We here at Silly Linguistics love language and linguistics and want to share it with the world. Have you ever wondered why English spelling was so weird? Have you ever wondered where words come from? Well, in this magazine we cover all this and more. We talk to linguists and ask them all sorts of interesting questions about language. We talk to language lovers and talk to them about their highs and lows of language learning.
We discuss etymology and where words come from. We look at the social impact of words and how words shape the world around us. Languages are fundamentally human and they touch all parts of our lives. We seek to explore how language shapes our lives and the world around us. How do different groups use language and what can that teach us about being human. Discover all this and more in our magazine Silly Linguistics
My story
Many years ago I was unemployed and stuck at home due to depression. I have never been someone to just sit around and do nothing so I started writing online. I have always loved writing. I found the language community and started putting all my time and effort into it. It was difficult at first. I didn’t always know what to write. I had to learn a lot of things and also grow up. I had to learn how to take criticism and become a better person so I could better service the wonderful language community
I started Silly Linguistics just to have a place to post language stuff and silly jokes. I love language and linguistics and love talking about them. They are so intricate and fascinating. I love chatting to people about languages and discovering everyone’s path to learning languages. Some learn languages because of family, some because of heritage and some just for the fun of it. The more I learn about languages the more interesting I find it.
There have been lots of ups and downs along the way since starting Silly Linguistics, not just for me, but for anyone who does online stuff. I almost gave up writing altogether. Silly Linguistics was growing slowly and I was really tired. I didn’t know where I was going to go in life.
Before starting Silly Linguistics I was a programmer for 14 years. It was only when I had almost burned out that I realised I needed to make a change. That is when I decided to get into language stuff. But that was only possible because of the small foundation I had in language. I had started learning German during University and I had always dabbled in language and linguistics. I read a book about linguistics way back. I have always had a lot of hobbies. Those hobbies have added to my life.
So when I decided to get into the online language scene, it wasn’t without a small foundation. No one ever knows where life will take us. Lots of things have come together to make this what it is. My past interest in language, my academic background (I have a masters in Computer Science) and my love of humour. If I hadn’t pursued those things before, Silly Linguistics wouldn’t have been what it is.
My story has been a long and winding road but things are finally coming together. Come with me as we journey the strange, weird and wonderful world of languages together. I can’t wait to see what we find together.
A sample list of articles in our magazine
Translation and analysis of Iditguovssu (Dawn Light), a song in Northern Sami
Me, myself and I – An exploration of a weird phenomenon in Modern English
An overview of Northern Sami
Untranslateable?
History of “-y” in English
An exploration of the past tense of ‘yeet’
When Writing Gets Hard: The Bilingual Problem
Examine the rationale and effectiveness of attempts in the late 17th and 18th century to rectify the English language
What “yes” and “no” can tell us about how people think
How many languages are there?
Proto Language – Reconstruction and vowel Development
Meet the team
These are just some of our contributors. We have lots of contributors from all over the world. Language is universal so we want voices from all over to give us a broad perspective on language and its use
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