Episode 38: Many ways to talk about many things - Plurals, duals and more
A new episode of Lingthusiasm!
Listen here to Episode 38: Many ways to talk about many things - Plurals, duals and more
In English you have one book, and three books. In Arabic you have one kitaab, and three kutub. In Nepali it’s one kitab, and three kitabharu, but sometimes it’s three kitab.
In this episode of Lingthusiasm, Gretchen and Lauren look at the many ways that languages talk about how many of something there are, ranging from common distinctions like singular, plural, and dual, to more typologically rare forms like the trial, the paucal, and the associative plural. (And the mysterious absence of the quadral, cross-linguistically!)
It’s also our anniversary episode! We’re celebrating three years of Lingthusiasm by asking you to share your favourite fact you’ve learnt from the podcast. Share it on social media and tag @lingthusiasm if you’d like us to reshare it for other people, or just send it directly to someone who you think needs a little more linguistics in their life.
This month’s bonus episode was about reading fiction as a linguist! Check out our favourite recs for linguistically interesting fiction and get access to 30+ additional episodes if you’ve run out of lingthusiasm to listen to, by becoming a member on Patreon.
Here are the links mentioned in this episode:
Nepali plural (Wikipedia)
Arabic plural (Wikipedia)
Kinyarwanda plural (Wikipedia)
Indonesian plural (Wikipedia)
Tetum plural (Wikipedia)
Suppletion (Wikipedia)
Lingthusiasm Episode 16: Learning parts of words - Morphemes and the wug test
Dual (Wikipedia)
Second personal dual pronoun (Superlinguo)
Trial & Quadral (Wikipedia)
Paucal (Wikipedia)
Monolingual field methods demonstration
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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 38: Many ways to talk about many things - Plurals, duals and more
Thanks for listening, and stay Lingthusiastic!
Lauren & Gretchen