On this episode of Linglab we talk to Caroline Myrick, a Sociology and Sociolinguistics doctoral student at N.C. State, about her work compiling a dictionary on Saban English, a variety of English spoken on the island of Saba. Joining us in the lab is Teddy Johnson, Caroline’s co-writer and a local Saban, who initially started collecting Saban words and expressions over fifteen years ago.

We also talk about how creating local dictionaries challenge dominant prescriptivist ideologies about language and what sort of language varieties are worth documenting. The question at the heart of our discussion: what makes a word valuable? The larger question: what makes a word real?

Story and Reporting by: Caroline Myrick
Written, Edited, and Narrated by: Cadwell Turnbull

Music By:
Phoenix by Circus Marcus
Gentle Chase by Poddington Bear
Curiousity by Poddington Bear
Tech Toys by Lee Rosevere
Under Suspicion by Lee Rosevere
Poppyseed by Poddington Bear
My Mobile by Lee Rosevere
Whales Inside by Aaron Mist

On this episode of Linglab, we’re doing something a little different. Usually I look at other people’s work in linguistics and talk about their larger implications. But this time, we’re going to talk about my work and some of what I believe are the larger implications of that work.
In this episode, we discuss Vernacular Third Person, a mode of fiction story-telling where the third person narrator speaks in vernacular. We look at three books that do it and talk a little bit about how they differ. We also discuss how Vernacular Third Person challenges ideologies about authority in written discourses. Who really gets to speak in written genres and how?
But this question isn’t just limited to fiction. Can academic discourses be more inclusive? Can they be more accessible?
Linguists Karissa Wojcik, Ari Janoff, M.K. Hedrick, and Caroline Myrick join me in the lab to talk about how academia can benefit from questioning its own assumptions about language.

Music:
“Looking Back” by Lee Rosevere
“Curiosity” By Lee Rosevere
“Puzzle Pieces” By Lee Rosevere
“Golden Hour” By Podington Bear
“Under Suspicion” By Lee Rosevere
“Valley of Shadows” By Ryan Little
“Sunset Stroll” By Podington Bear
“Steppin Into” By Podington Bear
“Kitten” By Podington Bear
“In a Moment” by Lee Rosevere

There’s this scene in The Little Mermaid. Ariel is considering a deal with Ursula, the sea witch. Ursula is agreeing to give her legs so she can walk on land and be where the people are. But there is a catch.

“It won’t cost much,” Ursula sings. “Just your voice!”

This works as a great metaphor for the work Carmen Fought and Karen Eisenhauer are doing with linguistic practices in Disney films, particular when looking at other Disney princesses. Recently their early findings on Disney princess films have gotten a lot of attention in the media. One finding in particular has garnered a lot of response. In the films following The Little Mermaid, during what researchers call the Disney Renaissance, men had on average three times as many spoken lines as women. This was in contrast with the women in the princess films of the golden age of Disney (1930’s-1960’s) who shared spoken lines almost equally with their male counterparts. As it turns out, women were losing their voices.

On this episode of Linglab we talk to Karen Eisenhauer about that finding and many others as well as discuss some of the media response that has come out of this work. Eisenhauer sets the record straight about some of the misconceptions that she has been seeing online. We also talk about the importance of linguistic research in popular media.

Music By:

“Golden Hour” By Podington Bear

“Sidecare” By Podington Bear

“Tech Toys” By Lee Rosevere

“Curiosity” By Lee Rosevere

“Oui” By Podington Bear

“Netherland” By Podington Bear

“Loam” By Podington Bear

“Let’s Start at the Beginning” By Lee Rosevere

“Quizative” By Lee Rosevere

“Corridor” By Podington Bear

On this episode of Linglab we talk to Amy Hemmeter, a Masters student in Linguistics at N.C. State University, about her research on social perceptions of vocal fry. Vocal fry, like uptalk and quotative like, has been receiving a lot of pushback in the media. It has become a punchline in a media that has a history of problematizing female voices. We talk about the cultural bias that creates this kind of critique and whether we should challenge these attitudes in our culture.

Amy Hemmeter has a blog where she talks about linguistics stuff. You can check it out beyondthefourthfloorblog.com.

Music By:

Caterpillar Tunnel by Podington Bear

Good Times by Podington Bear

Kingston Town by Podington Bear

From “Music for Podcasts” By Lee Rosevere 

Curiosity by Lee Rosevere

Tech Toys by Lee Rosevere

Isn’t the Rain Nice Today by Bbatv

Twinkie by Podington Bear

We talk to Joel Schneier, a graduate of our linguistic program and current doctoral student, about his work in text messaging as well as text messaging’s undeserved label as the destroyer of language and what linguists really think is going on with this new medium. We also talk about how text messaging may be changing social relationships in rather unexpected ways.

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Reported and Narrated by: Angela Tramontelli
Script and Editing by: Cadwell Turnbull

Music by:
Corey Gray: Tell the Future
Steve Delta: Theme E
Ryan Little: Believe in Me
Ryan Little: All Lives Matter
Adam Mist: Whales Inside
Ryan Little: Sand Castles
Simon Panrucker: Treasure Hunt
Podington Bear: Swale