Sign in

Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross

@melodyannross.bsky.social
282 followers 122 following 224 posts

Linguist, long storyteller. Ask me about stuff, but flee immediately if I say “how much do you want to know about this?”

PostsRepliesMedia
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is the first time all summer (I k no w) I’ve felt remotely *almost* caught up, and I think it has a lot to do with the first email reply I read this morning, which greeted me as “Lovely Melody”. I am working on too many projects, but they’re all starting to come together in different ways 🌱
010
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Dear language diary, Today I said ‚gründungs Begründung‘ before I’d had any coffee and I thought it was gibberish but it turns out those are real words and I said them on purpose to communicate exactly what I meant! More later, Einfach das Coolste
011
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I am becoming a character in a German course. First thing I did this morning was call a car rental company to changes the dates of my booking, exactly as foretold in the ancient texts (although I used ‚hergestellt‘ where I meant to use ‚eingestellt‘ but maybe it made me sound cool and poetic?)
030
Reposted by Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross
Endangered Languages Project @e-l-p.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
If you’ve seen this article, you may be sitting with anger, pain, or just exhaustion at dealing with another helping of colonial nonsense. We feel a responsibility to speak back when these colonizing narratives show up, yet again, in such a prominent venue. endangeredlanguages.com/story/respon...
New Yorker article title "Sometimes It's Okay to Let a Language Die" with "Sometimes It's" crossed out in red ink and "IT'S NOT" written above it. To the right is text "A Response to The New Yorker" and the ELP logo.
5191120
Reposted by Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross
James Grama @dalaigrama.bsky.social · 27/03/2024
I'm very proud of @melodyannross.bsky.social who's just had her edited volume drop - Space-Time (Dis)continuities in the Linguistic Landscape. A *lot* of work went into this and I can't wait to read the whole thing. tinyurl.com/bddu6t6t
tinyurl.com
Space-Time (Dis)continuities in the Linguistic Landscape | Studies in
This collection spotlights the diachronic dimensions of the linguistic landscape, the importance of exploring temporal dissonances in historical events in order
1134
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Ok, this game rules. You see an object and then have to guess when and where it came from! Anthropeum.com · Jun 23 2026 🟨🟩🟦🟩🟦🟨🟩🟩🟨🟩 73,648 · top 13% of players today!
anthropeum.com
Anthropeum
A daily game that challenges our understanding of human cultures. Ten objects. 5,000 years of human history. Guess where and when each artifact was made. See how you rank.
130
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Love that BlueSky is just my lil German acquisition diary fr 😂
020
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
I've been noticing some really local features in my German lately- I am fully Ich-Laut where you'd expect (z.B. kriechsset? / kriegst du es?), but the one that always stops me in my tracks is hearing myself delete it syllable finally (z.B. hammwa au? / haben wir auch?). Input is a powerful force!
020
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
One of my (now) 6yo's favorite bedtime readings.
010
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
In small victories, I answered the phone the other day with a “Frau Ross” and my 5yo loudly interrupted “Frau DOKTOR Ross”
050
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
I saw this movie 36 hours ago and feel like I’ve been keeping the biggest secret in the universe about how DELIGHTFUL it is. I’m going to see it again tonight!!!!!
010
Reposted by Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross
Jen Hay @jbhay.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Published today. The vowel in 'just' is undergoing an independent sound change, separate from any changes to KIT or STRUT. Filed under the ever-growing category of "things that were supposed to be fun little papers, that unexpectedly ended up taking many years" www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
degruyterbrill.com
0165
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
“S’il vous plait, das heißt ‘please’” is a real sentence I said to my daughter this week. (She’s starting to recognize acronyms!)
010
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
It’s the 4th week of the semester and my Star Wars Language Ideologies class has had about 90% attendance (not required) and is still GAINING new students. Why have I waited so many years to do this???
000
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
This has just happened to me AGAIN and I had to say ‘sorry, when your email arrived at 9:30pm on Thursday I was already away from work. I then enjoyed the federal holidays on Friday and Monday and still did not read my email. GUESS YOU’LL HAVE TO WAIT’
010
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
They’re actually replaying this on the live feed RIGHT NOW if you want a little moment of glowing joy in your life
130
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Just learned that a former friend —who I soundly scolded in 2020 for promoting ‘gargling with lemon water prevents covid’ pseudoscience— is now an assistant prof at our alma mater. You love to see it 🙄🙄
000
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Almost without fail, every time I start gaining a tiny bit of academic momentum, I am suddenly blindsided by an immigration admin project that consumes my every available resource. So, SO exhausting.
100
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Happy Big Boat Stuck Day to those who celebrate!
000
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Apropos of nothing, I just realized that I have not listened to even one minute of screaming metalcore since September 7th of 2025. 🤷🏻‍♀️
000
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
I’m currently on leave but was given edits over the weekend that were DUE MONDAY. I did them because I’m a preciously employed immigrant and publishing is what I pretend will someday secure my career but good lord, editors! Slow Science would change my life, fr
141
Reposted by Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross
Dani Beck, PhD @danibeck.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Peer review is not there for you to tell experts in the field how you'd prefer the style of the paper to be, or what method or analysis you have a clear bias for. Your job is to check for correctness, spot errors or gaps, protect the integrity of the scientific method, not piss on others.
45711
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Chat, are linguists really using ‘decompose’ as a synonym for ‘parse’ these days or is this ChatGPT nonsense?
021
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Can you help my student get participants for their survey? Any English-speakers are desirable! Please boost! www.soscisurvey.de/VGtypes_habi...
soscisurvey.de
Questionnaire | page 1
000
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
My spring/summer course is called “Language Ideologies in a Galaxy Far, Far Away”. There is so much good material, I am so very tired of my students’ media studies being done badly, and this is how I’m going to marry all my many academic loves into a single special interest polycule.
021
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Today I learned that floppen is a stative verb
Screenshot of a headline in German which reads “Diese Star-Wars-Serie ist gefloppt, hat aber wohl ein wichtiges Geheimnis gelüftet.“ (this Star Wars show flopped, but it revealed a big secret.)
031
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Isn’t this the ‘complicating action’ that started the Trojan war and sorta resulted in the founding of Rome?
000
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Me: *does too many tasks with like, no food in tummy* 😡 Everything is AWFUL, I HATE this, I just wanna G- *eats one food* -RATEFULLY acknowledge the amazing people in my life 🥹
010
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
I had to take a German test recently, the studying for which brought me to tears multiple times because I was unavoidably confronted with the fact that my German has largely been *acquired* and not *learned* As a linguist, this is my ideal approach to language. As an immigrant, it was damaging.
160
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 01/01/2026
Someone told me that being my friend was ‘really postmodern’ (I have to choose to read this one as a compliment, which, res ipsa etc etc)
000
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
This year I saw someone brand themselves online as a ‘former Professor of English’ and it turns out they were a TESOL adjunct at a community college for one semester. I can’t exactly explain it, but this is the vibe I want to bring in 2026.
130
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
Today my 5yo asked me if there was such a thing as grape JUICE and I nearly fell out of my chair. Imagine an American 5yo not knowing that grape juice exists 😂
010
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
Anyone want to see my German vowel space (ish) instead of scrolling for a second? GOOSE fronting will not be denied in any language!!!
A scatterplot of some German words. Many of them are clustered together in ways that environmentally-acquired German probably wouldn’t.
130
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
My cue to quit scrolling and do things that matter to me, thanks ❤️
120
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
It's out, IT'S OUT!!!!! dialogosuntl.com/index.php/re... I am so proud of this weird little paper. I have been collecting sources on the languages of Timor-Leste for over a decade, and this paper gave me a chance to compile them and give a general overview of the state of TL language documentation
dialogosuntl.com
1121
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
When Éomer is screaming because he thinks Éowyn died on the Pelennor Fields is what my heart is doing every time I see even a single News. Someone please reforge the sword and give us all some dang hope.
110
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 20/09/2025
Girls will be like ‘I really really needed this’ and it’s literally just “ACCEPTED WITH MINOR REVISIONS” (It’s me, I’m girls)
280
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
Before I sign off for a little while, a little view of my #Linguisticlandscape as I waited for a tram (yes, heading to work on my week off for more post #LL16 cleanup 😂) Middle sticker (überklebt) basically says ‘stickered over, MFer’ - a direct nod to the discursive nature of sticker graffiti.
Graffiti stickers on a pole.
131
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
I almost always love conferences anyway, but DANG this one has already been SO FUN!!!! #LL16
150
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 02/09/2025
Ok so my #LL16 problem of remembering people seems to be backwards. No one recognizes ME with short, straight hair!!
140
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 31/08/2025
My bilingual child (5;3) has completely merged German ‘bis’ with English ‘when/until’, such that we get constructions like “look until I say ‘look’” (look when I say ‘look’) or “open your eyes until I say” (open your eyes when I say)
150
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
The hundreds of times I’ve seen this film and it only *just now* clicked that wookiees are good kissers 🕵🏻‍♀️
061
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
I have reached the stage of conference planning where I am both Lucas saying „superb“ AND Joe losing his absolute shit
media.tenor.com
two men are standing on stairs in front of a wall with a guitar on it and a sign that says " love capitalism "
Alt: two men are standing on stairs in front of a wall with a guitar on it and a sign that says " love capitalism ". this is a moment from the 1995 film Empire Records and the characters are Lucas and AJ and they are dancing.
020
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Leutiiii….. bittttttttttiiiiiii
030
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Perfect score, calm down Rory Gilmore
380
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
Answering emails alone in my office with my one and only life
000
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
While talking about what *spiders* eat 5yo: Boulders are not very tasty. Me: Boulders? 5yo: It’s a large kind of rock. Me: Oh, of course.
010
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
Reminded today of these lines from the late 90s Wear Sunscreen song (v important cultural moment for me): “Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts, and recycling it for more than it's worth”
000
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Very much not what I needed today. Please share!
000
Dr 〽️elody Ann Ross @melodyannross.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
I received 75% identical, auto-generated birthday posts on Facebook this year, the only push I truly needed to deactivate permanently, after two decades. Soulless, empty, no longer adding any value to my life. There were Canberra and Dili groups that I genuinely cherished, but they’re dead now too.
230