Justin R. Leung 梁路明
@justinrleung.bsky.social
Christ follower, PhDing @uoftlinguistics.bsky.social (heritage languages, LVC, morphosyntax, Cantonese), editing and admining @enwiktionary.bsky.social, learning (about) languages. Prov. 3:5–6.
效基督、學語言、語言學。箴三5–6。
🇨🇦🇭🇰😅
效基督、學語言、語言學。箴三5–6。
🇨🇦🇭🇰😅
Pinned
Hi friends, I'm looking for participants for my research! Please help me share this widely!
大家好，我嘅研究需要您嘅參與！請大家幫手分享出去！
Link to the registration form 報名表格: forms.office.com/r/sVQfiPYUhD
#Cantonese #廣東話 #Toronto #多倫多
大家好，我嘅研究需要您嘅參與！請大家幫手分享出去！
Link to the registration form 報名表格: forms.office.com/r/sVQfiPYUhD
#Cantonese #廣東話 #Toronto #多倫多
Hi friends, I'm looking for participants for my research! Please help me share this widely!
大家好，我嘅研究需要您嘅參與！請大家幫手分享出去！
Link to the registration form 報名表格: forms.office.com/r/sVQfiPYUhD
#Cantonese #廣東話 #Toronto #多倫多
大家好，我嘅研究需要您嘅參與！請大家幫手分享出去！
Link to the registration form 報名表格: forms.office.com/r/sVQfiPYUhD
#Cantonese #廣東話 #Toronto #多倫多
November 14, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Hi friends, I'm looking for participants for my research! Please help me share this widely!
大家好，我嘅研究需要您嘅參與！請大家幫手分享出去！
Link to the registration form 報名表格: forms.office.com/r/sVQfiPYUhD
#Cantonese #廣東話 #Toronto #多倫多
大家好，我嘅研究需要您嘅參與！請大家幫手分享出去！
Link to the registration form 報名表格: forms.office.com/r/sVQfiPYUhD
#Cantonese #廣東話 #Toronto #多倫多
Chapter by Angelika Kiss, Roger Lo and myself on Cantonese sentence-final particles in rhetorical questions is finally out 😊
Just published "Biased questions: Experimental results and theoretical modelling" edited by Tue Trinh, Anton Benz, Daniel Goodhue, Kazuko Yatsushiro & Manfred Krifka #openaccess #tgdi langsci-press.org/catalog/book...
October 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Chapter by Angelika Kiss, Roger Lo and myself on Cantonese sentence-final particles in rhetorical questions is finally out 😊
Reposted by Justin R. Leung 梁路明
It is that time of year again for linguistics students to start thinking of graduate school applications. In order to help them out, I wrote the following blog post. It is by far the most popular blog post I ever wrote. ordinaryworkinggrammarian.blogspot.com/2019/12/writ...
Writing a Statement of Purpose for Linguistics Graduate School
A blog about natural language syntax. Topics will include (but are not limited to): syntax, semantics, morphology, typology and syntactic fieldwork.
ordinaryworkinggrammarian.blogspot.com
October 10, 2025 at 12:19 PM
It is that time of year again for linguistics students to start thinking of graduate school applications. In order to help them out, I wrote the following blog post. It is by far the most popular blog post I ever wrote. ordinaryworkinggrammarian.blogspot.com/2019/12/writ...
Cool post I stumbled upon explaining why 豬腸 became 豬番 in Teochew... but it just irks me a bit when people say things "rhyme" when they are *homophones*... They're technically not wrong but what about the maxim of quantity 🤓
September 26, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Cool post I stumbled upon explaining why 豬腸 became 豬番 in Teochew... but it just irks me a bit when people say things "rhyme" when they are *homophones*... They're technically not wrong but what about the maxim of quantity 🤓
Just learned today that some people write #Cantonese jyun4 dam4 doe4 /jyn˨˩ tɐm˨˩ tœ˨˩/ 'very round' (ideophonic form of 圓 jyun4 'round') as "圓 dum the" 😂
September 20, 2025 at 6:04 AM
Just learned today that some people write #Cantonese jyun4 dam4 doe4 /jyn˨˩ tɐm˨˩ tœ˨˩/ 'very round' (ideophonic form of 圓 jyun4 'round') as "圓 dum the" 😂
September 19, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Reposted by Justin R. Leung 梁路明
Books: Continuing Syntax: Roberts (2025)
Books: Continuing Syntax: Roberts (2025)
A logical and clear exposition of hierarchy and locality by a leading figure in the field, Continuing Syntax takes students from an introductory level of syntactic theory to an understanding of cutting-edge research in the field. A comprehensive range of topics is covered, including configurationality, head-movement, clause structure, nominal structure, subjacency, barriers and phases, ensuring that students have a thorough understanding of all the main components of contemporary theory. The man
dlvr.it
September 18, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Books: Continuing Syntax: Roberts (2025)
Reposted by Justin R. Leung 梁路明
I am utterly shocked and saddened by the news of Andrew West‘s @babelstone.co.uk untimely passing. He was a huge inspiration, an impressive scholar, and a kind and generous person.
FAMA PER ORA VOLAT
SPIRITUS ASTRA TENET
FAMA PER ORA VOLAT
SPIRITUS ASTRA TENET
July 16, 2025 at 10:18 AM
I am utterly shocked and saddened by the news of Andrew West‘s @babelstone.co.uk untimely passing. He was a huge inspiration, an impressive scholar, and a kind and generous person.
FAMA PER ORA VOLAT
SPIRITUS ASTRA TENET
FAMA PER ORA VOLAT
SPIRITUS ASTRA TENET
Is "mouse" 🐁🖱️ losing its polysemous status and turning into a case of homophony? A couple of students have already told me that they're confused why "mouse" is polysemous but "bat" 🦇🏏 is homophonous. Does it have something to do with mouses becoming "tail"less? 🤔
June 18, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Is "mouse" 🐁🖱️ losing its polysemous status and turning into a case of homophony? A couple of students have already told me that they're confused why "mouse" is polysemous but "bat" 🦇🏏 is homophonous. Does it have something to do with mouses becoming "tail"less? 🤔
Reposted by Justin R. Leung 梁路明
big fan of wiktionary's "hot words"
June 12, 2025 at 12:16 PM
big fan of wiktionary's "hot words"
Reposted by Justin R. Leung 梁路明
#Wiktionary #FWOTD for 21 May 2025 (World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development): “buuz • ᠪᠤᠤᠽ” (Mongolian)—“steamed meat dumpling”. Borrowed from Borrowed from Mandarin “包子” (bāozi) en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktion...
May 21, 2025 at 2:03 PM
#Wiktionary #FWOTD for 21 May 2025 (World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development): “buuz • ᠪᠤᠤᠽ” (Mongolian)—“steamed meat dumpling”. Borrowed from Borrowed from Mandarin “包子” (bāozi) en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktion...
Reposted by Justin R. Leung 梁路明
A 🧵 on dǎdī 打的.
The Mandarin word dǎdī 打的 meaning ‘hail a cab’, ‘ride in a taxi’ is strange, right? It sounds strange. It looks strange. What’s up with this word?
1/
The Mandarin word dǎdī 打的 meaning ‘hail a cab’, ‘ride in a taxi’ is strange, right? It sounds strange. It looks strange. What’s up with this word?
1/
March 23, 2025 at 6:16 AM
A 🧵 on dǎdī 打的.
The Mandarin word dǎdī 打的 meaning ‘hail a cab’, ‘ride in a taxi’ is strange, right? It sounds strange. It looks strange. What’s up with this word?
1/
The Mandarin word dǎdī 打的 meaning ‘hail a cab’, ‘ride in a taxi’ is strange, right? It sounds strange. It looks strange. What’s up with this word?
1/
Interesting way of writing taat1 'tart' sighted in LA Chinatown ❤️: <⿰米達> with a 米 'rice' radical instead of the usual <撻>, a phonetic borrowing.
This character is already under the radar of the Ideographic Research Group, so hopefully this will be encoded soon 😊 hc.jsecs.org/irg/ws2024/a...
This character is already under the radar of the Ideographic Research Group, so hopefully this will be encoded soon 😊 hc.jsecs.org/irg/ws2024/a...
March 26, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Interesting way of writing taat1 'tart' sighted in LA Chinatown ❤️: <⿰米達> with a 米 'rice' radical instead of the usual <撻>, a phonetic borrowing.
This character is already under the radar of the Ideographic Research Group, so hopefully this will be encoded soon 😊 hc.jsecs.org/irg/ws2024/a...
This character is already under the radar of the Ideographic Research Group, so hopefully this will be encoded soon 😊 hc.jsecs.org/irg/ws2024/a...
Finally received a copy of Chinese Characters Across Asia by @zevhandel.bsky.social ! Looking forward to reading it!
March 24, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Finally received a copy of Chinese Characters Across Asia by @zevhandel.bsky.social ! Looking forward to reading it!
Reposted by Justin R. Leung 梁路明
Happy OK Day!
On 23 March 1839, the word OK appeared for the first time in the Boston Morning Globe. It was a humorous abbreviation for "oll korrect". Funny abbreviations were kind of a fad at the time, kind of like the netspeak we see today.
We at Because Language hope your day is OK.
On 23 March 1839, the word OK appeared for the first time in the Boston Morning Globe. It was a humorous abbreviation for "oll korrect". Funny abbreviations were kind of a fad at the time, kind of like the netspeak we see today.
We at Because Language hope your day is OK.
March 23, 2025 at 4:09 AM
Happy OK Day!
On 23 March 1839, the word OK appeared for the first time in the Boston Morning Globe. It was a humorous abbreviation for "oll korrect". Funny abbreviations were kind of a fad at the time, kind of like the netspeak we see today.
We at Because Language hope your day is OK.
On 23 March 1839, the word OK appeared for the first time in the Boston Morning Globe. It was a humorous abbreviation for "oll korrect". Funny abbreviations were kind of a fad at the time, kind of like the netspeak we see today.
We at Because Language hope your day is OK.
Reposted by Justin R. Leung 梁路明
Reposted by Justin R. Leung 梁路明
Have you ever noticed that there is something strange about the Mandarin word wǎsī '(natural) gas'? Looking at the written form 瓦斯, it just doesn’t seem like a typical Chinese compound word. What's a roof tile got to do with gas?
Let’s see if we can figure out what’s going on. 加油!
1/
Let’s see if we can figure out what’s going on. 加油!
1/
a yellow cat with its eyes closed and a fist in its mouth .
Alt: GIF of cartoon cat fiercely crying "加油"
media.tenor.com
February 2, 2025 at 7:39 AM
Have you ever noticed that there is something strange about the Mandarin word wǎsī '(natural) gas'? Looking at the written form 瓦斯, it just doesn’t seem like a typical Chinese compound word. What's a roof tile got to do with gas?
Let’s see if we can figure out what’s going on. 加油!
1/
Let’s see if we can figure out what’s going on. 加油!
1/
Reposted by Justin R. Leung 梁路明
Happy Year of the Wood Snake! (your slithery second sibling)
蛇出山穴喜報春!
#CNY2025 #CNY #LunarNewYear
H/t @justinrleung.bsky.social for the map.
蛇出山穴喜報春!
#CNY2025 #CNY #LunarNewYear
H/t @justinrleung.bsky.social for the map.
January 29, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Happy Year of the Wood Snake! (your slithery second sibling)
蛇出山穴喜報春!
#CNY2025 #CNY #LunarNewYear
H/t @justinrleung.bsky.social for the map.
蛇出山穴喜報春!
#CNY2025 #CNY #LunarNewYear
H/t @justinrleung.bsky.social for the map.
Reposted by Justin R. Leung 梁路明
I have never heard 蛇 snake called 溜 “liu” (meaning: slither) in Taiwanese, but apparently some people do because of the belief from the old agrarian days that calling the snake by its name 蛇 “tsua” will invite it to come your way 😅
On that note, Happy “Liu” Year！ 🐍
On that note, Happy “Liu” Year！ 🐍
January 29, 2025 at 6:30 PM
I have never heard 蛇 snake called 溜 “liu” (meaning: slither) in Taiwanese, but apparently some people do because of the belief from the old agrarian days that calling the snake by its name 蛇 “tsua” will invite it to come your way 😅
On that note, Happy “Liu” Year！ 🐍
On that note, Happy “Liu” Year！ 🐍
蛇年大吉！Happy Year of the Snake!
Here are different ways the Chinese languages have landed on naming the slithery creature 🧵
The most common name is 蛇, attested in the oracle bones as 它. (The etymology of this word is uncertain; see en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%9B%87) /1
Here are different ways the Chinese languages have landed on naming the slithery creature 🧵
The most common name is 蛇, attested in the oracle bones as 它. (The etymology of this word is uncertain; see en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%9B%87) /1
January 29, 2025 at 4:50 PM
蛇年大吉！Happy Year of the Snake!
Here are different ways the Chinese languages have landed on naming the slithery creature 🧵
The most common name is 蛇, attested in the oracle bones as 它. (The etymology of this word is uncertain; see en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%9B%87) /1
Here are different ways the Chinese languages have landed on naming the slithery creature 🧵
The most common name is 蛇, attested in the oracle bones as 它. (The etymology of this word is uncertain; see en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%9B%87) /1
Thesis proposal defended yesterday!
Now to actually embark on what I proposed… 😅😅😅
Now to actually embark on what I proposed… 😅😅😅
January 11, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Thesis proposal defended yesterday!
Now to actually embark on what I proposed… 😅😅😅
Now to actually embark on what I proposed… 😅😅😅
Reposted by Justin R. Leung 梁路明
A persistent myth is that Japanese 'arigatō' (thank you) comes from Portuguese 'obrigado'.
In reality, 'arigatō' was already used a century before the Portuguese first visited Japan.
'Obrigado', in turn, is first attested in the sense of "thank you" a century after the Portuguese arrival.
1/
In reality, 'arigatō' was already used a century before the Portuguese first visited Japan.
'Obrigado', in turn, is first attested in the sense of "thank you" a century after the Portuguese arrival.
1/
December 29, 2024 at 8:18 PM
A persistent myth is that Japanese 'arigatō' (thank you) comes from Portuguese 'obrigado'.
In reality, 'arigatō' was already used a century before the Portuguese first visited Japan.
'Obrigado', in turn, is first attested in the sense of "thank you" a century after the Portuguese arrival.
1/
In reality, 'arigatō' was already used a century before the Portuguese first visited Japan.
'Obrigado', in turn, is first attested in the sense of "thank you" a century after the Portuguese arrival.
1/
Reposted by Justin R. Leung 梁路明
December 19, 2024 at 7:42 AM