Gretchen McCulloch

gretchenmcc@xoxo.zone

Internet linguist. Author of Because Internet, cohost of <a href="https://wandering.shop/@lingthusiasm" class="u-url mention">@lingthusiasm</a>, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics. she/her 🌈Mostly on bluesky these days: <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/gretchenmcc.bsky.social" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no">https://bsky.app/profile/gretchenmcc.bsky.social</a> For automated linguistics tweets more regularly, go to <a href="https://mastodon.social/@allthingslinguistic" class="u-url mention">@allthingslinguistic</a>

Posts

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Heading to UMass Amherst for #lingstitute2023 #lingstitute in 2 days! Do say hi if you know me from the internet, I have @lingthusiasm stickers and postcards to give out if you come talk with me! (Also I&#39;m faceblind so sorry in advance if I don&#39;t recognize you, just remind me)
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Loanwords, how do they work? It&#39;s a new Language Files video that I worked on with Tom Scott and Molly Ruhl! https://youtu.be/TFpzps-DCb0?si=C615EKZxUzIl3DP3
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January, February, and March 2025: 100th Lingthusiasm episode Title: Jan-Mar 2025: 100th Lingthusiasm episode In the first few months of 2025, we celebrated a podcast milestone: 100 episodes of Lingthusiasm, a podcast that&#39;s enthusiastic about linguistics! To celebrate, my cohost Lauren Gawne and I did a special double-feature: our 100th episode had 100 &quot;fun fact&quot; reasons to be enthusiastic about linguistics (including a few from former guests) and… http://gretchenmcc...
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April, May, &amp; June 2025: Lauren writes a gesture book! Back in 2017, when I was deep in the writing process for Because Internet, I was feeling stuck on the emoji chapter and Lauren Gawne, my cohost on the then-baby Lingthusiasm podcast (we were less than a year old!) offered to read the current draft. I&#39;ll never forget her comment that led to me rewriting the whole chapter: &quot;You realize this is all related to gesture, right?&quot; … http://gretchenmcculloch.com/20...
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July, August, &amp; September 2025: ASL Camp and Arroba Lengua This summer, I went to ASL camp! I spent a week at Bob Rumball Camp of the Deaf, in Parry Sound, Ontario, at their ASL Adult Immersion Summer Camp, voices off for 6 nights and 7 days! This was my first time doing any sort of language immersion camp in my various experiences learning languages, and I definitely see why people like them, I really felt liked I levelled up significantly in my signing with that much… http://gretchen...
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2025 year in review In 2025, Lauren Gawne and I reached our 100th episode of Lingthusiasm, our podcast that&#39;s enthusiastic about linguistics! It&#39;s a special format featuring 100 fun things about linguistics, which makes it a great entry point to the show if you haven&#39;t tried it yet or are looking for something to forward to people. We also celebrated our 100th bonus episode (does that make this year actually our 200th episode all told? http://gretchenmcculloch.com/2026/...
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January, February, &amp; March 2026: Abridged sonnets and legible arrangements In the first quarter of the year, I attended the Linguistic Society of America 2026 annual meeting online and admired how linguists are really great at pronouncing people&#39;s names (phonetic transcription is a practical skill!). I narrated the audiobook for Shakespeare&#39;s Sonnets Abridged Beyond the Point of Usefulness by Zach Weinersmith, featuring sonnets turned into couplets like &quot;When in...
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In spring of 2026, I attended conferences, awarded grants, read and discussed some great books, and made zines. And handed out zines. And talked about zines. Have I mentioned zines? Because I&#39;m going to be mentioning zines a lot. http://gretchenmcculloch.com/2026/08/20/april-may-june-2026-zines-zines-zines-zines-zi/