Archive for the ‘Linguistics in the comics’ Category
August 29, 2026
Also elegantly minimal. Yesterday’s (8/25) Wayno / Piraro Bizarro cartoon:

An Etch A Sketch drawing of an Escher drawing; /ɛšǝ(r)/ Escher (rhotic for me, not for most BrE speakers) vs. /ɛčǝ/ Etch A, so primarily, fricative vs. affricate at same point of articulation (as in sheep vs. cheap or wish vs. witch) (if you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Wayno says there are only 2 — see this Page)
(more…)
Posted in Art, Linguistics in the comics, My life, Paradoxes, Puns, Toys and games | Leave a Comment »
August 20, 2026
The Wayno / Piraro Bizarro of today (8/20), depicting a preposterous cartoon event:

It’s a Renaissance Faire and a Ren & Stimpy Show animated cartoon (if you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Wayno says there are 3 in this strip — see this Page)
A crossing of the decorously ornamental and the enthusiastically down-and-dirty.
(more…)
Posted in Events and occasions, Linguistics in the comics, Movies and tv | Leave a Comment »
August 13, 2026
The Wayno / Piraro 8/12 Bizarro: “The Metromorphosis”:

metro- [the libfix, representing the noun metrosexual] + metamorphosis [the abstract noun meaning ‘transformation’] = metromorphosis ‘transformation to metrosexuality’ (if you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Wayno says there are 4 in this strip — see this Page)
Two contributors:
(more…)
Posted in Books, German, Libfixes, Linguistics in the comics, Portmanteaus | Leave a Comment »
July 29, 2026
(or: they all look …) (or: … all look alike)
In the New Yorker‘s 7/20/26 issue, an Ivan Ehlers cartoon on this theme:

The cross-species effect: to a shark, every non-shark looks the same — looks, in particular, like the most salient non-shark, the shark’s major prey animal the seal; plus, everything is funnier in cartoon SharkWorld (just put a cocktail glass into a shark’s fins)
(more…)
Posted in Language and animals, Linguistics in the comics, My life, Race and ethnicity | Leave a Comment »
July 25, 2026
(Extensive reference to men’s private parts, occasionally in street speech, so not suitable for kids or the sexually modest)
From my 7/23 posting “Small worlds”, in an anecdote (from 1990) about my man Jacques and me:
to reverse the usual slogan, [Jacques] treats me as not only a great piece of meat but also as an especially wonderful human being. This is ridiculously sweet. Unrealistic but sweet.
The usual slogan is about men as meat. Some details.
(more…)
Posted in Ambiguity, Gender and sexuality, Homosexuality, Language and the body, Language of sex, Linguistics in the comics, Slogans | Leave a Comment »
July 1, 2026
🐇 🐇 🐇 rabbit rabbit rabbit, the sultry bunnies of July! But they are no match for Mononga Hela, the monstrous snake that swallows fat Carnegie melons, prodigious feral boars, and of course entire railway trains whole — the fearsome creature that in popular lore is said to have consumed all of western Pennsylvania in a fit of pique. Mononga Monga Ooga Gila Hellmouth!
But first, the Zippy strip from 6/27:

Beyond spelling: Zippy appreciates the power of the name Monongahela; and of course potrzebie, but the word for the day is Monongahela
(more…)
Posted in Events and occasions, Language play, Linguistics in the comics, Mantras, Names, Yiddish | Leave a Comment »