shakedown.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A community for live music fans with roots in the jam scene. Shakedown Social is run by a team of volunteers (led by @clifff and @sethadam1) and funded by donations.

Administered by:

Server stats:

278
active users

#grammargirl

0 posts0 participants0 posts today

What happens when a popular YouTuber moves from Boston to California?

Linguist Andrew Cheng studied YouTubers who had been posting for years and had moved — and he found interesting things about how their accents changed. Plus, the method has interesting pros and cons too.

I really enjoyed this interview! Check it out:

Watch: youtu.be/dJw85kZl63g

Read: grammar-girl.simplecast.com/ep

Listen: pod.link/173429229

I've heard from multiple mothers who were thrilled to finally understand why their baby said "dada" before "mama": it's because of the way the babies' sound-making develops. Oral sounds like “d” and “b” appear more frequently in early babble than nasal sounds like “m.”

Valerie Fridland has lot of other great insights too about "mama" and "dada" in this week's podcast. Check it out!

Read: grammar-girl.simplecast.com/ep

Watch: youtu.be/Gg38QD6QzIw

Listen: pod.link/173429229

Have you ever wondered what it means when a dictionary calls a word “archaic,” “obsolete," or "nonstandard"?

In this week’s Grammar Girl podcast, we look at how usage labels changed over time—and how different dictionaries handle them today.

My favorite part was learning about the less common labels, like "female" (which is applied to "starlet").

Read: grammar-girl.simplecast.com/ep

Watch: youtu.be/Gg38QD6QzIw

Listen: pod.link/173429229

Ghostwriting fiction is more common than I realized — and it’s not just celebrities doing it.

Dan Gerstein knows all about it and enlightened me on this week's show.

We talked about how ghostwriting works in the world of fiction, what writers and clients expect from each other, and why AI isn’t going to replace great collaborators anytime soon.

Watch: youtu.be/gwE4utE0mkw

Read: grammar-girl.simplecast.com/ep

Listen: apple.co/3FR9A5Y

As publishers and AI companies fight over rights, @emckean worries that dictionaries and researchers could get caught in the crossfire.

That's just one of her surprising observations in our chat this week on the Grammar Girl podcast.

Check it out:

LISTEN: pod.link/173429229/episode/579

READ: grammar-girl.simplecast.com/ep

WATCH: youtu.be/tRFswaLxr6I

AI isn’t always the cheaper option.

In my interview with lexicographer and Wordnik founder Erin McKean (@emckean), we talked about what AI means for dictionaries, and she pointed out that “Lexicographers are way cheaper than AI engineers. By an order of magnitude.”

Sure, LLMs can sometimes speed things up. But tuning, deploying, and maintaining those models isn’t always more efficient than hiring humans.

Subscribe now to get the whole episode tomorrow.

pod.link/173429229

Wishing you an OK day on March 23 — National OK Day! 👍

Back in 1839, the Boston Morning Post published the first known instance of "OK" (writing it "o.k."). It was an abbreviation for the joking misspelling of "all correct": "oll korrekt."

Check out the whole story of how "OK" survived when similar funny abbreviations faded away:

Read: grammar-girl.simplecast.com/ep

Watch: youtu.be/wSEJcbPlYB8

Listen: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/

Do you have a favorite reference book?

One of my favorites is "The Best Punctuation Book, Period," by @junecasagrande, so I was thrilled when she joined me for today's Grammar Girl podcast! 😍

When I asked her what the most difficult punctuation mark is, her first answer surprised me — she said the period. No kidding!

Check out the whole discussion:

WATCH: youtu.be/hJ9uZ8LYUDc

READ: grammar-girl.simplecast.com/ep

LISTEN: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/

One of my favorite stories is how we got the word "OK" from wise-cracking 19th century journalists and a presidential election campaign.

The first segment of the podcast this week tells that story!

And then, keeping with the era, we look at some fun Victorian tea idioms. Scandal water, anyone?

Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/

YouTube: youtu.be/wSEJcbPlYB8

Transcript: grammar-girl.simplecast.com/ep

I've seen people change how they think about Wikipedia for a few years and had a fascinating discussion this week with Jonathan Rick about Wikipedia's rules on what can be included in an entry — and what can't.

If you're curious about how Wikipedia works behind the scenes or want to edit entries, you'll love this episode!

Watch: youtu.be/KIbCSMUdWug

Read: grammar-girl.simplecast.com/ep

Listen: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/

When I read that 21% of American adults are illiterate, I was shocked. And then I wondered what that means, and what we can do about it.

Kate Crist is a literacy expert who has some answers and advice. I hope you learn as much from this Grammar Girl episode as I did — and feel empowered instead of helpless!

Links to the full episode are in the first comment.

Watch: youtu.be/mLwMZ3sf2cM

Read: grammar-girl.simplecast.com/ep

Listen: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/

If you're excited about the Oscars, you'll love this week's interview with linguist Andrew Cheng!

We talked about the language of "Dune," "Anora," "Emilia Pérez," "Conclave," and more — and how linguistic realism is making inroads in Hollywood. (I haven't even seen most of the films, and I still loved this conversation about language in the movies!)

#GrammarGirl #Linguistics #Oscars

Read: grammar-girl.simplecast.com/ep

Watch: youtu.be/m8RQYqtKjeo

Listen: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/

Ever wonder why Americans spell "canceled" with one L but still spell "cancellation" with two? In this week's podcast, we explore how spelling rules, stress patterns, and historical quirks explain this inconsistency.

And then, @glennf looks at the history of "fine" print — from typesetting in smoky print shops to its modern use in hiding legal loopholes.

Read: grammar-girl.simplecast.com/ep

Listen: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/

Watch: youtu.be/Ak2A_m4Z47o

Ghostwriting is a really interesting possibility for writers looking for work.

This week, I talked with Dan Gerstein, founder of Gotham Ghostwriters, about the ghostwriting industry — how writers can break in to ghostwriting, what types of projects are available, and how much top ghostwriters earn.

Plus, we look at the ethics of ghostwriting and how the industry is changing.

Watch: youtu.be/WY53pWcm070

Read: grammar-girl.simplecast.com/ep

Listen: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/

Do you love word games? Wordle? Connections? Crosswords?

If so, you'll love my new interview with Lex Friedman about his daily word site, Lex.games.

Lex creates nine different word games each day that are free to play, and we talked about how he keeps his games fresh, what players love and hate, and how he made his games accessible.

Listen: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/

Read: grammar-girl.simplecast.com/ep

Watch: youtu.be/aMjIrs-WdVw