LanGoPod Episode 4: Mighty Morpheme Word-Arrangers

LanGoPod is a podcast that helps you learn languages more effectively by understanding linguistic principles. 💬

In this episode of LanGoPod, we discuss the notion of the morpheme and how it can be very useful for language learners.

What even is a morpheme? A morpheme is the most fundamental unit with meaning in a language. We discuss, with examples from English:

• the difficult task of measuring morphemes and some illustrative transparent-to-opaque compounds;

• the notion of free versus bound morphemes, affixes, and allomorphy;

• some types of morphological processes; and

• phonesthemes and cran morphs.

This episode's mini-lessons focuses applying the notion of the morpheme to learning about Roviana infixes, the formation of the English plural and allomorphy in Japanese verbs.

We conclude the podcast with a challenge (what're your favorite "Widowords"/lost positives?), an exciting game of Frigatebird, and a timely selection of pundemic jokes and new words for these quarentimes!