When Twitter comedian and author Jonny Sun began to write his book, "everyone's a aliebn when ur a aliebn too," he had to write down the rules of the cutesy grammar of the language he invented.
I’m on the World in Words podcast talking about the linguistics of jomny sun:
If an alien landed on Earth, how would it speak?
According to Jonathan Sun, a self-described “writer, illustrator and person from Twitter,” an alien would probably sound something like a curious toddler prone to typos.
Sun, who is a PhD student at MIT, is the author of the new book, “everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too,” a sort of children’s book for adults, filled with simple line drawings and existential one-liners. [...]
Central to Sun’s humor is his unique writing style, riddled with misspellings and abbreviations.
For example, his Twitter profile reads: “aliebn confuesed abot humamn lamgauge.” The “aliebn” is Sun’s main alter ego, on Twitter and in his book — a lumpy-headed figure with a thick outline.
But these aren’t just accidental typos.
“I call this kind of misspelling or weird grammar ‘stylized verbal incoherence,’” said Gretchen McCulloch, internet linguist and co-creator of the podcast Lingthusiasm. “By adjusting the spelling, or the grammar, or how you put the words together, you’re indicating that you’re feeling so excited, or overwhelmed, or tired, or sad, or emotional in general that you can’t even string words together.”
I’m also really excited to see a sneak peek at jomny’s style guide from the book:
McCulloch also notes that “b” and “m” are what’s known as bilabials in linguistics — letters that are made by putting the lips together. Whether or not we pronounce the “b” in “aliebn” out loud, there’s something inherently appealing about bilabials.“There’s something cute about those letters,” McCulloch said. “I think those are kind of cute because those are some of the first sounds that babies make, ‘ba-ba-ba.’ ”
Read the whole article or listen on the World in Words website.
