Here are a few more of our favorite things people have said about Speculative Grammarian over the years, collected wild on the internet, or domesticated in email.
Q1032. Brilliant.
Q1031. There is a blog called Speculative Grammarian, which is all about linguistic satire. I found this strange, short poem there. It made me laugh. I doubt it will make you laugh. The poem’s authorship is attributed to Bill Spruiell, who, like all the SpecGram writers, is fictional.
Q1030. If grammar were the topic of advice columns.
Q1029. Pssh, totally unscientific, unlike this journal article.
Q1028. “University of Sprouts, Brussels”... seems legit
Q1027. Speculative Grammarian is the most rigorous linguistic journal there is!
Q1026. This is totally me.
Q1025. Thanks to my efforts writing for Speculative Grammarian, I have extensively studied many different branches of linguistics and other fields that I never had to know in grad school. Of course, none of that knowledge makes it into SpecGram because I prefer to apply it to venues that actually advance my career, but as a catalyst that furthers the reactions of others but itself remains unchanged, Speculative Grammarian is a modern-day treasure.
Q1024. Thanks for keeping me from the important stuff I was supposed to be doing! ;)
Q1023. For more adventures in linguistic self-reference, see SpecGram’s fun series, e.g. [Grammatical Categories] & [Semantics & Pragmatics]
Q1022. I thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle, and will now need to bone up on my rhetoric.
Q1021. I have a perfect Mayan word to describe this article, but sadly I can’t express it in English.
Q1020. But linguistics isn’t a science! runs very fast in the direction of away
Q1019. That’s like super meta doubleplusgood badling.
Q1018. wut
Q1017. Útmutató szakszövegek értéséhez
Q1016. I didn’t know SpecGram was a Foundation memetics journal.
Q1015. You aren’t going to tell me you don’t know SpecGram, right? ... Now spend all of your free time reading articles there.
Q1014. That’s hilarious! And not actually wrong about the lexicon....
Q1013. How grammar is taught in school (or how Strunk & White teach style).
Q1012. Speculative Grammarian: A language Tumblr with a satirical twist for the common lexicographer.
Q1011. I have the book which has this and it was super fun.
Q1010. It’s funny 😊
Q1009. I’ve always hated the “untranslatable words” blog posts that crop up, that ... is really funny satire.
Q1008. Oh my god.
The data shows that articulators are used.....well, you’re not wrong....
Q1007. Apparently there’s a comedy magazine about linguistics? I like the cartoon featured in this month’s issue of Speculative Grammarian.
Q1006. Not only badling, but badhist as well. kek. ... Those were truly untranslatable words. I didn’t even bother reading them.
Q1005. Warning: SpecGram is addictive for linguists.
Q1004. Take that, non-linguists of the world. :-)
Q1003. I’m not so sure about constlangoleur, but if you shorten it to conlangoleur, I think I like that better than conlanger. That should catch on.
Q1002. *blinks multiple times*
Q1001. SpecGram is amazing. My favorite is the recurring Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know (Because They Aren’t Actually True), featuring purportedly real quotes from real student work by real college students. There’s one in particular, a test question asking about phonological processes/allophony, that has some particularly hysterical answers. Here’s an example, but if you search “ten dots” in the archive you can find others.
It’s a marvelous magazine.
Q1000. Want to understand the reviewer feedback on your last journal paper? This is a useful guide.
Q999. Hoe verhoudt linguïstiek zich tot andere wetenschappen? Goede cartoon.
Q998. I don’t think that linguists “ought to” know multiple languages per se—but the reason the comic doesn’t ring true is that linguists are reminded, upon hearing this question, of the fact that they would undoubtedly be better at their jobs if they did know more languages.
Q997. I’m loving some of this. Specially the one that says “bring a weird grammar”.
Q996. Knowing lots of languages is probably not a job requirement for a linguist, however I can think of one very famous linguist who would be a lot better off if he knew a couple of languages other than English. Especially ones that are as dissimilar from English as possible.
Q995. Should have stuck with philologist instead of trying to change the meaning of linguist, eh?
Q994. I get good results from asking a philosopher “What’s the big idea?”
Q993. Linguists’ revenge to the old chestnut “so, how many languages do you speak?”
Q992. D’après Levi-Strauss, les anthropologues feraient de la #LinguistEnvy comme les linguistes font de la #PhysicsEnvy.
Q991. And then there’s the ethical aspect: How many languages are German, Dutch, Afrikaans, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian? I usually say 2½. If it were Iceandic, Basque, Mandarin, Urdu, Tongan and Quechua then it really would be six.
Q990. Salvete! This month’s Speculative Grammarian (an online satirical linguistics journal) has an article on Latin that I found amusing.
Q989. I don’t get the comic. Are linguists asking these questions based on what the words’ roots literally mean? Because then it doesn’t make any sense. X-ologist is someone who studies X, not someone who has many things that have to do with X. Anesthesiologist is the closest one to make any sense, but it is still “one who studies not feeling”, not “one who doesn’t feel”.