Gopalakrishnan R

I teach classes on language evolution. Something interesting that I've noticed is that a lot of people seem to have a pretty strong idea that what makes language different from other species' communication, and a key part of what allows us to have language, is abstract concepts. 1/

Austroasiatic linguistics YouTube channel Some resources from the recent conference on Austroasiatic languages

We started an Austroasiatic Linguistics youtube channel! Most of the talks from the recent ICAAL conference are available to view, and I have some thoughts about it in a recent blog post: www.hiramring.com/blog/2026-02...

Something about self-referencing jokes like these makes me love them

Sands 2020

i have a Serious Linguistics Question that i will introduce with an anecdotal datum:

our toddler, when her auntie just now said (about a toy car on tv) "se parece al tuyo" [it looks like yours], responded "no it isn't."

personally (as a spanish learner and general language overthinker) ..

Not a character but close enough

I know of several for just so-called "brown" people lol

Rethinking linguistic feedback: A modality-agnostic and holistic approach to multimodal addressee signals in spoken and signed dyadic interaction In this paper, we investigate multimodal recipient feedback in casual dyadic conversation in four languages: German Sign Language, Russian Sign Language, spoken German, and spoken Russian. Taking a mo...

Bauer, A. & Gipper, S. & Herrmann, T.-A. & Hosemann, J.. 2026. Rethinking linguistic feedback: A modality-agnostic and holistic approach to multimodal addressee signals in spoken and signed dyadic interaction. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 11(1), 1–50.
DOI: doi.org/10.16995/glo...

new book! i wrote chapter 11

text, as follows A truly embarrassing example of how the etymological method can backfire is the following. In the early 1900s a ring was unearthed near Shkodër in Albania with three words on it that were averred to be Illyrian; nearly identical forms were known from Messapic, and on their basis the inscription was given an interpretation: “To the goddess Oethe.” But the ring later turned out to be from the Byzantine period and written in Greek – it had been read backwards. The point of the foregoing is not to disparage speculation and imaginative thinking; any science needs both to move forward. The problem arises when such speculations harden over time into facts in people’s minds and become the sole basis for further and far-reaching theories (such as the establishment of sound changes or linguistic filiation). In dealing with these fragmentary languages, it is important to distinguish at all times what is known for certain from what is only guesswork.

98% of the way through "Indo-European Language and Culture" and it continues to demonstrate why it's my first 5-star read of 2026 @thestorygraph.com #Reading #Booksky #linguistics

Some languages, like Sentinelese, ought best to remain unknown

Stop Borrowing! Anatolian/Indo-European Stops, Voice, and Northwest Semitic Loans – With Notes on Ugaritic grdš, ztr, dġṯ and Other Words The article discusses interrelated pieces of knowledge that can be gleaned by studying loans from Anatolian Indo-European (Hittite and Luwian) into North-west Semitic (mainly Ugaritic) for (a) the rec...

My article in which I posit (based partly on Semitic transcriptions and partly on typology) a triad of unvoiced-but-long, preglott./creaky, and breathy for PIE. I argue an idea of "balance of length" for the three.

www.academia.edu/117830047/St...

Man, Dark Side of the Moon never ages. Amazing no matter how many times you listen to it

Executive dysfunction disorder is really the best term for it IMO. It was great learning of that term, everything boils down to that one thing.

But of course, these are used much broadly as well. E.g., Basava and Mahādēvi (Kannada Vīraśaiva saints) are often called Basavaṇṇa and Mahādēviyakka (or Akkamahādēvi).

Yeah, you're supposed to address your elder cousins with a suffixed aṇṇa (Tamil/Kannada) or anna (Telugu) 'elder brother', or akka (all three) 'elder sister'. Elder ones address younger ones with just the name.

The verb pɾeːmint͡su 'to love' in the first sentence is formed from the borrowed nominal pɾeːmam 'love' (< Skt prēma), plus the causativiser -int͡su.

Not a native telugu speaker but I think a more natural way is something like,

naː-ku nuʋːu t͡saːla iʃʈam
1SG-DAT 2SG very affection

or,

naː-ku nuʋːu t͡saːla natː͡s-æː-ʋu
1SG-DAT 2SG very be_liked-PST-2SG

(The "Past" in the 2nd is used in a stative perfect sense.)

GoogleTranslate will give you calquey translations for "I love you" into Telugu/Tamil/Kannada/Malayalam, like the one below in Telugu, but the more idiomatic way is to use a dative-subject attitude predicate.

neːnu nin-nu pɾeːm-is-t̪=unː-aːnu
1SG 2SG-ACC love.NOM-CAUS-NPST=COP.NFUT-1SG
'I love you.'

Yknow, when someone posits a really wild etymology that sounds unbelievable, it's worth keeping in mind that "lingcel" is a valid word in English and that etymologically, it is "linguistically celibate" or something.

I love how english keeps grammaticalising suffixes like -cel, tard, -oid, etc

Just saw on the other platform that Jonas Sibony has published his online dictionary of the Arabic Varieties of the Jews of Morocco

www.jonas-sibony.com/djm/

Huh, I thought "cousin brother/sister" was an Indian thing. I guess it's generally a thing when one's language/culture doesn't have a word for "cousin"? In Tamil/Telugu/Kannada/Hindi, it's just "son/daughter of mother/father's older/younger sibling".

Most of the 4channic influence is in the lexicon and idioms, especially the latter. I don't think there is any syntactic influence on either Redditic or Twitteric.

I believe people are forgetting the 4channish superstrate influence across Redditish and Twitterish.

I don't get that, I'm afraid

I run a micro label of mostly mine and my friends' music. It's bandcamp Friday, so check it if you like: space psych or heavy improv played on guitars, snares, veena, cracked pedals, voice, bottles or comps of pre-war south Indian instrumental music from 78s.
branchdravidian.bandcamp.com/merch

Just want to say that "Branch Dravidian" is a top tier pun :D

Semantic change

Experimental approaches to sound symbolism AbstractThis chapter explores the phenomenon of sound symbolism: associations between language sounds and particular perceptual and/or semantic properties.

So excited to see the Oxford Handbook of Iconicity in Language come out!!

Here is my chapter on Experimental approaches to sound symbolism: academic.oup.com/edited-volum...

Very glad that the volume ‘The Reconstruction of Indo-European Stop Systems: From the Traditional Model to Glottalic Theories’ (edited by Tijmen Pronk and myself) has now appeared.

brill.com/display/titl...

Looking forward to hearing reactions to it!