Lynne Murphy
@lynneguist.bsky.social
US linguist in UK. University of Sussex.
Newsletter: https://substack.com/@lynneguist
Blog: http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/lynneguist
Newsletter: https://substack.com/@lynneguist
Blog: http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/lynneguist
Oxford is having a vote on its #WotY2025
You've got 2 days to let your feelings be known!
Myself, I don't think I have a favo(u)rite out of this lot
corp.oup.com/word-of-the-...
You've got 2 days to let your feelings be known!
Myself, I don't think I have a favo(u)rite out of this lot
corp.oup.com/word-of-the-...
Oxford Word of the Year 2025 - Oxford University Press
Voting is now open for Oxford Word of the Year 2025! Discover our shortlist and have your say by Thursday 27 November.
corp.oup.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Oxford is having a vote on its #WotY2025
You've got 2 days to let your feelings be known!
Myself, I don't think I have a favo(u)rite out of this lot
corp.oup.com/word-of-the-...
You've got 2 days to let your feelings be known!
Myself, I don't think I have a favo(u)rite out of this lot
corp.oup.com/word-of-the-...
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
We talk to @lynneguist.bsky.social about the supposed 'Americanisation' of young British people's vocabulary, media scares and why we should approach news stories like these with some criticality. Show notes and links are here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Episode 77 - Lynne Murphy and the 'Americanisation' of young people's English
Show notes for Episode 77 Welcome to episode 77 of Lexis in which Raj & Dan talk to Lynne Murphy, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex about a flurry of recent news stories about chil...
docs.google.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:54 AM
We talk to @lynneguist.bsky.social about the supposed 'Americanisation' of young British people's vocabulary, media scares and why we should approach news stories like these with some criticality. Show notes and links are here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Colonisation, eh?
I wonder who got that started?
I wonder who got that started?
We've just recorded an interview with @lynneguist.bsky.social for the @lexispodcast.bsky.social and then this absolute whopper of a piece gets published. It's jam-packed with clichéd complaints, hoary hyperbole & xenophobic waffle.
archive.ph/2025.11.24-0...
archive.ph/2025.11.24-0...
November 24, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Colonisation, eh?
I wonder who got that started?
I wonder who got that started?
I've already updated it. Now with data from the News on the Web (GB) corpus!
New blog post: _pleaded_ v _pled_.
Coming at England from two directions?
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/plea...
Coming at England from two directions?
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/plea...
pleaded and pled
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:37 PM
I've already updated it. Now with data from the News on the Web (GB) corpus!
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
You never see recluses anymore
November 24, 2025 at 1:02 PM
You never see recluses anymore
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
Translation tip:
Some languages put "quotes" for street or building names.
Not English: names in quotes otherwise denote a nickname or it's unofficial.
Small details like these can shift meaning more than you'd think.
Always use the target language's punctuation in translation.
#langsky #xl8n
Some languages put "quotes" for street or building names.
Not English: names in quotes otherwise denote a nickname or it's unofficial.
Small details like these can shift meaning more than you'd think.
Always use the target language's punctuation in translation.
#langsky #xl8n
November 24, 2025 at 9:41 AM
New blog post: _pleaded_ v _pled_.
Coming at England from two directions?
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/plea...
Coming at England from two directions?
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/plea...
pleaded and pled
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:45 AM
New blog post: _pleaded_ v _pled_.
Coming at England from two directions?
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/plea...
Coming at England from two directions?
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/plea...
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
UPDATE: Americans who use
YouTube 84%
Facebook 71%
Instagram 50%
TikTok 37%
WhatsApp 32%
Reddit 26%
Snapchat 25%
X (Twitter) 21%
Threads 8%
Bluesky 4%
Truth Social 3%
Full Pew Research Center report: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/11/20/americans-social-media-use-2025/
YouTube 84%
Facebook 71%
Instagram 50%
TikTok 37%
WhatsApp 32%
Reddit 26%
Snapchat 25%
X (Twitter) 21%
Threads 8%
Bluesky 4%
Truth Social 3%
Full Pew Research Center report: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/11/20/americans-social-media-use-2025/
November 23, 2025 at 9:55 PM
UPDATE: Americans who use
YouTube 84%
Facebook 71%
Instagram 50%
TikTok 37%
WhatsApp 32%
Reddit 26%
Snapchat 25%
X (Twitter) 21%
Threads 8%
Bluesky 4%
Truth Social 3%
Full Pew Research Center report: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/11/20/americans-social-media-use-2025/
YouTube 84%
Facebook 71%
Instagram 50%
TikTok 37%
WhatsApp 32%
Reddit 26%
Snapchat 25%
X (Twitter) 21%
Threads 8%
Bluesky 4%
Truth Social 3%
Full Pew Research Center report: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/11/20/americans-social-media-use-2025/
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
When you insult someone with the same name as the person you meant to insult, that's an ad homonym attack.
November 23, 2025 at 6:59 PM
When you insult someone with the same name as the person you meant to insult, that's an ad homonym attack.
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
&udm=14 | the disenshittification Konami code
A quick way to get an AI-free search without any extra work.
udm14.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
I think the shortest version of why LLMs are an anti education technology is that education is fundamentally about making shared context to understand ourselves, each other, and the world
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
November 23, 2025 at 12:57 PM
I think the shortest version of why LLMs are an anti education technology is that education is fundamentally about making shared context to understand ourselves, each other, and the world
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
Joke wot works best when it's transatlantic...
(explanation at my old 'sweets' blogpost: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/07/cand...)
(explanation at my old 'sweets' blogpost: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/07/cand...)
November 23, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Joke wot works best when it's transatlantic...
(explanation at my old 'sweets' blogpost: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/07/cand...)
(explanation at my old 'sweets' blogpost: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/07/cand...)
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
A little preview of what our next episode, with @lynneguist.bsky.social, will be covering.
share.descript.com/view/xo1Zcqo...
share.descript.com/view/xo1Zcqo...
Lynne Murphy interview clip - Descript
In Britain, people tend to assume it's an Americanism if it's something new that they don't like. So when you read those articles in The Telegraph for The Times, or other newspapers with lists of, yo
share.descript.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:05 AM
A little preview of what our next episode, with @lynneguist.bsky.social, will be covering.
share.descript.com/view/xo1Zcqo...
share.descript.com/view/xo1Zcqo...
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
'Michael Lynas, the UK country director for the Duolingo language app, who argues there is no good substitute for the hard graft of learning a language as a way of seeing another country’s culture from the inside.' 1/3
Universities blame ‘societal shift’ for axing foreign language degrees
Numbers taking languages at A-level and beyond has been falling for decades, although Duolingo says its app is most popular with young people
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 12:14 PM
'Michael Lynas, the UK country director for the Duolingo language app, who argues there is no good substitute for the hard graft of learning a language as a way of seeing another country’s culture from the inside.' 1/3
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
We've just recorded a new episode with @lynneguist.bsky.social on the recent flurry of articles about young people and the supposed Americanisation of their language. And how we've been here before. Coming soon!
November 21, 2025 at 5:03 PM
We've just recorded a new episode with @lynneguist.bsky.social on the recent flurry of articles about young people and the supposed Americanisation of their language. And how we've been here before. Coming soon!
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
I realllllly wish people wouldn't use 'code-switching' interchangeably with 'style-shifting'. It's really hard to mark an essay that conflates the two when they cite a source that literally does the same thing 😭
November 21, 2025 at 10:54 AM
I realllllly wish people wouldn't use 'code-switching' interchangeably with 'style-shifting'. It's really hard to mark an essay that conflates the two when they cite a source that literally does the same thing 😭
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
Looking forward to corpus analyses of new uses of the word "divisive" (now that swastika is a divisive symbol). Reminds me of our work on news describing pick up artists as "controversial" in the context of Julien Blanc sexually assaulting women in broad daylight
November 21, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Looking forward to corpus analyses of new uses of the word "divisive" (now that swastika is a divisive symbol). Reminds me of our work on news describing pick up artists as "controversial" in the context of Julien Blanc sexually assaulting women in broad daylight
Perfectly Common BrE Words the @NYTimesGames Spelling Bee Has Denied Me*: An Occasional Series
*and @jeffgrim.bsky.social
PRANG
Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
*and @jeffgrim.bsky.social
PRANG
Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
NYT Spelling Bee: an archive of disallowed BrE words
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Perfectly Common BrE Words the @NYTimesGames Spelling Bee Has Denied Me*: An Occasional Series
*and @jeffgrim.bsky.social
PRANG
Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
*and @jeffgrim.bsky.social
PRANG
Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
Love to see this and can't wait to listen!
Dictionaries are often the most requested book by incarcerated Americans. It's lifesaving. (Must be paperback do donate. Here's a link to read more about that: prisonbookprogram.org/donate-books... )
Dictionaries are often the most requested book by incarcerated Americans. It's lifesaving. (Must be paperback do donate. Here's a link to read more about that: prisonbookprogram.org/donate-books... )
November 20, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Love to see this and can't wait to listen!
Dictionaries are often the most requested book by incarcerated Americans. It's lifesaving. (Must be paperback do donate. Here's a link to read more about that: prisonbookprogram.org/donate-books... )
Dictionaries are often the most requested book by incarcerated Americans. It's lifesaving. (Must be paperback do donate. Here's a link to read more about that: prisonbookprogram.org/donate-books... )
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
I am asking all men on International Men's Day to smile more
November 19, 2025 at 3:45 PM
I am asking all men on International Men's Day to smile more
Listening to ADAM BUXTON‘s podcast with documentarian Lisa Walker and they’ve been discussing accents and accent prejudice a lot, then it comes out that she has a linguistics degree. Fun.
(Don’t know why my voice recognition capitalises AB’s name)
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
(Don’t know why my voice recognition capitalises AB’s name)
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
EP.265 - LUCY WALKER
Podcast Episode · THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST · 17/11/2025 · 56m
podcasts.apple.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:59 PM
Listening to ADAM BUXTON‘s podcast with documentarian Lisa Walker and they’ve been discussing accents and accent prejudice a lot, then it comes out that she has a linguistics degree. Fun.
(Don’t know why my voice recognition capitalises AB’s name)
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
(Don’t know why my voice recognition capitalises AB’s name)
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
Dictionaries 46:2 (2025) is now available (open access!) on
@projectmuse.bsky.social
Read here about: Arabic in China, Wittgenstein & Austrian German, etymology, Georgian learner-lexicography, antedating & linguistics pedagogy + Cambridge Handbook of the Dictionary review
muse.jhu.edu/issue/55471
@projectmuse.bsky.social
Read here about: Arabic in China, Wittgenstein & Austrian German, etymology, Georgian learner-lexicography, antedating & linguistics pedagogy + Cambridge Handbook of the Dictionary review
muse.jhu.edu/issue/55471
Project MUSE - Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America-Volume 46, Number 2, 2025
muse.jhu.edu
November 19, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Dictionaries 46:2 (2025) is now available (open access!) on
@projectmuse.bsky.social
Read here about: Arabic in China, Wittgenstein & Austrian German, etymology, Georgian learner-lexicography, antedating & linguistics pedagogy + Cambridge Handbook of the Dictionary review
muse.jhu.edu/issue/55471
@projectmuse.bsky.social
Read here about: Arabic in China, Wittgenstein & Austrian German, etymology, Georgian learner-lexicography, antedating & linguistics pedagogy + Cambridge Handbook of the Dictionary review
muse.jhu.edu/issue/55471
Perfectly Common BrE Words the @NYTimesGames Spelling Bee Has Denied Me: An Occasional Series
DEBAG DEBAGGING (perhaps more often with a hyphen, de-bag, but I'm adding it to the list anyhow!)
Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
DEBAG DEBAGGING (perhaps more often with a hyphen, de-bag, but I'm adding it to the list anyhow!)
Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
NYT Spelling Bee: an archive of disallowed BrE words
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
November 19, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Perfectly Common BrE Words the @NYTimesGames Spelling Bee Has Denied Me: An Occasional Series
DEBAG DEBAGGING (perhaps more often with a hyphen, de-bag, but I'm adding it to the list anyhow!)
Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
DEBAG DEBAGGING (perhaps more often with a hyphen, de-bag, but I'm adding it to the list anyhow!)
Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...