Language Log posts from lexgather.html, 26ix26
I think these are in chronological order, more or less. They are the ones I happened to link to as I gathered from the Incoming and entered into lexgather.html
Dialect or Topolect? Victor Mair at Language Log
Language, topolect, dialect, idiolect Victor Mair at Language Log
Kiddo slang at warp speed Victor Mair at Language Log
"Art does not make sense" Mark Liberman at Language Log
Hiberno-English: it's a soft day Victor Mair at Language Log
Pulmonic ingressive Victor Mair at Language Log
Philology vs. linguistics Victor Mair at Language Log
...The philological study of ancient and classical texts, traditionally the very core of the humanities, has during the last generation or so been either completely marginalized within university departments or, at some universities, even altogether banished from the academic portfolio. This development is partly due to general policies of higher education, but one can argue that it is primarily a consequence of trends within the humanities themselves.
Phonemic analysis of animal sounds as spelled in various popular languages Victor Mair at Language Log
Plummet's journey Mark Liberman at Language Log
The origin of human language: cognition and communication Victor Mair at Language Log
...The last sentence of the unsigned letter expresses commitment to the university's mission "while preserving our commitment to academic freedom and institutional integrity." While I am no critic of judicious use of hypocrisy, this passage is also a nice example of what has come to be known as 'performative contradiction.' If government officials get to dictate to you that certain departments must be put into receivership, and you then go and promise to rejig the curriculum (for 'balance'), perhaps you should not claim 'institutional integrity' or present yourself as a guardian of academic freedom'?...one important lesson of the last year and a half is that when the chips are down an oversized endowment need not equal intellectual or social authority. Rather, it means you are a juicy target for various shakedowns in the way, in extremis, the Catholic monasteries were in the age of Henry VIII.
...The new purported salve, neutral institutional speech' unless vital interests are threatened is just as corrosive to the mission of the university. For, it turns out that in practice it is a recipe for cowed silence rather than leadership in orienting a large community to a common end. Henceforth, Columbia promises "commitment to greater institutional neutrality." Before long we will have institutions promising the greatest maximum amount of institutional neutrality!
..."Neutrality" is one of those empty words that somehow has achieved sacred and context-free acceptance like "transparency."
...Alas, the task of the modern university can't be to save liberal democracy. But its self-inflicted incapacity and inability to stand up for itself — even when richly endowed and private — is a sign of the more general corruption of society.
Signals and Symbols in Linguistic Variation and Change Mark Liberman at Language Log
Words are digital symbols transmitted as acoustic signals. The word sequence in an utterance is encoded by a phonological system whose symbol-facing side connects to morpho-syntax, while its signal-facing side controls articulation and perception. This "duality of patterning" (Hockett) or "double articulation" (Martinet) has crucial and little-recognized benefits for accurate transmission, lexical learning, and community convergence.
The multivalence of interjections Victor Mair at Language Log
Study Reveals Most Popular American Texting Habits Victor Mair at Language Log>blockquote>Analysis of Google search data for 2025 reveals the most searched for texting abbreviations in America.
needs must (see also Language Log post about double modals)
Who were the Galatians? How did they get where they were? Victor Mair at Language Log">
Words, morphemes, collocations, characters Victor Mair at Language Log
Spinach: Indian interlude Victor Mair at Language Log
Alignment Mark Liberman at Language Log
Alignment charts and other low-dimensional visualizations Mark Liberman at Language Log
Our journey journey Mark Liberman at Language Log
Proto-emoji Victor Mair at Language Log
Footguns and rakestomping Mark Liberman at Language Log
Communicating across metaphorical differences Mark Liberman at Language Log
Like learning physics by watching Einstein do yoga Mark Liberman at Language Log
Some uninformed anti-American peeving Mark Liberman at Language Log
(quoting George Will): Today's most promiscuously used word is "vibe." It probably is used so often by so many because trying to decipher its meaning is like trying to nail applesauce to smoke.
The AI Bubble Mark Liberman at Language Log
Cracker Victor Mair at Language Log
Study Reveals America's Most Searched Slang Words 2025 Victor Mairv at Language Log
6-7...Bop...Mogging...Huzz...Chopped......A spokesperson for Unscramblerer.com commented on the findings: "Popular slang in 2025 continues to be heavily influenced by TikTok, Instagram, gaming, streaming, Gen Z and Alpha online communities. Trends from social media spread rapidly via memes and viral challenges. Fueled by technology our language adapts to new slang trends more rapidly than ever. Slang is a fascinating and fun mirror of our culture."
Meh Mark Liberman at Language Log
Sacré Bleu! Victor Mair at Language Log
...the overlooked field of social faux pas — whether it be swearing, insults or other off-limit language — can help us better understand the values, boundaries and shifting norms that shape different cultures.
6-7 Mark Liberman at Language Log
The conceptual origins of "brainwashing" Victor Mair at Language Log
...When concepts and topics start to become treated as the subject of scholarly studies on the history of culture or knowledge, it is often an unmistakable sign that they have become a little bit dusty and deprecated, mentally encapsulated in a narrative of the past. This is precisely what has happened to the topic of "brainwashing" over the last two decades. A whole series of authors have approached the concept no longer exclusively from the perspective of a sinister present or a threatening future, but with the historian's backward gaze into the presumed period of "origins." Others have been less concerned with the phenomenon itself, but with its medializations in film, art or computer games.
"Maplewashing" Mark Liberman at Language Log
(Word of the Year from Canadian English Dictionary): ...the deceptive practice of making things look more Canadian than they actually are
Weltarsch Mark Liberman at Language Log
(of Kicking Ass)
Another UH? Mark Liberman at Language Log
...According to Herbert Clark and Jean Fox Tree, "Using uh and um in spontaneous speaking" (Cognition 2002),"[S]peakers use uh and um to announce that they are initiating what they expect to be a minor (uh), or major (um), delay in speaking. Speakers can use these announcements in turn to implicate, for example, that they are searching for a word, are deciding what to say next, want to keep the floor, or want to cede the floor."
Tariffs Mark Liberman at Language Log
6iii26
Are you in the loop? Victor Mair at Language Log
I think jargon is getting thicker with each passing day, but where are people learning it? Perhaps they are actually being taught it in business schools. It's so pervasive, nauseating, and suffocating that it must be somebody's job to produce it.To put the new wave / avant garde jargon in perspective, I turned to this consummate collection compiled by WSJ from the complaints of actual endurers:
'Leverage.' 'Reach Out.' 'Circle Back.' The Corporate Jargon We Hate the Most. We pinged our readers for the terms that really annoy them. The list is long.
By Demetria Gallegos, WSJ (Feb. 26, 2026)
German English Victor Mair at Language Log
"Brocatives" Mark Liberman at Language Log
...nominal vocatives that have been traditionally associated with male speakers and addressees