50: Climbing the sonority mountain from A to P
\u201cBlick\u201d is not a word of English. But it sounds like it could be, if someone told you a meaning for it. \u201cBnick\u201d contains English sounds, but somehow it doesn\u2019t feel very likely as an English word. \u201cLbick\u201d and \u201cNbick\u201d seem even less likely. What\u2019s going on? \n\nIn this episode, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch get enthusiastic about the underlying pattern behind how sounds fit together in various languages, what linguists call sonority. We can place sounds in a line -- or along the steps up a mountain -- according to how sonorous they are, and this lets us compare and contrast how languages put together their syllables. We also talk about the incredibly weird case of S. \n\n---\n\nThis month\u2019s bonus episode is a behind the scenes look at the creation of Crash Course Linguistics! We\u2019re joined by Jessi Grieser, the third member of our linguistics content team behind the scripts of Crash Course Linguistics. We talk about how we structured the syllabus of Crash Course Linguistics, how Gavagai came to be a recurring character in the series, finding our delightful host Taylor Behnke, and what it's like working with the awesome teams at Complexly and Thought Cafe. Get all the details and access to 44 other bonus episodes by becoming a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/lingthusiasm\n\nAnnouncements\n\nWe\u2019re coming up on Lingthusiasm\u2019s fourth anniversary! In celebration, we\u2019re asking you to help people who would totally enjoy listening to fun conversations about linguistics, they just don\u2019t realize it exists yet! Most people still find podcasts through word of mouth, and we\u2019ve seen a significant bump in listens each November when we ask you to help share the show, so we know this works. If you tag us @lingthusiasm on social media in your recommendation post, we will like/retweet/reshare/thank you as appropriate, or if you send a recommendation to a specific person, we won\u2019t know about it but you can still feel a warm glow of satisfaction at helping out (and feel free to still tell us about it on social media if you\u2019d like to be thanked!). Trying to think of what to say? One option is to pick a particular episode that you liked and share a link to that. \n\nAlso, Crash Course Linguistics videos are coming out every Friday! Subscribe on YouTube, or sign up for Mutual Intelligibility email newsletters to get an email when each video comes out, along with exercises to practice the concepts and links for further reading. \n\nFor links to the things mentioned in this episode: https://lingthusiasm.com/post/635258033226776576/lingthusiasm-episode-50-climbing-the