Ben in Traverse City, Michigan, was adopted as a child and met his biological parents as an adult. He’s quite fond of them both, and refers to them as his bio mom and bio dad. Is there a better term for your biological parents vs. the ones who raised you? Other options include birth mom and birth dad. Anthropologists use the terms genitrix and genitor or mater and pater. When talking with very young adoptees, some people prefer specifying the biological mom as the tummy mummy. This is part of a complete episode.
The so-called “lifestyle influencer accent” you hear in videos on TikTok and YouTube, where someone speaks with rising tones at the end of sentences and phrases, suggesting that they’re about to say something important, is a form of what linguists...
Meg in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, gets why the state highway department encourages drivers to use their blinkers when changing lanes, but placing a digital sign at the Sagamore Bridge that reads Use Ya Blinkah is, well, a lexical bridge too far. Meg’s...
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