Listen here to Episode 37: Smell words, both real and invented
What’s your favourite smell? You might say something like the smell of fresh ripe strawberries, or the smell of freshly-cut grass. But if we asked what your favourite colour is, you might say red or green, but you wouldn’t say the colour of strawberries or grass. Why is it that we have so much more vocabulary for colours than for scents?
In this episode of Lingthusiasm, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch get enthusiastic about language and smell! We discuss research into how languages describe scents, colour-odour synesthesia, and how researchers go about doing experiments on smell vocabulary (featuring the gloriously-named Sniffin’ Sticks).
Plus, we talk about how Lauren invented a scent-focused language for a YA fantasy novel! The book is called Shadowscent in the US or The Darkest Bloom in the UK, and it’s by PM Freestone. Lauren created the Aramteskan language that appears in the book. We discuss what it is like to work on a constructed language for a novel, and how Lauren brought her knowledge of linguistics into the creation of this language. For more details on Shadowscent, including how to order, visit PM Freestone’s website.
November is our official anniversary month! To celebrate three years of Lingthusiasm, we’re asking you, our listeners, to share your favourite fact from the show! This helps people who need more linguistics in their lives realize that this is a place where they can get it, and helps show us what people find interesting. If you share on social media, tag us (@lingthusiasm) so we can thank you and reshare it.
We also have new merch! All of the Lingthusiasm merch makes a great gift for the linguist or language fan in your life, and we love seeing your photos of it!
Socks with the International Phonetic Alphabet, tree diagrams, or esoteric symbols prints on them. (You can also still get our three prints in various colours on scarves, notebooks, mugs and ties.)
New word art design: LINGUISTIC "CORRECTNESS" IS JUST A LIE FROM BIG GRAMMAR TO SELL MORE GRAMMARS, available on shirts, totes, mugs, and zippered pouches.
New items with IPA-themed puns, so you can have glottals on your bottles or liquids around your liquids!
Greeting cards with "thanks" or "congrats" on them in the International Phonetic Alphabet, in a cheerful confetti-like design, to help you thank or congratulate a linguist in your life.
This month’s bonus episode is about surnames! We share the history of our own surnames, how different cultures approach naming, and when people change names. Support Lingthusiasm on Patreon to gain access to the directions episode and 31 previous bonus episodes.
Here are the links mentioned in this episode:
Asifa Majid (Twitter)
Asifa Majid academic website
What Makes a Better Smeller? (Open Access publication)
Smells have colours (Superlinguo summary)
Huehuetla Tepehua Olfactory Language (PDF publication)
Cha'palaa Olfactory Language (Open Access publication)
Shadowscent original announcement (Superlinguo)
Shadowscent UK release (Superlinguo)
You heard about it but I was there - Evidentiality (Lingthusiasm episode 32)
Colour words around the world and inside your brain (Lingthusiasm episode 5)
More info/how to order Shadowscent (PM Freestone’s website)
You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening, and stay tuned for a transcript of this episode on the Lingthusiasm website. To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.
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Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com
Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic.
Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.
Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our audio producer is Claire Gawne, our editorial manager is Emily Gref, our editorial producer is Sarah Dopierala, and our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.
Here’s the link again to Episode 37: Smell words, both real and invented
Thanks for listening, and stay Lingthusiastic!
Lauren & Gretchen
(PS: notice something slightly different about the formatting for this email? Such as, ahem, paragraph breaks? That’s because we’ve switched these emails over to Substack. We’ve transferred over your email, so nothing changes for you except that you now get to enjoy paragraph breaks and hyperlinks that work! Yay!)