Our very first episode, answering real language questions from real listeners! And boy do we live up to our no-research policy. (What is the truth about bubblers? TEACH THE CONTROVERSY!)
Jump right to:
- 00:43 Thing of the Day: Ambiguity (...or is it?)
- 04:28 In the English word ⟨scent⟩, is the ⟨s⟩ or the ⟨c⟩ silent?
- 11:50 Has our study of linguistics caused us to consciously change how we talk?
- 25:48 How should you pluralize superhero names?
- 34:37 Can "informal" mean "giving information to the reader" along with "not formal"?
- 39:30 The Puzzler: Can you find a word that has three double letters in a row?
Covered in this episode:
- Fun with affixes!
- English “soft c” spelling rules
- Awkward teenage spelling reform phases
- A hot take not taken
- Obligatory (incorrect) citation of the Martha’s Vineyard accent study
- How to tell if you should study linguistics
- Obligatory mention of “bubbler”
- Why is “bubbler” localised SO SPECIFICALLY?
- Everyone needs to see Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
- Hot takes on Spider-Men, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Attorney General
- In-laws and Sinlaws
- Obligatory Latin-based explanations
- ⟨bassoon⟩ and ⟨balloon⟩ are basically the same word
Links and other post-show thoughts:
- We have no link to back up Sarah’s assertion that ⟨sc⟩ makes an [ʃ] sound in Late Latin and modern Italian, despite a wide search. However, ⟨conscious⟩ is an English word where ⟨sc⟩ makes an [ʃ] sound, so that's almost as good.
- The Nantucket study, which was actually done in Martha’s Vineyard (no research, y'all)
- Confirmed: Kohler is a town named after the company named after the founding family
- Bubbler is related to a Kohler trademark
- Bubbler is not related to a Kohler trademark
- I don't know what to think about bubbler anymore (They exist in Portland, OR, too!)
- Fun fact: Sarah heard “Spider-Mans” in the wild the week after we recorded this podcast, explaining that "Into the Spider-Verse" has six total “Spider-Mans”. Native speaker intuition for the win!
- Etymologies of inform versus informal
- Turns out that ⟨informative⟩ ALSO used to be an inflammable-style contranym! (Well, sort of. It used to mean ⟨formative⟩. What even.)
Ask us questions:
Send your questions (text or voice memo) to questions@linguisticsafterdark.com, or find us as @lxadpodcast on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Credits:
Linguistics After Dark is produced by Emfozzing Enterprises. Eli edits, Jenny transcribes, and Sarah does show notes. Our music is "Covert Affair" by Kevin McLeod.
Thanks for listening!
