UNC Linguistics

UNC Linguistics This page includes news and updates about our students, faculty members, research groups, outreach g Follow us on twitter: UNCLinguistics

UNC Department of Linguistics offers undergraduate and master's-level programs in Linguistics, with emphasis on phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, as well as language acquisition and historical linguistics. In addition, students engage in their studies with in topic-centered research groups, such as Acquisition or Phonology. Though the Linguistics Outreach Group, students provide in-class p

resentations to schools as well as demonstrations at community events, sharing their insights into the field.

06/02/2026

Thanks to KPEP (Kituwah Preservation and Education Program) for these Cherokee Words of the Month for June. Click on the QR Code to hear pronunciations by Elnora Thompson.

05/30/2026

Living Dictionaries are mobile-friendly web tools that support endangered, under-represented and diasporic languages. Led by community activists around the globe, Living Dictionaries are collaborative multimedia projects that help languages survive for generations to come.

Check it out at the link in the comments ⬇️

05/29/2026

The anatomy of a wug

What’s a wug, you ask? It’s a little fictitious critter that taught us a ton about how language works! Learn more at the link in the comments ⬇️

05/25/2026

Words such as 'museum', 'formula' and 'ratio' instantly give away their Latin origin, but did you know 'wall', 'street', and 'kitchen' come from Latin too? They were borrowed during the Roman occupation of the part of Europe where Proto-West Germanic was spoken, the ancestor of English and its West Germanic sister languages.

Today’s infographic about construction terms shows six of these early borrowings and their descendants in English, Dutch, and German. Next time: food words.

How can you identify early loanwords from Latin? By analysing three aspects: stress shift, vowel reduction and certain preserved consonants. My Patreon article (750 words, tier 1) tells you all about it. Link in bio.

05/24/2026

Linguistics League is a worldwide organization of volunteers creating programming and resources for teens interested in linguistics. They have a quarterly newsletter and provide resources on how to start your own linguistics club in your school.

Learn more at the link in the comments ⬇️

Fifth installment on the history of Mayan languages, this time on the lexical and semantic changes of the proto-Mayan te...
05/18/2026

Fifth installment on the history of Mayan languages, this time on the lexical and semantic changes of the proto-Mayan term for 'mouth' experienced by speakers of the Ch'olan-Tzeltalan subgroup

05/17/2026

‘Probably’ is often pronounced /probly/. The syllable ‘ba’ is deleted because it’s followed by another syllable starting with a b. This is called haplology – or haplogy if you will.

Some people have an issue with /probly/, but what they don’t know is that their beloved form ‘probably’ is the result of haplology too: in Middle English, it was ‘probablely’: ‘probable’ + ‘ly’. The part ‘le’ was lost because it was followed by ‘ly’.

Haplology can be found in all ages and places. My new infographic shows cases from English, Latin, French, Greek, German, and Portuguese.

Haplology is a so-called sporadic sound change. In the short article on my Patreon (470 words, tier 1), you'll learn all about the difference between sporadic sound changes such as haplology, and regular sound changes. Link in bio.

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