Lynne Murphy
@lynneguist.bsky.social
US linguist in UK. University of Sussex.
Newsletter: https://substack.com/@lynneguist
Blog: http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/lynneguist
Newsletter: https://substack.com/@lynneguist
Blog: http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/lynneguist
My daughter is at this and she just texted to say I was mentioned.
Nepolinguist
Nepolinguist
We're waiting for the students and their teachers to arrive for the @engmediacentre.bsky.social A level English Language conference in London. Not long to go now 😬
November 27, 2025 at 11:17 AM
My daughter is at this and she just texted to say I was mentioned.
Nepolinguist
Nepolinguist
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
Thank you so much for tagging us Gretchen! We have another competition sponsored by CLiE, LAGB, BAAL, and CUP, please find details attached!
November 27, 2025 at 9:18 AM
Thank you so much for tagging us Gretchen! We have another competition sponsored by CLiE, LAGB, BAAL, and CUP, please find details attached!
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
Just a 1399 unicorn watermark from a paper manufacturer from Valencia to make your day. Friends of #paperhistory know that these paper sheets of around 1400 are among the first sheets of European paper to appear on the market. European #bookhistory was a different game afterwards. #skystorians
October 25, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Just a 1399 unicorn watermark from a paper manufacturer from Valencia to make your day. Friends of #paperhistory know that these paper sheets of around 1400 are among the first sheets of European paper to appear on the market. European #bookhistory was a different game afterwards. #skystorians
“The show opens with an overlong segment contrasting British and American radio, which deflates on impact because they don’t sound so different. “
www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/two...
www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/two...
Two Strangers Carry a Cake Across New York—and Onto Broadway
A Yank and a Brit share an unforgettable few days in the Big Apple in the new musical rom-com.
www.thedailybeast.com
November 27, 2025 at 7:26 AM
“The show opens with an overlong segment contrasting British and American radio, which deflates on impact because they don’t sound so different. “
www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/two...
www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/two...
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
I've already updated it. Now with data from the News on the Web (GB) corpus!
New blog post: _pleaded_ v _pled_.
Coming at England from two directions?
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/plea...
Coming at England from two directions?
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/plea...
pleaded and pled
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:37 PM
I've already updated it. Now with data from the News on the Web (GB) corpus!
Oxford is having a vote on its #WotY2025
You've got 2 days to let your feelings be known!
Myself, I don't think I have a favo(u)rite out of this lot
corp.oup.com/word-of-the-...
You've got 2 days to let your feelings be known!
Myself, I don't think I have a favo(u)rite out of this lot
corp.oup.com/word-of-the-...
Oxford Word of the Year 2025 - Oxford University Press
Voting is now open for Oxford Word of the Year 2025! Discover our shortlist and have your say by Thursday 27 November.
corp.oup.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Oxford is having a vote on its #WotY2025
You've got 2 days to let your feelings be known!
Myself, I don't think I have a favo(u)rite out of this lot
corp.oup.com/word-of-the-...
You've got 2 days to let your feelings be known!
Myself, I don't think I have a favo(u)rite out of this lot
corp.oup.com/word-of-the-...
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
We talk to @lynneguist.bsky.social about the supposed 'Americanisation' of young British people's vocabulary, media scares and why we should approach news stories like these with some criticality. Show notes and links are here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Episode 77 - Lynne Murphy and the 'Americanisation' of young people's English
Show notes for Episode 77 Welcome to episode 77 of Lexis in which Raj & Dan talk to Lynne Murphy, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex about a flurry of recent news stories about chil...
docs.google.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:54 AM
We talk to @lynneguist.bsky.social about the supposed 'Americanisation' of young British people's vocabulary, media scares and why we should approach news stories like these with some criticality. Show notes and links are here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...
Colonisation, eh?
I wonder who got that started?
I wonder who got that started?
We've just recorded an interview with @lynneguist.bsky.social for the @lexispodcast.bsky.social and then this absolute whopper of a piece gets published. It's jam-packed with clichéd complaints, hoary hyperbole & xenophobic waffle.
archive.ph/2025.11.24-0...
archive.ph/2025.11.24-0...
November 24, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Colonisation, eh?
I wonder who got that started?
I wonder who got that started?
I've already updated it. Now with data from the News on the Web (GB) corpus!
New blog post: _pleaded_ v _pled_.
Coming at England from two directions?
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/plea...
Coming at England from two directions?
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/plea...
pleaded and pled
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:37 PM
I've already updated it. Now with data from the News on the Web (GB) corpus!
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
You never see recluses anymore
November 24, 2025 at 1:02 PM
You never see recluses anymore
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
Translation tip:
Some languages put "quotes" for street or building names.
Not English: names in quotes otherwise denote a nickname or it's unofficial.
Small details like these can shift meaning more than you'd think.
Always use the target language's punctuation in translation.
#langsky #xl8n
Some languages put "quotes" for street or building names.
Not English: names in quotes otherwise denote a nickname or it's unofficial.
Small details like these can shift meaning more than you'd think.
Always use the target language's punctuation in translation.
#langsky #xl8n
November 24, 2025 at 9:41 AM
New blog post: _pleaded_ v _pled_.
Coming at England from two directions?
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/plea...
Coming at England from two directions?
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/plea...
pleaded and pled
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:45 AM
New blog post: _pleaded_ v _pled_.
Coming at England from two directions?
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/plea...
Coming at England from two directions?
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2025/11/plea...
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
UPDATE: Americans who use
YouTube 84%
Facebook 71%
Instagram 50%
TikTok 37%
WhatsApp 32%
Reddit 26%
Snapchat 25%
X (Twitter) 21%
Threads 8%
Bluesky 4%
Truth Social 3%
Full Pew Research Center report: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/11/20/americans-social-media-use-2025/
YouTube 84%
Facebook 71%
Instagram 50%
TikTok 37%
WhatsApp 32%
Reddit 26%
Snapchat 25%
X (Twitter) 21%
Threads 8%
Bluesky 4%
Truth Social 3%
Full Pew Research Center report: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/11/20/americans-social-media-use-2025/
November 23, 2025 at 9:55 PM
UPDATE: Americans who use
YouTube 84%
Facebook 71%
Instagram 50%
TikTok 37%
WhatsApp 32%
Reddit 26%
Snapchat 25%
X (Twitter) 21%
Threads 8%
Bluesky 4%
Truth Social 3%
Full Pew Research Center report: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/11/20/americans-social-media-use-2025/
YouTube 84%
Facebook 71%
Instagram 50%
TikTok 37%
WhatsApp 32%
Reddit 26%
Snapchat 25%
X (Twitter) 21%
Threads 8%
Bluesky 4%
Truth Social 3%
Full Pew Research Center report: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/11/20/americans-social-media-use-2025/
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
When you insult someone with the same name as the person you meant to insult, that's an ad homonym attack.
November 23, 2025 at 6:59 PM
When you insult someone with the same name as the person you meant to insult, that's an ad homonym attack.
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
&udm=14 | the disenshittification Konami code
A quick way to get an AI-free search without any extra work.
udm14.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
I think the shortest version of why LLMs are an anti education technology is that education is fundamentally about making shared context to understand ourselves, each other, and the world
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
November 23, 2025 at 12:57 PM
I think the shortest version of why LLMs are an anti education technology is that education is fundamentally about making shared context to understand ourselves, each other, and the world
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
Joke wot works best when it's transatlantic...
(explanation at my old 'sweets' blogpost: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/07/cand...)
(explanation at my old 'sweets' blogpost: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/07/cand...)
November 23, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Joke wot works best when it's transatlantic...
(explanation at my old 'sweets' blogpost: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/07/cand...)
(explanation at my old 'sweets' blogpost: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/07/cand...)
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
A little preview of what our next episode, with @lynneguist.bsky.social, will be covering.
share.descript.com/view/xo1Zcqo...
share.descript.com/view/xo1Zcqo...
Lynne Murphy interview clip - Descript
In Britain, people tend to assume it's an Americanism if it's something new that they don't like. So when you read those articles in The Telegraph for The Times, or other newspapers with lists of, yo
share.descript.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:05 AM
A little preview of what our next episode, with @lynneguist.bsky.social, will be covering.
share.descript.com/view/xo1Zcqo...
share.descript.com/view/xo1Zcqo...
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
'Michael Lynas, the UK country director for the Duolingo language app, who argues there is no good substitute for the hard graft of learning a language as a way of seeing another country’s culture from the inside.' 1/3
Universities blame ‘societal shift’ for axing foreign language degrees
Numbers taking languages at A-level and beyond has been falling for decades, although Duolingo says its app is most popular with young people
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 12:14 PM
'Michael Lynas, the UK country director for the Duolingo language app, who argues there is no good substitute for the hard graft of learning a language as a way of seeing another country’s culture from the inside.' 1/3
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
We've just recorded a new episode with @lynneguist.bsky.social on the recent flurry of articles about young people and the supposed Americanisation of their language. And how we've been here before. Coming soon!
November 21, 2025 at 5:03 PM
We've just recorded a new episode with @lynneguist.bsky.social on the recent flurry of articles about young people and the supposed Americanisation of their language. And how we've been here before. Coming soon!
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
I realllllly wish people wouldn't use 'code-switching' interchangeably with 'style-shifting'. It's really hard to mark an essay that conflates the two when they cite a source that literally does the same thing 😭
November 21, 2025 at 10:54 AM
I realllllly wish people wouldn't use 'code-switching' interchangeably with 'style-shifting'. It's really hard to mark an essay that conflates the two when they cite a source that literally does the same thing 😭
Reposted by Lynne Murphy
Looking forward to corpus analyses of new uses of the word "divisive" (now that swastika is a divisive symbol). Reminds me of our work on news describing pick up artists as "controversial" in the context of Julien Blanc sexually assaulting women in broad daylight
November 21, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Looking forward to corpus analyses of new uses of the word "divisive" (now that swastika is a divisive symbol). Reminds me of our work on news describing pick up artists as "controversial" in the context of Julien Blanc sexually assaulting women in broad daylight
Perfectly Common BrE Words the @NYTimesGames Spelling Bee Has Denied Me*: An Occasional Series
*and @jeffgrim.bsky.social
PRANG
Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
*and @jeffgrim.bsky.social
PRANG
Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
NYT Spelling Bee: an archive of disallowed BrE words
separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com
November 21, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Perfectly Common BrE Words the @NYTimesGames Spelling Bee Has Denied Me*: An Occasional Series
*and @jeffgrim.bsky.social
PRANG
Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...
*and @jeffgrim.bsky.social
PRANG
Now added to the blog list: separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2023/04/nyt-...