More Holiday Gifts for More Holiday Linguists

The SpecGram Gift Elves™

We here at Speculative Grammarian know that not all linguists celebrate Christmas, Festivus, or Indogermanischen Urlaub. If neither an ugly IPA-adorned power tie with matching socks, nor a red and blue miniature Festivus pole/checking pencil, nor an internally ed θ-shaped - with triple-trilling and retroflexed bilabial er is appropriate, maybe one of these other gifts—mass-produced especially for you by the SpecGram Gift Elves™—will do.

For the alephbetically-challenged but IPA-enabled, the SpecGram /dreɪdl/ provides a friendly introduction to this beloved children’s game. Stylized phonetic symbols are reassuringly familiar while evoking the traditional Hebrew characters whose sounds they represent.

SpecGram Ramadan Lanterns blend the traditional geometric patterns of Islamic art with IPA symbols representing some of the distinctive sounds of Arabic—pharyngeal fricatives, velar fricatives, glottal stops, and uvular stops are represented in a tasteful repeating pattern projected in pleasing colors by these ingenious lanterns.

For those students of Language who are personally and embarrassingly familiar with the distinction between “Language” and “languages” and between “linguist” and “polyglot”, the SpecGram Swahili/English Cheat Sheet Dashiki features an attractive pattern with important Swahili terms, translations, and a pronunciation guide cleverly integrated into the design.

These items and more are on sale now at the SpecGram Gift Shop and Phonemporium and at other fine retailers.

Also available: ugly IPA-adorned power ties with matching socks, red and blue miniature Festivus poles/checking pencils, internally ed θ-shaped -s with triple-trilling and retroflexed bilabial ers. (You must be 21 or older to purchase -s and related paraphernalia.)

	Obituary: Simon M. Tating
	Christmas Carol Orthography Puzzle—Mary Pearce
	SpecGram Vol CLXVI, No 1 Contents