The human vocal tract is like a musical instrument: you start a buzzing in your throat, and then shape it on the way out. Like a clarinet, but made of meat. In this Lingthusiasm zine, Gretchen McCulloch gets a little bit too enthusiastic about this horrifying metaphor to encourage you to explore the workings of your own meat clarinet.
But Gretchen just couldn’t get that original (cursed) imagery of the meat clarinet out of her head (maybe it’s just because she played clarinet in high school band). So Lauren was eventually persuaded that what we really need in our lives is some art of the human vocal tract and a clarinet merged together, in… meat colours (Lauren would like it noted that she thinks this art is deeply cursed and will not be buying any).
So, here’s what our artist Lucy Maddox made for us! I think she really nailed the body horror effect we were going for. [Unfortunately, I agree that she really nailed the body horror effect that you were going for.]
You can also get it in the most cursed Redbubble product combos we could find, for maximum psychic damage: a duvet cover (why?), an apron (why??), and an A-line dress (is this supposed to imply that one’s whole body is a meat clarinet???).
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Our artist Lucy Maddox (who thought this brief was hilarious despite usually making much less cursed art, we promise, go check out her website) really went above and beyond and actually offered us several horrifying meat textures to choose from. Oh Lucy, how could we ever shenanigan without you? So, since we need to share the pain appreciate you all so much, we are forcing you to witnessletting all free and paid patrons see these behind the scenes sketches too!
It was truly one of the most terrifying (and also, let’s admit it, entertaining) design briefs we’ve ever had to write, so tell us if you love it or hate it!
Lingthusiasm Episode 119: Irregularity is all over the place
Talk, talked. Walk, walked. Go…went?
In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about the many ways that languages are irregular in their patterns! We talk about sound and spelling irregularity, word irregularity and euphemisms, grammatical irregularity and fossils of older systems, and how irregularity is perhaps the most regular thing about languages. We also talk about those parts of systems that seem to be magnets for attracting irregularity, like negation in signed languages and common words generally, how kids learn irregular patterns in a U-shaped curve, and perhaps the most fun kind: jocular irregularity like octopodes and more.
We have new merch! We’ve used the metaphor of a musical instrument several times when talking about how the human vocal tract is organized, and how you can change the shape of your mouth as the air is on the way out, which changes what the air sounds like. We’ve used a couple of different musical instruments as metaphors, the meat clarinet, the meat bassoon, the meat bagpipe… but Gretchen just couldn’t get that original imagery of the meat clarinet out of her head (maybe it’s because she played clarinet in high school band). So Lauren was eventually persuaded that what we really need in our lives is some art of the human vocal tract and a clarinet merged together, in… meat colours (Lauren would like it noted that she thinks this art is deeply cursed and will not be buying any).
(No, it’s not anatomically accurate because the mouth of the clarinet would have to be your mouth and we decided that was even more disturbing.)
If you want to see how our artist Lucy Maddox even went above and beyond and offered us several horrifying meat textures in the concept phase, join us on Patreon. Patrons get to hear about new merch and other exciting announcements early, so sign up so you don’t miss anything! In any case, it was truly one of the most terrifying (and let’s be real here, entertaining) design briefs we’ve ever had to write, so check out the full merch range here and tell us if you love it or hate it! We even made a zine to go along with your new cursed merch - ‘Guide to your meat clarinet’. In this Lingthusiasm zine, Gretchen gets a little bit too enthusiastic about this horrifying metaphor to encourage you to explore the workings of your own meat clarinet.
In this month’s bonus episode we get enthusiastic about how the structure of a language influences what forms of poetry are possible in the language! We talk about why so much English poetry depends on not putting the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLABle, how languages that don’t have word-level stress like French write poetry based on syllable counts instead, how English speakers write haiku in a way that’s actually subtly shifted for the constraints of the language, and how signed languages like ASL use handshape repetition for poetry.
Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins, our editorial assistant is Jon Kruk, and our technical editor is Leah Velleman. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.
This episode of Lingthusiasm is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license (CC 4.0 BY-NC-SA).
In spring of 2026, I attended conferences, awarded grants, read and discussed some great books, and made zines. And handed out zines. And talked about zines. Have I mentioned zines? Because I’m going to be mentioning zines a lot.
it’s not that unusual, in translation, to come across something that has a dedicated word or expression in the source language but requires a lengthier explication in the target text. sometimes, however, it’s the other way around! not so much found in the process of translation as found waiting for you in translation.
a very satisfying case, in the very first chapter I picked to translate, was
Gideon would have immediately made plans to … do up all the buttons on [Harrow’s] shirts, making sure that each button went into the hole above the one it was meant to go into.
which is a long description for something that Finnish has a word for:
[Gideon] olisi heti ottanut asiakseen … napittaa kaikki [Harrow'n] paidat juoponnappiin.
In honour of Lingthusiasm’s 100th episodiversary, we’ve compiled this list of 101 public-facing places where linguists and linguistics nerds hang out and learn things!
17 podcasts about linguistics
Lingthusiasm — A podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics!
The Vocal Fries — Language discrimination and how to fight it
The History of English — From Proto-Indo-European to Shakespeare in 180 episodes (and still running!)
A Language I Love Is — Guests (some linguists, some not) talk about languages they love and why
En Clair — Forensic linguistics and literary detection
Because Language — New guests every episode discuss their linguistic interests
The Allusionist — Stories about language and the people who use it
Subtitle — A podcast about languages and the people who speak them
Field Notes — Five seasons on linguistic fieldwork
Tomayto Tomahto — Language meets cog sci, politics, history, law, anthropology, and more
Word of Mouth — A long-running and wide-ranging linguistics program on BBC 4.
Words Unravelled - A new and very well edited etymology podcast with popular creators RobWords and Jess Zafarris
Lexitecture — A classic etymology podcast with a huge back catalogue
A Way with Words — A “lively and upbeat” public radio call-in show about language and culture
Språket — A radio program in Swedish answering listener questions about language. We don’t speak Swedish, but this was the most-mentioned non-English content in our listener survey!
Living Voices — A podcast in Spanish about endangered languages of the Amazon
12 nonfiction books about linguistics
Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch (Amazon; Bookshop) — A linguist shows how the internet is transforming the way we communicate
How Language Works: How Babies Babble, Words Change Meaning and Languages Live or Die (Amazon; Bookshop) by David Crystal — A journey through the different subsystems of language
That’s Not What I Meant!: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships by Deborah Tannen (Amazon; Bookshop) — A pioneering researcher on conversations gives advice on how they can go wrong
Memory Speaks: On Losing and Reclaiming Language and Self by Julie Sedivy (Amazon; Bookshop) — Scientific and personal reflections on nostalgia, forgetting, and language loss
The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves to Sand Worms, the Words Behind World-Building by David J Peterson (Amazon; Bookshop) — an accessible guide to making your own conlang
Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don’t Rhyme—And Other Oddities of the English Language by Arika Okrent (Amazon; Bookshop) — The history behind English’s many oddities
Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell (Amazon; Bookshop) — A well-researched pushback on sexist language ideology
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper (Amazon; Bookshop) — A lifelong lexicographer discusses the job and the things she’s learned along the way
Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages by Gaston Dorren (Amazon; Bookshop) — A quick, funny tour of the quirks of 60 European languages
Bina: First Nations Languages, Old and New by Felicity Meakins, Gari Tudor-Smith, and Paul Williams (Amazon; Bookshop) — The story of Australian indigenous languages’ resistance and survival
Says Who?: A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words by Anne Curzan (Amazon; Bookshop) — A writers’ style and grammar guide focused on real usage, not made-up rules
The Language Lover’s Puzzle Book: A World Tour of Languages and Alphabets in 100 Amazing Puzzles by Alex Bellos (Amazon; Bookshop) — Solve puzzles about writing, grammar, and meaning drawn from real and fictional languages
Poems from the Edge of Extinction: An Anthology of Poetry in Endangered Languages (Amazon; Bookshop) — An anthology of poems in endangered languages, with commentary
6 linguistically-inspired novels
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang (Amazon; Bookshop) — Imagine a world where linguistics was as vital — and as ethically compromised — as engineering is in ours
True Biz by Sara Nović (Amazon; Bookshop) — Love, friendship, and struggle at a residential high school for the Deaf
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by by Mark Dunn (Amazon; Bookshop) — “A progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable” full of wordplay and weirdness
Semiosis by Sue Burke (Amazon; Bookshop) — Human space colonists communicate with sentient plants
Translation State by Ann Leckie (Amazon; Bookshop) — What does life look like for a perfectly genetically engineered alien–human translator? (Spoiler: weird, that’s what.)
Stories of your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (Amazon; Bookshop) — Includes the long short story that became Arrival, plus other reflections on humanity and change
sunnmcheaux — Language and culture from Harvard’s first and only professor of Gullah (reels)
dexter.mp4 — Talks about many branches of science, but loves linguistics enough to have a linguisticsy tattoo (reels)
danniesbrain — Linguistics and psychology from a researcher who studies both (reels)
wordsatwork — Quick facts on languages, families, and linguistic concepts (reels)
the_language — The Ojibwe language — plus food, dancing, and more
101 places to get enthusiastic about linguistics
In honour of Lingthusiasm’s 100th episodiversary, we’ve compiled this list of 101 public-facing places where linguists and linguistics nerds hang out and learn things!
8 linguistically-inspired videogames and board games
Heaven’s Vault (video game) — Decode a mystery hieroglyphic language as a space archeologist traveling with her trusty robot sidekick
Chants of Sennaar (video game) — puzzle your way through uncoding the language and world of The Tower
Tunic (video game) — You don’t need to decode the writing system to enjoy exploring this video game as an anthropomorphic fox, but some people have enjoyed the additional challenge of cracking the writing system
Cypher & Epigraph (video game) — Test and grow your cryptographic skills with these increasingly feendish puzzles
Wavelength (board game) — A relaxed and silly party game featuring comparatives and scales. Very fun for a flexible-sized group.
Xenolanguage (board game) — An ethereal storytelling game about communicating with aliens featuring a unique ouija-board inspired gameplay mechanic
The Gostak (interactive fiction) — A classic text adventure you need to decipher a secret language to play
IPA Scrabble (board game) — Do-it-yourself instructions for making your own International Phonetic Alphabet Scrabble tiles
7 blogs, newsletters, and magazines about linguistics
Nancy Friedman’s substack — A professional name developer (that’s a thing!) weighs in on trends
Language Log — One of the longest running linguistics blogs: a few professors discuss their interests
My Fair Lady — A classic musical about dialect, social class, and (of course) love
The King’s Speech — Based on a true story: a speech-language pathologist helps King George VI overcome his stammer
Talking Black in America — A documentary series on African American English, Black ASL, and more
6 linguistics-related events and physical spaces
Planet Word (Washington, DC, USA) — An immersive language museum
Mundolingua (Paris, France) — A hands-on museum with exhibits on many branches of linguistics
The COSI language pod (Columbus, OH, USA) — Participate in linguistics experiments inside this science museum
The SLIYS summer camp (Columbus, OH, USA) — The Summer Linguistic Institute for Youth Scholars introduces high school students to linguistics
Kletskoppen Festival (Nijmegen, Netherlands) — A festival about language and language development for children, and their adults
International Linguistics Olympiad (2025 in Taipei, Taiwan) — An annual puzzle-solving competition for secondary school students, with many national editions in various countries
10 places to get even more
r/linguistics — A subreddit for discussing linguistics; check out their reading list (Note that we singled out this one for being a big, public, high-traffic community — but if you’d prefer a closed Discord server or a Facebook meme group or any other platform-specific thing, ask other linguistics nerds on that platform and you’ll probably find one.)
Bluesky linguistics starter pack — Some linguists who post actively about linguistics, several of which have also made starter packs for specific subfields
We’ve been doing lingcomm since 2011 and we’re astounded by how many more pop linguistics resources have come into existences since we started and how many difficult decisions we had to make to get it down to just 101 places
If you’re more on the lingcomm creator side, check out the lingcomm website — we’d love to hang out with you at the LingComm Conference (it’s online!).
Many thanks to the people who filled out the Lingthusiasm survey over the past 3 years for suggesting over 1000 places where you get enthusiastic about linguistics! Please feel free to highlight your favourites from this list or add further suggestions for the benefit of other people reading!
Here’s your back-to-school list of resources for nerding out about linguistics, whether you’re currently enrolled anywhere or not!
La Trobe Linguistics Program Zine at University Open Day 2026
I have been enjoying making Lingthusiasm zines, so when we started making plans for our University Open Day this year, I realised that a zine was the perfect format for introducing linguistics, our team, and subjects available. I found they were well suited to this kind of event and wanted to share the experience in case it is useful to others.
Eight-fold zines like these usually work by having a blank inside. I used this to my advantage and printed the very text-dense list of subject overviews on the inside for people to take away and read later.
The fact they’re smaller than the usual A4 (letter) handouts made them feel a lot easier to share with people. They also sat really nicely on the table, thanks to some nice little acrylic boxes I found. I printed the La Trobe zines in black and white and they looked really nice. The team gave out about one hundred of them over the course of the day. The only problem with zines is budgeting the time to fold them, but I started a few weeks out and used seminars and online meetings where my hands could be busy.
Alongside the La Trobe zine I also had the current range of Lingthusiasm zines. These were great for both introducing people to linguistics and sharing some of the research topics we work on. It made me think about some more topics I wanted to share with people in zine format for future events.
I brought along kiki/bouba stickers and scarf so that we could do kiki bouba tests and then leave people with the zine. This was particularly effective as a way of having something fun to bring in family and friends who were along to support a prospective student. At least one parent said “this is so cool, you have to study this when you come to university!!”
In previous years I have suffered from what I refer to as Archeology envy, because they always have great props and artefact replicas. Having the zines at the table went a long way to solving that problem for me this year. I’ll definitely be returning with them next year.
Below is an image of the table set up we had. All the Lingthusiasm zines are available on the Lingthusiasm website. You can see and print a digital copy of the La Trobe zine here.
Bonus 114: How poetry reveals the structure of languages
Roses are red Violets are blue English poems are stress-based This is not a haiku
In this bonus episode, Gretchen and Lauren get enthusiastic about how the structure of a language influences what forms of poetry are possible in the language. We talk about why so much English poetry depends on not putting the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLABle, how languages that don’t have word-level stress like French write poetry based on syllable counts instead, how English speakers write haiku in a way that’s actually subtly shifted for the constraints of the language (because Japanese doesn’t have syllables, they have morae), and how signed languages like ASL use handshape repetition for poetry. (Check out the links to some ASL and BSL poem performances below, they’re well worth watching!) We also talk about how the form of poetry has evolved several times as it moves back and forth between spoken and written formats, from beat and slam poets reclaiming orality to perfectly tweet-length forms like double dactyls and formats that rely on screencaps to preserve formatting, like the double-columned twin cinema.
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