Philology
the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology.
Who questions the questions?
We use questions to ask people for information (who’s there?), but we can also use them to make a polite request (could you pass me that?), to confirm social understanding…
Are You Part of a Cult? The Answer May Surprise You
Montell doesn’t examine cults through the voyeuristic or sensational lens often generated by The Vow, Wild, Wild Country, and other recent docuseries. Rather than participating in the spectacle from the…
Who is nick in nick name?
https://thoughtportal.tumblr.com/post/649374794935058432
Receptive Bilingualism
when you can understand a language but you can't speak it
creativity, the illusion of originality, and when is something really plagiarism
I happened to listen to these two podcast back to back and I think they are actually great companion episodes. They are about creativity, the illusion of originality, and when…
Jennifer Kronovet studied Yiddish so she could communicate with the dead
Kronovet had a ton of ideas for language-related podcast episodes. We eventually settled on her adventures with Yiddish. She shared these adventures with two other students of the language, Faith Jones and Samuel…
Allusionist 65. Eponyms III: Who’s That Guy?
So It turns out calling a person guy or saying “you guys” comes from Guy Fawkes.
How Writing Closed Captions Turned Me off TV For Good
Post-MFA, a writer spends time in the captioning trenches
Refresh Your Mind
This week, Manoush’s book - the book that started with you, listeners - hits the shelves. To encourage you to #GetBored and find brilliance, we made a weird earworm. It’s…