Articulate

Welcome to (Art)iculate, a pop linguistics podcast that explores the endearingly odd features of human language, both written and spoken. Language is a charmingly idiosyncratic bit of machinery so let's delve into those cogs and gears together and disentangle a bit of the mess.

Last refreshed: July 14th, 2025 at 7:25 AM ⓘ

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Episodes

Don't Be a Meanie, Have a Quaran-tini

Flatten the curve - a public health strategy to slow down the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the COVID-19 pandemic. The curve being flattened is the epidemic curve, a visual representation of the number of infected people needing health care over time. ------ Welcome to the fourth episode of (Art)iculate! I'm your host, Jenny Li, and I'm looking forward to jazzing and jiving with you through the intricacies of COVID-19 terminology! Grab your marmalade, succulents, and copies of Animal Cro...

Jul 06, 2020•17 min

A Sound for Soramimi Ears

Soramimi (空耳, "mishearing; (feigned) deafness", literally "air ear") or soramimi kashi (空耳歌詞, misheard lyrics); is a Japanese term for homophonic translation of song lyrics, that is, interpreting lyrics in one language as similar-sounding lyrics in another language. ------------------------------- Welcome to the third episode of (Art)iculate! I'm your host, Jenny Li, and I'm looking forward to sharing my childhood memories in which I emulate seaweed on the dance floor. Today we talk exploding ba...

Apr 01, 2017•12 min

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Sock It Tmesis, Sock It Tmesis

tme·sis t(ə)ˈmēsəs/ noun the separation of parts of a compound word by an intervening word or words, heard mainly in informal speech (e.g., a whole nother story ; shove it back any-old-where in the pile ). ---------------------------- Welcome to the second episode of (Art)iculate! I'm your host, Jenny Li, and I'm looking forward to cursing in an entirely awkward and unintimidating fashion while you, my audio captives, sit listening, entirely unamused. Today, we talk Homer Simpson, Snoop Dogg, an...

Jan 09, 2017•9 min

You're Eggcorn-y, I Like You

egg·corn ˈeɡkôrn/ noun a word or phrase that results from a mishearing or misinterpretation of another, an element of the original being substituted for one that sounds very similar or identical (e.g. tow the line instead of toe the line ). ---------------------------- Welcome to the first episode of (Art)iculate! I'm your host, Jenny Li, and I'm thrilled to spend ten minutes making excruciatingly bad jokes while forcing you to listen (with cheesy jazz in the background). From breakfast food to ...

Jan 02, 2017•10 min

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