Your New Favorite Word

Tune in as Tessa shares the cultural and linguistic history of the yo-yo. Jamis follows it up with a discussion of “Shm-Reduplication” and its pitfalls. Language, shmanguage!

• 00:41 — Haboob (weather phenomenon)
• 01:07 — Nacho
• 02:31 — The history of the yo-yo
• 07:05 — False etymology of yo-yo
• 08:01 — Linguistic shift of the word “yo-yo”
• 11:37 — Introducing Shm-Reduplication
• 12:29 — Reduplication

• What is a haboob? Ominous shelf cloud photographed during Thursday’s severe weather (KTVB)
• Museum of Yo-Yo History
• The Yo-Yo: Giving an old toy a new spin
• Shm-Reduplication (Wikipedia)
• 5 Phonetic Pitfalls of Shm-Reduplication
• Metalinguistic, shmetalinguistic: the phonology of shm-reduplication
• Nilsson Schmilsson (Wikipedia)