When Twitter comedian and author Jonny Sun began to write his book, "everyone's a aliebn when ur a aliebn too," he had to write down the rules of the cutesy grammar of the language he invented.
Iâm on the World in Words podcast talking about the linguistics of jomny sun:Â
If an alien landed on Earth, how would it speak?
According to Jonathan Sun, a self-described âwriter, illustrator and person from Twitter,â an alien would probably sound something like a curious toddler prone to typos.
Sun, who is a PhD student at MIT, is the author of the new book, âeveryoneâs a aliebn when ur a aliebn too,â a sort of childrenâs book for adults, filled with simple line drawings and existential one-liners. [...]
Central to Sunâs humor is his unique writing style, riddled with misspellings and abbreviations.
For example, his Twitter profile reads: âaliebn confuesed abot humamn lamgauge.â The âaliebnâ is Sunâs main alter ego, on Twitter and in his book â a lumpy-headed figure with a thick outline.
But these arenât just accidental typos.
âI call this kind of misspelling or weird grammar âstylized verbal incoherence,ââ said Gretchen McCulloch, internet linguist and co-creator of the podcast Lingthusiasm. âBy adjusting the spelling, or the grammar, or how you put the words together, youâre indicating that youâre feeling so excited, or overwhelmed, or tired, or sad, or emotional in general that you canât even string words together.â Â
Iâm also really excited to see a sneak peek at jomnyâs style guide from the book:Â
McCulloch also notes that âbâ and âmâ are whatâs known as bilabials in linguistics â letters that are made by putting the lips together. Whether or not we pronounce the âbâ in âaliebnâ out loud, thereâs something inherently appealing about bilabials.âThereâs something cute about those letters,â McCulloch said. âI think those are kind of cute because those are some of the first sounds that babies make, âba-ba-ba.â â
Read the whole article or listen on the World in Words website.Â
