Small LLMs

LLMs on Your Laptop

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I mentioned last week that I’m spending a lot of time with LLMs recently. I’m poking and prodding them to test their ‘understanding’ (inverted commas necessary there!) of phonology, in particular with non-standard speech and dialects.

And you’d be forgiven for thinking I’m just tapping my prompts into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or the other big commercial concerns. Mention AI, and those are the names people come up with. They’re the all-bells-and-whistles web-facing services that get all the public fanfare and newspaper column inches.

The thing is, that’s not all there is to Large Language Models. There’s a whole world of open source (or the slightly less open ‘open weights’) models out there. Some of them offshoots of those big names, while others less well-known. But you can download all of them to run offline on any reasonably-specced laptop.

LMStudio – LLMs on your laptop

Meet LMStudio – the multi-platform desktop app that allows you to install and interrogate LLMs locally. It all sounds terribly technical, but at its most basic use – a custom chatbot – you don’t need any special tech skills. Browsing, installing and chatting with models is all done via the tab-based interface. You can do much more with it – the option to run it as a local server is super useful for development and testing – but you don’t have to touch any of that.

Many of the models downloadable within LMStudio are small models – just a few gigabytes, rather than the behemoths behind GPT-5 and other headline-grabbing releases. They feature the same architecture as those big-hitters, though. And in many cases, they are trained to approach, even match, their performance on specific tasks like problem-solving or programming. You’ll even find reasoning models, that produce a ‘stepwise-thinking’ output, similar to platforms like Gemini.

A few recent models for download include:

  • Qwen3 4B Thinking – a really compact model (just over 2gb) which supports reasoning by default
  • OpenAI’s gpt-oss-20b – the AI giant’s open weights offering, released this August
  • Gemma 3 – Google’s multimodal model optimised for use on everyday devices
  • Mistral Small 3.2 – the French AI company’s open model, with vision capabilities

So why would you bother, when you can just fire up ChatGPT / Google / Claude in a few browser clicks?

LLMs locally – but why?

Well, from an academic standpoint, you have complete control over these models if you’re exploring their use cases in a particular field, like linguistics or language learning. You can set parameters like temperature, for instance – the degree of ‘creativity wobble’ the LLM has (0 being a very rigid none, and 1 being, well, basically insane). And if you can set parameters, you can report these in your findings, which allows others to replicate your experiments and build on your knowledge.

Small models also run on smaller hardware – so you can develop solutions that people don’t need a huge data centre for. If you do hit upon a use case or process that supports researchers, then it’s super easy for colleagues to access the technology, whatever their recourse to funding support.

Secondly, there’s the environmental impact. If the resource greed of colossal data centres is something that worries you (and there’s every indication that it should be a conversation we’re all having ), then running LLMs locally allows you to take advantage of them without heating up a server farm somewhere deep inside the US. The only thing running hot will be your laptop fan (it does growl a bit with the larger models – I take that as a sign to give it a rest for a bit!).

And talk of those US server farms leads on to the next point: data privacy. OpenAI recently caused waves with their suggestion that user conversations are not the confidential chats many assume them to be. If you’re not happy with your prompts and queries passing out of your control and into the data banks of a foreign state, then local LLMs offer not a little peace of mind too.

Give it a go!

The best thing? LMStudio is completely free. So download it, give it a spin, and see whether these much smaller-footprint models can give you what you need without entering the ecosystem of the online giants.

Lastly, don’t have a laptop? Well, you can also run LLMs locally on phones and tablets too. Free app PocketPal (on iOS and Android) runs like a cut-down version of LMStudio. Great for tinkering on the go!

A swirl of IPA symbols in the ether. Do LLMs 'understand' phonology? And are they any good at translation?

Do LLMs have phonological ‘understanding’?

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LLMs are everywhere just now. And as statistical word-crunchers, these large language models seem a tantalisingly good fit for linguistics work.

And, where there’s new tech, there’s new research: one of the big questions floating around in linguistics circles right now is whether large language models (LLMs) “understand” language systems in any meaningful way – at least any way that can be useful to research linguists.

LLMs doing the donkey work?

One truly exciting potential avenue is the use of LLMs to do the heavy lifting of massive corpus annotation. Language corpora can be huge – billions of words in some cases. And to be usefully searchable, those words have to be tagged with some kind of category information. For years, we’ve had logic-based Natural Language Processing (NLP) tech to do this, and for perhaps the most block-wise faculty of language – syntax – it’s done a generally grand, unthinking job.

But LLMs go one step beyond this. They not only demonstrate (or simulate) a more creative manipulation of language. Now, they have begun to incorporate thinking too. Many recent models,  such as the hot-off-the-press GPT-5, are already well along the production line of a new generation of high reasoning LLM models. These skills that are making them useful in other fields of linguistics, beyond syntax – fields where things like sentiment and intention come into play. Pragmatics is one area that has been a great fit, with one study into LLM tagging showing promising results.

The sounds behind the tokens

As for phonology, the linguistic field that deals with our mental representations of sound systems, the answer is a little more complicated.

On the one hand, LLMs are completely text-based. They don’t hear or produce sounds – they’re pattern matchers for strings of tokens – bits of words. But because written language does encode sound–meaning correspondences, they end up with a kind of latent ability to spot phonological patterns indirectly. For example, ask an LLM to generate rhyming words, or to apply a regular sound alternation like plural –s in English, and it usually does a decent job. In fact, one focus of a recent study was rhyming, and it found that, with some training, LLMs can approach a pretty humanlike level of rhyme generation.

On one level, that’s intuitive – it’s because orthography tends (largely) to reflect underlying phonotactics and morphophonology. Also, the sheer volume of data helps the model make the right generalisations – in those billions of pages of crunched training data, there are bound to be examples of the link. Where it gets shakier is with non-standard spellings, dialect writing, or novel words. Without clear orthographic cues, the model struggles to “hear” the system. You might see it overgeneralise, or miss distinctions that are obvious to a native speaker. In other words, it mimics phonological competence through text-based proxy, but it doesn’t have one.

It’s that ‘shakier’ competence I’m exploring in my own research right now. How easy is it to coax an understanding of non-standard phonology from an out-of-the-box LLM? Pre-training is key, finding wily ways to prime that mysterious ‘reasoning’ new models use.

Rough-Edged tools that need honing

So, do LLMs have phonological understanding?

Well, not in the sense of a human speaker with an embodied grammar. But what they do have is an uncanny knack for inferring patterns from writing, a kind of orthography-mediated phonology.

That makes them rough tools starting out, but potentially powerful assistants: not replacements for the linguist’s ear and analysis, but tools that can highlight patterns, make generalisation we might otherwise miss, and help us sift through mountains of messy data.

A finch flying above a beautiful landscape

Finch : Tiny Bird, Big Habits [Review]

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When I first saw a Finch ad on Instagram, I confess, I rolled my eyes. Yet another quirky productivity app wrapped up as a kid’s game and pitched to grown‑ups, I thought. Isn’t Insta awash with them lately? But curiosity won the day, and I’m honestly quite glad it did.

As you’ve probably guessed, Finch turns your self‑care and habit building into a gentle, gamified ritual – with a little birdie companion. It might seem a touch infantile, but don’t be fooled: its foundation rests on solid habit‑science, and yes, adults do love things that are fluffy and cute (well, I do anyway).

Finch is generous too – its free version offers custom goals, journaling, mood tracking and more, without forcing you to pay to access the essentials. I haven’t paid a penny to use it yet, but the range of function on the free tier has been more than enough to keep me using it.

Why It Works

  • It starts small. When you first set it up, the suggested goals are self-care easy wins – drink more water, get outside at least once day – things to get you used to the app environment. Want to journal, stretch, or simply “get out of bed”? Go ahead and make it count.
  • Flexible goal‑setting for grown‑ups. Once you’ve got used to the interface, you can go to town setting your own goals – even on the free tier. I’ve added language learning daily tactics, university reading goals and all sorts – I almost feel guilty that I’m doing all this without a subscription!
  • Gentle gamification. As you check off goals, your bird gains energy, goes on charming adventures, and earns “Rainbow Stones” for adorning its nest. It’s rewarding without being punishing. And of course, also streak-building is part of the ecosystem, your Finch never dies if you miss a day (God forbid).
  • Supportive, not prescriptive. Other users highlight how the app strikes the right tone: compassionate rather than preachy. Some users with ADHD, anxiety or depression say its warmth makes self‑care feel doable.
  • Friend‑based encouragement. You can buddy up with a friend on a single goal (or more) without exposing your progress to a social feed. It’s discreet, pressure‑free support. For a laugh, I added a pal on the “drink more water” goal. We laugh about it, but it’s actually not a bad habit to develop, is it?

Final Verdict

Finch is a cosy, surprisingly effective habit app wrapped in feathers and whimsy. It’s kind to energy-drained minds, flexible enough for real lives, and – despite coming at me via the dreaded Insta ads – far more than a passing gimmick.

If you’ve ever felt wary of habit tools that feel too serious or demanding, Finch might just surprise you. And if nothing else, the little bird and its gentle cheer-on can make daily tasks feel a bit more doable – and dare I say it, sweet.

Finch is available as a free download on all the usual platforms –
find out more at their website here!

#EdFringe 2025 - an illustration of a vibrant street full of performers

#EdFringe for Language Lovers : 2025 Edition

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It’s that time again when we all like to moan about how flippin’ busy the Edinburgh streets are. Yes, #EdFringe is here! But along with the inevitable tourist surge, there’s international comedy and entertainment of all shapes and sizes. And, of course, that means there are a few gems that will light up the language lovers.

So what treats does the 2025 edition have in store for us? Quite a bit, it turns out. Here are my picks for this year, taking in French, German, Spanish, and … Norwegian!

PIAF AND BREL: THE IMPOSSIBLE CONCERT (MELANIE GALL)

I’ve often said you can’t walk a yard during festival time without seeing a poster for a Piaf tribute. This year there are three, but writer, singer and music historian Melanie – a familiar face from previous Fringe years – blends in Brel too, and is amongst the best. The music takes centre stage, of course, but her storytelling is excellent.

After you’ve ticked that one off, check out Piaf Revisited and C’est moi as well! 

FRENCH MÉLODIE AND GERMAN LIEDER

A double whammy here – a quartet of musicians present a lunchtime treat of romantic song in French and German. It’s only on Monday 11th August, so be quick if you want to catch it!

SERGI POLO: SPANISH WORK IN PROGRESS

It’s not often you get a whole standup set in a non-English language at #EdFringe, but here we are (hoorah). Sergi Polo has brought his show to Edinburgh in both Spanish and English, although the Spanish set is for one night only (13th August).

FELI Y LOS MALOS

Spanish-language funky blues is the order of the day with this latin-pop quartet led by Colombian-American Felipe Schrieberg. Their last #EdFringe gig is Wednesday 13th, though, so be quick to catch them before they head home!

COPLA : A SPANISH CABARET

The history of Spanish cabaret is intertwined with the queer migrant experience in this moving, dramatic show at George Square. If you want a Spanish show that is on all month (great if you’re occasionally slow to get your ticketing act together, ahem), then this is a great choice.

Achtung! The Superkrauts are Coming!

If it’s winsome takes on German culture you want, then look no further than this duo! Blending music and not a little absurdist comedy, this Bavarian-Rheinland mix should get the laughs going. And if you liked that, you can catch one half of them, Jürgen, in his own standup set too.

LEO MAHR IS A SEASONED *****

It’s a great year for LGBTQIA+ comedy this year, and this is a cheeky one, but I couldn’t resist. Queer-coded, after-hours, Swiss German shenanigans are what’s on offer here, and the best thing about it? It’s free, playing every day at venue #82, the Laughing Horse (actually the iconic City Café) from the 12th to the 25th.

THOR STENHAUG : ONE-NIGHT STAND BABY

Fringe programmes are driven more and more by social media breakouts in recent years, and 2025’s listings are full of them. Norway’s Thor Stenhaug is one, having built a loyal base on TikTok with a set that puts a quirky spin on a Norwegian’s experience of UK life. Obviously I couldn’t not add a Norwegian-themed act, could I?

So there you go – a clutch of fun shows to take you around the world (well, mainly Europe, but there’s a bit of the RoW in there too!). What have I missed? What have you seen that is unmissable? I’d love more recommendations – please share yours in the comments!

Summer language learning - a book on the grass.

My Language Learning Life : July 2025 Update

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So the summer hols are here – and what better time to take stock of my own polyglot progress? July’s been solid – not life-changing, but the kind of steady language learning momentum that actually gets you places over time.

Here’s where things stand.

Greek: From Textbooks to TikTok

Greek continues to be my most active language learning project right now. I’m keeping up weekly iTalki sessions with my usual tutor, grinding through Τα λέμε Ελληνικά – a B1-B2 course that’s about as exciting as it sounds but gets the job done. Grammar drills aren’t everybody’s cup of tea (well – they are mine, actually), but they work.

The real fun’s been on social media. @greekoutwithmaria is gold – idiomatic, useful Greek with clear explanations. I’ve compiled a whole list of other useful Greek accounts here if you want more where that came from!

To not get lost in the scroll, I dip in occasionally and bookmark stuff as I go. Then, I make sure to have a weekly session where I actually do something with it – vocab decks, Anki cards, and the like. It’s a system that’s added some real conversational polish to my Greek.

German: Going Old School Again

I’ve been gravitating back to actual books to maintain my German lately. There’s something about physical pages that screens can’t replicate – maybe it’s the weight, maybe it’s not getting distracted by notifications every five minutes.

I threw myself at two very different reads this month. First up is Torsten Sträter’s Es ist nie zu spät, unpünktlich zu sein, which serves up observational comedy that’s heavy on dad jokes but light on mental effort. It makes perfect train reading when your brain’s already fried from the day. Then there’s Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, which I’m finally tackling after seeing it on every German language and literature syllabus for years. And it’s a thoroughly readable classic – there’s something very soothing about it as an adventure into the soul.

A little light Readly

Readly, the multi-magazine app, still gets plenty of action on long journeys. I’ve been reading Men’s Health Germany and Sweden’s Språktidningen (pop linguistics in Swedish – a real treat) regularly. Saying that, the platform recently axed most of their Norwegian titles, which is annoying thanks to shifting licensing deals.

As for target language reading of any kind the golden rule applies: read what you’d actually want to read, just in another language.

Life’s too short for boring books in any tongue.

Podcasts: When Your Day Job Meets Your Hobby

I’ve started listening to Der KI Podcast, which covers AI developments in chatty, accessible German. It’s the perfect overlap with both my work and PhD research, so it basically counts as multitasking disguised as language practice. That’s really the sweet spot we’re always looking for: finding content that ticks multiple boxes, rather than forcing language learning into spaces where it doesn’t naturally belong.

Side Quests: Persian, Albanian, and Library Rabbit Holes

Joy of joys – my university library recently added the entire Routledge Colloquial series digitally, which has proven dangerous territory for someone with my particular brand of linguistic OCD. My latest obsession has been Persian, which I’ve been exploring through both the recently updated Routledge title and an ancient Teach Yourself Persian volume that’s pure grammar-translation throwback. You can sense the layers of metaphorical dust on it, but I genuinely love the methodical approach of dissembling languages during the learning process to see how they tick.

Albanian also got a brief look-in after Dua Lipa’s Wembley extravaganza sent me down a cultural rabbit hole. Yes, continuing that trend of letting pop culture determine my dabbling directions. I don’t have any grand plans with it, just some structured curiosity that might lead somewhere (or probably not).

Trips: Lyon and Dublin in Linguistic Technicolor

I took two quick city breaks this month to Lyon and Dublin, which meant the usual soundtrack of overheard conversations and multilingual signage. Nothing was particularly structured – just casual linguistic tourism really. It was great to be the designated restaurant orderer in France, though – that feeling of achievement and usefulness we linguaphiles yearn for!

The Verdict

So that was the past couple of months: steady progress rather than dramatic breakthroughs. Greek keeps moving forward, German feels natural and flowing, podcasts are doing their job, and my side projects are staying appropriately peripheral (but very interesting).

It might not be Instagram-worthy content, but it’s sustainable, and that matters more in the long run than any flashy sprint.

How was your language learning month? Let us know in the comments!

The Greek flag flying in a sunny sky

Greek participles – meet the -μένος gang!

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There’s a class of words in Modern Greek that are derived from verbs but not used to form tenses – they’re purely adjectival. I’ve written about them in the past, in terms of how they contrast with another class of adjectives, and knowing a bit more about them can really help polish your fluency.

It’s worth revisiting these as they’re so widespread. In fact, the Duolingo Greek course has a whole unit on them, which is why they’re suddenly on my own radar again! I’m talking about passive past participles – they describe something that has been done to someone or something.

Meet the -μένος gang

You can usually spot them by their characteristic -μένος ending. In fact, you’ve probably been using a couple without even knowing it:

κουρασμένος (tired)

απασχολημένος (busy)

These words are passive as they describe a state of having had something happen to you – something has tired you out, for example (even the English is a past participle here). For busy, it’s closer to translate απασχολημένος  as ‘occupied’, which is what has been ‘done’ to busy people!

These passive past participles are formed from the verbal root. And in most cases, they’re completely transparent, containing all the elements of that root:

κουράζω (I tire) > κουρασμένος (tired) (ζ and σ are a common alternation in Greek roots)

απασχολώ (I occupy) > απασχολημένος (occupied, busy)

A disappearing act – Greek assimilation

Sometimes, however, the connection is not so obvious. There’s a group of Greek verbs that have a root with -β- and -φ- where that element disappears from the participle:

κόβω (I cut) κομμένος (cut)
κρύβω (I hide, tr.) κρυμμένος (hidden)
ράβω (I sew) ραμμένος (sewn)
βάφω (I paint) βαμμένος (painted)
γράφω (I write) γραμμένος (written)

What’s happened here is called assimilation – a case of one sound becoming more like another. Because the root consonant of these verbs is labial, ie., pronounced with the lips, it matches the place of articulation of the /m/ of the ending -μμένος. For ease of pronunciation, one becomes even more like the other – and it’s that /m/ that wins out here, passing its properties backwards (so this is regressive assimilation rather than progressive, where the properties of an earlier segment move to a later one).

There’s even a set of these participles that are formed additionally via reduplication – a doubling of syllables to express some category change (for instance, an imperfective / perfective distinction). Here are a couple:

δίνω (I give) δεδομένος (given)
πείθω (I convince) πεπεισμένος (convinced)

These are particularly exciting to scholars of Indo-European, as it’s a quite an ancient mechanism found in the proto-language, and not particularly productive in modern day Indo-European languages. When you see it fossilised in forms like this, historical linguists can get very excited.

Peeking under the bonnet of Greek grammar reveals just how deep some of these patterns run – and how much historical linguistics can supercharge your understanding and retention!

A stylised image of Lyon

Lyon, Briefly: A Language Lover’s City Break

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I spent a couple of days in Lyon with friends recently – and what a gem of a city it is for a short break. Pretty, walkable, and full of energy, it’s the perfect mini-escape just a hop over the water.

As the group’s only French speaker, it turned into a bit of a linguistic mission, too. French was actually the first foreign language I ever met – but somewhere along the way, I left it behind for other loves. Lately, though, it’s crept back into my life, especially for quick trips like this. France is just so temptingly close, and being able to handle day-to-day French opens so many doors (and menus!).

In Lyon, that turned out to be more than just handy – it was essential. English wasn’t the fallback, and rightly so. A bit of practical French went a long way in shops and restaurants. I even dared to shake off the phrasebook stiffness this time, swapping the trusty je voudrais for a breezier on va prendre. Oh, I was flying with gallic flare, well beyond my ken… Credit to ChatGPT here, actually – it’s brilliant for providing colloquial alternatives to given situations on demand.

As always, one of my favourite ways to learn is by looking up – and around. Street signs and storefronts are rich with real-world language, and Lyon didn’t disappoint. I came back with a camera roll bursting with quirky and useful French, like this little gem:

A cabaret bar in Lyon

Au pied dans l’plat – a fun-looking cabaret bar in Lyon

This bar’s name – Au pied dans l’plat – caught my eye straight away. A foot in the dish? Turns out it’s a cheeky twist on the idiom mettre les pieds dans le plat. This is the French equivalent of “putting your foot in it” – who knew ‘it’ was a dish? Perfect pun fodder for a cabaret joint, and a reminder that idioms don’t just survive in textbooks – they live and breathe on the high streets.

Lyon gave me a little French confidence boost – and a reminder that language learning’s at its best when it’s out in the wild, not just on the page. À la prochaine, belle France!

NLP takes language and makes sense of it

NLP with a side helping of Linguistics revision

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I’ve been immersed in NLP a bit lately. That’s not Neuro Linguistic Programming – though it does confusingly share the acronym (and is well worth a look for brain-hackers). No, this NLP is Natural Language Processing, a branch of computational linguistics that engages with automated parsing and tagging of human language.

Anyway, I was looking for something ideally very recent and came across the 2024 Springer textbook A Course in Natural Language Processing by Yannis Haralambous. It’s the book form of a course the author spent ten years perfecting. And it’s just what I needed – a step-by-step intro and history to NLP, situating it within the latest pivot to LLMs.

But what I didn’t expect was that it doubles as a brilliant ‘fundamentals of linguistics’ revision. The book targets students learning about NLP in a number of disciplines, not least linguistics. But since linguistics is part and parcel of language processing tech, there’s a whole section to get non-linguists up to speed. And it’s not just the basics. The author squeezes a ton of grad-level concepts into some brilliantly terse overview chapters.

Why should I get excited about this? Am I not ‘already’ a linguist? Well, I am… but a sidestepping one, having spent most of my professional life in language pedagogy. These chapters cover the material I studied in my taught masters, but revisiting them from time to time never hurts. Learning later in life things that colleagues learnt in their youth just needs a bit of neural retreading, and it’s great to come across a book that supports all that necessary pre-knowledge.

Anyway, A Course in Natural Language Processing is a great, up-to-date intro to NLP if you’re looking for one. And if your formal linguistics is a little rusty, you’ll get a bonus refresher into the bargain.

Hiking in the countryside

Hiking Tips for Language Learners: Stay Safe, Go Far, Learn More

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This post’s a little step off the usual path for Polyglossic, but only just. Walking and language learning go hand in hand, especially when you’re exploring a country where your target language is spoken. So much of language acquisition happens when your mind is open, your eyes are alert, and your feet are moving.

For me, some of the best moments with my languages haven’t come from a screen or a study book – they’ve arrived out in the wild. Sometimes it’s just about that space for cogitation and mulling over stuff you’ve read or heard in recent weeks. Whether I’m up in the Highlands, rambling a trail in Norway, climbing in Austria or sweating through a Greek coastal path, I’m always learning, or thinking – about words, about landscapes, and a bit about myself.

Still, a good hike is only enjoyable when you’re properly prepared – and I’ve had more than one trip nearly derailed by rookie mistakes. So here are my tried-and-tested hiking tips, with a wee nod to my fellow language lovers.

Smart Hiking Tips for Language Lovers on the Move

1. COMPEED BLISTER PLASTERS

Genuinely life-saving. These little miracles act like a second skin – perfect for rescuing rubbed heels or toes mid-walk. I’ve come close to turning back before applying one and enjoying their almost magical healing powers. These days, I often pop one on before any trouble starts, especially with new boots or a steep climb ahead.

2. Carry more water than you think you’ll need

I once started a walk with a single 1L bottle, thinking it would be plenty. Big mistake. Even in cooler weather, you lose a surprising amount through sweat, especially uphill. There is nothing worse than being miles from the end of a hike and worrying about how much water you have left.

I now carry two bottles minimum, plus an isotonic drink (make your own with fizzy isotonic tabs) if I’m walking for hours in the sun. Keep those salts in, gang.

3. Sunscreen and a hat – even when it’s cloudy

UV rays don’t care about clouds. I’ve returned from a grey, misty day on a Scottish ridge looking like a boiled ham. Don’t be fooled. A cap and high-factor sunscreen are musts. Apply generously, and reapply – especially if you’re sweating. Neck, ears, backs of knees: don’t forget the usual suspects.

4. Make space for language

Even though this post is mostly about hiking prep, a quick nudge for the polyglots: download a podcast in your target language, or look out for waymarkers, signs and posters in the local lingo. Snapping photos of unknown words on the trail and translating them later is one of my favourite lazy-vocab activities.

A roadsign in Gaelic and English spotted whilst hiking in the Highlands

A roadsign in Gaelic and English spotted whilst hiking in the Highlands

Language Learning While Walking: A Natural Pairing

There’s something meditative about walking. It frees the mind to notice – and languages thrive in that kind of space. You don’t have to turn every hike into a vocab test, but letting the target language hover around your walk – in sound, signage, or even internal monologue – makes the whole thing richer.

So yes, this is a post about hiking tips – but it’s also a gentle nod to how walking and language learning complement each other. Travel with intention. Pack wisely.

And keep one ear tuned to the words on the wind.

A rainbow flag for Pride - celebrating queer language

Pride Across Languages: A Queer Lexicon for 2025

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June is Pride month, and as linguists (a proudly diverse crew if ever there was one), it’s the perfect moment to celebrate the vibrant vocabulary that queer speakers use — and create — in the languages we love.

Queer language isn’t just about labels. It’s about visibility, resistance, solidarity, and joy. And like any living part of language, it evolves. Some terms come from institutions and activism; others bubble up from youth slang, subcultures, or the internet. Some are reclaimed from slurs, and others are lovingly borrowed from English. What they all have in common is that they tell stories — about culture, politics, humour, and belonging.

Here’s a multilingual sampler of queer vocabulary in the languages I work with and love, as well as terms to be aware (and wary) of — updated for 2025 and with a couple of notes to explain where and how these terms are used. As you’d expect, English terms have been co-opted in many cultures and are widely understood.

FRENCH

French queer vocabulary bridges formal discourse and rich colloquial creativity, particularly in urban and activist spaces. Youth and LGBTQ+ communities often borrow from verlan (urban backslang), argot, and pop culture.

Formal / Inclusive:
– LGBTQIA+ — widely used in activist and legal discourse.
– Une personne transgenre / non-binaire — trans / non-binary person.
– Homos / lesbiennes / bisexuel·le·s — broadly accepted and understood.

Colloquial / Reclaimed:
– Gouine — dyke; used proudly by some lesbians.
– Tarlouze / tapette — pejorative and generally not reclaimed (yet).
– Draguer — to flirt or cruise.
– Militant·e LGBT — LGBTQ+ activist.

Regional variant: In Québec French, you may encounter allosexuel·le (non-heterosexual) or personne queer, used in a slightly different way than in France.

GERMAN

German queer language mixes formal clarity with rich subcultural registers. Germany has a strong LGBTQIA+ history, with Christopher Street Day (CSD) being the main Pride celebration.

Standard Terms:
– Schwul / lesbisch / bi / pan — gay / lesbian / bi / pan; widely accepted.
– Queer — directly borrowed and proudly used.
– Nicht-binär / trans / inter — gender-inclusive language.
– Regenbogenfamilie — literally rainbow family.
– Coming-out — borrowed directly from English.

Colloquial / Subcultural:
– Homo — casual term; can be neutral or teasing.
– Gay sein — “to be gay,” borrowed and adapted from English.
– Tunte — an effeminate gay man; can be camp and celebratory within communities but also historically a slur.

Sociolinguistic note: German LGBTQ+ youth often use a hybrid of German and English (“queer sein”, “pride month feiern”, and “nonbinary Person” are common).

GREEK

Greek queer vocabulary is lively but still shaped by ongoing stigma in some spheres. Younger generations and activist circles are doing brilliant work coining and promoting respectful terms.

Formal / Inclusive:
– ΛΟΑΤΚΙ+ (LOATKI+) — LGBTQIA+.
– Ομοφυλόφιλος/η, λεσβία, αμφιφυλόφιλος/η — standard but formal.
– Τρανς άτομο — trans person.
– Κουήρ — transliteration of “queer.”

Slang / Reclaimed:
– Πούστης — historical slur for gay men; sometimes reclaimed but still very charged, so use with care.
– Λεσβού / λεσβία — lesbian (the former more colloquial).
– Ντραγκ κουίν — drag queen.
– Καμάκι — flirtation or cruising (not exclusively queer).

Cultural note: Greek queer media increasingly uses international terms like non-binary and queer without translation, reflecting global influences and activist solidarity.

NORWEGIAN

Norwegian LGBTQIA+ vocabulary is inclusive, modern, and quite straightforward, with excellent mainstream acceptance of terms like skeiv.

Standard / Positive:
– Skeiv — literally “crooked”; now a proudly reclaimed umbrella term for queer identities.
– Homofil / lesbisk / bifil / panfil — general, neutral orientation terms.
– Transperson / ikke-binær — trans / non-binary person.
– Regnbuefamilie — rainbow family.
– Pride-parade / skeiv kultur — directly borrowed terms.

Today, skeiv is actively used by government in public comms, youth organisations, and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups across Norway. Neighbouring Swedish has co-opted the English queer in most cases, although also has the reclaimed bög for gay men – occasionally, the word Regnbågspersoner (rainbow people) is found in Swedish event blurb and similar as an umbrella term.

SCOTTISH GAELIC

Gaelic queer vocabulary is vibrant and developing all the time, with new terms emerging thanks to community activism. Much of the lexicon is borrowed, calqued or adapted respectfully.

Affirming / Respectful Terms:
– Co-sheòrsach — same-sex attracted (literally “same-gendered”).
– Boireannach co-sheòrsach / fear co-sheòrsach — lesbian / gay man.
– Gèidh — gay.
– Neo-bhìnearaidh — non-binary.
– Gnè-sòisealta — gender identity.
– Gnèitheachas — sexuality / sexual orientation.
– Aithris gnè — gender expression.

Emerging language: Community groups are also exploring terms like cuèir (queer), far-ghnèitheach (genderqueer), and coimhearsnachd gèidh (gay community). These are not yet standardised but are used lovingly in queer Gaelic circles.

FINAL THOUGHTS: LANGUAGE AS RESISTANCE, JOY, AND KINSHIP

Words are powerful. They help us name ourselves, find each other, and push back against silence. In each of these languages, queer terms are not just dictionary entries — they’re evidence of visibility, resistance, and renewal.

What’s more, the growth of queer vocabularies often mirrors broader shifts in society — whether it’s skeiv being used in official policy, κουήρ entering mainstream Greek media, or Gaelic activists forging new terms for non-binary identities. Each new word is a signal of change, community, and possibility.

OVER TO YOU

Do you know other queer terms in the languages you’re learning or using? Have you seen how words can include — or exclude — depending on context? Drop a comment or share your favourites with me on the socials!

With love and linguistic Pride,
Rich x