The Podling

A big question we, as linguistics students, have often pondered on is, "what is a way I can be better involved in the linguistics community as a student of linguistics?" Lucky for us, we have a fellow student who is able to give us personal insight regarding our question! Join us this time as we sit down with fellow linguistics student, Yukaiya Nomoto, to discuss his experiences participating in CoLang, the Institute of Collaborative Research, this past Summer 2022. We had a great discussing the structure of the conference itself, as well as Yukayia's project on his native Japanese dialect of Tosa-Ben.

This project is developed and hosted by linguistics students Emma Ahmann and Jen Ruskauff with special help from Niko Attebery and Sage Moore.

We obviously discuss the ways in which humans communicate and express themselves rather frequently, but have you ever thought about how animals communicate or if they use language at all? Lucky for you, we have too! Join us this time to hear about a few animals we chose to research and how linguistics can relate to scientific studies such as marine biology! What does it really mean when a cat meows, and how do marine mammals like whales and dolphins communicate? Find out with us! 

This project is developed and hosted by linguistics students Emma Ahmann, Niko Hudeček, and Jen Ruskauff with special help from Niko Attebery and Sage Moore.

Many linguistics students study languages different from their mother tongue, or native language, but what exactly does that look like? Well... It's really hard! If you think about it, learners of language are constantly trying to rewire their brains from unconscious native language knowledge. Join us this time as we discuss the eternal struggle of being a second language learner, and how we constantly work to overcome these difficulties.

This project is developed and hosted by linguistics students Emma Ahmann, Niko Hudeček, and Jen Ruskauff with special help from Niko Attebery and Sage Moore.

It's November which means applications to Graduate Schools across America are coming up on their due dates! Are you thinking about going to grad-school or are just curious about how the application process works? Join us as we talk about our current struggles applying for grad-school, and how we've navigated the process with very helpful resources!

This project is developed and hosted by linguistics students Emma Ahmann, Niko Hudeček, and Jen Ruskauff with special help from Niko Attebery and Sage Moore.

Welcome to the first episode of the Podling, Season Three! Happy spooky season everyone! In this episode we discussed some aspects of Sociolinguistics that is found or used in horror movies. We each prepared our own research, whose citations you can find below, about some ways that linguistics is used to influence an audience in films, specifically horror films. 

Disclaimer(s): This topic includes spoilers to the following films: Get Out and Us by Jordan Peele. Please do not listen to this episode if this is something that is important to you. The contents of this episode do not reflect the views, opinions, or general beliefs of Western Washington University or the WWU Linguistics Department.

This project is developed and hosted by linguistics students Emma Ahmann, Niko Hudeček, and Jen Ruskauff with special help from Niko Attebery and Sage Moore.

Welcome back to the Podling! This season we have some new voices along with some familiar ones, as we continue our talk as to what Linguistics is! Tune in this season for conversations on how Linguistics is applied to the “real world” in different career paths or studies, as well as interviews, and linguistic activities!

This project is developed and hosted by linguistics students Emma Ahmann, Niko Hudeček, and Jen Ruskauff with special help from Niko Attebery and Sage Moore.

Stay up to date with the WWU Department of Linguistics!

Join us this week as we say goodbye to the 2021-2022 school year and to our graduating hosts, Niko Attebery and Madison Peyton. This week we were joined by Linguistics Student, Jen Ruskauff, to play a fantastic board game, Poetry for Neanderthals! Speaking only in one syllable words in order to have our partners guess what word is on our card in under a minute is more difficult than one would think and it is safe to say that things got... interesting! 

Edited by Jess Costanza and Fawn Dupras

Stay up to date with the WWU Department of Linguistics!

Join us this week for an engaging conversation with Linguistics student Navor Tercero as we discuss the history of language education in New Mexico. In this episode we talk about how language education was nonexistent in New Mexico until very recently due to lawmakers and tax payers voting against language education because they didn't want to fund it and the government wanted everyone to speak English. A special thanks to Navor Tercero for joining us for this episode!

Edited by Jess Costanza and Fawn Dupras

Stay up to date with the WWU Department of Linguistics!

Join us this week for an engaging conversation with Linguistics professor Dr. Virginia Dawson (Ginny) and Western student Rosia Aning as we discuss the Field Methods class offered last winter quarter. Rosia was selected to be the consultant for Field Methods where she met with students throughout the quarter and answered questions about her native language, Twi, which is spoken in Ghana. In this episode Ginny and Rosia share their experience with us. A special thanks to Dr. Virginia Dawson & Rosia Aning for joining us for this episode!

Edited by Jess Costanza and Fawn Dupras

Stay up to date with the WWU Department of Linguistics!

Join us this week for an engaging conversation with Dr. Judith Pine who is associated with the WWU Linguistics department as we discuss linguistics & social justice and how language usage and linguistics is important when thinking of social justice issues, both in education and everyday life. In this episode we also talk about the 30 million word gap and scholarly discourse around that topic (and why it is a problematic ideology). A special thanks to Dr. Judith Pine for joining us for this episode!

Edited by Jess Costanza and Fawn Dupras

Join us this week for an engaging conversation between our hosts Emma, Niko, and Madison as we discuss the very important role that sociolinguistics plays in internet language & slang, and how that language interacts with society! 

Join us this week for an engaging conversation with Dr. Anne Lobeck of the WWU Linguistics department as we discuss the very important role that linguistics has in the world of education, and how that landscape is changing! A special thanks to Dr. Anne Lobeck for joining us for this episode! 

In this episode, we explore identity and the self through the lens of linguistics with a fellow WWU linguistics student, Nathan Shepard. Join us as we unravel what identity means in a linguistic landscape and how we can use linguistics to navigate self identity and social justice!

This week on The Podling, we dive into some interesting idioms from the different languages we are learning, and try to guess their figurative meanings based on the literal meanings. Join us and try to guess alongside the hosts!

Season 2 Episode 1 of The Podling is finally here! Grab a snack, relax, and tune in as we discuss some fun etymology and histories of words that you may not have known before! We had a blast researching and sharing these interesting origins, and hope you will have just as much fun listening!

Welcome back to The Podling everyone! In this season we have new hosts taking over for Jess and exploring even more of the linguistic world we live in. Tune in for fun conversations, linguistics activities, interviews, and much more!

This project is developed and hosted by linguistics students Emma Ahmann, Niko Attebery, and Madsion Peyton with special help from Jess Costanza and Fawn Dupras.

Stay up to date with the WWU Department of Linguistics!

I had a blast talking to Dr. Christina Keppie in this final episode of The Podling's first season! She gives us her linguistic origin story within a study abroad trip to Belgium and we hear about her fascinating new Linguistics & Canadian-American Studies course on the Acadian diaspora — a community she'd learned about on that very study abroad trip. Plus, Christina shares her experiences with teaching French language and linguistics as a Canadian Francophone.

Phonemic tones of Ket, language learning advice, and Professor Vajda's answer to the question of who he'd invite to a dinner party if he could pick anyone — this episode's got it all!

Other presentations from Edward Vajda:

In this interview, we hear we hear from R. Mata — he covers his research on the linguistic patterns and attitudes of Spanish-speakers in communities near the U.S.-Mexico border and gives some advice to undergraduate students who might want to pursue their own research. We also talk about how the shift of conferences to virtual spaces has changed the landscape for undergrad students looking to access a variety of academic opportunities.

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Jordan Sandoval, where we talked about her collaborative research on phonological awareness as part of Spanish language learning (and teaching!), plus what students can gain from their efforts in projects like this. Jordan also shares what it is about language that she finds so magical.

In this interview, we hear from Judy Pine on where linguistics resides within anthropology, where linguistic anthropology resides within the world, and how, for Judy, the process of becoming a linguist continues.

In this episode, I heard from Professor Janet Xing on her most recent research and how her language classes shape that research. We also talk about hesitations students have with taking some linguistics classes and clear up misconceptions about them!

Variations in language norms, feelings about grammar “correction,” where prescriptivism and descriptivism overlap — 🎶 these are a few of my favorite things 🎶 And they’re also just some of the topics Anne and I touched on in this episode.

Resources mentioned:

I got to ask Ginny about her awesome research with Tiwa speakers (that she started in undergrad!), her more recent work on the coordinator “slash” (or / when it’s written), and recognizing areas of needed reflection within linguistic fieldwork. Also, why students don’t need to be scared of formal semantic notation.

In this episode, I got to speak with Dr. Emily Curtis! We talked about combatting harmful prescriptivism with fascinating linguistic knowledge, the importance of explaining jargon in academic papers, linguistic stereotypes in much-loved media, and more.

Welcome to The Podling! This podcast is exploring the question "What is linguistics?" through interviews with professors in WWU's Department of Linguistics. We'll be looking at academic and career paths, the history and current vibe of the field, and more.