iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Lee Orfila @leeorfila.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Finally back in Austin; time to plant my name tag from #FEAST2026! Apparently they have flower seeds inside them, so I'm excited to see what I get.

A top down view of a small, light blue flower pot. Inside is a paper name tag which reads "University of Amsterdam. Lee Orfila." It is partially covered in dirt.

020

Lee Orfila @leeorfila.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Mongolians are celebrating the end of #IWDP2025 (and the last of the warm weather) with a cornhole and tug-of-war tournament!

A game of tug of war on a soccer field. The two teams consist of five people each, mixed men and women. The teams are standing ready, but the referee is still holding the rope. A few spectators stand on the sidelines, but the crowd is mostly out of frame. The weather is beautiful and sunny. Behind the field, a large park with teees is visible.

000

Lee Orfila @leeorfila.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Currently setting up for the meeting of the National Deaf Association of Mongolia. Enkhbaatar, Association president, does a little crowd warm up asking people about the meaning of the flag.

A spacious white conference room with chairs arranged in a circle around a central presentation area with a large screen, some banners for the event, and a bright blue and yellow flag showing an abstracted outline of a hand. At the center a middle aged Mongolian man in a plaid button down and glasses points to the flag. Audience members are mostly out of frame, but one elderly woman is visible raising her hand in an imitation of the image on the flag.

111

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Ashlee 🤟🏻 @ashleemboyer.com · 11/01/2025

🔊 PSA for nondisabled people 🔊 It's time to step the FUCK up if you wanna be an ally. ASL interpretation is being targeted by right wing cry baby douchebags. Shut this shit down when you see it. SPEAK UP. This barrage of ASL hate is heavier than usual.

Quote tweet by Richard Hanania from 1/11/2025. The quoted tweet, which has a community note, is by Christopher F. Rufo on 1/10/2025.

Christopher's tweet reads: "I'm sorry, but we have to stop with the ridiculous sign language interpreters, who turn serious press conferences into a farce. There are closed captions on all broadcast channels and streaming services. No wild human gesticulators necessary."

The community note (which has supporting .gov links) reads: "Fact: Not all broadcast channels have closed captions, which isn't universally effective anyway; many Deaf rely on ASL for comprehension as ASL offers nuances captions miss. This is part of ADA requirements, passed by GOP."

Richard's tweet reads: "The community note shows that the process has been captured by the disability lobby. It’s not about access, CC works fine. They have to pretend like it doesn’t to force this absurdity onto us. And the ADA amendments of 2008 have led to a nightmare, as I explain in my book."

18140001980

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Ashlee 🤟🏻 @ashleemboyer.com · 29/11/2024

As a disabled web accessibility practitioner. This pisses me off. Extremely. GENERATIVE AI DOES NOT AND CANNOT EVER REPRESENT DISABLED PEOPLE. Just fucking hire disabled people like me who know what they're doing. Believing AI over disabled people is ABLEISM and DEHUMANIZING. For fucks sake.

a11y-ai

Accessibility explained by those impacted.

Check any website for barriers and generate the perspective of those who face them.

A11y-AI is an experiment using the storytelling capabilities of generative AI to bring the impact of accessibility violations to life. It aims to inspire web professionals to take action.

421866748

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Leala Holcomb @lealaholcomb.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Oh my goodness! I am in love with this holiday ASL song from Gallaudet. 😍😍😍 youtu.be/Cy6kxqe0XQw?...

youtu.be

Gallaudet University Holiday Greetings 2024

YouTube video by GallaudetU

3153

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

the progression of AIDS treatment in my lifetime, from how terrifying it was as a child in the 80s to stories like this 40-odd years later, is genuinely one of the human race’s most awe-inspiring scientific achievements. it was a nonnegotiable death sentence for SO LONG

125108662590

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

I’m always looking for things that explain a lot but that people have a hard time remembering. Examples: Air is stuff. Pee comes from blood. All land vertebrates have a single common ancestor. Venus is bright enough to cast visible shadows. Clouds are heavy. Bones are alive. Any others you know?

2119143461225

Reposted by Lee Orfila

language science @priap.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

A great quote for the linguistic anthropologists among us: "We anthropologists [...] must re-examine basic premises and realize that English language patterns of thought are not a necessary model for the whole of human society." — Leach, E. R. (1961). Rethinking Anthropology. p. 27. 🐦🐦

0182

Lee Orfila @leeorfila.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

My linguistics professor from undergrad, Marc Zender, used to call the Great Vowel Shift as the Great Vowel Movement. It's the fact that the manufacturer is "UG" that really gets me.

010

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Lauren Hall-Lew (she/her) @lhlew.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

"Whatever direction linguistics may take, I hope that more and more linguists will engage with the social issues that spring from linguistic diversity." -- William Labov (2016: 596) #linguistics #Labov #social #justice #sociolinguistics

215441

Reposted by Lee Orfila

AltYellostoneNatPar @altyellonatpark.org · 22/12/2024

Happy Solstice everyone The Ursid Meteor Shower peaks tonight and tomorrow night. These meteors come from debris left by Commet8P/Tuttle. Not as active as the Perseids at just five to ten per hour but, still makes for a nice evening, lights out, in a warm dark hot tub. tech.news.am/eng/news/512...

tech.news.am

Ursid meteor shower is expected to peak on night of December 22 | NEWS.am TECH - Innovations and science

The Ursid star shower begins on December 17 and usually lasts about a week. The activity peaks on ....

453197415

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 21/12/2024

The minute is called that because it's the first minute (small) part of the hour The second-order minute part of the hour is called...the second And before we had milliseconds, there was a period when a second was divided into 60 "thirds" (!!) From the "time" episode of @lingthusiasm.bsky.social:

922145

Reposted by Lee Orfila

depths of wikipedia @depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

I appreciate that this has been the example in "anankastic conditional" for 18 years

257471

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Mary C. Henry @maryhenrygeo.bsky.social · 21/12/2024

Happy Solstice, everyone! ❄️🌍

A red and green Earth showing the tilt relative to the plane of the ecliptic. Above reads “ Axial tilt”. There are holly leaves and berries below with “The reason for the season”.

312123

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Dr Suzy J Styles @suzyjstyles.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

at 100 degrees there’s a phase transition to ふわふわ~ fuwa-fuwa 😅

05610

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Mlle Defarge ♿ @hearing-girl.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Bill Labov was obviously a brilliant and field-defining linguist, but what I find even more inspiring at the moment is how many of the tributes I'm seeing come from women and POC he taught, mentored, inspired, and helped make space for.

214630

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Adam Schembri (ˈʃɛmbɹi/ˈʃkɛmbri) @adamcschembri.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Vale William Labov. Inspired by a colleague on X, I think my favourite Bill Labov quote is: “I have resisted the term *sociolinguistics* for many years, since it implies that there can be a successful linguistic theory or practice which is not social.” Thank you for everything, Bill.

121869

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Joshua Raclaw @joshuaraclaw.com · 17/12/2024

This is your monthly reminder that the Yiddish verb for "to whisper" is *shushken* (שושקען). A cat can *myavken* (מיאַװקען) and a baby bird will *pipken* (פּיפּקען) and leaves blowing in the wind can *shurshen* (שורשען) 🐦🍂

0337

Lee Orfila @leeorfila.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

I taught your work to my intro students this semester! We were talking about methods in socioling that get at hidden beliefs, e.g. matched guise experiments.

120

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Prof. Nicole Holliday @mixedlinguist.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Every one of my baby sociolinguists cited Social Stratification and/or Consequences of Being a Lame in their final papers. And it was my joy to teach those papers again for the 10th time. In 20 years, those students will certainly be teaching Labov’s work too ❤️

0524

Lee Orfila @leeorfila.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

I noticed across various writing assignments that multiple students characterized people who embrace language change as "indifferent" or "not caring" about language, even when the person in question is excited + curious about changes or actively fighting to preserve variation. Hmmm.

000

Lee Orfila @leeorfila.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

I asked my linguistics students before a class whether they thought some languages are older than other languages. Almost every one of them said yes, because Old English obviously has to be older than Modern English. Guess I learned a lesson about defining the terms of a question!

010

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Kirby Conrod @kirbyconrod.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

linguistics

1282

Lee Orfila @leeorfila.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

I love an iconic neologism. I feel like these pair nicely.

A tumblr post by questbedhead that reads: “fish don’t even know they're wet” and? you don’t even know you're luft (air equivalent of wet)

0498

Reposted by Lee Orfila

LisaLiBSL (she/her) @lisalibsl.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

"Computer generated machine #translations cannot render culturally appropriate translations as would be provided by live #interpretations from a human sign language #interpreter." #SignLanguage #SignedLanguages

054

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Abraham Piper @abrahampiper.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

“So it’s a useless, unnecessary word,” the grumbler might continue. To which I say, “Listen, buddy, by that measure all synonyms are useless and unnecessary, but if you wanna come for my synonyms you’re gonna have to pry them from my… ✨frigid deceased paws✨.”

1101

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Abraham Piper @abrahampiper.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

What do you get when you blend two words that mean the same thing? ✨A third word that means the same thing.✨ gigantic + enormous = ginormous chill + relax = chillax And irrespective + regardless = irregardless

572

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Abraham Piper @abrahampiper.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Not to be over serious about it on a Saturday morning, but in this sense, language purism is a bit like a belief in moral responsibility. 🤔 (1/…)

1322

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

When I talk with scientists about their communication projects I ask them to start with 1) How do you want them to feel? 2) What do you want them to know? 3) What do you want them to do?

28519

Reposted by Lee Orfila

@Shayterp @drhilltx.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

She stressed the need to support translanguaging in the classroom by changing the landscape of WHO - who teaches, who interprets, who educates the teachers. Learn more by visiting her at the Center for Latine Deaf Studies at Gallaudet. gallaudet.edu/academic-aff...

041

Lee Orfila @leeorfila.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

Fun pragmatics example: My stepmom was thanking an L2 English speaker and the person reaponded "stop talking" instead of "don't mention it."

020

Lee Orfila @leeorfila.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

I know the pro in pro-drop stands for pronoun, but I still want anti-drop to be a thing. Linguists can have a little reanalysis. As a treat.

010

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Rogelio Fernández Mota 🇲🇽 @rfernandezmota.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Erik Arellano's presentation dives into the lived experiences of Deaf hawkers on Mexico City's metro—vagoneros sordos—highlighting their resilience, culture, and unique way of navigating the city. #Sign10

052

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Hannah • Fish @deafthat.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Stop assuming Deaf people can’t do anything because of “communication barriers” because like… ??? Deaf people have always been able to find multiple ways to communicate. You just don’t wanna do anything other than speak.. the barrier is YOU in those situations.

37523

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Dr. Ethan Kutlu @ethankutlu.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

I am thrilled to share our new paper which investigates the role of continuous measures in linguistic diversity research. We found that children who are exposed to more linguistic diversity (e.g., language, dialect, accent) are perceptually more flexible. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Linguistic diversity shapes flexible speech perception in school age children - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Linguistic diversity shapes flexible speech perception in school age children

7334109

Reposted by Lee Orfila

IOIII - Tom Schillinger @pxnd.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Happy Friday everyone. This will probably forever be my favorit moment I captured. Not only was Mom nursing her baby back to health after a failed first attempt at flight training. But my little one was laying next to me witnessing this wonderful moment 🪶🦉 #nature #photography

1850461

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Rory Cooper @rorylcooper.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

This is the face of a shark! I've stained the mineralised tissues to show that their teeth and scales are both made of the same enamel-like material 🦈 🦷 🧪

930972

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Gatherer Hunter @aanaiyaanai.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

@gretchenmcc.bsky.social and @superlinguo.bsky.social this pairs well with your recent bonus episode on "do"!

0182

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Julie A. Hochgesang @jahochcam.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Lovely sunset making the red line and NOMA looking pretty tonight @capitalweather.bsky.social

Long pink clouds stretch across the sky as the red line metro train arrives. Taken at the far end of NOMA stop towards REI

Long pink clouds stretch across the sky. Taken at the far end of NOMA stop towards REI

Long orange and pink clouds stretch across the sky over REI

Long pink clouds stretch across the sky in NOMA. NOMA banner in foreground along with trees with some leaves remaining

071

Lee Orfila @leeorfila.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

#SIGN10 was so muh fun! Met so many new people and added so many WhatsApp contacts

A selfie of Lee Orfila, Ethan Hartzell, and Caitie Coons overlooking a bay surrounded by mountains and forests

A photo of a group of people dancing on a stage at night. There is a small crowd in the foreground.

A photo of Austin German smiling on the bus. Behind him theough the winow are colorful houses and a staircase.

A photo of Nick Palfreyman's opening address from the back of the signtorium. The seats are full of people, and a variety of flags are up on the screen.

041

Lee Orfila @leeorfila.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

I have a feeling something isn't correct here

A acreenshot of the Google Translate app. The phrase "dungiin sugats" has been translated from Mongolian to English. The English translation is given as "snail lottey."

120

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Diane Lillo-Martin @dclm.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

I encourage others who might think “I don’t know IS” to give it a try. We can move toward use of IS in all international events to improve direct communication

Three women standing close to each other in front of a sign for UWI Centre for Language Learning Staff Car Park. On left black woman with long black braids and dark clothing. In middle white woman with black hair and dark clothing. On right white woman with grey hair and purple top with jeans.

171

Reposted by Lee Orfila

John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

My favorite word origins are seldom ones that are “exotic.” More often, they concern the everyday. Take “take," a verb that just likes to keep its head down and do work. It’s not English: it’s Scandinavian. It was borrowed early in English—and gradually supplanted the native verb, "nim." Nim!

610628

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Accessibility Awareness @a11yawareness.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

People who want to make the web accessible need to understand the many different ways that people with disabilities use the web. This W3C resource offers a good introduction to how disabled people navigate the web, and barriers they commonly encounter. www.w3.org/WAI/people-u...

w3.org

How People with Disabilities Use the Web

Introduces how people with disabilities, including people with age-related impairments, use the Web.

06538

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Ethan Hartzell @ehartz01.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

excited to share the first version of my new app for learning sign language annotation and writing systems here at #SIGN10 in Trinidad today web: signlanguagetranscription.github.io iOS: apps.apple.com/us/app/sign-... Android: play.google.com/store/apps/d...

0105

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Elizabeth Peterson @lissu.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

A student stayed after class to give me the most amazing gift basket of homemade goodies, including these magnets. I LOVE them. We could totally sell these as merch at NWAV, Sociolinguistics Symposium, etc.

An image of 6 homemade, hand-drawn magnets. Magnet 1 shows a picture of a bottle with a label that reads "Prescriptivism repellent." Magnet 2 shows a drawing of a bored cat and reads "Sounds prescriptivist, but okay." Magnet 3 is a picture of a bottle of jam, with a label on the drawing reading "Sociolinguistics is my jam." Magnet 4 is written like a dictionary definition. It reads: "Sociolinguistics (noun) 1. Like normal linguistics, but cooler." Magnet 5 reads: "How many sociolinguists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?" Followed by a small drawing of a light bulb and the words "It varies." Magnet 6 shows this text: "Miss Ms Mrs Prof Dr, ACTUALLY"

1216626

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 10/12/2024

classic favourite example of structural ambiguity, rescued from the old site

tweet text: this dog park bench makes it seem like this woman never saw a dog in her life and she also never smiled
plaque text: In loving memory of Nicole Campbell, who never saw a dog and didn't smile.

933072

Reposted by Lee Orfila

Lee Orfila @leeorfila.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

If you're at #SIGN10, come say hi! I'll be presenting a poster on how different sign languages represent numbers tomorrow afternoon in poster room 3.

2178

Lee Orfila @leeorfila.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

If you're at #SIGN10, come say hi! I'll be presenting a poster on how different sign languages represent numbers tomorrow afternoon in poster room 3.

2178