How to explain linguistics to your friends and family this holiday season
This time of year often involves leaving the cozy sanctuary of your linguistics department where everyone knows what a wug is and spending quality time with your non-linguist friends and family. Who, bless âem, are often a little bit confused about linguistics. So Iâve compiled a list of common questions and some resources to help you answer them. And if you end up needing a break, check out the linguistmas tag and my extensive archive of linguist humour, or contribute to the linguistics baked goods file.Â
What is linguistics exactly?Â
Explaining what linguistics is using geology and biology analogies
Brain surgeon analogy
Car analogy
Botany analogy
Subfields of linguistics explained using toy metaphors
âBecoming conscious of previously unconscious phenomena is one of the principle joys of linguistic workâ
So, youâre a linguist? How many languages do you know?Â
Why linguists hate being asked how many languages they know
Learning languages linguistically
Wow, linguistics, I guess Iâd better watch my grammar around you, right?
8 myths about language and linguistics
On the interplay between copyediting and descriptivism
We each have an idiolect, and theyâre all okay
How to have a conversation about language differences without being a prescriptivist
Thatâs not even in the dictionary! So many people are degrading language these days!Â
Anne Curzan on what makes a word ârealâ
xkcd on kids and text abbreviations and on grammar police vs fashion police
Erin McKean, actual lexicographer, on what it means when a word isnât in the dictionary
The kilogram model of language and whatâs wrong with the Americaâs ugliest accent challenge
Language is open source
Which English you speak has nothing to do with how smart you are
People have been complaining about kids degrading language since the Middle Ages
The many problems with the idea that emoji are in any way threatening the English language
Kids these days arenât ruining language
Donât you just hate it when people sayâŠ?
In defence of âunnecessaryâ words
Every argument youâll ever need for singular âtheyâ (plus the Canadian governmentâs support of it, why do we even have gendered pronouns, and a comparison with singular âyouâ)
In defence of hyperbolic âliterallyâ
Vocal fry and can we stop hating on how young women talk?
When it comes to Rachel Jeantel, whoâs really on trial here?Â
Can we just, like, get over the way women talk?
Move over Shakespeare, teen girls are the real language disruptors
The problem with talking about âsounding gayâ
Why Chaucer said âaxâ instead of âaskâ and why some still do
An interview with Alexandra DâArcy about why âlikeâ is so interesting
____ isnât a real language!Â
Indigenous languages, literacy, and the myth of the âunwritten languageâ
What if we talked about monolingual White children the way we talk about low-income children of color?
Myth-busting about sign languages
The strange reason deaf children arenât taught sign language
A linguistics degree? What are you going to do with that?
Check out the linguistics jobs series to help think about options beyond academia, or send people there to reassure them that options exist.Â
What kinds of gifts can I give the linguist in my life?
An extensive list of pop linguistics books and lingfic (be sure to read the comments!)
Here are linguistics merch/gift guide roundups from 2015, 2016, 2017, and Lingthusiasm merch: IPA scarves and descriptivist t-shirts, bags, and mugs
So I know this young person who might be interested in linguistics. Do you have any advice for them?
Any of the books in the list of books!
How to teach yourself linguistics online for freeÂ
Intrigued by the linguistics in Arrival? Hereâs what to check out next
Specifically for high schoolers: How to participate in the international linguistics olympiad and Linguistics resources for high school teachers
Advice on finding a linguistics undergrad, whether to go to grad school for linguistics (and more advice), and how to pick a linguistics graduate program
Tell me something interesting about linguistics!Â
My go-to at parties is the script in Explaining English plurals to non-linguists, or put on any episode of Lingthusiasm. Â
For a longer list of linguistic writing pitched at non-linguists, try here for articles Iâve written, here for other blogs, or here for some of my top blog posts. To write your own, see advice for writing pop linguistics articles and how pop linguistics differs from teaching and pop science. Or go for linguistics videos, linguistically-relevant games, or this list of linguistics and language podcasts. Â