So, thinking about science experiment books and kits

[conuly]

And the thought appeared in my head... linguistics.

Linguistics is a science, and there are any number of easy experiments a child could do in linguistics, with pretty much NO equipment or fancy training. Talk about cost effective! And there is clearly a need for linguistics education in this country. (I'm not even just saying that because I'm interested in the subject. I'm saying that because it pains me to see people, interested people, struggle to talk about linguistics concepts that interest them because they simply don't even realize that there's a vocabulary for this.)

And yet, somehow, there's also pretty much no intro texts into the subject that are accessible to the general public, particularly children. (Well, I mean, there's the Language Construction Kit, and I won't insult it, but I'm thinking more experimental than going full-on conlang.) And the more I think about it, the more I think there might actually be a market for this. A small one, maybe, but maybe not - people really are interested in language.

Comments

[steorra]

My favourite book on linguistics to recommend to people is the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Part of what I like about it is that it's really not a textbook, and it gives a taste of a very wide range of areas of linguistics.

It's not really a source for linguistics experiments to do, though.

[conuly]

Useful reference, though.

[mme-n-b.livejournal.com]

I would totally buy a book of linguistics experiments for children. And another one to gift.

In fact, I'd buy a list of experiments without the book (for a smaller price).

[conuly]

So would I, but now I think I have to come up with it on my own and right now my brain is stuck on wugs. (Little known fact about wugs: If you were a Roman, you would say it wux. While English speakers automatically assimilate the -s to -z if the preceding sound is voiced, Latin speakers automatically assimilated the preceding voiced sound to its unvoiced counterpart if they followed it with an -s affix. That's why we have pairs like rex, regis. The root is reg-, but when combined with the nominative singular ending -s the /g/ becomes /k/, giving us rex.)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. I didn't know this phenomenon was behing the rex, regis pair. My Latin teachers probably did a sufficiently decent job, but when you asked them about linguistic puzzles, they just said "I don't know, just memorise it". But I don't wanna memorise! I wanna understaaaand! So thank you for that.

The funny thing is, in German you'd also say two wux (unless we decided that wug takes a different plural, because it could just as well be two wugge), but for a different reason. Language is such fun!

Which is why I'd love a linguistic science kit. But I wouldn't know how to assemble one, either. If you come up with one, I'll buy it, though!

[mme-n-b.livejournal.com]

Please do come up with it! :)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Another thought, concerning the "small market" for this idea: I recently supported a kickstarter project focusing on (ta-da!) language, in this case, language death in the shape of a game (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thornygames/dialect-a-game-about-language-and-how-it-dies) -- and I'm clearly not the only one excited by the idea, looking at the number of supporters this project got. So, yeah. That's probably your market, too...

[conuly]

What a depressing theme for a game! (But I'm still interested in playing if it's any good.)

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I'll tell you next year! ;) (Supposedly, there's also a section on language revitalisation. In case people want to save "their" language, or any endangered language, I guess!)