Language Log

In "Agentic culture" (8/30/2025) and "'Moloch's bargain'?" (10/12/2025) I cited some work on how interactions among algorithmic "agents" can create (socially) bad results that were not directly programmed by their inventors. I continue to be surprised at how little attention has been paid to this issue in the media, given the excitement over agentic AI. I've found a fair amount of other research with similar content, as  searches like this illustrate, which makes me wonder even more about the relative lack of uptake.

Today is (not very officially) World Linguistics Day, celebrated on the birthday of Ferdinand de Saussure. It started with "National Linguistics Day" in the UK, noted by LLOG in 2024.

Sunday's Doonesbury addresses possible restrictions on the use of AI in higher education. Here are the middle four panels:

As promised, here are a few fun words that I learned by skimming a 17th century slang dictionary.

Tomorrow I will be delivering the keynote address to the international conference on "China and Greece. Ancient Ecumenisms in the Mirror", to be held at the Dipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo (DAAM) of Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale" in late November (actually tomorrow, Tuesday the 25th; here's the zoom link for my talk at 9:30 AM EST).

In preparing for my lecture on "Isidore of Seville and the medieval concept of the ecumene", I was delighted to learn more about this remarkable man.  Isidorus Hispalensis, who lived from ca. 560-636. was a Hispano-Roman scholar, theologian, and the archbishop of Seville.  During his lifetime, he was active in the politico-religious affairs of Iberia, including most prominently the conversion of the Visigothic kings to Chalcedonian Christianity.  After his death, Isidore's legacy was based largely on his celebrated Etymologiae, an encyclopedia that brought together extracts of works from classical antiquity that would otherwise have  been lost.

The first English-language slang dictionary:
A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew, in Its Several Tribes, of Gypsies, Beggers, Thieves, Cheats, &c, With an Addition of some Proverbs, Phrases, Figurative Speeches, &c Useful for all sorts of People (especially Foreigners) to secure their Money and preserve their Lives; besides very Diverting and Entertaining, being wholly New.

Most words have different senses and meanings depending upon the context in which they are used, hence the need for multiple definitions in dictionaries.  Philip Taylor has come across this article about:

8 Words That Are Only Used in One Weirdly Specific Context
Think about it: have you ever heard someone say they had “extenuating errands”?
By Sam Hindman, Mental Floss (11/23/25)

Yesterday afternoon, Andrej Karpathy posted llm-council on github:

The "words per day" thing has mostly gone quiet since it erupted in the media nearly 20 years ago — but here's a sensible replay:

I have observed the author working on this 749 page volume for many years, so it is with great rejoicing that it is available in time to send to friends, colleagues, and students as a Yuletide gift:

South Coblin, Common Shē and Common Hakka-Shē: A Comparative Study
Language and Linguistics Monograph Series 68

Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica (Taipei:  November, 2025)

Introduction

The present work is divided into two parts. Part I is devoted to the reconstruction of the phonology of Common Shē, the ancestral form of the closely related Sinitic dialects spoken by the Shē ethnic minority of China. The approach applied is the classical comparative method, in which modern data from seventeen modern dialects are subjected to comparative reconstructive analysis. Data from additional Shē varieties are also adduced as needed. The end product of these procedures is a hypothetical phonological system, which for the sake of brevity we call Common Shē, though this term should more precisely encompass not only phonology but also syntax and lexicon.

In our discussion of part III of Elle Cordova's Grammarian Saga, "Grammarian vs Errorist showdown at the secret L'error", there was some back-and-forth about whether or not error could stand it for the nucleus of lair.

AntC wrote "I can't smudge 'error; into a single syllable", and I responded that "Elle Cordova does it by brute force — I don't think 'air' is her normal pronunciation of 'error'".

But looking into pronunciations of error on the internet, I've found that her "l'error" ~ "lair" pun is, in fact, pretty plausible.

In an email, Coby Lubliner observed that many English words have more than one standard pronunciation. He asked whether there has been any academic discussion of this general issue, and noted that he isn't familiar with any other language with as much variety in its standard pronunciations.