In February of 2024, Linguistics Club President, Sam Varble had the idea of forming a group after hearing many people speaking about language, they identified that many did not have the language to explain.
“I heard a ton of people talking about linguistics and not really having the language to convey what they were talking about,” said Varble.
Though they do not have a particular advisor for the group, they do have many professors who contribute their input such as Professor Warden, Professor Moore, and Dr. Suess.
A benefit to this club is you can attend virtually and in-person. Usually, they start the meeting with a game called Langle. Langle will give you a passage from a language, then you have to analyze it to discover where it comes from. Typically, guesses will give you a percentage of how close you are geographically to the location of the spoken language.
Varble worked with group members to make a discord that they use to pass on information, but mostly funny language memes. A particularly funny meme, is the backstory of the Triscuit cracker. Typically, people would think this name means tri biscuit. But in fact, it means electricity biscuit. The reason it was given this name is because it was the first commercial bread, baked in an electric oven. This is just one of the many fascinating topics that Varble has covered in their club.
Varble currently works in the Learning Center and wants to teach. For right now, they are finishing their associates at Schoolcraft. This will allow them to substitute teach, while continuing on a higher education. They are passionate about anything pertaining to linguistics from Arabic, which is one of their favorite languages, to sign language.
Someone who had joined had asked for a specific topic about non-spoken languages. The group explored Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL). It was created not for people who have trouble hearing or as a way to have lingua franca [common language between Native speakers] for multiple tribes. It helped connect tribes from all over the world. Varble is open to exploring any ideas people have.
Since the subject of linguistics is very vast, there are a plethora of avenues the group can explore.
“We do a lot of different activities in a new kind of area everyday, linguistics is so vast” said Varble.
Varble goes on to explain that sometimes learning about Linguistics can be done in unconventional ways. Members watched an episode of star trek and analyzed, it as they spoke only in metaphors. This particular episode is “Darmok” Season 5 episode 2.
Being a part of this club definitely helps others connect, plus it is fun and you can meet many different people. The Linguistics club will be connecting with Cultural Coffee Connections as often as possible. The Cultural Coffee Connection is run by the International Learning Support, ILS, to help support international students that attend class at Schoolcraft.
The best part about linguistics is that we are all connected in some way. It’s fascinating to learn how we are connected through language.
“Whenever we discover how two different languages connect, it brings up a new question; why are these connected?” said Varble.
Varble explains further that around forty two languages pronounce pineapple, ananas. Including Spanish, French, German and Arabic. Between all these different cultures and languages, they pronounce it mostly the same.
Varble encourages those who are interested in joining to please reach out through their discord; the QR code that connects to their discord is on their flyers located on billboards around campus. With any questions for Varble you can email the club, [email protected].
The club meets every Thursday for the fall semester, unless otherwise noted. The next club meeting will be Sept. 24, they will be covering jokes and wordplay. All are welcome.
