What is Linguistics?: Crash Course Linguistics #1

[@Rwzfs]

No way, you guys don't understand how long I've been waiting for this.

[@littlejourneyseverywhere]

Right?! Where are my language nerds in here?! My teammates of translation! My dreamers of dialect! My sequencers of syntax!

[@snowyyyyyyyyyyyyy]

same! literal years!

[@akositatot]

SAME!!!! I've been waiting for this for almost 5 years! Fellow language nerds rise uppp

[@lovecraft1000]

Same here 🥳

[@ENBSamiaSiddiqui]

You and me both, and scrolling down I've realised there are many of us!

[@MrJDH397]

Oh look, my degree finally has a series on it. Where was this when I was a freshman in college, lol

[@someonerandom704]

As someone who's super interested in linguistics, any advice for going along with it?

[@esmeraldaherrera6803]

Me too, please I’m a junior 😄

[@MrJDH397]

@@someonerandom704 ​ @esmeralda herrera 1) The IPA is your best friend. If you're good to her and give her a lot of attention, she will only aid you as you progress 2) Don't feel like you need to know what you want to do going into it. Took me two years to find Phonology/Phonetics and fall in love 3) Despite research, professors usually choose to teach in this particular field, and love talking about what they know. Office hours are rarely useful, imo, but I've always found them useful 4) A lot of systems are better understood with a second language, and second languages become a lot easier when you learn basic language systems. 4b) If you choose a language to learn, build vocabulary before learning sentences. I highly recommend the book "Fluent Forever", which has a 'most-important' vocabulary list for language, and the app Anki to learn them (also my personal flashcard app for all of my studies) 5) It's not maths, but it's still difficult. However, don't see it as overpowering, see it as a challenge. Language is a giant puzzle, and each little process and pattern is a piece of it. Puzzles take everyone different amounts of time, and yet we still commit and finish them. The more you connect, the easier it is to see the greater image as a whole, and like a puzzle it's incredibly satisfying to make it to the end and see what you've done.

[@MrJDH397]

​@@esmeraldaherrera6803 see previous comment

[@courtneypearce7840]

Right! This would’ve been really helpful when I was a freshman

[@phoenixshadow6633]

It's important to note that linguists aren't polyglots. It sounds obvious, but it's a common misconception.

[@someonerandom704]

You can also know a lot about a language and still not be fluent. One of the biggest reasons for this is that vocabulary is a massive grind and memorizing a lot of it for one language is tedious. Knowing linguistics does, however, give you a significant advantage in learning whatever language you want. That's obviously not its main goal though.

[@Cosmiccoffeecup]

Agreed

[@crystalwolcott4744]

Man, this never even occurred to me. Serious question, what kinda jobs can linguist get

[@TheRyanator5000]

@@crystalwolcott4744 Many linguists are programmers, some teachers, others go in to law or academia.

[@TheGuywithaChannel]

@@crystalwolcott4744 All sorts. Whenever I think of what jobs a degree can get, I think of how you can sell those skills to employers. Imagine being able to analyze language at all levels of structure from the brain to computers to society; it's pretty darn useful, especially when paired with pretty much ANY other major. I just graduated with my HBA in Linguistics and I've almost run into the problem of having too many options.

[@yetigriff]

I wonder what the next crash course "Things I never knew I was interested in" will be.

[@melonlord1414]

Isn't Crash Course "things I never knew I'd be interested in" basically Sci Show?

[@federicomarintuc]

Logistics

[@Garblegox]

I thought the same about linguistics. Then I discovered John McWhorter's book "Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue" and the rabbit hole just swallowed me up.

[@ericBorja520]

I love how inclusive this is of signed languages

[@reNNDinclusus]

As a field, Linguistics is inclusive of signed languages as a rule. They are classified as languages in their own rite, not a way of speaking a different language (I get frustrated when people think ASL is just a way of speaking English with your hands, because it really isn't). Any linguist worth their salt would not try to claim otherwise.

[@ariadnavezuvian8458]

@@reNNDinclusus yes but many people, unless in my country, just don't talk about this. Yes, technically they consider singh lenguage as a lenguage but never mentioned it in public.

[@someonerandom704]

Signing and vocalizing aren't mutually exclusive. In Mandarin, for example, you'll see a lot of native speakers wave their hands with the tones of the each syllable. Italians are known for being very physically expressive too, it just helps strengthen whatever meaning they're conveying.

[@reNNDinclusus]

@@someonerandom704 That's not the same as a signed language, though. What you're referring to is a form of paralanguage. Paralinguistic hand gestures can be used in combination with language to emphasize a point or mediate the emotional tone of their message, as can facial expressions and body language. However, this does not count as a component of the spoken language. The hand gestures that accompany speech in face-to-face communication between speakers of Italian or Mandarin don't substantially change the lexical content of the message being conveyed, they do not serve a grammatical purpose, and they are not necessary for understanding the content of the message. If hand gestures were a component of languages such as Mandarin or Italian, it would not be possible to carry out a phone call in these languages. To contrast, the signs in signed languages are linguistic, not paralinguistic. They each have a discrete lexical and/or grammatical meaning, and can be used in sequences to express statements as complex as anything you can say with a spoken language. I don't currently know of any languages that require both vocalization and hand signs in combination. It's not impossible that such multimodal languages could exist, though. I do hope CC makes an episode on paralinguistics, though. It's actually a very fascinating topic.

[@esmeraldaherrera6803]

Ofcouse ASL is include 😄 it’s a that is a form of language a form of communication linguistic is more about the communicating, my professor always make funny jokes saing the transfer of imagery from my brain to your brain in the form of language phonology sound or non phono hand gestures body language images and symbols like a red octave with funny scribbles of what it’s symbolic for which is a stop sing so always remember ASL is part of linguistics ☺️

[@ulyssesdossantosnazareno6190]

My name is Ulysses. I'm Brazilian and I've been teaching English for over 40 years. This crash course will certainly brush up my working area.

[@someonerandom704]

eu estudio o português brasileiro e o considero um caso muito lingüisticamente interessante. Os acentos, as gírias e as expressãos sobre brasil mudam bem mais apesar de que a lingua só é de um país num continente diferente.

[@bmccuan]

*Cuddles up to my Linguistics degree with a glass of wine.* ...its time.

[@emdadahmed5592]

I would like to remind you all that, 🍌🍌🍌 = chom choms

[@crashcourse]

very important

[@rikzalmuhammad1731]

🍌🍌🍌 = pisang (indonesian language) 🍌🍌🍌= koi (my local language, ternate language, a region in eastern part of indonesia)

[@dextera-tx1099]

@@rikzalmuhammad1731 romoi romdidi raange itu yang kta blajar di smp

[@willbarmby4242]

Crash Course Philosophy was the bom diggity

[@nerdfighter2004]

🍌

[@pikanin876]

I love linguistics, very excited that Crash Course is doing this :D

[@stocktonjoans]

Terry Ptatchett was a linguistics MASTER: “The forest of Skund was indeed enchanted, which was nothing unusual on the Disc, and was also the only forest in the whole universe to be called -- in the local language -- Your Finger You Fool, which was the literal meaning of the word Skund. The reason for this is regrettably all too common. When the first explorers from the warm lands around the Circle Sea travelled into the chilly hinterland they filled in the blank spaces on their maps by grabbing the nearest native, pointing at some distant landmark, speaking very clearly in a loud voice, and writing down whatever the bemused man told them. Thus were immortalised in generations of atlases such geographical oddities as Just A Mountain, I Don't Know, What? and, of course, Your Finger You Fool. Rainclouds clustered around the bald heights of Mt. Oolskunrahod ('Who is this Fool who does Not Know what a Mountain is') and the Luggage settled itself more comfortably under a dripping tree, which tried unsuccessfully to strike up a conversation.”

[@Ganymedescup]

I love me some Pratchett. Thanks for the excerpt from The Light Fantastic. I cherish a particular passage from his book Lords and Ladies for the way it uses language.

[@IgnisDomini97]

This is based on real-life occurrences with place names in America, lol. There are rivers named "River," mountains named "Mountain", etc.

[@stocktonjoans]

@@IgnisDomini97 i know, that's what makes pratchett so great

[@yucol5661]

Ignis Domini Sahara Desert, Gobi Desert, Kalahari Desert. All words that where used describe rather than name the areas

[@Ugly_German_Truths]

@@IgnisDomini97 Rivers named River or even "Water" are everywhere in basically all languages. Even irish and scottish names will just be things like Blackpool (Dublin is an example). And i think Pratchett got it more from the urban Legend about "Kangaroo" meaning "I have no idea" or something like that. (Linguists have not truly identified the dialect originating it but there are half a dozen candidates with more intelligent meanings that could have been butchered by an englishman to "kangaroo"...)

[@chris-hayes]

I love Swahili's "chafya" for sneeze. It's so satisfying to say.

[@savannah4439]

I’m so excited!!!! I’ve been asking for this every year on the nerdfighteria census for so long that I’ve gone through college and graduated with a degree in linguistics lol

[@fairyfellermasterstroke]

Uh...

[@snowyyyyyyyyyyyyy]

iconic!

[@tuxino]

Right at the end, you touch upon a very important thing to understand: Often there is no single, direct translation from one word in one language to one word in a different language. This is because often words have multiple related (but different) meanings, and in a different language those meanings might have each their own words. As an example, take the word "date", which has several meanings in English: 1) (noun) a reference to a day and possibly year: 2020-09-12 2) (verb) the act of assigning an age, period or date(1) to an object: He dated the find to 70CE. 3) (noun) a social event with a partner - often of a romantic nature. 4) (noun) the partner taken on a date(3). 5) (verb) the act of going on a date(3) with a date(4). And sometimes there are even words that are written identically to other words, such as: 6) (noun) a kind of fruit. Just because those first 5 meanings use the same word in English, there's no good reason to assume they will be using the same word in another language. And the fruit is very unlikely to have a similar name to anything related to calendars or scheduling. Edit: typo.

[@MichaelHopcroft]

There is a song from the web series RWBY in which two singers, one male and one female, describe how red hot dangerous they are, with the end of each chorus saying "I'm a tad mean, but I'm not afraid to take you out". Now there are two meanings to the term "Take you out". One is to knock out/kill/make incapable of further fighting someone. The other is to go out on a date. Now here's where it gets squicky -- the singers are, in real life, father and daughter. The first meaning is what they intended, but the second is still there -- and if you know who sings the duet is very disturbing. The song is ti8tles "Caffeine" if you want to look it up. It rocks, by the way.

[@pumaconcolor2855]

It might not be possible to translate a concept using a single word of the target language and in some situation the culture associated with it doesn't have the concept at all .

[@bangscutter]

For languages within similar language families, it may be possible to still do transliteration to some extent. But it gets problematic for very different languages from different families. This is the main reason why automated computer translations do a horrible job at translating between different language types. Computers are very good at translating individual words but horrible at discerning context and social nuances. Through neural networks, an AI can be trained of course, but your best bet is still a human fluent in both languages.

[@annikarogov]

When you show up to class before the bell rings

[@rimkhiari4121]

Thanks for this course ♥️ I'm a linguist myself and I find these introductory courses very refreshing and informative.

[@EonStormcrow]

Me too! Honestly, when I saw this, the first thought that came to me was, "I need this. I can't even remember the definition of morphology..."

[@jakkuwolfinsomnia8058]

I really enjoyed linguistics back in college, it’s very enlightening

[@divicool72]

this presenter has such a lovely manner - both calming and engaged :)

[@JohannXIV]

And she's almost certainly a Sconnie. They're the best

[@rrrosecarbinela]

I agree. Taylor is awesome. Check out her other channel, "It's Radish Time." She has a lot of very interesting things to say.

[@Quintinia]

Yessss I've been waiting ages for this series! I'm so thrilled you're treating signed languages on the same level as spoken languages and taking a hard stance against prescriptivism!

[@jaxi-fye]

I'm dyslectic and instead of trying just to remember the way something is written I turn to Linguistics to find a reason WHY something is written that way. Also, Linguistics can really showcase how history effects us still. Local dialects and accents are hold very dear, even if the origin of said dialect comes from a decade ago. I had a friend who could tell where your parents were born simply from the way YOU pronounced your words. Quite fascinating :)

[@Better_Planet]

Your pronunciation of Swahili words "chafya" and "mbweu" is so perfect, I wonder how you managed to pronounce them so very correct, most non-native speakers use broken pronunciation while speaking Swahili language.

[@ItsRadishTime]

watching lots of videos of native speakers and lots and LOTS of practice. later on, we'll cover how linguists represent the specific places and ways we make sounds, and having that as a guide made it a bit easier!

[@Better_Planet]

@@ItsRadishTime All the best. I hope you will also talk about optimality theory, my favourite phonological theory 🥰

[@superfluidity]

@Language and Programming Channel @ItsRadishTime isn't a professional linguist. Her website says shes a "writer, video maker, and digital organizer.". But the course was written by linguists Gretchen McCulloch, Jessi Grieser and Lauren Gawne

[@xlb525]

To everyone who asked me "So what exactly do you study in Linguistics?"

[@belgaer4943]

I really like how much sign language is included in this! It feels really valuable, especially because a lot of people don’t really think of sign language as a “real language”

[@leenaf8322]

Sign languages have been considered "real languages" in the field of linguistics for a long time

[@TheMattastic]

This is amazing stuff. I've been interested in linguistics for a long time and I've written a couple of conlangs, but often find it hard to get to grips with some concepts, so I'm really excited to learn some new things.

[@Curry-tan-]

Perfect timing! Everyone needs to be mindful of language, all the more in democracies and in messaging. I'd asked for a Crash Course in studying rhetoric and this is even better.

[@MakeMeThinkAgain]

In the world of Monty Python and the Holy Grail "gavagai" could mean "run away!"

[@thomasgonzalez2968]

As a speech-language pathologist, I must say THANK YOU for creating this CrashCourse series. It brings back fond memories of my undergraduate days in linguistics. :)

[@Ryanisthere]

DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I HAVE WAITED FOR THIS SERIES

[@trace_tomorrow]

I just found your channel on KZbin yesterday and now you’re hosting a crash course I’m interested in? Awesome!

[@astrasaer8973]

Yess!! My major! I have waited so long to see a Crash Course Linguistics series!

[@snowyyyyyyyyyyyyy]

i've been waiting for this series for years! this is so exciting!!

[@517moe]

YESSSSSS I've been waiting for Crash Corse Linguistics since I knew Crash Course! So exciting!!

[@nonominox]

This is my dream come true! I'm very passionate about Linguistics and to see other people feeling the same way I do is just so amazing!

[@CarpenterErynn]

I have been wanting this series for SO LONG!

[@Sarah-xt3kj]

I’ve been wanting a linguistics Crash Course for YEARS, I’m so looking forward to this!

[@meabh4877]

Ahh Taylor so excited to see a crash course, I've been watching it'sradishtime for ages

[@Jeeesssi]

Amazing video>< I will eagerly wait next series!

[@danielbenner7583]

I absolutely ❤️ linguistics.

[@Crescent-Adam]

Super excited for this series and even more excited the host talks at a speed conducive for understanding when I bump it to x2 :D

[@Booky42]

Brilliant course, I'm so excited for this! Potentially a linguistics major, this is very helpful.

[@Gangxisiyu]

I'm curious if you will do a special set on the relatively new discipline of Forensic Linguistics. A subject near and dear to my heart.

[@mihalylajun3257]

In case anyone was wondering- in the signed language during the intro the top set of hands is signing "HELP" and the lower is "I LOVE YOU"

[@Lemonzest96]

This is so relaxing compared to your other topics I can tell I’m gonna love this series 🥺

[@alikaafrica2382]

I am sooooooo excited for this series

[@lucassggabriell]

This series is so relevant I think the audience will have a lot of language learners ( I'm not a english native speaker)

[@omniashawky9960]

This is awesome. I love how you've simply but effectively explained the these main features of language. One suggestion, maybe try to mention the name of the linguist behind every linguistic theory mentioned (e.g. Saussure -> the arbitrariness of the signs)

[@elamiri858]

I'M SO EXCITED FOR THIS SERIES!

[@Garblegox]

Just got through 3 of John McWhorter's books. He's got me all pumped about words. Now there's this. Beautiful timing.

[@rrrosecarbinela]

Have you checked out his courses on the Teaching Company? Yeah, you have to pay, but they're quite worth it.

[@jigorlimap]

a linguistics series? i am HERE for it!!!

[@DrGerli]

Repentinamente, un comentario en Español. This looks great, I'm going to follow this series!

[@titi53221]

i`ve been waiting for this moment ever since i stumbled upon CC World History all those years ago.

[@enriquebarbanera]

A friend of mine is studying English Philology, so yeah... He sees phonetics and phonology, general linguistic, sociolinguistic, English literature, translation, morfology and syntax etc.

[@TheGuywithaChannel]

You got Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne to write and consult??? I love them!!!

[@Anthony-tl5cx]

Great stuff! This is a wonderfully broad and easy to understand introduction video. I can't wait to see the rest!

[@ThisIsNotAhnJieRen]

I got an A in my Linguistics subject in college. I love this one.

[@CoombesJD]

One thing that jumps out at me about this first episode is that there are far more learning stuff in this episode than say, one episode of the early chemistry crash course videos. This is probably because this is aimed at a college level audience? I think that's completely fine and wouldn't want to change the show itself. Perhaps add a summary section at the end to recap all the ideas and definitions you've just covered? Background: I have a BSc in Physics. Some familiarity with linguistics from my sister who studied it.

[@shafalic913]

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU GUYS TO INTRODUCE A COURSE ON LINGUISTICS SINCE FOREVER AND NOW IT'S HERE JUST WHEN MY MASTER'S EXAMS ARE AROUND THE CORNER😭❤️

[@LordMacharius]

I studied linguistic anthropology in school. I love the field, wish there was more I could do with it.

[@LukeBunyip]

The name of Lake Wendouree (in Australia) comes from a local aboriginal word wendaaree which means 'go away': a story is told that when settler William Cross Yuille asked a local indigenous woman what the name of the water body was, that was her reply. IIRC she was supposed to be bathing at the time.

[@kellytoncar5766]

I'll have to watch this first video a few more times; the concepts are introduced so quickly, there's barely any time for comprehension.

[@rohanpandey2037]

less than 2 minutes in and we're talking about Quine lol this is gonna be a good series

[@tomsuiteriii9742]

Linguistics vs. Philology would be a good video for a comparison/contrast.

[@adelinesadventures5196]

So awesome I’m in a Spanish phonetics and phonology class right now to finish up my minor and this is honestly my jam

[@NattySJuegosyAnime]

OMG! Finally, linguistics! I'm a language student but I've taken some linguistic courses at college and I'm starting to love it. I'm excited to learn more about it :D

[@rasp.74]

Ahhhh - so excited to see this. Didn't realize it was brand new until after I was like, "Oh! I didn't know Crash Course had a lecture series on that - this is awesome, where is the next- Ah." So now I'll have to wait. But happy to see this, in any case. Wonderful start, looking forward to more.

[@MonDieuMaCauseMonEpee]

YEEAAHHH 😃😃!! I've Benn Waiting For So Long!!! Yes! Thank You!!

[@kats8776]

Great first video! Excited for the next one!

[@susi3777]

Dude I figured a lot of these ideas when I was learning Japanese, like the Arbitrariness and how a word is 2 pieces. I can’t wait to actually learn about them!

[@phoebelok4721]

as a linguistics major i am so so excited for this series!!!!

[@Nacur]

Looking forward for this project!

[@gdwn2704]

YES! You dont know how much i waited for this topic to finally in crsh course. Thank You so much. Im so intrigued and interested in Linguistics and this video (and i hope future videos) will keep me hooked and entertained.

[@beriktursynkhanov8075]

What a coincidence! I just started learning linguistics in my university. Now I can be sure that I am gonna pass my final exams. Thank you so much!

[@omaromario7841]

I immediately started looking for the next video in the suggestions, I guess I'm not used to being this early

[@marlene3697]

I go on KZbin to procrastinate writing my linguistics paper and this is what waits for me...

[@abdelalibarghout8987]

We love this series. Keep it up and make additional sub-courses about it.

[@nateweinand4209]

This is a great start! Really excited for this series!

[@RileyJayDennis]

I love this!!!!

[@deda9829]

Thank you so much for talking about language variation within the context of sociolinguistics so early ❤ I get worried when linguistics is framed as the study of "language" where language can erroneously be understood as inherently prescriptive. It means a lot to me as someone who speaks a language variety with low prestige.

[@gita509]

I was just thinking about commenting somewhere on crash course or vlogbrothers that I would love to see a crash course linguistics and then I come on here and get exactly that!? Did I manifest this lol

[@meem2477]

I'm so excited for this series!!!

[@camiloiribarren1450]

Definitely gonna love this! Perfect for travelers as well

[@porco1914]

I've been waiting for this for sooooo long! Yay!

[@imaginecloudsxo7987]

Today, I started studying Linguistics. I seriously don't know what to expect but I'm in for it! 😊😊

[@imaginecloudsxo7987]

@Language and Programming Channel thanks for the reply :) i'm most likely going to choose historical linguistics since Sanskrit will be a part in this programme. However, could you tell me a bit more about historical linguistics? :)

[@atriskeel5427]

I can't wait for this series. Thanks, Crash Course ❤❤

[@imtheroy]

3:15 Bani is the name of my pueblo so this will mark the only time it is mentioned ever thank you :))

[@myra6161]

One of my best KZbin channel

[@ferus5583]

CRASH COURSE LINGUISTICS!?!!! THATS AWESOME!!!

[@cashvanblaricom7781]

Oh my god I love linguistics and the format of this channel is perfect for me.

[@ForTheLoveOfMusicals]

I’m currently taking an introduction course to linguistics at my uni and watching this video really showed how my book is ignoring the existance of sign language

[@nickgill6639]

Thank you crash course for free education

[@chayrossing]

I’M SO EXCITED I’M SO EXCITED

[@LeftHandedAsians]

*I've been waiting a long time for this*

[@aaravsharma6579]

PLZ MAKE VIDEOS LIKE THIS

[@richelynbalisi9068]

Its here!!!

[@NewtsAhoy]

As a linguistics graduate THANK YOU for making this!!

[@deadman746]

Peirce came up with something like 60 kinds of signs. The ones that have stuck and have become more popular are _symbol,_ _icon,_ and _index._ I wish people looked at his stuff more; it's quite good and fits in rather nicely with modern cognitive linguistics, better I think than Saussure's stuff does.

[@mohamedlouchiri]

I am really excited for the upcoming videos

[@abhaysharma9317]

I thought if there had ever been linguistics series it would either get hosted by Gretchen McCullough or Tom Scott himself but seeing new face is also good.

[@PatrickAllenNL]

Eindelijk een video voor mensen met een talenknobbel! 🇳🇱

[@BrianHutzellMusic]

The Thought Bubble bunnies are adorable! ❤ 🐇

[@wallalalo]

Awesome !! You all took our feedback! I love the animations