#lingthusiasm
If you’re Canadian, there really is a specific moment in your life where you consciously decided to rebel against the US and say “zed” instead of “zee”
I’ve been catching up on Lingthusiasm lately, the excellent linguistics podcast by Gretchen McCullochandLauren Gawne, and ran into their episode about untranslatability. You can go listen to the whole thing - it’s unsurprisingly pretty fun! But it made me also think of this article by Zach Davisson on translating sound effects from Japanese to English:
The greatest challenge you will face as a manga translator is the sound of silence. I mean that literally. When it comes to silence, Japanese has a specific sound effect for it. English doesn’t. When a Japanese character walks into a room and is encountered with “sheeeen,” readers know the room is deadly silent. When a Japanese comedian tells a joke and it falls flat, the comedian is confronted with the horrifying sound of “sheen”—the sound of silence. English has no equivalent. It is untranslatable.
There are definitely onomatopoeia that do have translations (e.g. “wan wan” in Japanese going to “bow wow” or “woof” in English). But there are ones that don’t map easily, and yet are still very important to communicating within that visual space, as Davisson explains. You need to have sound effects, and leaving them as just the Japanese sounds transcribed into English doesn’t really work, because what seems totally natural to a Japanese speaker will mean nothing to an English speaker with no Japanese knowledge.
Well, maybe not nothing: there does appear to be some level of underlying meaning to particular sound profiles across cultures. But that doesn’t mean that the specifics of the intended meaning will get across for that particular situation. If you read the whole piece from Davisson, he discusses some strategies, but doesn’t bring up one that I like, even if it’s not actually sound effects, exactly: just writing out the action, as on this comic page from a work by our graphics team. It’s not like “nod” or “fiddle” works as a sound effect, exactly, but the font helps fill out the action in a way that works for me.
Anyway, onomatopoeia is a translation problem that doesn’t have a great solution, so you just have to pick something and be consistent about it. And how do you deal with the Japanese sound of silence? Davisson’s preferred solution is also mine:
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Hi All,
Happy New Year and good news - I passed my dissertation proposal defense and should now have some time to keep posting articles (as I’ll be teaching an undergrad sociolinguistic course in the spring and may need to brush up on some classics). I hope your 2018 ended with a bit of joy for the new year, and here’s a great article by Gretchen McCullochaboutemojis teaching young children to learn language to hold you over in the meantime! Happy Holidays!
LL Recipe Comparison:
This article reminds me of the recipe for Linguine with Artichokes and Lemon:
Much as this article goes over the steps children take to acquire language, this recipe gives you nice and easy steps to turn artichoke hearts into delicious tangy goodness! The rosemary, lemon zest, and whipping cream add a special touch to this dish, just as the article’s addition of an explanation of how adults text in emoji charades or to create art while kids tend to stop sending strings of emojis when they learn to read is what sets this article apart. Bon Appétit!
MWV 1/1/19
April 2022: #103papers, Lingthusiasm liveshow, and LingComm Grantees
My newsletter for April 2022: #103papers, Lingthusiasm liveshow, and LingComm Grantees
This month, I started a new reading project! It’s inspired by a paper by Evan Kidd and Rowena Garcia that came out last year, and which surveys the languages represented by all of the papers published in the four main child language acquistion research journals. Kidd & Garcia find that these journals contain papers about 103 languages; while this number is small compared to the total number of…
March 2022: PIE Day and Memory Speaks
My newsletter for March 2022: PIE Day and Memory Speaks
Here are some Pi Day (3rd month, 14th day) facts about the PIE (Proto-Indo-European). Both of these guys were named William Jones, confusingly enough.
https://twitter.com/GretchenAMcC/status/1503502531934175235
The main episode of Lingthusiasm was Word order, we love (transcript). The bonus episode was Behind the scenes on how linguists come up with research topics. The deadline for the…
February 2022: Teaching with Because Internet survey and Lingthusiasm liveshow in April
My newsletter for February 2022: Teaching with Because Internet survey and Lingthusiasm liveshow in April
I set up a survey for anyone who’s been using Because Internet for teaching – put in what you’ve been doing and I’ll compile and share it with other instructors!
https://twitter.com/GretchenAMcC/status/1493305798872739843
The main episode of Lingthusiasm was Knowledge is power, copulas are fun. The bonus episode was Emoji, Mongolian, and Multiocular O ꙮ – Dispatches from the Unicode…
January 2022: LSA, LingComm Grants, and spectrograms
My monthly newsletter for January 2022: LSA, LingComm Grants, and spectrograms
I started the year at a rather surreal LSA 2022, the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, which I’d hoped to attend in person in Washington DC but moved online at the last minute, along with what seemed to be most of the other attendees. It was nonetheless nice to see people virtually as well as help judge the Five Minute Linguist competition again.
This month we also announced…
Gretchen:hey we should use tumblr blaze to tell people an interesting thing about linguistics!
Lauren: but, um, we don’t do ads?
Gretchen:this is different, people are using it to promote like, photos of their pets, it’s cute!
Lauren:okay, so what should we tell them?
Gretchen:we could link to a photo of our producer…
Lauren:we’re an audio podcast, people are going to be disappointed if they start out expecting to get cat pics all the time
Gretchen:okay true. hm.
Lauren: linguistics facts wouldn’t be misleading though
Gretchen:WAIT
Gretchen: I’ve got it
Lauren:what
Gretchen: the Eeyore thing
Lauren: the Eeyore thing?
Gretchen:okay, so you know how the secondary animals in Winnie the Pooh all have really obvious names? Like, there’s a rabbit named Rabbit, an owl named Owl, a piglet named Piglet, two kangaroos called Kanga and Roo. And then there’s Eeyore
Lauren: who also has an obvious name
Gretchen: yeah, obvious to you and A. A. Milne, who both have non-rhotic accents! I was a full adult when I learned that Eeyore was just the sound a donkey makes, like it’s the British spelling of “hee-haw”
Lauren:and Australian! I have always known this
Gretchen: not for me! I still remember exactly where I was when I found out, I just spent the next five minutes saying “Eeyore” to myself in a British accent
Lauren: so, just so we’re clear, your plan is to spend $10 in the hope that a few randomly selected people scrolling through tumblr will pause and say “Eeyore” at the screen with and without the R?
Gretchen: yes, this sounds perfect, yes.
another great use of sponsored posts tbh
I’m now wondering if the Icelandic translator who localised the names realised this. Most of the names make sense but there are some that are just phonetic changes like Roo becoming Gúri
Pooh - Bangsímon (Bangsi - Teddy), Piglet - Gríslingur, Rabbit - Kaninga (Kanína would be rabbit),. Kanga & Roo - Kanga & Gúri, Owl - Ugla,. Tigger - Tumi Tígur.
Eeyore became Eyrnaslapi for some reason…. Slack ears
Icelandic side of tumblr, please help
Lingthusiasm merch! IPA scarves, descriptivist t-shirts, and Lingthusiasm logo stickers
Lingthusiasm the podcast transforms your boring commute or chores into a lively, nerdy conversation, and by popular demand, you can now wear your linguistics fandom on your sleeve, around your neck, and surrounding your coffee or books!
Lingthusiasm merch on RedBubble
We’ve decided to use RedBubble for a couple of reasons. They ship to a broad range of countries for a reasonable price, which was very important us as an Australian and a Canadian who are used to getting dinged on shipping, and since we know we have listeners all over the world. We’re also excited about the scarves and the zippered pouches to put your pens and cables in, which are a cool addition to your typical t-shirts and mugs (but don’t worry, we still have t-shirts and mugs if you like them!). Lingthusiasm merch also helps us keep the show running and makes a great gift for the linguistics enthusiast in your life.
We have three designs, available in various colours and on various items:
IPA Scarves
Stylish enough to wear to conferences, subtle enough to wear to the grocery store, and sure to amaze and delight your colleagues when they realize this isn’t your typical alphabet motif, this IPA scarf wraps you in a soft, vibrant hug of stealth nerdery.
Hang out with all your favourite characters from the International Phonetic Alphabet (2015 edition) in white text on a navy blue,red, or olive background. Symbols are arranged artistically, rather than by meaning, so it’s safe to wear in an exam room. But if you can come up with any inadvertent natural classes no one else has spotted yet, let us know and we’ll send you a sticker!
This semi-translucent scarf doubles as simply a large square of fabric, and can be repurposed as a nerdy patterned wall hanging, curtain, or tablecloth for your office. Or cut it up and resew it into whatever your imagination desires! (Pocket squares?)
Not judging your grammar, just analysing it
Some things, you explain so often, that you might as well just carry them around. Now you can! Push back against language peevery, promote the idea that language can be analyzed scientifically, and amuse the heck out of your fellow linguists.
Available as a mug,tote bag,zippered pouch,two notebooks, and on various colours of t-shirt (classic,fitted, and relaxedcuts).
Lingthusiasm Logo
Bring your podcast listening off your phone and into the world, show off your Lingthusiasm support, and spot other Lingthusiasm listeners in the wild with these Lingthusiasm logo items.
Available in Lingthusiasm bright green on white, as twostickers,mug,tote bag,zippered pouch,notebook, and t-shirt (classic, fitted, and relaxedcuts).
Want a colour or item we don’t have?
We’re also introducing a new Patreon perk for all patrons! If you like the looks of something in the store but want it in a different colour or on a different object, we’ll make a custom version for you at no extra charge! Want a scarf in purple instead of navy, red, or olive? Want the NOT JUDGING text on a tank top instead of a t-shirt? Now you can! (Subject to what’s possible on Redbubble.) More details on the Lingthusiasm Patreon: www.patreon.com/lingthusiasm
We’re already enjoying our own soft scarves and shiny stickers (had to test ‘em out, naturally!) and we’re so excited to see your photos and hear your stories about how you’re bringing Lingthusiasm items into your life!
I am really excited about both the IPA scarves and the NOT JUDGING YOUR GRAMMAR, JUST ANALYSING IT items.
First of all, there’s a lot of grammar snob, prescriptivist merch out there and not much for the other side. Why should “I’m silently judging your grammar” or “there, they’re, their” still be the main things that come up when you search for linguistics tshirts and mugs? Linguists don’t believe this! We need to make descriptivism cool and fashionable instead!
Second of all, while clever linguistics tshirts are great, I don’t really wear tshirts with writing on them at conferences and other formal situations. But conferences have a peak density of linguists to admire your clever linguistics clothing! What’s a dressed-up-nerd supposed to do?
A few months ago, I discovered customizable scarves, and I began to dream. What if…I put IPA symbols on it, small enough that you could wear it to the grocery store, but totally amazing for people who get it?
Originally, I was just going to make myself a scarf. But then I mentioned it to Lauren, and she wanted one. Maybe even two, in different colours, to match your conference-wear on both days. We figured, well, if we were both so excited about getting to wear IPA scarves, then maybe other people would be too, especially since the ALS and LSA meetings are both coming up.
Turns out scarves have great features as merch items! They’re sublimation printed, which means they’re really soft and have no textured layer of silkscreen. They’re also one size fits all, and light/unbreakable (i.e. easy to ship!).
We’re really excited to share the NOT JUDGING YOUR GRAMMAR, JUST ANALYSING IT items and the IPA scarves with you, give you another way to support the show, and help your non-linguist friends and relatives with better gift ideas for you. Please do tag @lingthusiasm if you have any pictures or stories to share about wearing, sharing, or creatively repurposing the merch!
I love the NOT JUDGING YOUR GRAMMAR, JUST ANALYSING IT idea, and I’m gonna have to figure out which of those items to get.
I also like that it has a comma splice!
Post link
2017 was a year where lots of things I’d been working on in the years prior were finally ready to share! I’ve made my ‘top 10 things about 2017′ list below, and most of them are really building on work done in 2015 and 2016.
Similarly, there are already things in the pipeline for 2018 that I’m looking forward to sharing with you. It will be the second year of my three-year postdoc at La Trobe university, so things on that project are picking up steam, but I don’t have to get too distracted by job-hunting yet.
Top Superlinguo posts of 2017
- The Standard Lexical Sets for English as emoji
- Email is a genre: A genre you can be awesome at
- Chart of the most common speech sounds across languages
- The Great Language Game became The Great Language Experiment (and it has a sequel!)
- The relationship between gesture and thinking/speaking
- Review of Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper
- A sentence containing (almost) all the vowel sounds of English
- Why say ‘nieces and nephews’ when you can say ‘niblings’?
- Linguistics and Language Podcasts
- Lauren’s PhD/Postdoc tips
- What gesture can teach us about emoji
- Why can you behead someone, but you can’t beleg them?
- The Research Unit for Indigenous Language (RUIL) language memes
- Schwa cookie-cutter
Lingthusiasm podcast links for 2017
Lingthusiasm was one of my 2017 highlights. Working with Gretchen McCulloch on this project is a delight, mostly because we both just really love talking about linguistics. You can find all of our episodes here, below are the 2017 episodes:
4.Inside the Word of the Year vote
5.Colour words around the world and inside your brain
6.All the sounds in all the languages – the International Phonetic Alphabet
7.Kids these days aren’t ruining language
8.People who make dictionaries: Review of Kory Stamper’s book Word by Word
9.The bridge between words and sentences — Constituency
10.Learning languages linguistically
11.Layers of meaning — Cooperation, humour, and Gricean Maxims
12.Sounds you can’t hear - Babies, accents, and phonemes
13.What Does it Mean to Sound Black? Intonation and Identity Interview with Nicole Holliday
14.Getting into, up for, and down with prepositions
15.Talking and thinking about timeWe launched a Patreon for the podcast, and released 10 bonus episodes there. We now also have lingthusiastic merch, including:
- scarves with a subtly nerdy IPA print on them,
- stickers with our logo,
- various items that say NOT JUDGING YOUR GRAMMAR, JUST ANALYSING IT.
My Top 10 Things of 2017
I did this as a Twitter list last year, but I like that it provided me with a summary of proof that I had got things done, so here’s my list for 2017.
1.Lingthusiasm took on a life of its own. The podcast that I co-host with Gretchen McCulloch is now over a year old. A year in we reached over 100k listens! We also have a financially viable model through our Patreon,two full episodes a month, and some great merch. We also did a sold-out liveshow at Argo Bookshop in Montreal.
2.The Austin Principles of Data Citation in Linguistics were published. I became a founding co-chair of the Linguistics Data Interest Group, a new RDA group to improve data citation and transparency. The Austin Principles are one of our first outputs.
3. My edited volume with Nathan Hill was published. Evidential Systems of Tibetan Languages also has a chapter I wrote with Nathan, and one I wrote myself. I also did the book’s index, so I learnt a new skill.
4. I started a new journal sub-series with Peter Austin in Language Documentation and Description. The Language Contexts series started with my article about Syuba.
5. I also published an article in i-Perception with Suzy Stylesonour failure to replicate the maluma/takete effect, and an article in Language Documentation & Conservation with Barb Kelly, Andrea Berez-Kroeker and Tyler Heston about the need for better transparency in methods and data citation in descriptive grammar writing.
6.The Syuba language archive is now available open access through Paradisec. We used the materials to make this picture book of Stories and Songs from Kagate, which is beautiful (beautiful, I cannot stop pointing out how beautiful it is).
7. I wrote my 100th By Lingo piece in The Big Issue. These short pieces about the history of everyday words are still a delight to write. Check out the By Lingo tag for some of the ones I’ve shared on the blog!
8. We celebrated Two years of Superlinguo Linguistics Jobs interviews. I’ll be continuing to interview people who studied linguistics and who now do interesting non-academic jobs. Check out the linguistics jobs tag to read people’s stories.
9.I wrote about some of my favourite gesture research for Grammar Girl! and David J. Peterson came to SOAS to talk about conlanging.
10. I became a Member of the Executive of the Research Network for Linguistic Diversity, and a Vice-President of the Australian Linguistics Society. I look forward to the plans we have for 2018!
See also:
It is, as ever, a delight to keep working with Lauren Gawne, and it was especially fun to get to introduce her to North American linguists at LSA this weekend!
