Language Log

[This is a guest post by Michael Witzel]

A few months ago you published a discussion of whimsical surnames. Since then I have paid attention and have found new ones in  almost every news broadcast.

It is said that there are 1 million (!) surnames in the German speaking area of some 95 million people (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Alsace, Luxemburg, Eupen in Belgium and some 1 million remaining in Poland). I leave aside the many millions of German immigrants in America  etc., such as the notorious politician Witzel in Rio de Janeiro. Also, many Jewish names are the same as “regular German” names (;like Schuster =Shoemaker, head of the German Jewish Central Committee).

What I found is that almost all (hair) colors, animals, etc. are used, just as are designations of occupations, etc.. etc.

Following up on Rapscallion, here's another culinary pun with a lexico-musical connection:

When two names far apart
Share a PIE start
That's a *móri…

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— New-Cleckit Dominie (@ncdominie.bsky.social) November 3, 2024 at 11:57 AM

A recent Bluesky post by George Takei, re-skying (?) @GraniteDhuine:

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— George Takei (@georgetakei.bsky.social) November 3, 2024 at 10:00 AM

Jonathan Weisman, "As Trump Arrives, Aurora Insists It’s Not the ‘War Zone’ He Sees", NYT 10/11/2024.

And today's xkcd:

A relative's new refrigerator magnet:

A recent email from Jean Gallier to the members of Penn's Department of Computer and Information Sciences included this picture

…under the comment "Apparently the Greeks had already figured that there was a connection between wine and linear algebra." The connection to Linear A(lgebra) is provided by Jean's two-volume 2020 book Linear Algebra and Optimization with Applications to Machine Learning.

Elle Cordova offers an update from ChatGPT on the number of Rs in "strawberry":

From George Takei, on Bluesky:

This left me in stitches.

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— George Takei (@georgetakei.bsky.social) September 21, 2024 at 10:00 AM

We missed it this year, but the New York Times didn't , and posted a link to Laurel MacKenzie's "Pirate Lingo 101":

From Lane Greene on Bluesky (link):

I've been trying for a while to figure out a theory of Trump's capitalisation. It's mostly nouns like Country, but not always positive ones. I never did nail down the pattern.

But I've got a new theory – bear with me here.

ALL CAPS IS FOR UNGRATEFUL WOMEN.

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— Lane Greene (@lanegreene.bsky.social) September 21, 2024 at 12:10 PM

Justin Weinberg, "Analytic Philosophy's Best Unintentional (?) Self-Parodying", Daily Nous 9/6/2024:

“Someone, let’s say a baby, is born; his parents call him by a certain name.”

That line–recently circulated on social media by Eric Winsberg (South Florida / Cambridge) as “the funniest sentence in the history of philosophy”—is from Saul Kripke‘s Naming and Necessity.

I’m not sure its the funniest sentence in the history of philosophy, but it is pure poetry.

A poem by Dan Perkins:

"Some German tongue-twisters", posted on 21/07/2024 by StephenJones.blog   

Whereas the mind-boggling “tapeworm words” in my post on Some German mouthfuls are of a practical nature, the realm of fantasy opens up whole new linguistic vistas. In a stimulating article, Deborah Cole introduces the work of the Berlin-based cabaret performer, playwright, and pianist Bodo Wartke.