In #FantasticFour c1967: "toss in the sponge". Throwing in the "towel" is instead much much more frequent in #American #English literature today, but these were pretty evenly used up until about the 1970s (https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=throw+in+the+towel%2Cthrow+in+the+sponge&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-US-2019&smoothing=3). As a huge #boxing fan who has watched very many fights between the 1920s and 1970s, this is surprising as I can't recall ever hearing a reference to a sponge.

#linguistics #languagevariation #languagechange #lexicology #Marvel #comics #Fantastic4 #sports

In #Avengers c1967: "had forgot". Perhaps this was a #NY thing at the time? It has certainly never been anywhere near as common as "had forgotten" in #English #literature (https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=had+forgot%2Chad+forgotten&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en-US-2019&smoothing=3).

#linguistics #languagevariation #morphology #newyork #Marvel #comics

It has always seemed odd to me that Milroy (1980) is treated as the beginning of the second wave of #sociolinguistics when everything Milroy did was also done by Gal (1979) only better and with much more #ethnographic work. It seems like it's just because Milroy was more centered on #variationist traditions from #monolingual #languagevariation work.

#linguistics #socialnetworkanalysis #SNA #langaugecontact #bilingualism #ethnography

Travis Fimmel seems to have almost the same speech patterns in #Dune Prophecy as he did in #Vikings. I loved the uniqueness and consistency of speech across characters in Vikings, but without that context in Dune, it just sounds like its the only other voice he can do.

#linguistics #sociolinguistics #languagevariation #scifi

"Don't let's" spotted in a #Marvel panel with #Hercules and #Daredevil / #MattMurdock c1960s. This was rather antiquated even by that time (https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=don%27t+let%27s%2Clet%27s+not&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-US-2019&smoothing=3), so it's curious that they gave that line to DD who is not overly formal in speech. Also, even though it's not one, it initially felt weird to me in the same was as double modals do.

#comics #linguistics #languagevariation #syntax

Ten years ago today, for my #linguistics class at Saint John's, I published this compilation of people saying "theater" in English:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjy40devSco

#Sociolinguistics #LanguageVariation

Die Dynamik der (Morpho-)Syntax des Deutschen in der „Vertikale“: Perfektexpansion und Abfolge pronominaler Objekte

Jetzt mit Volltext verfügbar.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376363305_Die_Dynamik_der_Morpho-Syntax_des_Deutschen_in_der_Vertikale_Perfektexpansion_und_Abfolge_pronominaler_Objekte

#linguistics #linguistik #languagevariation #sprache #Dialekt @linguistics

Strange to not have any #Labov quotes to share that I find poignant despite being the giant of #sociolinguistics and despite how much of his work I've read. He always struck me as a workhorse with a lot of interesting method ideas but not someone terribly concerned with #socialtheory where one's writing might become more touching. His legacy and influence will undoubtedly persist for a very long time still.

#linguistics #languagevariation #languagechange

As an American, "pissed up" is a new one for me. This was how someone on Discord described the #British crowd at the recent #TaylorCatterall fight. I assume this comes from "taking the piss".

#linguistics #lexicography #BrEn #BritishEnglish #languagevariation #boxing

#Relativepronouns are weird. "People that think" feels pretty natural to me but "people who think" is probably the standard in a construction like this one found on reddit.

(BTW, both fighters are too good to meaningfully compare anyway.)

#linguistics #languagevariation #pronouns #syntax #morphology #English #boxing #Crawford #Inoue