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The Layman's Linguist

@laymanslinguist.bsky.social
2.1K followers 534 following 668 posts

Fun facts, exhaustive etymologies, & informative infographics for both linguists & laypeople

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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
I don't know if a loud and proud Anglo-German should be gleefully mocking ANYONE for having to live under an ultra-right-wing leader rewriting the law to suit his own plans while our most vulnerable populations simply suffer and die without proper medical attention. Or is that too on-the-nose?
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SeneB @megcolleu.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
I would also argue that, because it's generic, you'll easily find "bark" in situations unrelated to dogs. Like I've heard people bark at others, but not really woof. So woof is more dog specific I think
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
Just one linguist's opinion: <WOOF> is specifically a deep booming type of bark <BARK> is the general term and thus includes woofs but also all other kinds of barks—not whines or yelps. It's also more likely to be the verb: eg, "the dog barks" > "the dog woofs" See: their respective etymologies
(screenshot of a tweet with the following text:)

Andrew Nad...
@TheAndrewNa...
Please settle this debate:
Are “bark” and “woof” supposed to signify different sounds or are they interchangeable?
They sound nothing alike, but there’s only one dog sound, right?
It’s like if we had 2 words for a cow’s sound and one was “moo” and the other was “snarf”.
8:32pm 24 Oct 25 1536 viewsbark(v.1)
"utter an abrupt, explosive cry" (especially of dogs), Middle English berken (c. 1200), bark (late 15c.), from Old English beorcan "to bark," from Proto-Germanic *berkan (source also of Old Norse berkja "to bark"), of echoic origin. Related: Barked; barking.woof(n.2)
low, gruff dog-bark noise, by 1839 (wuff is by 1824); as a verb by 1804, wouff; echoic. Related: Woofed; woofing.
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Eb @ebthen.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
Going to try again because I think this maybe wasn't enough. Let's go back to the start again. Alt text was introduced to HTML in 1993 for situations where images didn't load or loaded slowly. In those situations the alt text is visible in the space where the image would have loaded. Example:
Bluesky post with the post text "a wild turtwig appears" and two images, one which has loaded properly and one which has not.

Both images have ALT badges that indicate they have alt text. In the space of the image that has not loaded, the alt text "horsfield tortoise in a turtwig costume facing the camera" is visible instead.
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Quick accessibility question: This is the first video I've posted to BlueSky and I definitely made sure to add a description and captions under alt text but I don't see an "alt" button to view them like on photos. Am I missing something obvious or is there an accessibility feature I'm missing?
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
TikTok creator and indigenous activist Che Jim has been sharing a lot of informative videos recently of isolated petroglyphs (some practically inaccessible) around the US Southwest and I really recommend checking them out! Here's a fun one just for chuckles:
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Åsta Haukås @astahaukas.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
How do students in England, France & Norway think about multilingualism? Our NEW article explores their beliefs and multilingual identities! Read it here, it's open access. #Multilingualism #Education doi.org/10.1080/0143...
doi.org
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Heidi Harley @heidiharley.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Linguists! Tomorrow’s write time Friday is hosted by LSA grad student EC member John Starr! Come get some work done! 🐦🐦 @lingsocam.bsky.social www.lsadc.org/ev_calendar_...
lsadc.org
Write Time Friday with John R. Starr
About Write Time Friday This is a chance to log into a Zoom room, (optionally) set an explicit writing goal for the session, and then spend a focused two hours writing in the supportive virtual prese...
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Dominic Watt @domwatt.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
I don't suppose anyone who claims it's hard to say /md/ in the name 'Mamdani' would say that the same sequence in, for example, 'someday' or 'Camden' is difficult, but I take the point. (You don't use your tongue to make an /m/ sound, for what it's worth, but again I take the point).
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Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief @katie.bzky.team · 24/10/2025
okay chat how do we make a scots translation of pghrt.diy happen because the comedic potential here is significant on top of the important linguistic potential
singal messages:

person: At this rate you're going to get a scots translation and end up being a formative modern text in the preservation attempts for the language
me: LMFAO. COULD YOU FUCKING IMAGINE
person: actually yes
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Bobby Silverman @robertsilverman.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
In a sec. I'm busy guwht dade-ing
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
A critical takeaway from this: "Existing large language models have instead shown a 'sycophantic' tendency to produce outputs that favorably reflect a human request. […] They are 'not going to produce the level of conflict and diverse perspectives that are required for really pathbreaking work.'"
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Dave Itzkoff @ditzkoff.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
I can think of a reason.
Headline: why can’t people say zohran mamdani’s name correctly
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👁️🍄🪸 @bloomfilters.plus · 21/10/2025
i genuinely recommend playing games in languages you want to learn - it's a really good way to get your mind around the linguistic logic of another language with lots of reading and some decisions!
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 09/09/2025
*incorrect buzzer sound*
[prompt and answer from hinge profile] 
My most controversial opinion is: it's weird to get annoyed by new slang or how people use "literally" because all words are made-up anyway

[response message] 
I don't think that's controversial at all. The new slang is crazy. What's one slang word you hate? Mine is skidiby toilet seat or whatever it is lol
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
I don't know if time has simply slowed to a crawl for me personally but there's no way <skibidi> is still being used by anyone besides Gen Xers trying to make fun of their own kids
Axios
'Skibidi": How to use the newest words added to the Cambridge Dictionary
Skibi
IONARY RSLANUNG
21 hours ago
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
I'm reading a book on animal thought & emotion and it delves a lot into both inter- and intra-species communication. The current chapter is on the dreaded theory of mind and I would like to hear y'all's opinions on which, if any, of these would constitute evidence of ToM:
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
Love Island has once again proved a treasure trove of dialectal variants I'd never before encountered
Screenshot of a brunette white woman saying "cos I just think I didn't deserve"(continued from previous screenshot) "to be tret the way I've been tret."
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Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
No AI could ever say something this stupid
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
The band Radiohead is technically named after this character actor
A picture of actor Stephen Tobolowsky
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Ben Hayden @benhayden.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Good assignment for Senior Linguistics majors: write a 5 page term paper explaining why this argument wrong!
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Amazing things are happening on X: The Everything App
FischerKing @FischerKing64
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English will be the common be the international language for the foreseeable future. It has almost no grammar that is really important. It's just a group words cobbled ogether from around the world. It's easy to learn. Iits only problem is that it's hard to spell because of Il the historical interludes. It has 26 letters that most people know anyway.
Chinese or anything like it has no chance. No one wants to learn 3,000 characters or hieroglyphs to read a newspaper. The Chinese won't even want to learn tt long run.
You could think of English as a proto-Al - a first step toward artificial intelligence that made us able to communicate seamlessly, while also making us all stupid. 4:45 PM. 22Jul 25 . 356K Views
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Met another self-described "cunning linguist" on bumble but this one might be salvageable
Him: it's actually true though. I treat language like a blade: beautiful, dangerous, and best wielded with intent.
Me: okay that's actually kinda hot
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The Linguist Formerly Known As Pinkkatydid @pinkatydid.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
As always, my favorite oft-abridged quote on patriotism: "My country, right or wrong. If right, to be kept right—if wrong, to be set right." -an immigrant to the US who volunteered to fight for the Union in our Civil War
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Linguists Love Cool James
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Vegetable (spiritually) 🤝 Fruit (technically) "Welcome to the family, precious baby Tomato!"
Tweet by @exquisitewill
Many fruits can be great names… but the real challenge is naming a child after a vegetable…
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Just discussing Jordan Peterson's linguistic skills with a hinge match, how's your weekend going?
Him: He's a good wordsmith though 
Me: Yeah well so was Hitler
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Love catching up with old college friends
Him: Esperanto will eventually prevail don't worry 
Me: lol. Lmao, even. 
Him: ROFL?
Me: Precisely
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
I've had a vendetta against Google's featured result summaries for years now. Whenever I tweeted about it, 1 or 2 employees would respond that it's impossible to manually check them for every possible search query. And this is why I suggested simply not featuring any summaries they hadn't checked:
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Lecturer in Recent Runes @lecturer.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Here in .at we call this the "fork breakfast" in a slipshod translation ("Gabelfrühstück") and there is absolutely nothing to say this does not go with wine / beer and a shot....
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Fuad Alakbarov @alakbarov.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Kazakhstan may soon recognize sign language as an official language.
tengrinews.kz
Еще один язык может стать официальным в Казахстане: 24 мая 2025, 13:21 - новости на Tengrinews.kz
Tengrinews.kz ▶ Еще один язык может стать официальным в Казахстане: 24 мая 2025, 13:21 ▶ Читать подробнее актуальные новости и события на сайте.
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Eb @ebthen.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
This is the thing from the WHATWG HTML standard I am referring to. Source: html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/im...
The most general rule to consider when writing alternative text is the following: [begin bold text] the intent is that replacing every image with the text of its alt attribute does not change the meaning of the page. [end bold text]

So, in general, alternative text can be written by considering what one would have written had one not been able to include the image.

A corollary to this is that the alt attribute's value should never contain text that could be considered the image's caption, title, or legend. It is supposed to contain replacement text that could be used by users instead of the image; it is not meant to supplement the image. The title attribute can be used for supplemental information.
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Wait what do you mean ELEVENSES are a real thing and not just a cute little Tolkienism for hungry hobbit snacks??
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Tolkien Society @tolkiensociety.org · 25/05/2025
Join us this September for Oxonmoot! Taking place on 4-7 September both online and at the University of Oxford, Oxonmoot sees hundreds of #Tolkien readers, artists, scholars, academics and fans come together to enjoy an unforgettable weekend. Find out more at www.tolkiensociety.org/events/oxonm...
tolkiensociety.org
Oxonmoot 2025
Oxonmoot is an annual event hosted by The Tolkien Society which brings together over 500 Tolkien fans, scholars, students and Society members from across the world. Oxonmoot 2025 will be our 52nd, and...
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Raphael Lemkin was a Poland-born Jewish American who coined the term GENOCIDE in his 1944 text where he explicitly states that it does *not* necessarily refer to mass murder but rather any coordinated plan to destroy a society's foundation with the aim to eventually annihilate their people entirely.
Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. Ilt is intended rather #O signify a oordinated plan of different actions aimed at the destruction of essential foundations of the S of national groups, with the A aim of annihilating the groups themselves. [Lemkin]
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chira 🎋 @artofchira.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
whenever i encounter people who say they can't understand shakespeare verses I always send them this clip from the 2019 Shakespeare in the Park production of Much Ado About Nothing
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
You're supposed to respect what *anyone* prefers to be called because that is a basic human right and basic human rights aren't just for the people you like. No one has to earn them; that's the whole point. How you treat the people you hate is who you really are inside. That's what you believe in.
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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
A white flag with a black star above an em dash and the words "Come and take it"
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
hire Cait & Kate for your very professional graphic design needs* *linguistically themed requests only
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Jan Murphy @packrat74.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
"AI-assisted translation will continue to improve" this person says. Linguist me asks if LLMs don't store any semantic information, how can they translate anything, and how can those translations "improve" over time? 🤔 Also: totally with you on not using tools built with stolen work.
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Solomon @solomonrmissouri.com · 31/05/2025
If elitism is the singular purpose of your educational pursuits Join a country club It will actually cost less
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kobayashi ḫamṭu @mattboot.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
"pride" is a great word because it is a nominalization of "proud" (OE prūd ~ OE prȳde)—wh is a loanword from Romance!—on analogy to inherited Germanic adjective-noun pairs where i-mutation marks the noun derivation, e.g. hāl "healthy, whole" ~ hǣlu "health"
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Dr.MRO/ Axel Folio @isasaxonists.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
Day 1: "How Europe underdeveloped Africa" by Walter Rodney. Essential reading by Guyanese historian & activist W. Rodney who explains how Africa has historically been deliberately exploited for western gain. It's an eye opener. #booksky #yarnsky
Soft red mini skeins of yarn scattered around Walter Rodney's "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Angled shot of soft red mini skeins of yarn scattered around Walter Rodney's "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. There are blue and red dried flowers scattered aroundSoft red mini skeins of yarn scattered around Walter Rodney's "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. There is an open skein on the right and blue and red dried flowers scattered around.
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The Layman's Linguist @laymanslinguist.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
PRIDE originally comes from Kent & Mercia dialects of OE but only in the negative "haughty & overbearing" sense. By the 1500s, we'd turned that all around. Now PRIDE stood for "personal honor & good repute," an "exalted position," "splendor," and eventually "the prowess & spirit of a wild animal."
A pride of lions with a rainbow overlay
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nayomaise @nayomai.se · 01/06/2025
I will never forget my phonology prof telling me over post-finals drinks “You don’t deserve the grades you get based on your attendance” that was my human work maximising the grades vs attendance, now AI ruins the whole thing
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