The LSA is pleased to announce the publication of the third edition of The Five-Minute Linguist, sales of which benefit the Society.  Edited by LSA members Walt Wolfram and Caroline Myrick, The Five-Minute Linguist aims to provide a fun, reader-friendly introduction to language designed for beginners and those with a general interest in the subject.

The book contains short essays on more than 60 intriguing questions such as “What’s the difference between a language and a dialect?” Can animals understand us?” “What causes foreign accents?” and “How is language used on social media?”

The new edition is organized into 12 topical areas that include What is Linguistics, Language and Thought, Language and Society, and Language and Technology, among others.

Each essay is written by a leading authority in the specialization who offers succinct, insightful answers to questions that most of us have wondered about, with follow-up references to more in-depth reading on each question. The third edition adds new topics now at the forefront of linguistics and updates others, serving as an unrivaled introduction to the mysteries and intrigue of language. 

The third edition includes more current topics and is available to order from Equinox Publishing. 

For more information about the event of the same name held at our Annual Meeting, check out the Five Minute Linguist.