce que tu veux faire ce soir ?/Tu veux faire quoi ce soir ? • Qu'est-ce qui... ? This is used to ask "What..." where "what" is the subject - Qu'est-ce qu'il se passe ? — What is happening? - Qu'est-ce qui est rouge ? — What is red? - Qu'est-ce qui t'intéresse ? — What interests you?

→ You can replace "qu'est-ce que" with "quoi" as the subject (more informal form)

- Qu'est-ce qu'il se passe ?/ Il se passe quoi ? - Qu'est-ce qui est rouge ?/C'est quoi qui est rouge ? - Qu'est-ce qui t'intéresse ?/C'est quoi qui t'intéresse ? • Qui est-ce ? This is correct as it is, it's used when asking about someone's identity - (Knock on the door) Qui est-ce ? — Who is it? - (Showing someone in a photo) Qui est-ce ? — Who is he/sher? • Qui est-ce qui... ? This is used to ask "Who..." where "who" is the subject - Qui est-ce qui a fait ça ? — Who did this? - Qui est-ce qui chante ? — Who is singing? - Qui est-ce qui cuisine ? — Who is cooking? → You can replace "qui est-ce qui" with "qui" as the subject (more informal form) - Qui est-ce qui a fait ça ?/Qui a fait ça ? - Qui est-ce qui chante ?/Qui chante ? - Qui est-ce qui cuisine ?/Qui cuisine ? • Qui est-ce que... ? This is used to ask "Who..." with a direct object - Qui est-ce que tu as vu ? — Who did you see? - Qui est-ce que tu cherches ? — Who are you looking for? - Qui est-ce que tu écoutes ? — Who are you listening to? → You can replace "qui est-ce que" with "qui" as a direct object (more informal form) - Qui est-ce que tu as vu ?/T'as vu qui ? - Qui est-ce que tu cherches ?/Tu cherches qui ? - Qui est-ce que tu écoutes ?/Tu écoutes qui ?

• To sum up: - Qu'est-ce que... → What... (direct object) - Qu'est-ce qui... → What... (subject) - Qui est-ce ? → Who is it? - Qui est-ce qui... → Who... (subject) - Qui est-ce que... → Who... (direct object)

Hope this helps! Feel free to tell me if you still have questions!

HELP!!!!

French teachers, please help with these chaos of questions!!!!

Qu'est-ce que?

Qu'est-ce qui?

Qui est-ce?

Qui est-ce qui?

Qui est-ce que?

My poor head! Its crazy!

PLEASE explain me the meaning of all of these.

I love untranslatable words and expressions! Sometimes it turns out so poetic I'm just like "why don't we have that???". But I think also of the old words very specific that we lost during time (hello old English, Latin, ancient Greek and all the old languages) and that makes me like "wow we can use only one word for what and not using a weird several-word-expression".

They make me fall in love with languages again and again

i fucking love foreign languages because while im glad english is my first since its stupid hard to learn, ive heard so many phrases and words in different languages that cant accurately be translated into english. like thats a special unique saying exclusive to that language that there arent words for in english. sometimes its the foulest assemblage of curse words ive ever heard and other times its something so gorgeous im like “you have a word for that???” holy shit. i love languages so much

the swears that non-native-english-speakers come up with are absolutely fantastic sometimes. my friend just said “she is fuck as shit” instead of “she is fucking shit” and now i cant stop saying things are fuck as shit. the weather is fuck as shit. my homework is fuck as shit. phenomenal.