Gretchen McCulloch

kes on the “Is this a pigeon” meme. all these linguist memes and not *one* made this pun?

In the summer of 2026, I was a Meighen Forum panelist at the Stratford Festival on “How language is made” in fictional worlds, to compliment their plays about The Hobbit and the King James Bible. Closer to home, I led a…

In the summer of 2026, I was a Meighen Forum panelist at the Stratford Festival on “How language is made” in fictional worlds, to compliment their plays about The Hobbit and the King James Bible. Closer to home, I led a…

lingthusiasm: Lingthusiasm Episode 121: Vampires, ghosts, imposters and more linguistic monsters Vampires, werewolves, witches, ghosts, zombies, imposters, and frankenstein have something in common: they’re all po…

lordsausage: shoutout to the words “overmorrow” and “ereyesterday”. english losing these words was stupid. “the day after tomorrow” “the day before yesterday” clunky-ass c…

lingthusiasm: Bonus 115: Behind the Zines - Interview with Leah Velleman | Lingthusiasm We’ve been hearing from people that you’re trying to get others to be as enthusiastic about linguistics as you are, but…

goatsandgangsters: an interesting linguistics find! so I’m reading this text from 1908 and it keeps referencing “hp” in the context of “not being at full hp” “applying your full hp to…

lingthusiasm: Announcing the Linguistics Zine Challenge! ALT In honour of the 10th anniversary of Lingthusiasm, we’re launching the Linguistics Zine Challenge: make or share a linguistics zine and tell us about it…

romanceyourdemons: LOVE when a rapper ends a line with kind of a weird phrase and i’m like okay what’s the plan here, and then they reveal that they were playing 6d linguistics chess to set up the perfect rhyme for “rod…

lingthusiasm: How to fold your mini-zine — a Lingthusiasm zine This month’s zine is for everyone, not just the linguistics enthusiasts. With our editor Leah Velleman and artist Lucy Maddox, we’ve put togethe…

o-craven-canto: Alternate timeline in which all Greek and Latin roots are swapped: catastrophe -> contraverse cephalopod -> capitoped chlorophyll -> viridofolia democracy -> populimpery homicide -> anthropoctony homosex…

democracy

krakenartificer: Higgledy piggledy, olden French bakery storing its loaves in a double-doored shed. Inspector approaching the inner door op'ning to find a cow casu'lly licking the bread. Okay I love this poem so much bu…

lingthusiasm: Bonus 116: Everything is linguistics - The randomest pitches from our inbox | Lingthusiasm Bonus 116: Everything is linguistics - The randomest pitches from our inbox We know you’re here for a podcas…

ALT ALT I love this kiki bouba t-shirt art.

lingthusiasm: Narratives about smaller languages often focus on the death and endangerment sides of the story. There’s generally less on the social and political reasons why some languages are favoured at the expe…

lingthusiasm: ALT ALT ALT ALT ALT 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, G…

lingthusiasm: ALT ALT We have new merch! You’re either going to love it or hate it. We’ve used the metaphor of a musical instrument several times when talking about how the human vocal tract is organized, an…

lingthusiasm: 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 abou…

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 mention…

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 zi…

lukittuhhh: 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, howeve…

In the first quarter of the year, I attended the Linguistic Society of America 2026 annual meeting online and admired how linguists are really great at pronouncing people’s names (phonetic transcription is a practical s…

America

In 2025, Lauren Gawne and I reached our 100th episode of Lingthusiasm, our podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics! It’s a special format featuring 100 fun things about linguistics, which makes it a great entry po…

This fall was a good season for literature. I took a trip to the Stratford Festival in Ontario to see live productions of Goblins Oedipus, Dangerous Liaisons, and Sense and Sensibility. I enjoyed reading Margalit Fox’s…

This summer, I went to ASL camp! I spent a week at Bob Rumball Camp of the Deaf, in Parry Sound, Ontario, at their ASL Adult Immersion Summer Camp, voices off for 6 nights and 7 days! This was my first time doing any so…

Europe

Back in 2017, when I was deep in the writing process for Because Internet, I was feeling stuck on the emoji chapter and Lauren Gawne, my cohost on the then-baby Lingthusiasm podcast (we were less than a year old!) offer…

In the first few months of 2025, we celebrated a podcast milestone: 100 episodes of Lingthusiasm, a podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics! To celebrate, my cohost Lauren Gawne and I did a special double-feature:…