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Author Chi Luu in black and white

Chi Luu

Chi Luu is JSTOR Daily’s resident linguist. She is a computational linguist and NLP researcher who tinkers with tiny models and machines to uncover curious mysteries in human language. She has degrees in Theoretical Linguistics and Literature, with a morbid focus on dead and dying languages. She has worked on dictionaries, multi-language search engines, and question answering applications.

Speech Bubbles
Lingua Obscura

When Actions Are Words

How certain speech acts perform actions and alter our social reality.
People forming the letters L and R
Lingua Obscura

The Quirks of Pronunciation: Why Some People Say “Banana” and Others Say “Bananal”

I say "Harvard" and you say "Hahvahd"
Portrait of William Shakespeare
Lingua Obscura

Linguistic Anarchy! It’s all Pun and Games Until Somebody Loses a Sign

The pun is in an interesting bind: it is both ubiquitous and reviled. We try to understand why.
Four young men in trendy clothes take a selfie while out partying
Lingua Obscura

More Hipster Than Thou: Is Vintage Language Back in Vogue?

A look at the recent boon in archaic terms and its relationship to "hipster" culture.
Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526/1530–1569) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Lingua Obscura

Syllables Without Vowels? Pfft, Inconceivable!

Is the syllable universal? Maybe. We look at how languages use (and don't use) syllables, and what this says about language itself.
Anti-immigration protest sign
Lingua Obscura

Migrants, Refugees, and Expats: How Humanity Comes in Waves

The language we use for people fleeing their home nations may define them as less than human.
Close-up of the dictionary entry to 'colour'
Lingua Obscura

Yas Queen! It’s the Spelling Reform School for Wayward Words

Debates over English spelling reform have existed for centuries.
Grammar workbook
Lingua Obscura

Dear Pedants: Your Fave Grammar Rule is Probably Fake

What constitutes ‘correct’ grammar in English seems to have a cyclical life, aided and abetted by new generations of enthusiastic grammarians.
Woman standing in a dirt road
Lingua Obscura

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Speaker: Linguistic Isolation in the Modern World

Ayapaneco, an endangered Mexican language, sparked linguistic interest when the last two speakers of the language were not speaking to each other
Still from the film "Ex-Machina" depicting Ava examining potential faces
Lingua Obscura

Ex Machinations in the Turing Test

Artificial Intelligence and the Turing Test.
Still from MTV's Catfish depicting Nev Schulman and Max Joseph investigating
Lingua Obscura

Gone (Cat)Fishing: How Language Detectives Tackle Online Anonymity

Linguistic clues might be the solution to identifying anonymous online users.
Sign with characters indicating an expletive crossed out
Lingua Obscura

All About That Taboo: When Good Words Go Bad

The phenomenon of sacres, or taboo words that start from fairly innocuous beginnings.
Facebook landing page on a tablet
Lingua Obscura

How to Disappear Completely: Linguistic Anonymity on the Internet

Is anonymity on the Internet linguistically possible?
Two children talking together
Lingua Obscura

The Super Secret World of Ludlings – You Know, For Kids!

secret language games or ludlings, have been serious business for young people across the ages.
Chart of gender pronouns
Lingua Obscura

They’re Here, They’re Genderqueer, Get Used to Gender Neutral Pronouns

Ongoing study and debate about gender neutral pronouns.
Homer Simpson
Lingua Obscura

Fanf–kingtastic and Edumacational: The Case of English Infixation

From shiznit to wel-diddly-elcome, the evolution of infixation in English language.
A group of friends laughing happily as they spend time outdoors in the sun
Lingua Obscura

All the Young Dudes: Generic Gender Terms Among Young Women

The linguistics behind gender neutral terms among young women.
Stick figure drawing on an irate office worker
Lingua Obscura

More on Internet Neologisms: Rage Quitting is a Thing

More on internet neologisms: pairing together a (negative) mood word with a verb to produce a semi-productive compound.
Table Flip
Lingua Obscura

All the Feels: the Morphology of Reaction Gifs

From visual emojis depicting simple emotional states, it's a short step to emotion or reaction gifs, used to respond in playful ways to online discussions.
Lingua Obscura

Word to your Mother (Tongue): Can Hip Hop Save Endangered Languages?

Hip hop is not only linguistically innovative, it helps preserve indigenous languages via oral tradition.
brand names
Lingua Obscura

What’s in a Brand Name: the Sounds of Persuasion

The mere letters and sounds used in a brand name can have a curious impact on its reception by the public.
Lingua Obscura
Lingua Obscura

Lingua Obscura: Young Women’s Language Patterns at the Forefront of Linguistic Change

Linguists observe that young women's language patterns invite negative reactions, comments, and suggestions to change.
picture of a woman's mouth
Lingua Obscura

Lingua Obscura: A New Linguistics Column

A linguistics column that will uncover curious stories of language use from all around the world--written by a linguist.

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