Welcome to the first installment of Titles Only! The part of the Diary where I write titles only.

Will “Incidences” Become A New Word? A Descriptive Analysis on the Semantic Blending of “Incidents” and “Instances”

This has been Titles Only!Subsequent essays are unlikely to occur.
🩵, Wug
#langsky

*whispers* hey, you didn’t hear this from me but…the silent letters didn’t used to be silent. we could get rid of them if we all just decide to 👀

love, wug 🩵
#linguistics #etymology

Etymology Of The Day: “Letdown”

Originating as a verbal phrase in the 12th century, “let down” referred mainly to drawbridges, and wasn’t used with the meaning of “disappointment” until the Detroit Lions were formed in 1929.

(Dan Campbell if u see this jk ily Love, Wug 🩵)
#linguistics #nfl

As a welcoming gift to the #TikTok refugees: a fun fact!

You’ve heart of prefixes and suffixes, but what about the infix? It’s added right in the middle of a word, and it’s very rare in English.
Can I think of an example off the top of my head?

Abso-fucking-lutely.

Love, Wug 🩵
#linguistics

What we get: movie remakes that we don’t want.

What we want: movie remakes with a Muppets cast

This little wug is going to start an Etymology class soon! Fun Fact: generally, the more similar a word is across languages, the more “important” the thing it references is—think Dios, Dieu, Deity, or aqua-, agua, eau.

I don’t know who falls in this Venn diagram, but you know the Tamarians on Star Trek/Lower Decks? Where their entire language consists of historical and cultural references? Ex: “Rapunki, when he joined The Seven” basically means “I’m honored to join you guys”

What you call “grammar n@zis” we call Prescriptivists, and no we don’t like them either! Rules are there to make language functional, but sometimes a sentence is just as functional without following the rule.

The next time you hear someone complain about how ✨certain✨ people say “aks” instead of “ask,” have them say “comfortable.” Almost all of us say “comf-ter-ble,” switching the r and t sounds with no judgement.
It’s almost like it’s not about the letters…

Love, Wug 🩵
#linguistics #culture

My hot take is that every field needs a linguist. Politicians need linguists. Marketers need linguists. School boards need linguists. Medicine needs linguists. Law firms need linguists. Everyone can benefit from an expert in their own words.
#linguistics #politics