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Gretchen McCulloch

@gretchenmcc.bsky.social

24K followers 4.1K following 10K posts

Internet linguist. Wrote Because Internet, NYT bestseller about internet language. Co-hosts @lingthusiasm.bsky.social, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics. she/her 🌈 Montreal en/fr 🇨🇦 gretchenmcculloch.com

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · Nov 8

Hello! I'm an internet linguist!

I wrote a book called Because Internet about how we use language online gretchenmcculloch.com/book

I make @lingthusiasm.bsky.social, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics

And I maintain a linguistics starter pack here: go.bsky.app/UUM7Gcx

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Reposted by Gretchen McCulloch

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 1d

Higgledy piggledy
Timothée Chalamet
Has a name meriting
Endless design

Much like his forerunner
Benedict Cumberbatch:
Hexasyllabically,
Easy to rhyme

tweet from childish branzino @absflora:
timothée chalamet is the new benedict cumberbatch in the sense that you can say ANYTHING and we know who you mean. tiffany chevrolet. timpanogos charlemagne. symphony cabernet. jiminy castaway.

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 23h

*bows*

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 23h

It's hard to explain, I do end up doing a lot of rhythmic thumping along of my hand on the table to test where the stressed syllables are while I'm trying out various versions of a line, but also some part of it from reading a lot of metered poetry aloud as a kid, like Dr Seuss and Shel Silverstein

Reposted by Gretchen McCulloch

Isabel Köster @iotasubscript.bsky.social · 1d

Today I learned that the French equivalent of German’s eierlegende Wollmilchsau (lit. egg-laying wool-milk-sow,” your special unicorn all-in-one solution) is the mouton à cinq pattes (the 5-legged sheep). I love languages.

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 1d

This post has breached containment of "people who already know what a double dactyl is" so here's a handy link to the comic verse style that I was writing in, it's like the limerick's more sophisticated and tricky cousin
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_...

Double dactyl - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 1d

Today's your lucky day, you get to learn about the existence of the verse form known as the double dactyl, which is what I was writing here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_...

Double dactyl - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 1d

Today's your lucky day, you get to learn about the verse form called a double dactyl, which has its own very specific constraints that I was following en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_...

Double dactyl - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 1d

okay weird flex but I swear this is the second time someone on here has written me a double dactyl and now I cannot for the life of me FIND the first one, so I'm retweeting this with much better keywords so I have a hope of finding it again

Patrick Nielsen Hayden @pnh.nielsenhayden.com · 1d

Winsocket spinsocket
Gretchen McCulloch, a
Linguist and podcaster
(Double the threat)

Showed us how online chat
Idiomatically
Makes us talk different be-
cause Internet.

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 1d

This sounds delightful

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 1d

If you like comic poems with good scansion or linguistic analyses of pop cultural phenomena, may I point out that I cohost @lingthusiasm.bsky.social, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics?

Find your perfect starter episode here: bit.ly/lingthusiasmquiz

Which Lingthusiasm episode are you?

Answer a few fun questions and this Highly Scientific quiz will tell you which episode of Lingthusiasm, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics, matches your personality best!

bit.ly

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 1d

Anyway I wrote an article back in 2013 analyzing permutations on Benedict Cumberbatch which you may read and sub in Timothée Chalamet should you so desire
web.archive.org/web/20250322...

A Linguist Explains the Rules of Summoning Benedict Cumberbatch -The Toast

A willing foe, and sea room.

web.archive.org

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 1d

Oh I'm a huge double dactyl fan

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 1d

thank you I'm a scansion nerd from way back

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 1d

I wrote it on twitter a few years ago in response to the same tweet and when it came up again I had to rescue it over here

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 1d

Higgledy piggledy
Timothée Chalamet
Has a name meriting
Endless design

Much like his forerunner
Benedict Cumberbatch:
Hexasyllabically,
Easy to rhyme

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Reposted by Gretchen McCulloch

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 9d

brb asking my publisher for an edition of Because Internet that makes the dialup screech as you open it, like a novelty birthday card, and gradually heats up the longer you read it

Emily C. Hughes @emilyhughes.bsky.social · 9d

no no the publishing industry is doing fine, why do you ask

A screenshot from Publisher's Lunch:
Jennifer L. Armentrout and Hellmann's
In a promotion designed for BookTok enjoyment, Jennifer L. Armentrout’s just-published THE PRIMAL OF BLOOD AND BONE is available in a special, limited-edition "garlic-scented copy, infused with Hellmann’s Garlic Aioli to create a one-of-a-kind, Craven-proof book." They explain: "This exclusive edition is printed with garlic-infused ink, designed to ward off Armentrout’s bloodthirsty monsters, the Craven. While humans may dread garlic breath, Hellmann’s has cleverly transformed this social faux pas into an unexpected – and delicious – form of supernatural protection."

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Reposted by Gretchen McCulloch

Lissa Harris🐀 @lissaharris.bsky.social · 6d

yo Scansion Bluesky, we got another one

Deanna Kreisel 🌱 @doctorwaffle.substack.com · 9d

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

Screen cap of parodic version of William Blake's "The Tyger" that begins:
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
(Not sure if I spelled that right)
What immortal hand or eye
Could fashion such a stripy guy?
What the hammer that hath hewn it
Into such a chonky unit?
Did who made the lamb make thee,
Or an external franchisee?

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Reposted by Gretchen McCulloch

Greg Jenner @gregjenner.bsky.social · 8d

This brilliant new book is all about the linguistic history of each letter of the alphabet, and I’ve hugely enjoyed reading it — I highly recommend you all get a copy! 👇👌

Dr Danny Bate @dannybate.bsky.social · 10d

I now believe it's real.

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 7d

Post #3 in the LingComm IRL series is about how doctoral candidate Lee Murray got asked by a friend to do some talks for a skeptics conference in Australia and they ended up directly changing people's minds on prescriptivism!

lingcomm.org/2025/09/30/l...

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 7d

important update to the whole "version of Because Internet that makes the dialup screech when you open it" situation

Riverhead Books @riverheadbooks.bsky.social · 7d

We're working on it 👀

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 7d

Moving the app to the second screen of my phone in a different spot to foil muscle memory, and putting a different app that I wanted to touch more (eg library ebook app) where the addictive app used to be, so I end up accidentally opening it instead. And more fun phone-free activities

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 7d

not working a 40 hour workweek is so incredibly loadbearing for me, I wish more people had this option

Reposted by Gretchen McCulloch

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 8d

well, MY study of what percentage of human adults love ambiguity more than most people is based on an entirely unbiased sample of people at the linguistics conference, no problems there

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 8d

I’m gonna release a bullshit not-peer-reviewed survey that claims “human adults think about squid more than any other animal”, but my sampling was just asking people at the cephalopod conference. Maybe they’ll write me up in the independent lmao.

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 8d

Well, it's also ambiguous between love ambiguity more than most people love it and love ambiguity more than they love most people

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Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 8d

well, MY study of what percentage of human adults love ambiguity more than most people is based on an entirely unbiased sample of people at the linguistics conference, no problems there

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 8d

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