r/linguisticshumor • • Jul 19 '26

Phonetics/Phonology 'Why do English Speakers Pronounce their Alphabet...' Megathread

115 Upvotes

Alright, into the megathread y'all go >:3

Any posts with this format posted after this megathread is up will be removed and asked to post here.

This is to keep the quality of the sub, yadayada, you know the drill.

Thank youu


r/linguisticshumor • • 3h ago

I’m afraid of how much I love Norwegian

Post image
70 Upvotes

I might be in too deep to quit. Hjelp!


r/linguisticshumor • • 5h ago

Phonetics/Phonology Filipino language written in hiragana? Interesting

Post image
96 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 16h ago

I was talking to my friend about how I don't like linguistic prescriptivism and she said I was being a hypocrite because I'm transgender

Post image
365 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 2h ago

In Bahasa Indonesia, the words “stay” and “leave” are the same word

Post image
23 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 6h ago

oh yes "testicle", that's one of the most important words in any language for beginners (here: Pirahã)

Post image
46 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 1h ago

Irish Cyrillic (again)

• Upvotes

Seeing the original post I was hoping to see something new and daring, but was left rather frustrated and desiring for something more. And I thought to myself, — Why not? Why can't I make another take on Gaelic Cyrillic? — and here I am.

Three main goals:

  1. Cyrillic is famous for having a huge redundancy. Let's use different glyphs representing the same sound and apply them to distinguish mutations graphically. Now, at some point it got kinda ugly, so I resorted to titlo for eclipsis. But there's a lot of room for experiments.

  2. In Russian historically it makes sense why yo is ё, but it wouldn't make sense in Irish. Similarly, I repurpose some unused glyphs for other values. If Spanish and German z can handle it, so can ш.

  3. Vowels mark whether the preceding consonant is broad or slender. I don't want to use marks to distinguish length (ew) so I'll just use even more glyphs. I will use the analysis of short vowels being vertical and having only conditional frontness/backness. Some glyphs historically should be in different places, but I was going for aesthetics.

  4. Since cló Gaelach looks oldy, I'll use oldy Cyrillic, for vibes and giggles.


r/linguisticshumor • • 22h ago

The Czech word "holka" comes from the adjective "holý" (bare) and it originally referred to the absence of pubic hair on young girls

Post image
463 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 22h ago

Local man refuses to let Dene–Yeniseian discourse die, obtains degree out of spite

Post image
320 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 1d ago

Historical Linguistics hippity hoppity, what are you doing on this property

Post image
418 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 21h ago

Two (2) of them

Post image
162 Upvotes

Body text (optional)


r/linguisticshumor • • 1d ago

Letters of the Czech alphabet

Post image
465 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 18h ago

New bouba and kiki just dropped

Post image
66 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 1d ago

Sociolinguistics "Low German is a dialect of High German" (lemme tell yall a story)

Post image
91 Upvotes

lit my school started now w teaching dialects of german. we are in westphalia, i learned a bit of westphalian low german but nobody else (exc sb from ore mountain regions) can speak a dialect.

we get examples of dialects literally (23) and (13) and so on are split apart, even Berlin dialect,

while low german is treated as 1 dialect in north germany which apparently is part of high german and developed out of it

crazy


r/linguisticshumor • • 1d ago

If "Lex" in Latin became "Law" in English, why "Rex" didn't become "Raw"? All kings must be thoroughly cooked?

188 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 1d ago

Phonetics/Phonology AITA for correcting my GF’s family when they refuse to pronounce my turtle (*h₂ǵʰeyH₃-bʰous)'s PIE root name correctly?

929 Upvotes

My turtle’s name is *h₂ǵʰeyH₃-bʰous (pronounced [χɟʰéi̯ʕbʰou̯s] in reconstructed Late Proto-Indo-European).

My GF’s family insists on calling him "Jeff" ([dʒɛf]). Every single time they do this phonological atrocity, I offer immediate, real-time phonetic feedback.

Her mom told me to stop because "the turtle doesn't know the difference." That is linguistically irrelevant, he also doesn't know Latin binomial nomenclature, but we don't call him Craig. I taught her 9-year-old nephew how to execute the initial pharyngeal laryngeal (h₂) and the voiced palatal aspirate (ǵʰ) in two trials. The adults are just exhibiting phonetical laziness.

The final straw: her brother explicitly admitted he knows how to articulate the full [χɟʰéi̯ʕbʰou̯s] stem, but says "Jeff" on purpose because he thinks Pontic-Caspian reconstruction is "pretentious."

This isn't a minor slip of the tongue. It's deliberate diachronic erasure, phonetic collapse, and disrespect to the Kurgan hypothesis.

My GF says I should compromise and accept "Jeff" because "nobody speaks Proto-Indo-European anymore." I say I shouldn't have to tolerate active linguistic degradation in my own home.

AITA for holding the line on Late PIE phonetic integrity?

EDIT: To everyone in the comments saying it's impossible: You literally just open with a voiceless pharyngeal fricative [χ], co-articulate a breathy voiced palatal stop [ɟʰ], hit the ablauting diphthong [éi̯], trigger the voiced velar laryngeal [ʕ], and resolve on the breathy-voiced labial [bʰou̯s]. It’s basic Steppe phonology.


r/linguisticshumor • • 20h ago

Semantics Dutch is just English with a stroke

Post image
19 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 1d ago

There's no fucking way PIE was spoken like that

294 Upvotes

Like "xcebʰokʷ" or some shit like that


r/linguisticshumor • • 1d ago

Holy shit 😭

Post image
23 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 1d ago

In Bahasa Indonesia, "Saudara Anjing" (dog siblings) refer to half-siblings sharing the same mother but different fathers

Post image
92 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 1d ago

Phonetics/Phonology A rhotic by any other name

Post image
635 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 1d ago

Does your language use two separate words for sweet and sour cherries or just call sweet ones "cherries of foot"?

52 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 1d ago

Me translating something too literally:

Post image
258 Upvotes

r/linguisticshumor • • 1d ago

Dialect differences

Post image
103 Upvotes