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Posts tagged "bonus"
Bonus 107: Swifties, amorch, Melbin, and bloopers! - Deleted Scenes from Adam Aleksic, Miguel Sánchez Ibáñez, and the advice episode
We’ve interviewed lots of great people on Lingthusiasm, and sometimes there’s a story or two that we just don’t have space for in the main episode, so here’s a bonus episode with our favourite recent outtakes! Think of it as a special bonus edition DVD from the past year of Lingthusiasm with director’s commentary and deleted scenes.
In this bonus episode, Lauren and Gretchen get enthusiastic about some of our favourite deleted bits from recent interviews that we didn’t quite have space to share with you. First, an excerpt from our interview with Adam Aleksic about tiktok and how different online platforms give rise to different kinds of communication styles. Second, a return to our interview with Miguel Sánchez Ibáñez for a bit about Spanish internet slang, -och, and why “McCulloch” looks like a perfect name for an author of a book about internet linguistics. Finally, deleted scenes from our advice episode, in which we reveal some Lingthusiasm lore about pronouncing “Melbourne” and imitating each other’s accents and answer questions about linguistics degrees and switching languages with people.
Plus, by popular request: bloopers!
Listen to this episode about some of our favourite deleted bits from recent episodes, and get access to many more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.
Bonus 106: The Mysterious Voynich Manuscript - Interview with Claire Bowern
In the 1600s, an antique book is recorded in an alchemist’s library in Prague, containing intriguing but puzzling drawings, like plants with unnatural cuboid roots, as well as a strange writing system, with some familiar letters and some utterly unfamiliar. This book became known as the Voynich Manuscript, after a Polish book dealer who purchased it in 1912, and the meaning (or lack thereof) that lies on its 240 parchment pages is a puzzle that’s intrigued cryptographers, historians, linguists, and more for centuries.
In this episode, Gretchen gets enthusiastic about the mysterious Voynich Manuscript with Dr. Claire Bowern, who’s a professor at Yale University, researcher of language documentation and historical linguistics, and creator of a class about the enduring enigma that is the Voynich Manuscript. We talk about what we can actually know about the manuscript for certain: no, it wasn’t created by aliens; yes, it does carbon-date from the early 1400s; and no, it doesn’t look like other early attempts at codes, conlangs, or ciphers. We also talk about what gibberish actually looks like, what deciphering medieval manuscripts has in common with textspeak, why the analytical strategies that we used to figure out Egyptian hieroglyphs from the Rosetta Stone and Linear B from Minoan inscriptions haven’t succeeded with the Voynich Manuscript, and finally, how we could know whether we’ve actually succeeded in cracking it one day.
Listen to this episode about the mysterious Voynich Manuscript with Dr. Claire Bowern, and get access to many more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.
Bonus 104: What’s in a nym? Synonyms, antonyms, and so many more
You might have learned about synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, and acronyms in school. But do you know about… autoantonyms, contronyms, hypernyms, hyponyms, metonyms, eponyms, anonyms, backronyms, matronyms, patronyms, retronyms, endonyms, exonyms, toponyms, telonyms, demonyms, razzonyms, oikonyms, AND phantonyms?
In this bonus episode, Lauren and Gretchen get enthusiastic about our favourite words ending in nym! Okay, technically it’s -onym (Greek for name, it’s the same root as the beginning of onomatopoeia), but nym feels catchier. We talk about how there are so many kinds of nym words that are weirder and wackier than classic synonyms and antonyms, how even synonyms and antonyms aren’t quite as straightforward as they seem, and why retronyms make people mad but are Gretchen’s absolute favourite. Plus: a tiny quiz segment on our favourite obscure and cool-sounding nyms!
Bonus 103: ¡Pos ya está! Translating Because Internet into Spanish with Miguel Sánchez Ibáñez
Because Internet, our cohost’s book about internet language, now exists in four additional languages: Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Spanish. But these translations are also very much acts of creation, of figuring out which things to translate literally, which to leave in English as it’s used globally, and which to translate figuratively so that the spirit of the original comes across more clearly – all questions that are especially acute when it comes to translating a book that is itself about language.
In this bonus episode, Gretchen gets enthusiastic about the joys and challenges of translating internet slang with Miguel Sánchez Ibáñez, linguist and translator of Because Internet into Spanish. We talk about why Because Internet was the toughest and also most entertaining book he’s ever translated (for some of the same reasons), from coming up with localized Spanish versions of vintage internet memes to making the silly names of pretend people in the example sentences just as silly in Spanish. We also talk about leaving breadcrumbs for future translators in the original text and the special challenge of translocalizing the title: Arroba Lengua isn’t a literal translation of Because Internet, but it fits similarly into Spanish internet slang.
Here are the links mentioned in the episode:
- Miguel Sánchez Ibáñez
- Miguel Sánchez Ibáñez on Bluesky
- Miguel’s own pop linguistics book in Spanish, ’La (neo)lógica de las lenguas’
- You can get Arroba Lengua, the Spanish translation of Because Internet at Piodepagina, Casadellibro, and other places Spanish-language books are sold (note that the ebook edition may be more readily available if you’re outside Europe)
- You can also get English, simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean copies of Because Internet here
- Lingthusiasm episode ‘How translators approach a text’
Bonus 102: Reading linguistic landscapes on street signs
When we walk around a place where people live, we often see signs of how the people there are thinking about language. Literal signs, from official signage reflecting language policies to informal public notes that reflect who their writers are assuming or hoping will read them. The study of these public and commercial signs, and what they mean about how people are using language in a place, is a field known as linguistic landscapes.
In this episode, Lauren and Gretchen get enthusiastic about linguistic landscapes and the inescapable linguist hobby of taking photos of linguistically interesting signage. We talk about contrasts between the signs in the Chinatowns of Montreal and Melbourne, renaming streets from colonial names to names in First Nations languages, how signs can show the shifting demographics of tourism in an area, when the menu is in one language but the “help wanted” sign is in a different one, and how bi- and multilingual Lost Cat signs show what languages people think their neighbours understand. We also talk about our most absurd sign stories, including the Russell Family Apology Plaque, and creative imaginings of official signage, such as the Latin no-smoking sign in a modern-day British train station.
Bonus 101: Why sci-fi gestures live long and prosper - Crossover with Imaginary Worlds
If you’re inventing a new world, why not invent a new gesture to go with it?
In this episode, Lauren gets enthusiastic about fictional gestures with Eric Molinsky, host of Imaginary Worlds, a podcast about sci-fi, fantasy and other genres of speculative fiction. We talk about the Vulcan salute from Star Trek, the Wakanda Forever salute from Black Panther, and the three-finger Hunger Games salute, and how all three have crossed over with additional symbolism into the real world. We also talk about gestures that have crossed over in the other direction, from the real-world origins of the Vulcan salute in a Jewish blessing, the two-finger blessing in the Foundation tv series from classical Latin and Greek oratory via Christian traditions, as well as religious gesture in the Penric and Desdemona series, smiles and shrugs in A Memory Called Empire, and more.
Bonus 100.5: Our very first swearing bonus episode, now unlocked!
In this bonus bonus episode, extra special bonus edition from the vault, Lauren and Gretchen get enthusiastic about our first sweary episode! We talk about real swears and words that may look or sound like swear words in one language but are completely innocuous in another (such as the mysteriously English-sweary word for “seal” in several European languages), the semantic bleaching of words like “sucks” and “rawdogging”, the experimentally-tested difference between swears and slurs, and how swearing can help if you (literally) find yourself in hot water.
This episode originally aired as our very first bonus episode in 2017, and in honour of our 100th bonus episode in 2025 we’ve made this version of it with updated sweary commentary available to all patrons, free and paid, so feel free to send it to your friends! Drop your favourite sweary facts in the comments below for others to enjoy.
Regular bonus episodes (and our entire back catalogue of 100 bonus episodes) are available for patrons at the Ling-thusiast tier or higher or you can purchase a one-time collection of all our book-themed bonus episodes or all our spiciest bonus episodes (including much more swearing), but we’re also really happy when people just give us their email address to get occasional updates as free members, so sometimes we’ll give you surprise perks like this one!
Listen to this episode about real and pseudo-swears for free by giving us a your email address on Patreon.
Bonus 100: Advice #2 - Fun linguistic experiments, linguistic etiquette, and language learning scenarios
Are there linguistics things in your life that you would like advice about? In honour of our 100th bonus episode of Lingthusiasm, and because our first advice episode was so popular, here’s another episode answering your advice questions, from the serious to the silly!
In this bonus episode, Lauren and Gretchen get enthusiastic about your linguistics questions! We give advice about fun linguistics experiments you can do with your friends, aging out of the coolest slang demographic (it will happen to us all eventually!), and several etiquette questions, including how much to accommodate other people’s accents, asking about other people’s linguistic backgrounds, and getting people to stop correcting your grammar by rechanneling them into linguistic curiosity. Plus, many questions on learning languages in various scenarios: when you have mixed feelings about how they’re doing gender, when you want to connect with a heritage language, when you’re seeking opportunities to practise but don’t wanna be weird about it, and when you’re trying to learn a less popular language for your area. And finally: a lightning round of more questions!
Listen to this episode about your linguistics questions, and get access to many more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.
Bonus 99: The linguistics of kissing 😘
Kissing, xoxo, quadrilabial clicks, blowing a kiss, chef’s kiss, bisous, kissy-face emoji, cataglottism, and more!
In this bonus episode, Lauren and Gretchen get enthusiastic about the linguistics of kissing! We talk about the technical phonetics terms for kissing (bilabial clicks…plus the classic ling student quadrilabial clicks joke) as well as how different cultures taxonomize types of kissing (the Roman osculum/basium/suavium distinction is still pretty useful!). We also talk about how toddlers acquire the “blow a kiss” gesture, how couples time their kisses around their sentences, and many ways of representing kissing in writing, such as xx, xoxo, and emoji.
Listen to this episode about the linguistics of kissing, and get access to many more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.
Bonus 98: Linguist Celebrities
Have you ever wondered if there are famous people who lead a hidden double life as a linguist? If you hang around linguists long enough, you’ll start hearing stories of them: musicians, athletes, politicians, and other people better known for their non-linguistic accomplishments who nonetheless have studied anywhere from one linguistics class once to a whole PhD – we’ll claim ‘em all!
In this bonus episode, Gretchen and Lauren get enthusiastic about linguist celebrities! We start with the historically famous Brothers Grimm and quickly move onto modern people of varying levels of fame, including a fantasy author Gretchen read in high school, the former Prime Minister of Latvia and former Premier of Ontario, a curiously large number of linguistics figure skaters plus a few other athletes, several linguistics musicians, a celebrity chef, and several nerd celebrities. We also talk about a few people who are famous within linguistics, including a recent memoir by Noam Chomsky’s assistant Bev Stohl about what it was like keeping him fueled with coffee. And finally, we reflect on running into authors of papers we’ve read at conferences, when people started recognizing us sometimes, and our tips and scripts for navigating celebrity encounters from both sides.
Know of any other celebrities with a linguistics background? Let us know, and maybe we’ll find enough of them to do a second celebrities episode someday!
Listen to this episode about linguist celebrities, and get access to many more bonus episodes by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon.
About Lingthusiasm
A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne.
Weird and deep conversations about the hidden language patterns that you didn't realize you were already making.
New episodes (free!) the third Thursday of the month.
