Linguistics

Following up on "Bro!", I've discovered a useful coinage from Canada: Matthew Urichuk and Verónica Loureiro-Rodríguez, "Brocatives: Self-reported use of masculine nominal vocatives in Manitoba (Canada)." In It’s not all about you: New perspectives on address research, 2019: This study focuses on nominal vocatives that have been traditionally associated with male speakers and addressees (familiarizers […]

On walkways around Penn's campus, I'm hearing bro more and more often. Especially common, or at least especially striking, is a monosyllabic response meaning something like "You're kidding!" A: So then they [blah blah]… B: Bro! …which I'm hearing as often among groups of female students as male students (though I admit that the added […]

From Barbara Phillips Long: In a cooking competition show that I was watching as an antidote to all the political news I read, the chefs were assigned canned ackee as an ingredient. I hadn't thought about ackee before; I mostly recognize the word from a song by Harry Belafonte that refers to ackee: Down […]

Because there are so many excellent entries of interest to Language Log readers in various fields, I am including all of those in this extensive list; "Genetic History of Scythia." Andreeva, Tatiana V. et al. Science Advances 11, no. 30 (July 25, 2025): eads8179. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads8179. Updated 27 March 2026. "Decoding Parrot Duets: Complex Communication […]

Or maybe "initialism lengths"? Wiktionary defines initialism as "a term formed from the initial letters of several words or parts of words, which is itself pronounced letter by letter"; while some (fussy) people argue that the term acronym should be reserved for words like laser (= "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation") or NATO […]

Following up on "Meadow writing", I thought it might be interesting to look at LOTR-associated word frequencies, using the the "weighted log-odds-ratio, informative dirichlet prior" algorithm Monroe, Colaresi, and Quinn 2009, "Fightin' Words", as discussed in seven previous LLOG posts. In particular, I thought I'd compare The Fellowship of the Ring to 16 of Charles […]

Sylvain Farrel is a student nurse from Indonesia. He came to America four years ago and speaks perfect English. I asked him how that is possible, how did he learn English so quickly? Sylvain said that he studied English during his elementary and middle school education. His national language is Bahasa (Indonesia), i.e., Indonesian. By […]

At BMR, the first thing the doctors, nurses, and techs ask patients when they interview them is "Do you feel any pain?" And they want you to quantify it on a scale of 1-3-5 / small-medium-big. What is pain? Physical, mental? I tend to think of it rather as Sanskrit duḥkha (/ˈduːkə/ दुःख) than as […]

Following up on the DP's April Fools "AI-yatollah" article, an Ayatollah pun from Admiral James Stavridis, USN, Ret.: [image or embed] — Admiral James Stavridis, USN, Ret. (@admiralstav.bsky.social) April 8, 2026 at 7:57 PM Wikipedia explains the etymology of Ayatollah: The title is originally derived from the Arabic word Āyah post-modified with the word Allah, […]

Today's xkcd: Mouseover title: "I think I accidentally installed an Overton window in my bedroom. A few months ago, the sun wasn't in my face in the morning, but now it is." ICYMI: Wikipedia on "Overton Window". More comically interesting: the menu of "Mode" choices now routinely displayed below the cartoon: You should try them […]

From Mark Dow: The ACLU's national legal director is Cecillia Wang. She argued the birthright citizenship case, Trump v. Barbara, in front of the Supreme Court this month. This case heavily depends on the 1898 case Wong Kim Ark. I asked Cecillia — a birthright citizen herself — whether the names Wang and Wong are […]

From "Everyday Politics in Russia", The Eurasian Knot 4/6/2026: The podcast starts with a message from listener Amanda, who has been reading all of Dostoevsky for a workshop in Russia. In addressing the podcast's host Sean Guillory, she says (starting at 4:21.5): Your browser does not support the audio element. I sympathize with you, Sean, […]

The battlelines are being drawn ever clearer. On one side are those who believe that it's all right touse AIto help with the preparation of an (academic) article, essay, or paper. On the other side are those who think that the utilization of AI is impermissible for such purposes. As soon as they discern the […]

The most recent SMBC: The mouseover title: "We will have had peace immediately!" The AfterComic:

Today's xkcd: Mouseover title: "Communication is one of the most popular ways to transmit information, ahead of rivals such as" The explanation and discussion on explainxkcd.

Study of 1,700 languages reveals surprising hidden patternsLanguages may seem wildly different, but new research shows they follow surprisingly consistent—and deeply human—rules. Science News, Max Planck Society (4/5/26) Summary A massive new analysis of over 1,700 languages shows that some long-debated “universal” grammar rules are actually real. By using cutting-edge evolutionary methods, researchers found that […]