The ULTIMATE Linguistics Guide for Beginners!

In this video, I'll be talking about all the various subfields of linguistics. This is perfect for people who are curious to know what linguistics is all about! From Phonetics, Phonology, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics and more!

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Written, Produced, and Edited by @TheLingOtter
Otter Drawings by @millicamacho_

[bingbonghafu]

Perfect timing LingOtter, I'm going into my first year of college to study linguistics!

[asies_lavida]

The cute otter is the only reason I can focus 😭

[ErkaaJ]

The cool thing about semantics to me is how semantic ambiguity is almost the core of philosophy. People use loaded terms like 'justice' and 'freedom' quite haphazardly for rhetorical means, when obviously most people have different ideas of what 'justice' and 'freedom' means. Politics and philosophy can almost literally be considered a 'semantics of loaded terms'.

[thorn]

As a big computer and math nerd, the more I learn about language, the more I realize that programming and mathematics are themselves much more linked to language than I could ever imagine

[MrGiygas]

0:24
The word ‘praat’ is the Dutch word for ‘talk’

[yaysymon]

linguistics student here!

to add to what the otter (i agree with everyone that the otter is indeed cute) has said:
- there are many ways to study syntax beyond syntax trees! syntax trees mostly follow the theorizing of noam chomsky

[inarticulateutterlymonolingual]

Phonetics = the study of the physiological production of speech sounds.
Phonology = the study of the psychological perception of speech sounds.

[SketchyTigers]

Love this being my degree. Great video getting people into this! I'm personally focused on dialectology, language change, and sociolinguistics, but I'm also currently doing a lot of phonetics and phonology.

[FrithonaHrududu]

Dude, thanks. I watch millions of language related videos but for some reason never actually sat down and figured out what all the linguistics terms meant. I had a rough understanding by context but this was a fucking GREAT video. You nailed it.

[alvaronavarro]

I’ve always had a soft spot for linguistics. Thank you for the amazing video!

[oravlaful]

cool animation, frequent posting, good topics with good, simple explanations, cute otter; you've got a new sub!

[lakeside_wonder]

This man is two things:
- A great expert in linguistics
- A really cute otter, who is probably a gay furry behind the scenes

Great video!

[我吃面]

One emerging subfield that's great is Revivalistics/Language Revival! In a way strongly linked to socioling, it tries to understand and explain language endangerment case by case and how these languages can be saved by their communities

It's quite new, and so not really a subfield yet ig, but very important

[slamharsh]

Fantastic video, very clear and concise. Great to see so many new linguist content creators (especially Chicanos!). Sociolinguistics is always my favorite branch. Keep up the great work, guey.

[nynthes]

please keep making videos you are amazing

[unebaguette]

Omg i love that otter it is soo cute!!!!

[suraya_]

This was perfect! I've always been interested in linguistics but never really went into the basics, oddly enough, so this video has been so helpful! It's so concise and you explain everything so well. Thank you!

[pierrotmel]

yo this kinda helped me a lot 😭 im sort of freaking out because i wanna do something in the future that involves languages in college- either translating or becoming a speech therapist- so its good to know that i have some other options

[jaw]

Awesome! By the way, you wrote "underserving" but pronounced it as if you thought it was "undeserving" which is a different meaning and pronunciation from "under-serv-ing".

[puddle]

I really like how this video looks and how informational it is.

You should keep this style for your longer videos like this, and use the other style for the shorts and tiktoks.