Urgent English

Yod coalescence is when a consonant is followed by a yod sound causing them to merge together to make a new sound, such as /d/ + /j/ → /dʒ/ in words like module or schedule.

What’s another example of this??

🗣️ -ssion says “shun” 🗣️

What other words follow this pattern?

Is this just me???

Any time I feel even slightly unsure, I Google it 😅 I usually find out something new when I do—be that a synonym or an alternative pronunciation!

What was the last word you googled? ✍️ 👇🏽

Amelioration is essentially a linguistic glow up! ✨ 💄

If you look back at the people called “geeks” in the 1930s circuses, they were actually incredibly skilled performers. They mastered a highly specialized, narrow craft that ordinary people just didn’t understand…the circus has always held a special place in my heart for exactly this reason 💕 The word didn’t actually change, society just finally caught up to respecting niche mastery 🙌🏻

So… I’ve been quietly working on something I’m really excited about. I’m building a YouTube channel where I’ll explore linguistics through pop culture, reality TV, movies, memes, and the everyday conversations we all have. One of the things I’ve realized throughout teaching, graduate school, and now my PhD is that the best way to truly understand something is to explain it to someone else. Every video is a chance for me to deepen my own understanding while hopefully making linguistics a little more accessible, a little more fun, and a lot more connected to real life. If you’re the kind of person who loves noticing hidden patterns in language—or you just want to know why people say the things they do—I hope you’ll stick around for the first episode. I can’t wait to share it with you!

Spot the connection??

If you guessed a popsicle podcast, you’re not too far off 😅

But in all seriousness, I’m playing with something fun for the language nerds and pop culture lovers! 🌎💕

Leave your guess in the comments ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Language acquisition requires a lot of exposure to your target language, so here are three effortless immersion hacks that you can use to help get that ball rolling a little faster:

📲 1. Switch your phone settings (on at least one app) to your target language
📍2. Switch your GPS app to your target language
🧹3. Narrate your daily routine as you do it in your target language

Comment below with your favorite immersion hack 👇🏽✨

Unboxing my new popsicle molds and diving into some light etymology as I do it! What’s your favorite language origin story? 👇🏽

Did you all know that it’s a “dog-eat-dog” world??? Talk about an eggcorn 🤯

English has been editing itself for over 1,000 years, so give yourself some grace 😘