Language, as Spoken by Linguists

A Letter from the Managing Editor

Taking a cue from the phenomenal success¹ of the series of

Language, as Spoken by Linguists In response to a question about the cultural homogeneity of the test group: “The subjects had spent at least two years in Central Pennsylvania, which basically obliterates whatever cultural background they had.”

specials entitled Breaking the Magician’s Code: Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed, the editors of Speculative Grammarian had been pretty pleased to present Breaking the Linguist’s Code: Linguistics’ Weirdest Conference Quotes Finally Revealed. Then we thought about it for another eight seconds and realized that was the least catchy title we’d heard since The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory.² So we’ve settled on the more sedate title, Language, as Spoken by Linguists, though the collection is still brought to you by The Masked Linguist.³

In any event, the SpecGram editorial board has dipped into one of its special discretionary accounts in order to fund a special secret mission by an undercover editorial quote collector, to highlight the amusing, intriguing, and unexpected ways in which language is used by linguists. Sprinkled throughout this issue are actual quotes collected in the wild at linguistics conferences. Speakers’ names have been omitted to protect the guilty. Enjoy!⁴

	Letters to the Editor
	SpecGram Vol CLVII, No 3 Contents