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For the love of science

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This blog,  Language Creatures , was born in Spring 2019 in a course project for the Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University . This is why, Language Creatures has many siblings! Below you will find the list of our siblings (organized alphabetically). When available, the enchanting descriptions are, of course, not mine but their authors'. Visit these other blogs, read them, leave your comments and suggestions... all for the love of science! Enjoy! ?   adamfromthelab . I'm medical lab scientist and a bioethicist ?   Beyond Safaris . Coming to Kenya for a grand tour of the savannas and the animals? There's more than that! Learn more about the people of Kenya, their culture and history, and also how it all began, where we came from and where we are going! ?   BrainyMood ?   Chemistry with a Pinch of the Outdoors . Just an average girl documenting her road towards a PhD ?   Dr. Dropset . Aspiring doctorate and athlete. So many exerc
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Trust me. I'm a linguist!

As a linguist, I’m frequently asked: “What do linguists do? Are they like scientists?” In this very first episode of the Language Creatures podcast series, I will tell you some of the amazing things we language scientists do! Please leave your comments, questions and suggestions below!
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Noo Yawk Tawk!

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Many American speakers seem to easily recognize if someone is from the New York City Metro area . This includes the five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island), Long Island and parts of New Jersey. Why is the New York accent so recognizable? Well, the traditional New York English has special features that make it different from other American dialects. Consider these two examples. First, a very "New York" feature is the "aw" vowel . In many American dialects, the word "coffee" sounds [kɔfi]. In other American dialects, the same word sounds [kɑfi]. In the traditional New York English, the word sounds [koəfi], with a diphthong! This is why this vowel is also called the "cawfee" vowel . You can hear this vowel in words like "thought" ,  "broad" , "office" , "bought" , "talk" , and a large etc. How do you pronounce these words? Second, another recognizable featu
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Wug is this?

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This is a wug! A wug is one of the most recognizable symbols of Linguistics , the science that studies the language faculty, the different languages of the world, and the language creatures (humans using languages!). This wug was used by Dr. Jean Berko Gleason in a 1958 experiment now called the "Wug Test". Children were given a brand new word (like "wug") and were asked to provide, for instance, the plural of such new word. Here's the transcription of the original prompt: This is a WUG. Now there is another one. There are two of them. There are two ____. English-speaking adults will agree that the plural of "wug" is "wugs", where the plural marker ("s") is pronounced with a vibration of the vocal folds (put your fingers over your throat and feel the vibration! It sounds [z]!). Children, however, will provide different answers depending on their age. Currently, among linguists, any linguistic experiment using made-up w
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