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Rory Turnbull

@roryturnbull.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.8K following 365 posts

Senior Lecturer in Phonetics and Phonology at Newcastle University ✦ Bahá’í ✦ Scottish ✦ he/him ✦ I like bikes, network science, R, and Linux

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Reposted by Rory Turnbull
Dread and Rosie @rosiemund.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
And the moral of the story is that, if it weren't for the buses, I would be entirely ignorant to the mere existence of Two Ball Lonnen. And what a sad world that would be for me. And that's why we simply must invest in public transport.
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Daniel Solis @danielsolis.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This week's t-shirt is a very silly joke for fans of linguistics, Ghibli, and milky drinks. #WeeklyTshirt #Ghibli #Boba danielsolis.threadless.com/designs/kiki...
A black spikey shape wearing a red bow and riding a witch's broom. 
A blobby shape filled with milk and tapioca balls, with a red spiral stripped straw.
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It's almost the weekend - if you're looking for something silly to read, I've got you: ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/010...
ling.auf.net
A note on Nacireman suprasegmental phonology - lingbuzz/010338
This note discusses some recent findings in Nacireman phonology. This language makes suprasegmental use of overtones on each syllable to encode lexical meaning. This typologically unusual feature is i...
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 13/08/2026
🔇 🔇 🔇 My book, Deep Unlearning, is now available for preorders! I don't know how people write so many books because this one took a lot out of me. It turns out, I had a lot to say 😂, with editors cutting out 50k of my words 🫣 ✴️ You can now preorder it at www.simonandschuster.com/books/Deep-U....
Cover of my new book, Deep Unlearning: The Rise of AI and The Radicalization of a Tech Idealist. 

There are two concentric circles in the book, the left being circuits in black an white, and the right being a bunch of dots with orange accents. The cover background is cream. And the words are written in black except for "Un" which is in orange.
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Tim Curry's famous delivery of the Red Alert 3 line "Space!" was apparently his first read of the script - you can see him almost cracking up as he reads the autocue. The producers loved it so much they kept it in.
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I'm happy to announce that for the first half of 2027 I'll be in New Zealand for a University of Canterbury Visiting Erskine Fellowship! #UCInternational #ErskineProgramme If you're in the area (broadly construed), let me know, I'd love to visit you!
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
This guy at the subway station had a lawn ornament with him - some kind of magical dwarf. He said it helped the trains run on time. It was a metro-gnome.
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Stefano Coretta @scoretta.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
As researchers, we all have a duty of being more reflexive and understand the philosophy behind research rather than just fuel camp wars (see the constructivists critique of quant methods and the realists critique of qual methods).
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The thread o’ tweets @threadotweets.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
The Guardian
Mushrooms communicate with each other using up to 50 'words', scientists say


James "Sonny" Crockett @aa... . 58m [mushroom group chat]
Σ: (misspelled symbol) 
Σ: (corrected symbol)
Ø: (misspelled symbol) 
Δ: (misspelled symbol) 
[ changed the group name to (misspelled symbol)]
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Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
good morning everyone project your personal imposter syndrome onto this gif ur welcome
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Fintan Mallory @fintanmallory.com · 01/03/2026
Interviewed for @joeykpollock.bsky.social’s blog. Made to account for my errors in public.
joeykpollock.net
INTERVIEW: Fintan Mallory on 'Fictionalism about chatbots'
​Fintan Mallory (he/him) is an assistant professor of philosophy at Durham University and an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Algorithmic Life. At the moment, his research focusses on...
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Anne Scheel @annemscheel.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
New newspaper headline for your Intro to Causal Inference lecture just dropped
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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 21/02/2026
I live in Montreal and would be happy to hang out with linguists coming to town!
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
LabPhon decisions are out! Who else will I not be seeing in Montreal? (Yeah I got rejected because my research is too radical for The Man)
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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 14/02/2026
Roses are red Linguists are in anguish That there aren't many words Which rhyme well with language #linguistics
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ꭓle Ormsby 𓆙 @e-infinity.space · 13/02/2026
Pro tip: If you attempt to bcc more email addresses than your institution allows, then IT will lock your account for 24 hours and you will finally be free.
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Nina Markl 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 @ninamarkl.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
good morning, #linguistics 🐦🐦 pals the University of Essex wants to cut 50% of our Language & Linguistics department, close our foundation programme & our Southend campus, + cut 400 jobs academic departments and professional services jobs across all depts join us in the fight against these cuts!
sign with lots of angry wugs protesting cuts
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Kirby Conrod @kirbyconrod.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
had a fun chat w/ @samcorbin.bsky.social about language change! she cut out i think fully 45 minutes where we just talked about Mean Girls (2004) but blessedly kept in the fun pronoun stuff
nytimes.com
Why Kids Are Starting to Sound Like Their Grandparents
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julia 🌋 @hypv.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
problem set? i'm sorry but we do 21st century mathematics in this classroom. here's your problem category
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Accidentally spelled "astronomy" as "astrology" on my lecture slides today, oops!
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Gareth Roberts @garicgymro.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
"Caouissin ... would like to think the language will follow a similar path to Welsh, which has enjoyed a revival over the past half-century and is spoken by 538,000 people" People keep getting this wrong about Welsh! There has not been a "revival". Let me explain. 1/
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Many people are, like me, travelling from Newcastle to Paris today. Unlike me, most of these people are going to the Newcastle United vs Paris St Germain football match. I, however, am attending something far more interesting - a PhD soutenance (viva/defense) tomorrow morning!
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Nina Markl 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 @ninamarkl.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
brb contemplating moving to an island and becoming a sheep
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Just realised I missed a good opportunity to make a "formal phonology" joke.
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Winnie the Pooh (Official) @indianawalsh.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
Gary Larson: In my cartoon I invented Cow Tools as a cautionary tale Cows: At long last, we have created the Cow Tools from classic newspaper comic Cow Tools
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The Bahá'í Chair for World Peace @bahaichair.bsky.social · 19/01/2026
On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we honor a legacy rooted in justice, courage, and a steadfast faith in our shared humanity. May we begin this week grounded in the knowing that peace is not passive — it is built through conscience, love, and collective responsibility. #mlkday
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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcculloch.com · 18/01/2026
New favourite example of scalar implicature
"More than 3 years ago, the famous Roman emperor Julius Caesar passed away" written over a marble bust of Caesar.
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
The slides from my #OCP23 presentation, "Against Occam's razor", can be found here: roryturnbull.github.io/Presentation...
roryturnbull.github.io
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
We are so back
Rory wearing a kilt and Prince Charles jacket
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
As a Scot living in northern England, I must confess to a certain degree of prejudice against southern England and their reputation for pretention and snobbery. So I was disheartened to see the #OCP23 conference dinner has a "black tie" dress code. I don't own a suit or anything like that!
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
I keep being surprised at hearing (Southern) English accents in Cambridge. Not quite sure what I expected!
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
On a train early this morning to head to Cambridge for #OCP23 There's a satellite workshop on the Role of Representation in Computational Phonology today and then the main conference begins in earnest tomorrow 🐦🐦
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Laurel Brehm @drlearnasaurus.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Fixed it!
The new usda food pyramid but the foundation is a lot of beans.
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
There seem to be more Baha'is on Bluesky now, which is nice to see.
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Lev Parikian @levparikian.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
Welcome to new Bluesky users. Here’s how we do things: 1. Always observe the Hambledon Protocol 2. No flisking 3. If someone tealights you, rink them without apology 4. I don’t mind them so much, but tissue-posts are generally frowned on 5. No questions Good luck!
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ceej @ceej.online · 02/01/2026
sometimes I’ll make a joke to my wife and she’ll roll her eyes and ask if I’m “gonna post that one on bluesky.” I mean, yes, but her tone is very hurtful
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Victoria De Capua @victoriadecapua.com · 01/01/2026
no one's ever been in the same room as Wales. Think about it.
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J.M. (But also Nemo) - writing comms open @alamhigo.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
Today is the last day that you can repost this image
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
Really neat study here claiming that the bouba-kiki effect can be overridden by arbitrary phono-semantic similarity matching. (I've only read the abstract so this may not be 100% accurate.)
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 26/12/2025
Same here, I'm not quite sure why.
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DM Howlcroft 👻 @davehowcroft.com · 21/12/2025
Happy Solstice my friends! The days are getting longer from here! (At least for those in the northern hemisphere--sorry for the folks whose days are just beginning to get shorter down south...)
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Kirby Conrod @kirbyconrod.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
out now! the Crip Linguistics Reader has some really important stuff in it, and I hope every linguist will engage and find something to take away from this volume
gupress.gallaudet.edu
The Crip Linguistics Reader
How you language is who you are; language shapes your identity, relationships, and experiences. The Crip Linguistics Reader is a wide-ranging and groundbreaking collection that challenges normative id...
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
Anyone have opinions on Firefox alternatives? Floorp, WaterFox, LibreFox, IceCat?
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Kit @ascolotl.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
Learned today that “Galápagos” comes from a Spanish word for tortoise, meaning that “Galápagos Tortoise” is, in fact, a tortology
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
When I first saw this I thought it was a @ucu.org.uk attack ad to protest against increasing casualisation and enshittification of higher education, but no, it's an earnest and serious ad from an allegedly serious university. Unbelievable.
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Jeff Holliday @jeffholliday.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
My paper with Eunjong Kong on Korean "short tongue" pronunciation is finally out 🎉 Recently there has been more discussion of "short tongue" in the context of aegyo, a Korean cute speech register, and "short tongue" is one of its linguistic hallmarks. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
these mathematicians, always writing papers like they've got something to prove
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Jen Nycz @jennycz.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
second dialect acquisition in The Atlantic! I'm quoted in this piece (along w/@abbyjwalker.bsky.social & other linguists) #linguistics
theatlantic.com
Why Taylor Swift’s Accent Has Changed
And yours might too.
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Me: I'm hip and in touch with youth trends Spotify wrapped: your most played artist was Bach and you have the musical tastes of a 73 year old 💀
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Rory Turnbull @roryturnbull.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
This is so fascinating, I'd love to read this.
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