Speculative Grammarian is the premier scholarly journal featuring research in the oft neglected field of satirical linguistics—and it is now available in book form!
The past twenty-five years have witnessed many changes in linguistics, with major developments in linguistic theory, significant expansion in language description, and even some progress in getting a few members of the general public to realize that the term “linguist” is not defined as ‘someone who works at the UN doing simultaneous translation’. Speculative Grammarian is proud to have been a part of these changes. And now, in our humble yet authoritative opinion, the time is ripe for the appearance of an anthology containing the most important linguistics articles to have appeared in SpecGram in the past twenty-five years. (Readers seeking articles from before 1988 should consult one of the previous volumes in this series, which have appeared at intervals ranging from twenty to one hundred years ever since SpecGram was first published). This anthology, it is hoped, will allow our readers to gain a deeper, wider, fatter understanding of linguistics as it evolved in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, without the trouble of having to take a graduate seminar in “Modern Linguistics” taught by a professor who’s so old that she thinks the Beach Boys are cute. Some of us took graduate seminars like that ourselves, and believe us, this book is better.
Trey Jones is a computational linguist by day and a satirical linguist by night, with expertise in natural language processing, machine learning, sarcasm, and satire. He likes to do tricky things with text and mash numbers and words together in ways nature never intended, and he’s pretty damn good at it. When not trying to make an honest buck doing things none of his friends and family understand, he likes to skewer the entire field of linguistics as Managing Editor of Speculative Grammarian.
Keith W. Slater works for SIL International, teaches at the University of North Dakota, serves as a consultant for field linguists, and fritters away leisure hours writing for Speculative Grammarian and following Michigan State University athletics. He is a specialist in Mongolic languages of Northwest China, and is interested in both synchrony and diachrony. His book A Grammar of Mangghuer is probably a bestseller in some alternate universe.
Bill Spruiell teaches linguistics—and other courses that he confidently insists are branches of applied linguistics, such as Old English and sci-fi/fantasy literature—at Central Michigan University, which is as central as you’d expect but not nearly as frozen (Molten water! For months!). His research interests involve functional theories of language and theories of creative violation of the kinds of rules discussed in linguistics. His favorite jeremiad is “Young People Have Gotten Math All Over My Linguistics.”
Tim Pulju teaches linguistics and classics at Dartmouth College. He’s particularly interested in comparative/historical Indo-European linguistics, the history of linguistics, and functional approaches to language. Despite living in the 21st century, he has no home internet connection, nor is he on Facebook.
David J. Peterson is a writer and language creator. He created the Dothraki language for HBO’s Game of Thrones, and serves as the president of the Language Creation Society. He currently works as an alien language and culture consultant on the Syfy original series Defiance. He’s passionate about art, education and ice cream.
