LingFest

Would you like to find out about LingFest25, when it’s about to happen?

Are you fascinated by how language works? Would you like to find more great linguistics podcasts? Here’s a week of fun pop linguistics events for you!

LingFest is a program of online linguistics events aimed at a general audience, from Friday, 10 February to Friday, 17 February 2023. Just as a fringe festival compiles a list of independently-organised events on a particular theme, LingFest is an way for linguistics communicators to organise an online event, a way for fans to meet fellow linguistics enthusiasts (use #LingFest23), and a handy way to find out about more lingcommers who you might want to start following!

We’re listing events on this page, with each event creator managing their own ticketing and platform. Know a lingcommer not on this list yet? Ping them on social media and ask them if they’re planning something!

If you would like to find out about events happening as part of LingFest, fill out this form to sign up for a limited number of emails when the program is finalised.

If you would like to submit an event, meetup, or show, fill out this form.

There are no fees to submit an event for LingFest. You can set up your show using your preferred platform, and run it as any combination of paid/free/patreon/donation ticketing. Note that we reserve the right to reach out for clarification if it’s not evident how your event is a) related to linguistics and b) suitable for the general public.

Schedule

You can use this converter to figure out when events are scheduled in your local time zone.

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Events

Because Language: You’re Welcome, English!

Saturday, 11 February 2023
13:00 UTC (9:00pm AWST, UTC+8)
https://time.is/compare/2100_11_Feb_2023_in_Perth

In our last LingFest episode in 2021, we settled a lot of questions like: Which Monday is next Monday? Is a deceptively easy test really easy, or hard? And: are fish wet? That’s right, we solved them all with the time-honoured tradition of voting.

And now we’re back to do it again. The Because Language team returns with a new bracket of pesky usage questions, and attendees will get to vote on them. Which side of the bed is the left-hand side? And how many holes does a straw have? However we vote, that’s how these expressions are going to function from now on, because that’s how language works.

This event is open to all patrons on Zoom. To become a patron, join at http://patreon.com/join/becauselangpod/

Linguistics Careercast live podcast

Saturday, 11 February 2023
16:00 UTC (12pm PST, UTC-8)
https://time.is/compare/0800_11_Feb_2023_in_PT/UTC

Join us for a live episode of our Linguistics Careercast podcast, in which our panelists will discuss several non-academic career options that use linguistics in fun and unexpected ways, such as naming/branding, developing chatbots, and language-learning apps. It’s the Linguistics of Things! There will be time for Q&A after the panel discussion.

The panellists are:

Aubrie Amstutz, Product Policy Analyst, Text Features, TikTok
Alfonso Sánchez-Moya, AI/ML Data Linguist, Amazon
Juan Rosas, Language Access Policy Coordinator, City of Long Beach
Laurel Sutton, Professional Namer, Catchword Branding

This event is free, and will be recorded.

Theory Neutral Liveshow: Inflection & Derivation

Saturday, 11 February 2023
17:00 UTC (10am Mountain Time, UTC-7)
https://time.is/compare/1000_11_Feb_2023_in_MT/UTC

We will be discussing “Inflection and derivation as traditional comparative concepts” by Martin Haspelmath while taking questions from the YouTube audience.

This is a free event.
Event here: https://youtu.be/Y5G2JxtCVXE

Learned Newsletter: Playing with Words: Creative Exercises for Home and School

Sunday, 12 February 2023
0:00 UTC (9am Japan Standard Time, UTC+9)
https://time.is/compare/0900_12_Feb_2023_in_Tokyo

Learned is a weekly newsletter about etymology and linguistics. In this workshop, the host, Joel Neff, will lead participants through fun and interesting exercises in coining new words. These exercises are adapted from ESL classroom and creative writing techniques and can be used by participants in their own creative or educational pursuits.

This event is free (no registration) at https://learned.substack.com/p/ling-fest-23

The Endless Knot Podcast & Alliterative YouTube Channel: YouTube Livestream Q&A

Sunday, 12 February 2023
18:00 UTC (1pm EST, UTC-5)
https://time.is/compare/1300_12_Feb_2023_in_EST

Join us for a livestream Q&A all about etymology, historical linguistics, and the history of English. Mark Sundaram of the Alliterative YouTube channel and Aven McMaster from the Endless Knot podcast will answer questions, chat about their videos and episodes, and share their enthusiasm for language with their community.

This event is free (no registration) at https://www.youtube.com/alliterative

“A Million Little Gods” Podcast: Karl Popper-Style Debate: “The argument from etymology: Woke? Broke? Bespoke?”

Monday, 13 February 2023
20:00 UTC (9pm, UTC+1)
https://time.is/compare/2100_13_Feb_2023_in_UTC+1

Join us for some structured debate! Most linguists will tell you that words just can’t sit still, meanings are merely snapshots in time, and you can’t warrant a claim based on a word’s etymology. But some etymologies are just so delicious. And there’s a pretty robust tradition among academics—especially philosophers—of bolstering arguments based on surprisingly-insightful etymologies. Let’s settle this once and for all! In the Karl Popper format, people defend positions they might not personally believe, all the speakers are timed, and there’s a strictly-ordered for system for who gets to talk when.

This is an invitation-only Zoom event, available for paid Substack subscribers.
Subscribe here: https://amillionlittlethoughts.substack.com/

Lingthusiasm: A Q&A liveshow about language and gender with Kirby Conrod

Saturday, 18 February 2023
21:00 UTC (4pm EST, UTC-5)
https://time.is/compare/2100_18_Feb_2023_in_EST/UTC

We return to a fan-favourite topic, answering your questions about language and gender with returning special guest Dr. Kirby Conrod. You can ask in the AMA-questions channel on discord in advance, or bring along to the liveshow. You may remember Kirby from their very popular episode about the grammar of singular they! You can also share your examples and anecdotes about gender in various languages on the replies to this post or in the AMA-questions channel on discord, and we might mention some of them in the episode!

This event is for all patrons at the Ling-thuisiast tier and above.
Site: https://lingthusiasm.com/liveshow