Little linguistic things are just too interesting

"Ooh, what does this [sound change] do?"

Posted on 2023 February 08

As a total word nerd, I can't help but dig into the nitty-gritty of language every chance I get. With an unfortunate curse of knowing the IPA by heart and hearing r-colored vowels, I feel like I have this superpower to pick apart and analyze every bit of language that comes my way, but I think it's this paying attention to the little details in language helps me appreciate the beauty and complexity of how we communicate.1

Every time I hear someone talking, my brain switches into detective mode, and I am basically forced to pay attention to every vowel. And having a deep understanding of linguistics lets me notice the finer points of speech that usually fly under the radar. I'm talking about the way people's voices rise and fall, how stress and rhythm change,2 and the colorful mix of accents that give us a clue about someone's background, and I'm always intrigued by the tiniest differences between people's caught and cot.

You know, sometimes having this crazy language obsession can feel like a real burden. Like, I can't turn off my brain's language analyzer, and I'm always picking apart every word that comes my way. But honestly, I love it, especially when I see it in action in my own life, like when the nucleus of the way I pronounced "bag" shifted from /æ/ to /æ~ɛ/, which might not sound like a big deal, but for me, I just get giddy thinking about it.3

And it's not just about my own speech, either. I love meeting people with different accents or dialects, 'cause it's like being part of this huge, awesome world of sounds, and everyone's contributing their own unique piece to it.4

Plus, it's not just spoken language that gets me going. Written language has its own special magic, too. I mean, there's just something about seeing my 7's evolve over time from barrless to barred, thanks to Sal Khan's enchanting videos.

I'd like to think of myself as some sort of phonology-obsessed mad scientist, but, I love reveling in the complexities of tongues dancing and vowels shifting like continental plates. So, while others might be counting sheep to fall asleep, you can catch me trying to figure out how the hell to say [ɢʁ].

  1. Seriously, have you seen how we move our tongues as we speak? It's so much more movement than I'd ever expect. My favorite example of this is the Glossika Video for ɣ. Did you know that the tongue is one of the strongest muscles in the human body? No wonder it can handle all that linguistic gymnastics! ↩

  2. BTW, I think prosody is underused in linguistics olympiads. If done right, I think such questions can be deadly. ↩

  3. GREAT NORTHERN CITIES VOWEL SHIFT! GREAT NORTHERN CITIES VOWEL SHIFT! GREAT NORTHERN CITIES VOWEL SHIFT! ↩

  4. My parents speak Telugu, which doesn't have the sound [z]. But what sound in Telugu is closest? The affricate [ʤ] (English ⟨j⟩)! That's why pizza sounds like /piʤʤa/. ↩